EduSummIT11Davis(2011)

EduSummIT 2011: Restructuring educational systems to move into the digital age

Edusummit 2011 papers are now available fromthe 2011 Edusummit web site here

Both the breif papers before the meeting in UNESCO Paris and the longer paper resulting from the Edusummit are now avaialable from this web link: http://edusummit.nl/res2011/calltoaction2011/briefpapers2011.

We continue to share draft material on this wiki site for TGW1 because an article for a special issue of the Journal of Computer Assited Learning is underway.

EduSummIT 2011: Restructuring educational systems to move into the digital age

Niki Davis, University of Canterbury, New Zealand

Birgit Eickelmann, TU Dortmund University, Germany

Mariana Patru, Teacher Policy and Development Section, Division for Planning and Development of Education Systems, UNESCO, France

Renate Schulz-Zander, TU Dortmund University, Germany

Peter Dzvimbo, UNISA, South Africa.

Longer draft version, mid May: Introduction

This brief paper has been commissioned to inform the policy and decision makers as well as leading educators attending the EduSummIT11 at UNESCO in Paris 8-10th June 2011.The aim of this brief paper is to set the stage for discussions to identify the most effective policies and strategies to promote transformative and sustainable ICT-enabled changes in educational systems so as to help them meet the needs of digital age learners and the challenges of a rapidly changing knowledge and technology-based global society.

The specific actions of EduSummIT09 Call to Action  covered in this paper are:

• To radically restructure schools to be able to use multiple technology-enhanced pedagogies to address individual needs of students
• To develop and use distributed leadership models for technology use in schools and teacher education programs

The international experts led by Niki Davis aim to promote change of networked educational organisations worldwide in line with UNESCO’s goal of Education for All. Niki Davis who provided a handbook chapter (Davis, 2008) that identified an areana for ecological perspective on change and was rapporteur for the research stream of EduSummiT 20009. Niki led actions within interim events including SITE and the Sydney Symposium and is a member of IFIP WG 3.3.  Birgit Eickelmann whose national and international empirical research is towards the use of ICT as a school innovation and the aquision of computer and information literacy. Renate Schulz-Zander is an expert in national and international educational technology research, has directed various research and development projects and was chair for the teacher and learner stream of EduSummiT 20009. She has been National Research Coordinator for SITES M2 and coopted member of the German PIRLS 2006 Consortium as expert for ICT in education. She is co-author of a handbook chapter on Observation Measures for Determining Attitudes and Competencies Toward Technology (Schulz-Zander, Pfeifer, & Voss, 2008).The reach of our expertise has been extended by Mariana Patru UNESCO education sector with support from Peter Dzvimbo, UNISA, South Africa.

Research update on paper topic

ICT-enabled teaching and learning fit well with constructivist pedagogies and networked approaches to learning and teaching plus professional and organisational development. (Renate's comment: I would prefer not to focus only on constructivist pedagogies. IT also fit well with other pedagogies. Following e.g. Dede (2008)(handbook chapter)). The co-evolution of ICT and schooling lead to increased complexity for organisation and management within and beyond schools, including classes and projects engaged in by learners attending a range of schools. This co-evolution is extremely challenging and it involves many adjustments to educational practices and to resources, such that innovative schools may drop back from the embedding of ICT (Eickelmann, 2011; Law et al, 2010). 

21st century educational organisations are finding some strategies for the following, and more are needed:

• the wide range of students' 21st century skills, including ways to develop information literacy and access to ICT (Renate's comment: There are different terms in use, such as IT literacy, in Germany we use the term "media literacy". Is it common sense that we use information literacy in the context of EduSummIT?)
• continue to evolve improved ICT tools that are accessible to students (e.g. cloud based wikis for teaching and learning, see Eickelmann 2010; Derndorfer 2010)
• promote organisational structures that encourage teachers to use ICT effectively with students and to develop their own competencies
• individualized learning relevant to the individual needs of learners in all learning areas that includes with trustworthy assessment
• student-centred learning that is likely to require student-owned mobile ICT devices for formal and informal learning in mulitple locations.

Renate: Multilevel analysis of the German PIRLS 2006 show that in addition to cognitive skills and the social index teacher cooperation related to the exchange of IT-knowledge had a positive effect on the reading achievement of primary students (Schulz-Zander, Eickelmann, & Goy, 2010).
The required organisational development depends on distributed leadership within and across schools and those who support them, including the communities in which they are embedded (Davis, 2011; Eickelmann, 2011). Distributed leadership is a form of school management in which not one person but a group of persons provide leadership within a school (and across collaborating schools). The necessity of distributing leadership in it tasks and responsibility has special relevance for the implementation of ICT into schools. Studies have shown that the school principal has to be involved in the implementation process along with complementary leadership roles distributed to other people who lead in formal or informal ways and embody the adoption of ICT. This distribution of leadership is necessary to support effective pedagogical integration of ICT, which requires relevant goal-oriented restructuring to fulfill the educational mission of the organisations involved. (Renate's comment: If this statement is evidence-based we should include a citation? Otherwise we should be more careful in phrasing this sentence: "...is necessary to support effective pedagogical integration..." E.g. multilevel analyses of the German DESI (Klieme, Steinert, & Hochweber, 2010)couldn't verify that school characteristics have an effect on achievement and motivation.)'

Research indicates that change within each school counts. School leaders are recommended to take account of the following supportive factors of sustainable ICT implementation to respond to the rapid development of ICT and education (Eickelmann, 2011):

• Principals in successful schools have strong leadership skills: they used their power to promote ICT-use underpinned by a sound understanding of the potentials of ICT to enhance learning.
• Distributed school leadership uses the radius of operation to cope with ICT-implementation challenges on the process level, and avoids lack of action by externalizing problems.
• Establish cooperation with external partners to raise funding, e.g. with companies and the education authorities’ ICT-related initiatives
• Develop intra-school cooperation, e.g. coaching and the de-privatization of classroom practice that integrate better with the school culture drawing on ICT-related and pedagogical knowledge of their teaching staff.
• Strategize to cope with new digital trends, e.g. staff development schemes, private-public partnerships, increase technical support staff.
• Select and continue to support an ICT-infrastructure that goes hand in hand with existing and prospective pedagogical aims.
• Disseminate the value of ICT’s potential to enhance learning within the whole school.
• Closely link ICT-use to existing and prospective pedagogical aims, e.g. language support for student migrants.
• Integrate ICT to enhance compulsory school programs and curricula.

Since 2009 significant restructuring has occurred with networked initiatives including cloud computing such as:

• The One Laptop Per Child initiative has instigated new systems for transforming access to child-friendly computers in many third world countries, while also stimulating other technical and educational developments. The OLPC ‘inoculation’ strategy is an early part of the systemic change in some countries (Derndorfer, 2010) and, with support from all levels in the educational systems, OLPC integration does result in ICT-enabled change.
• Sustained symbiotic partnerships with technology companies to provide curriculum materials, workshop facilities, accreditation and related professional development for teachers and the organisations adopting the curriculum, e.g. Cisco’s 10,000 Network Academies currently operating in 165 countries include secondary schools. Cisco benefits from the increased networking capacity locally and globally.
• The exponential growth of virtual schooling in North America has enabled research involving control groups that confirms the importance of professional development for educators based in ‘brick and mortar’ schools who facilitate students’ online learning. Mexico has its school curriculum in both Spanish and English in an online learning management system studied by migrant workers and their children at home and abroad. A variety of virtual schools and related services have emerged to complement the traditional educational system stimulated by state and federal initiatives and requirements (Davis, 2011).
• Economies of scale that have arisen with virtual schools and educational services enable production of online multiplayer games embedded within the curriculum that now go beyond basic skills, e.g. Florida Virtual School’s real game platform that may now be sold as a service to other schools in addition to provision of the related social studies course(s) to students in schools throughout Florida. However such online distance learning is not commonplace in many education systems. E.g., in Germany it only appears to connect German foreign schools (Global School Project).
• Ubiquitous access to cloud-based computing, although patchy, is emerging worldwide with strategies that blend formal and informal learning within and across age groups. Many countries have launched e-learning platforms for personalised learning by students and teachers where they may collaborate for learning and curriculum development. These include Switzerland and New Zealand with evolving Open Source guidance for organisational and pedagogical change.
  

...

Issues/Unresolved questions/concerns

Essential professional and organisational developments are dependent upon the engagement of school leaders. However, many school leaders have little knowledge of ICT-enabled 21st century learning (see McLeod Blog ‘dangerously irrelevant’). Research and development of the preparation of leaders for ICT-enabled learning is scarce (Davis, 2010). Even recent guidance for building capacity for ICT in teacher education (Lim et al. 2010) omits leadership of networked organizations.

Synchronising systemic changes prompted by adoption of ICT requires coherent leadership at many levels. ICT is often missing within quality assurance and its integration into standards and procedures by relevant agencies has lagged (Eickelmann & Schulz-Zander, 2010), which may also be linked with lack of 21st century knowledge by senior staff. This applies to both schools and teacher education (Davis 2011). Group assessment and electronic portfolios are examples of challenging innovations for nationwide assessment.

Indigenous cultures and others with minority worldviews find it more challenging to promote transformative and sustainable ICT-enabled changes in educational systems that fit with their worldviews, which decreases equity in educational systems (Gorski, 2009). Although challenging, the philosophy of indigenous people could assist sustainability of such innovations while also working to increase equity (Greenwood et al in Leigh, 2011).

The gender divide is one of the most significant inequalities to be amplified by the digital revolution, and cuts across all social and income groups. Throughout the world, women face serious challenges that are not only economic but social as well as cultural – obstacles that limit or prevent their access to, use of, and benefits from ICTs. UNESCO believes that unless gender issues are fully integrated into technology analyses, policy development and programme design, women and men will not benefit equally from ICTs and their applications. Without such explicit references to gender issues in ICT policy, the chances that women and girls will reap developmental benefits from the digital age are slim. Experience so far has shown that even where policies have been gender-aware, women’s and girls’ needs are likely to be neglected or ignored when it comes to policy implementation. Both in the first phase (Geneva, 2003) and the second phase (Tunis, 2005) of the World Summit on the Information Society countries reaffirmed “that development of ICTs provides enormous opportunities for women, who should be an integral part of, and key actors, in the Information Society. We are committed to ensuring that the Information Society enables women's empowerment and their full participation on the basis on equality in all spheres of society and in all decision-making processes. To this end, we should mainstream a gender equality perspective and use ICTs as a tool to that end.”

Brief bibliography

• Derndorfer, C. (2010, October). OLPC in South America: An Overview of OLPC in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Peru. The Educational Technology Debate (ETD). Retrieved April 31, 2011 from http://edutechdebate.org/olpc-in-south-america/olpc-in-south-america-an-overview-of-olpc-in-uruguay-paraguay-and-peru/
  
• Eickelmann, B. (2011). Supportive and hindering factors to a sustainable implementation of ICT in schools. Journal for Educational Research Online,3,(1), 75-103.
• Gorski, P. (2009). Insisting on Digital Equity. Reframing the Dominant Discourse on Multicultural Education and Technology.Urban Education, 44(3), 348-364
• Law, N., Lee, M., & Chan, A. (2010). Policy impacts on pedagogical practice and ICT use: an exploration of the results from SITES 2006. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26, 465-477.
  
• Leigh, P.R. (Ed.) (2011). International Explorations of Technology Equity and the Digital Divide: Critical, Historical and Social Perspectives. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Press.
• Law, N., Lee, M., & Chan, A. (2010). Policy impacts on pedagogical practice and ICT use: an exploration of the results from SITES 2006. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 26, 465-477.
• Leigh, P.R. (Ed.) (2011). International Explorations of Technology Equity and the Digital Divide: Critical, Historical and Social Perspectives. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Press.
• Plomp, T., Anderson, R. E., Law, N., & Quale, A. (2009). Cross-national Information and Communication Technology: Policies and practices in education. In Research in Educational Policy: Local, National, and Global Perspective. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.
• UNESCO (2003). WSIS Gender Issues in the Information Society. Paris: UNESCO.

Notes for and by all authors for use above and for later paper

Please also add all the references used to inform your writing below so we can see the evidence that we are basing our brief paper on and if it is unpublished and you ahve a copy then please email that to all the authors, e.g. Davis (2011), Eickelmann (2011).

Notes for authors on Research section

Idea: Web2-technologies redefine learning in terms of combining or say obliterate the difference bewtween formal and informal learning, and bewtween learning at home vs. learning at school.
Crook, C. & Harrison, C. (2008). Web 2.0 technoligies for learning at key stages 3 and 4: Summary report. Coventry: BECTA (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency).
Idea: E-learning plattforms to individualize learning: In several european countries, intitiatives of launching e-learnign plattforms to individualize learning, where students and teachers have their accounts and exchange learning materials or use collaboration tools to co-operate have taken place. As an example one might look at Sitzerland (http://www.educanet2.ch; cf. Petko, 2010)

Petko, D. (ed.) (2010). Lernplattformen in Schulen. Ansätze für E-Learning und Blended Learning in Präsenzklassen. Wiesbaden: VS Verlag für Sozialwissenschaften.
Note for collaborating authors: as there are other papers this is brief we will narrow our research update since 2009 to organisational change and leadership. Our audience includes policy and decision makers as well as leading educators.
For a sustainable implementation of ICT in schools, main tasks for decision makers would be (Eickelmann, 2011):
1. Support schools to develop school (media) concepts in terms of parts of school vision or a school's pedagogical programm; 2. Support on the policy level, e.g. by developing curricula and teacher education up to date. 3. Provision of in-service pedagogical training towards ICT-use for teaching and learning.
Birgit: One major concern - and this is might be true not also for third world education systems but somewhat also for others - that discussion in the last year were about how IT could change pedagogy. This made a good step forward in Asia (cf. Law et al., 2010; based on SITES 2006 data) and a step backwards for some Euopean countries. But somehow the basis for this is that schools and students have to be equipped with technology first. Especially with student-owned mobile devices.<-- Note: can you say more and complete the refs, maybe identify some initiatives please?
Birgit: Another aspect is that it is of course a great potential of ICT to change teaching and learning. But we should not forget what students need as 21st century skills and we should not forget to see new competencies are arising and getting more and more important. On of them is Computer and Information literacy like it is studies in the IEA-study ICILS 2013 (Fraillon & Ainley, 2009). One core aspect of this study is to know and measure students' CIL (Computer and Information Literacy) to get to know which compensating measure have to be launched in future to give all children equal opportunities to participate in a global and an information and knowledge society.<-- please clarify how this fits in our brief please, maybe as an orgnisation aspect or would be better covered in another of the brief papers.
Birgit: My statement here is not to skip the pedagogical aspect but to think what is the basis for that and what are new topics emerging in a new global world.<-- Good point Birgit but help us see how it fits with our brief please.
Birgit: We should integrate something on gender equity and the support of women particpating in the technological development and its use for formal and informal learning. From my point of view this would be an important point for the future development of devolping countries. It would fit to the idea of mobile technology available for all. ...
Refernces for distributed leadership provided by Brigit:
Spillane, J. & Healey, K. (2010). Conceptualizing school leadership and management form a destributed perspective.The Elementary School Journal, 111 (2), 253-281.
Spillane, J. P. (2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Notes on Issues section for authors

Some additions from Birgit:

Restructuring the school system:
• Expected: It is expected that in the US in 2019 almost half of all courses will be provided online.
• Change already happened: Some elementary schools in the Netherlands offer 52 week of schooling and are open from 7 a. m. till 7 p. m and offer as well education as professional child care. Parents could take them out for family holidays of course and schooling is provided most flexible http://www.tctubantia.nl/regio/twente/6787626/Basisschool-52-weken-per-jaar-open-van-7-tot-7.ece

Trends since 2009 (from Joke’s presentation, concerning our topic):
- Ubiquotous presence of teaching
- Student’s technology experiences in informal settings outreach thiose in formal learning settings
- School systems are rapidly changing all over the world
- Concerns are towards dropout rates of students and teachers (remark: theses aspects are not so much a point of concern in Germany)

Some German issues:
1. The main change of the German school systems is the change from half-day schooling to all-day schooling. As to ICT we found that the computer- and technology-related activities in the afternoon do only reach one third of the students which a significant tendency that male students use the offers more than girls (Eickelmann & Rollett, 2010, 2011 (in press)). Furthermore schools with higher rates of students with migration background offer less often technology-related extracurricular activities. These both findings mean that instead of encountering the digital gaps, all-day schooling at the moment could not reach the needs of the school system. I therefore see the necessity of better teacher education and for support of school principals and schools in regions to encounter their problems of un-equity.
2. ICT should be and indicator for quality assurance for teaching, school leadership and professional development (in terms of in-service PD)
3. ICT and its use to support learning should be a part of school inspectorate/inspection and be part of quality tableaus

When we started our work in the group, all members were asked to introduce themselves and to name their main issue about the topic of the working group one. I have made some notes which aspects occur:

1. The idea of changing school systems relates to the needs of 21st century schooling
2. Global thinking with regard to the topic is needed
3. We should ask what technology could do for teaching and not vice versa
4. Kids should bring their own technology to school and schools will change
5. We should think about what kind of support we want technology to give
6. School restructuring refers to the aim to bring formal and informal learning together and policy makers should give admission for it
7. Restructuring school should aim higher quality of schooling in terms of school effectiveness
8. Creating a school structure which moves learning beyond school and combines all learning occasions
9. ICT is important to get women into work in several parts of the globe
10. We should have cultural diversity in minds and use the potential if ICT to bridge cultural gaps by teaching online
11. Knowledge overcomes skills
12. Include the teacher perspective on changes in schools, especially with regard to technologies

Some further ideas from my pint of view

We always think that school systems could be hardly changed. But if we look back how school looked like 15 or 20 years ago, we must admit that there is a change. And these changes all over the world are due to the change of society, families, communities and childhood. So there is a rather high probability that schools will change further and change will be an ongoing and not always monitored development. The only thing about is, is that we could all use our expertise to steer this change by using our different competencies and power. The most important thing from the research background is to monitor this change and gather empirical data in order to overcome inequality and digital gaps. Furthermore we should at least come up with some visions how school would look like in ten years to outline what are the needs and main aims in regions and in the global context.

References: Strike-through text

Eickelmann, B. & Rollett, W. (2011, in press in June 2011). Angebote in Ganztagsschulen: Ein Weg zur Reduktion von geschlechtstypischen Unterschieden in der schulischen Nutzung digitaler Medien? In R. Schulz-Zander, B. Eickelmann, H. Moser, H. Niesyto & P. Grell. Jahrbuch Medienpädagogik 10. Qualitätsentwicklung in der Schule und medienpädagogische Professionalisierung. Wiesbaden: Verlag VS für Sozialwissenschaften.
Eickelmann, B. & Rollett, W. (2010). Requirements and the Reality of ICT use in All-Day-Schools in Germany. ECER 2010 (European Conference on Educational Research), Helsinki (Finland) [25.08.2010].

=

From Mariana's email: issues related to women's participation in technological development or use of ICT for professional development are top on the policy agenda of most of UNESCO's Member States. However, in practice girls and women are very often neglected or not supported to access and/or use technologies both in formal and informal learning. The "digital divide" issue has an important gender dimension which needs to be addressed. I will try to identify some UNESCO materials raising this issue.
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Notes for authors on biography section

We will start with as many as evryone wishes to contribute adn later thin the list out to the key ones so that this brief paper is brief enough to fit on 2 pages as reqested.

References

Avila Munoz, P. (2008). ICT and Educational Policy for the Latin American and Caribean Regions. In J. Voogt, & G. Knezek, International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education (pp. 1133-1144). New York: Springer.

Davis, N.E. (2011, submitted). Leadership for online learning within and across secondary schools: An ecological perspective on change theories. Research in Learning Technology, 19(3)

Davis, N.E. (2008). How may teacher learning be promoted for educational renewal with IT? In Voogt, J., & Knezek, G. (Eds.). International handbook of information technology primary and secondary education. (507-520) Amsterdam: Springer.

Davis, N.E. (2010). Strategic leadership for online and blended teaching within and across schools and teacher education: Part of the future for teacher education and school leader education. Paper and presentation to 2010 Sydney Symposium on the future of teacher education and school leader education, Sydney July 2010. Retrieved May 29, 2011 from http://www.educ.mq.edu.au/community_outreach/2010_sydney_symposium/resources/symposium_papers/

Derndorfer, C. (2010, October). OLPC in South America: An Overview of OLPC in Uruguay, Paraguay, and Peru. The Educational Technology Debate (ETD). Retrieved April 31, 2011 from http://edutechdebate.org/olpc-in-south-america/olpc-in-south-america-an-overview-of-olpc-in-uruguay-paraguay-and-peru/

Dzvimbo, K.P. & Kariuki, C.W. (2006). Quality Assurance in the African Virtual University: A Case Study. In B.N. Koul & A. Kanwar (Eds.) Perspectives on Distance Education. Towards a Culture of Quality. (pp 59-72) Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning.

Eickelmann, B. (2010). Das Globale-Schule-System – Evaluation einer Handlungsalternative im Distance Learning für das deutsche Auslandsschulwesen. Köln: Bundesverwaltungsamt, Zentralstelle für das Deutsche Auslandsschulwesen. Retrieved April 31, 2011 from http://www.ifs-dortmund.de/files/Evaluation_Globale_Schule.pdf
Eickelmann, B. (2011). Supportive and hindering factors to a sustainable implementation of ICT in schools. Journal for Educational Research Online, 3 (1), 75-103.

Eickelmann, B. & Schulz-Zander, R. (2010). Qualitätsentwicklung im Unterricht – zur Rolle digitaler Medien. In N. Berkemeyer, W. Bos, W., H. G. Holtappels, N. McElvany & R. Schulz-Zander (Hrsg.), Jahrbuch der Schulentwicklung. Bd. 16. (S. 235-259). Weinheim: Juventa.

Gorski, P. (2009). Insisting on Digital Equity. Reframing the Dominant Discourse on Multicultural Education and Technology. Urban Education, 44(3), 348-364

Greenwood, J., Te Aika, L. and Davis, N. (2011) Creating Virtual Marae: An Examination of How Digital Technologies Have Been Adopted by Maori in Aotearoa New Zealand. In P.R. Leigh (Ed.), International Explorations of Technology Equity and the Digital Divide: Critical, Historical and Social Perspectives. (58-79). Charlotte, NC: Information Age Press.

Law, N., Lee, M., & Chan, A. (2010). Policy impacts on pedagogical practice and ICT use: an exploration of the results from SITES 2006. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning. 26, 465-477.

Leigh, P.R. (Ed.) (2011) International Explorations of Technology Equity and the Digital Divide: Critical, Historical and Social Perspectives. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Press.

Lim, C.P., Chai, C.S., & Churchill, D. (2010). Leading ICT in education practices. A capacity-building toolkit for teacher education institutions in the Asia-pacific. Singapore: Microsoft Partners in Learning. Retrieved July 11, 2010, from http://edithcowan.academia.edu/CherPingLim/Books

Looker, E. D. (2008). Gender and Information Technology. In J. Voogt, & G. Knezek, International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education (pp. 779-788). New York: Springer.
Spillane, J. & Healey, K. (2010). Conceptualizing school leadership and management form a destributed perspective.The Elementary School Journal, 111 (2), 253-281.
Spillane, J. P. (2006). Distributed leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

McLeod, S., & Richardson, J. (2011). The dearth of technology-related articles in educational leadership scholarship. Journal of School Leadership, 12(1).

OER UNESCO http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/images/1/1b/Unesco_oer_acknowledgements_contents_small.pdf

Plomp, T., Anderson, R. E., Law, N., & Quale, A. (2009). Cross-National Information and Communication Technology. Policies and Practices in Education. A Volumen in Research in Educational Policy: Local, National, and Global Perspective. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing.

Schrum. L. & Levin, B. (2009). Leading 21st century schools: Harnessing technology for engagement and achievement. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwen.

Schulz-Zander, R., Pfeifer, M., & Voss, A. (2008). Observation Measures for Determining Attitudes and Competencies Toward Technology. In J.M. Voogt & G.A. Knezek (Eds.), International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education. Part One. (pp. 367-379). Series: Springer International Handbooks of Education. Vol. 20. New York: Springer.

Schulz-Zander, R., Eickelmann, B. & Goy, M. (2010). Mediennutzung, Medieneinsatz und Lesekompetenz. In W. Bos, S. Hornberg, K.-H. Arnold, G. Faust, L. Fried & E.-M. Lankes, IGLU 2006 - die Grundschule auf dem Prüfstand. Vertiefende Analysen zu Rahmenbedingungen schulischen Lernens. (S. 91-119). Münster: Waxmann.

Tilya, F. (2008). IT and Educational Policy in the Sub-Saharan African Region. In J. Voogt, & G. Knezek, International Handbook of Information Technology in Primary and Secondary Education (pp. 1145-1160). New York: Springer.

UNESCO (2003). WSIS Gender Issues in the Information Society. Paris: UNESCO.

Wolfenden, F., Buckler, A. & Keraro, F. (2010). OER adaptation and reuse across cultural contexts in sub Saharan Africa: lessons from the TESSA consortium. Presented in OER10, 22-24 March 2010, Cambridge, UK. Retrieved April 28, 2011 from http://oro.open.ac.uk/view/person/fw453.html

Brief Report on TGW1's work while at UNESCO in Paris

EdusummIT 2011 Working Group 1 (Restructuring educational systems to move into the digital age) engaged 16 participants from Brazil, France, Germany, Israel, Netherlands, New Zealand, Slovakia, UK, Uruguay, and the USA. Working group moderators were Niki Davis of New Zealand with Brigit Ekelmann and Renta Schultz-Zander from Germany. Rapporteurs were Miri Shonefeld of Israel, Jorge Grunberg of Slovenia and Elliot Soloway of the USA.

Compiled and submitted June 11, 2011 by Niki Davis, Moderator with assistance from all moderators and rapporteurs especially Elliott Soloway

Discussions during the EduSummiIT 2011 built consensus that, although change is complex due to the highly interdependent educational systems with multiple stakeholders and interdependent systems, educational organizations have started to change and new networked structures have started to emerge in some countries.

Day 1 of EduSummIT 2011 for the Working Group on Restructuring educational systems to move into the digital age ended with the following examples of new structures or models: Online Supermarket of Courses, Virtual Schools, Formal/Informal, and some that emerge from inquiry based learning rather than highly timetabled didactic instruction.

This caused us to reflect on the purpose of education and the importance of maintaining an educational vision for schooling. There are clear contrasts between organizational change in some countries such as the USA vs. Germany, with more emerging structures and needs becoming apparent in the USA, e.g. 80% in prison can’t read. Illiteracy is increasing with dropout from schools, e.g. 80% in Detroit schools.
There was agreement that complexity was increasing worldwide and that, while some networked structures involving multiple schools and other partners could be important to improve cultural diversity and educational opportunities, there is a lack of research into the necessary leadership and governance. It was also clear that some newly emerging approaches did not appear to be informed by research into how people learn, e.g. Online ‘supermarket’ of courses/resources.

Day 2 focused plans that could be implemented to address these needs and considerations at the local, regional and global level that are required to ensure successful implementation.

Working Group 1 on Restructuring educational systems to move into the digital age included in the for a call to action policy and vision that recognizes that the focus has changed to recognize quality assurance is incorporated in the redesign of educational organizations with governance to ensure an equitable multilingual and multicultural communication infrastructure within and across networked educational organizations, including schools, teacher education, professional development and related services including agencies responsible for quality assurance.

Topics in particular need of further research include mobile learning practices and related organisational structures and approaches to ensure indigenous success within their worldviews.

This work will be further expanded in three documents (revised position paper, summit report, and journal special edition) planned for production by the EduSummIT participants and working groups in the near future.