An e-publication of the International Literacy Institute (www.literacy.org)
-- established by UNESCO and University of Pennsylvania in 1994 --
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This is issue number three of LITERACY INNOVATIONS, an e-newsletter that is a continuation of ILI's print newsletter first published in 1996. The electronic version continues to link colleagues around the world with changes and innovations in literacy work.
As always, we hope to spark discussion and constructive debate on a variety of approaches to literacy work. Please feel free to record your comments or discussion points on our Literacy Innovations Winter 2002/2003 Comments page. And then check back in a few days to see any responses. Thanks for helping make this a lively discussion area!
A. The UN Literacy Decade
The United Nations has proclaimed a literacy decade (2003-2012) as part of the global efforts towards Education for All. The literacy decade was approved by the General Assembly at its session in December and will be coordinated by UNESCO. The Assembly reaffirmed that literacy for all was at the heart of the notion of basic education for all, and that creating literate environments was essential to eradicating poverty, achieving gender equity and ensuring sustainable development." [SOURCE: UNESCO]
To download the full resolution:
http://portal.unesco.org/education/ev.php?URL_ID=5000&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC
&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1047070739Related Resources:
Message from the Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of International Literacy Day (8 September 2002):
http://portal.unesco.org/education/ev.php?URL_ID=4847&URL_DO=DO_
TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201&reload=1031060015Background document - EFA 2000 Thematic Study on Literacy and Adult Education
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1. Digital Divide News (summaries and links below)
___a. Global digital Divide Gets Wider: The 2002 World Telecommunication
Development Report___b. UK Study: Teacher Training on Computers 'Poor'
___c. Friendly War of Words at Workshop on Learning& Development
2. Digital Divide Innovations (summaries and links below)
___a. MICROSOFT, MEXICO Striving to Bring Digital Revolution
to 10,000 Communities___c. World Telecommunications Development Conferfence
Adopts Action Plan___d. Private Sector Innovations
______i. World Bank Institute: E-conference on "Corporate Social Responsibility, Education and Technology", November 18 - December 6, 2002
http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/corpgov/csr/csret.html
______ii. CEO Charter for Digital Development and the involvement of MICROSOFT and HP in this global technology charity effort:
http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2002/06/18/technology-donation.htm
3. Digital Divide Resources:
How Many Are Online?
"The art of estimating how many are online throughout the world is an inexact one at best. Surveys abound, using all sorts of measurement parameters. However, from observing many of the published surveys over the last two years, here is an "educated guess" as to how many are online worldwide as of September 2002. And the number is 605.60 million."
See: http://www.nua.ie/surveys/how_many_online/Non-English speakers dominant online:
http://www.nua.com/surveys/index.cgi?f=VS&art_id=905358509&rel=true"10% of the world's population now have internet access"
http://www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=12003Internet trends and statistics:
http://www.nua.com/surveys/
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C. Bridges to the Future Initiative (BFI-India) Training Program begins in Andhra Pradesh
The International Literacy Institute (ILI) and the Government of the State of Andhra Pradesh began implementing an innovative technology-based training and literacy program to meet the needs of thousands of illiterate or low literate Indian adults and youth. Click here for the link.
Related Resources:
The Bridges to the Future Initiative in IndiaPress Release: Penn’s ILI Receives U.S. Support for Innovative Literacy and Technology Program in Conjunction with U.N. Literacy Efforts
Related News from India:
Naidu plans to make Kuppam tech-savvy
The Chief minister of Hyderabad plans to network all gram panchayats (local government units) of the Kuppam area, providing access and connectivity through a grant from International Development (ID) 21, a World Bank-funded body based in the UK.[SOURCE: Times News Network, AUTHOR: K. Sreedhar Rao]
http://www1.timesofindia.com/cms.dll/html/comp/articleshow?artid=16611737&sType=1
Possible reversal of Kerala's literacy rate: In Kerala nearly 12 lakh people have lapsed back to illiteracy as a survey by the National Sample Survey Organization had hinted. http://infochangeindia.org/fetaures32.jsp#
Related News from South Africa:
Progress on Literacy in South Africa
Johannesburg -- In conjunction with the Government of South Africa and several NGO partners, the International Literacy Institute (ILI) has moved forward on a major agenda to meet the needs of thousands of illiterate or low literate South African adults and youths through an innovative technology-based training and literacy program. The Bridges to the Future Initiative in South Africa (BFI-SA) was formally adopted by the Government of South Africa in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in Bloemfontein on December 8, 2002. This MOU sets in motion a new and important initiative to revitalize literacy work in South Africa.
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D.Michigan Professional Development for Adult Educators
Trainings are now underway. The Michigan Professional Development Institutes for facilitators aims to help Michigan professional developers create and deliver innovative, flexible, and effective professional development for teachers of adults in a variety of different content areas. Institutes for teachers focus on four topics in ABE/GED instruction: reading difficulties, investigating writing in your classroom, integrating technology into adult education, and numeracy (math). Click here for the link.
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E. University and Technology-for-Literacy / Basic Education Partnership in South Africa (UTLP-SA)
UNISA and the International Literacy Institute (University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia) invited about two dozen specialists from a wide range of SA Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to participate in the first meeting of the UTLP-SA project, funded by the Ford Foundation, UNISA, and the University of Pennsylvania. UTLP-SA is designed as a collaborative HEI partnership program in South Africa, initially involving 8-10 HEI representatives and several NGOs, and others with similar interest. The intention is to benefit multiple South African in their efforts to play a more active role in assisting the poorest sectors of African society. (Click here for the report.)
The UTLP-SA is an outcome from a previous meeting held at OECD-Paris in September 2001, where representatives from more than 20 countries discussed how HEIs can play a more significant role in national development by applying their expertise, particularly in ICTs (in hardware, software and ‘brainware’). A report of the Paris meeting was provided, and it can also be accessed on the projects page at www.literacy.org.
The main goals of the UTLP may be summarized as follows: (1) How can HEIs better employ their student base and infrastructure to improve the lives of the poor communities in their neighborhood? and (2) How can these pro-development opportunities help to make HEIs more development-friendly institutions, thereby attracting greater numbers of underprivileged students, while at the same time helping faculty and staff play a greater role in development.
See also: Papers from the Experts Roundtable
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F. Coordination of tele-centers from the bottom up
A new website facilitates the coordination of tele-centers throughout Latin America.
www.telecentros.org
A. The Building of a "Digital Village" in Ghana
"Penn Engineering, Community Services Foundation, KNUST [Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology] and Hewlett Packard are building a true ‘digital village’ in Ghana. As a long-term goal, Penn students and faculty will join KNUST students and faculty every summer to establish additional Community Technology Centers in secondary and elementary schools as well as at vital population centers throughout Ghana."
http://www.rohanamin.com/articles/un_meeting_case_knust.pdf
Related Resources:
Digital Bridge to Africa: The Launch of the Digital Diaspora Network – Africa (DDN-A), July 12, 2002
http://www.rohanamin.com/articles/ddn_africa.pdf
The Digital Diaspora Network – Africa seeks to "promote development in Africa and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals through mobilizing the technological, entrepreneurial and professional expertise and resources of the African Diaspora."
www.ddn-africa.org
Another voice from the field in Ghana:
http://www.digitalopportunity.org/fulltext/dewindt20020827.shtml
Information & Communication Technologies (ICTs) Telecommunications, Internet and Computer Infrastructure in Africa
http://demiurge.wn.apc.org/africa/
B. Skills and Literacy Training for Better Livelihoods - A Review of Approaches and Experiences.
Africa Region, The World Bank, March 2002
"Can effective training in livelihood skills be developed as an add-on to large scale literacy programs? Or, are the effective combinations those that add literacy education to (usually small scale) programs which are set up mainly to teach livelihood skills to begin with?"
http://www1.worldbank.org/education/adultoutreach/Doc/Skills%20and%20Literacy.pdf
C. The Missing Link in Educational Technology: Trained Teachers
By Sam Carlson, Executive Director, World Links
"Teachers remain the gatekeepers for students’ access to educational opportunities afforded by technology: they cannot and should not be ignored."
http://www.world-links.org/english/html/tech-missinglink435.pdf
[From techknowlogia.org, Oct 2002]Related Resources:
UK Study: Teacher Training on Computers 'Poor'
D. On Electronic Literacy and Foreign Language Teacher Education in Brazil
By Marcelo El Khouri Buzato
"[T]he most important challenge in teacher education as regards the use of technology is probably not teaching student teachers to use computer successfully, but teaching them ways to transpose the training they received to their professional practice, for the benefit of their students."
http://planeta.terra.com.br/educacao/mbuzato/articles/onelec.htm
This issue of our e-Newsletter is rich in content, and much is happening now in the field of literacy. In particular, these past few days have seen the official launch of the UN Decade for Literacy (2003-2012). As the UNESCO Director-General stated in his official announcement, the actions within the Decade "must be informed by reliable evidence and careful, objective evaluations of experience." And, further, that Literacy needs to seen not as an isolated phenomenon, but as a ‘tool of development’ broadly speaking. These are refreshing and important remarks. We at NCAL-ILI have been part of these efforts in the past, and look forward to more involvement in the future.
In the past, Literacy was often thought to be the ‘easiest’ thing to teach, as simply as (so the metaphor goes) turning on a light bulb. We now know from substantive research that literacy is not easily achieved, and even for the most privileged can take considerable time and energy to reach a high level of proficiency. For those who are disadvantaged – those living in the poorest third of countries today – learning basic skills can be much more arduous.
That said, there is hope in this new Decade, and hope is the only ingredient that cannot be left out of whatever matrix of solutions is required to reach and of the target goals of the UN Decade for Literacy.
--by Dan Wagner, Director and Professor, NCAL/ILI, University of Pennsylvania
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We encourage and welcome your submissions to the e-version of LITERACY INNOVATIONS (see publication guidelines). Please read the short descriptions of the section headings below so that you know which category might be best suited for your contribution.
We hope to spark discussion and constructive debate on a variety of approaches to literacy work. Please feel free to record your comments or discussion points on our Literacy Innovations Winter 2002/2003 Comments page. And then check back in a few days to see any responses. Thanks for helping make this a lively discussion area!
Copyright © 2006 Literacy Research Centers: National Center on Adult Literacy (NCAL) and International Literacy Institute (ILI),
at University of Pennsylvania/Graduate School of Education, LITERACY.org. All rights reserved. www.literacy.org
(Questions about this site? Please contact boyle@literacy.upenn.edu.)
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