The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force) is organizing a Strategy Lab during the upcoming Mobile Learning Week 2019. This year, the theme of the event “Artificial Intelligence for Sustainable Development” will look at the opportunities and threats linked to the use of AI in education.

Technology offers enormous opportunities to expand the scope of knowledge and the reach of education and to support various styles of learning. With the development of AI, teachers’ education and roles have to evolve to allow teachers to adapt to new learning environments and empower them to harness these innovations and use them in their day-to-day work.

 The Teacher Task Force is mobilizing its members, particularly those belonging to its thematic group on ICT and distance education for teacher development, to share innovative pedagogical approaches in teacher management and professional development methods designed to include the use of AI during a Strategy Lab taking place Friday 8 March from 9 to 11 am (Paris time).

The Strategy Lab will feature examples of projects currently using AI, as well the practical role AI can play in addressing the challenges faced by teachers, with o focus on education in emergencies settings. Can AI be an effective support tool for teacher? What are the main concerns with this? Will the use of AI help bridge the digital divide in terms of teaching or will it widen it?

We will also discuss the ethical and moral considerations of using AI to support teachers. Can AI be used to support teacher education and training? Should it be? Should we be concerned that AI could replace the teachers themselves? This discussion will also focus on the potential social impact of AI in education as well as the biases (racial, gender and cultural) that could be involved in implementing AI systems in education settings.

Our presenters will also broach the more practical side of AI use to support teachers. What technological means are available to quantify the feasibility of introducing AI in supporting teachers and teacher development especially in refugee settings? What type of costs and investments are needed and/or available?

Finally, this Strategy Lab will serve as a springboard to discuss the policy guidelines needed to encourage appropriate use and discourage inappropriate use of AI to support the challenges faced by teachers and teacher development in the 21st Century.

This year we will be joined by Professor Hamdy Abdelaziz, Program Chair at the School of e-Education from the Hamdan Bin Mohammed Smart University, Dubai, UAE; Dr George Saltsman, Director of Educational Innovation in the Office of the President, Lamar University, USA; Dr Nicky Mohan, Managing Partner of the InfoSavvy Group and Director and co-founder of SpringBoard21; and Bijay Dhungana, Vice-President of the International Centre of Excellence for Innovative Learning (ICEFIL).

Held annually in Paris since 2011, Mobile Learning Week is UNESCO’s flagship conference on ICT in education. It convenes education and technology experts from around the world as well as provides the educational community, governments and other stakeholders a unique opportunity to discuss the role of ICT and new technologies in education and the achievement of Sustainable Education Goal 4.

You can find more information about Mobile Learning Week 2019 on UNESCO’s website: https://en.unesco.org/mlw

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The Teacher Task Force’s Mobile Learning Week workshop was a resounding success with high participation. Nearly 55% of the participants who took our workshop survey indicated that the presentations made by our members were very useful.

Participants to the Teacher Task Force’s Mobile Learning Week workshop were also invited to take part in a survey designed by our colleagues from UNESCO IITE to allow us to better understand attitudes toward ICT competency for transformation of teaching and learning.

93% of the survey respondents agree that a new model of a teacher for Education 2030 will be based on the ICT competencies.

For 38% of respondents, the divide in qualifications of teachers who lack opportunities to acquire basic ICT literacy skills, low motivation for the use of ICT in professional daily experience and the lack of ICT and internet connection are the most important reasons for the gap in ICT application by teachers nowadays. This gap could be explained by the absence of available pedagogical resources, relevant curriculum, teaching/learning materials for 35% of the respondents.

45% of the respondents indicated that carrying out online trainings was the best way to support teachers and school leaders in ICT applications.

96% of respondents agree that online trainings will be a necessary part of teachers’ professional development in the future. However, it was also underlined that online training should be viewed in a holistic approach, including the need for technical support (hardware, software, teacher-oriented) to make online trainings work. Online guidance/mentoring was also highlighted as a way to ensure online trainings completion. The experience described by Mr. Mathieu Lacasse in the Camara Learning Academy was cited as a good example of such an approach by a participant.

The presentations made during our workshop can be downloaded on this page. 

The Teacher Task Force would like to thank the members who came to present their projects. The TTF would also like to thank the people who came to take part in our workshop.

Download Workshop proposal for Mobile Learning Week 2018

The International Task Force on Teachers for Education 2030 (Teacher Task Force) is organizing a workshop during the upcoming Mobile Learning Week 2018. This year, the theme of the event “Skills for a Connected World” will examine the types of skills needed in and for a connected economy and society, with a focus on digital skills and competencies. It will also review strategies and ways in which these skills can be delivered and assessed within the context of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4).

The Education 2030 Framework for Action underlines teachers’ key role in achieving SDG4. However, to increase access and improve the quality of education, new models of teacher professional development are required. With the ever-changing demands for the workforce’s qualifications and the apparition of new skills needed, teaching and teacher training/development have to build on successful uses of ICT to improve learning. Teachers have to adapt the way they teach to focus on skills required for an increasingly connected world, skills teachers also need to understand and possess.

The Teacher Task Force is mobilizing its members, particularly those belonging to its thematic group on ICT and distance education for teacher development, to share innovative pedagogical approaches and teacher management and professional development methods based on ICT use. The workshop will feature examples of responses to the new ICT-based educational environment and will offer the opportunity to question the models of emerging approaches and practices for teaching and learning. It will collect feedback on the potential for scaling up the examples presented and their replicability to other contexts.

Five projects related to the demands for new ICT competencies of the 21st century teachers, barriers faced by teachers and the role ICT can play to overcome them and facilitate the teaching and learning process, planning main stages of ICT competency development for teachers, and approaches to online teacher professional development will be presented:

• Camara Learning Academy, Camara Education
• mproving ICT competencies of teachers in remote area schools, Indonesia
• Digital solutions for 21st century teachers and learners, Weidong Cloud Education Group
• ICT in the system of professional development of teachers. A look into the future, Peoples' Friendship University of Russia
• The P4R EMIS.Education App, JET and Program4Results

The workshop will enable participants to consider several models of teacher ICT competency development, and compare and discuss existing approaches and online training platforms. It will also enhance their understanding regarding the necessity of the ICT competency framework for teachers, to ensure teachers have the required skills to adapt to both an ICT-based education system as well as understand the skills learners need to develop.

The results will be used by the Teacher Task Force’s working group to pursue its action towards the increase of qualified teachers and the improvement of teaching for better learning outcomes.

More information on Mobile Learning Week 2018 is available on the UNESCO dedicated website.

UNHCR reported that there are over 21.3 million refugees worldwide and half of it are children, badly in need of assistance, especially in terms of education. As technology can offer solutions to teachers in crisis and emergencies to better respond to children's needs, the UNESCO 2017 edition of Mobile Learning Week (20-24 March 2017) explored how technology can help meet the educational needs of refugees and other learners displaced due to emergency and crisis situations.

The International Task Force on Teachers (TTF), as a global advocate and catalyst for the advancement of the teaching profession worldwide, supported this year Mobile Learning Week by sponsoring the session "Providing mobile solution for teachers in crisis and emergencies". The TTF convened experts and actors who are actively focusing their work on developing mobile technology tools to better support teachers working in crisis and emergencies. Dr Edem Adubra, Head of the TTF Secretariat, underlined: "Teachers play a central role in education, especially those in crisis and emergency situations; therefore, providing them with solutions is of utmost importance". He added: "TTF reaches teachers, teaching and the teaching profession at all levels of formal and non-formal education, including those in crisis and emergency situations".

The first solution showcased in the session was "Golden Teacher" application. This mobile application was developed for both trained and untrained teachers in developing countries to facilitate their use of effective teaching strategies. The application takes the form of a step-by-step process of the design, delivery, and evaluation of a learning experience for an individual or for a group of teachers. It does not include any curriculum content, and is consequently applicable across the whole range of education contexts and settings.

The South Sudan Literacy App was the second solution showcased. This application helps teachers working with learners in basic literacy programme through a handheld device. To take into account the challenges related to South Sudan's context, the application provides access to a course designed in such a way to minimize users' challenges in accessing and understanding the content. By using effective and proven learning concepts, the aim is to increase the literacy level of the users and have them undergo the various tests to assess their literacy level after completing the different modules. This easy-to-use literacy application also helps teachers provide assessments remotely.

The third solution presented was developed to address teacher education needs, a distance education experience from Mozambique. The presentation "Mobile online education in post-war environment" shared an innovative strategy in providing distance education in Mozambique. The program, developed by ISCED, helps students to have their university courses in their pockets wherever they are and at whatever time. With this innovation, more and more people can access online education. Within a year, the university using the online program has seen its student population growing from 2 500 in 2015 to a total of 7 000 in 2016. According to Wisdom Machacha, the program currently has a limited number of courses, but more will be added in the near future. This is a great innovation in light of the well documented problems of electricity, communication, poor road infrastructure and many other ills associated with a post-war country such as Mozambique.

The last IT solution presented was specifically designed to help teachers in emergency and crisis situations. The EDUTrackerApp application is a "mega-app" developed to provide learners and teachers with access to high quality curricula and proficiency assessments, and to track teaching activities in key subjects and grades. The application can also track school attendance daily, online or offline, through GPS coordinates and a multi-factor authentication process. The application also enables the head teacher to report emergencies on infrastructure breakdown, school security and safety issues, school feeding, health crises and natural disasters through a ticketing system.

The session highlighted IT solutions applied to education in emergency and crisis situations and their implementation in various parts of the world. As one participant shared during the discussion part of the session, IT can surely be one of the solutions to address the need of teachers and learners in crisis and emergencies.