Isabelle TURMAINE International Association of Universities

WLS 2014 – 16 April 2014

Higher Education Pathways to Literate Worlds

Purpose of the presentation _____________________________

To share insights of IAU’s project on higher

education’s role and place in the nearly ending UN Education For All initiative

To illustrate higher education’s involvement in literacy issues

To stress the importance of a stand-alone global education agenda

To advocate for a digital literacy for all goal

In 20 mns… Retaining your attention, just before lunch

Managing to recruit new champions

Plan of the presentation _________________________

Quick word on the IAU The IAU Project: HEEFA Today’s context Education/ Development agendas Changes impacting education

Digital literacy Higher education’s role in reaching digital literacy for

all Questions

International Association of Universities __________________________________________ Created 1950, under the auspices of UNESCO Over 600 Member institutions, 30 Association of HEIs,

120 countries represented International Board of 20 people, President 2013-

2016: Prof. Dzulkifly Abdul Razak, Malaysia General Conference every 4 years (2016: Thailand),

annual international conference (2015: Siena, Italy), bi-annual global meeting of university associations (2015: Accra, Ghana)

Main sectors of activities: internationalisation, sustainable development; ethics, information on HE worldwide, ICTs, EFA

Education for All (EFA) Expand early childhood care and education Provide free and compulsory primary education for all Promote learning and life skills for young people and adults Increase adult literacy by 50 per cent Achieve gender parity by 2005, gender equality by 2015 Improve the quality of education

Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)

8 Goals: Eradicate extreme poverty; Reduce child mortality; Improve maternal health; Combat HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases; Ensure environmental sustainability; Global partnership for development, and:

IAU HEEFA Project ____________ Better involve HE in the UN EFA initiative by: Capacity building Leaflet Three-step collaborative workshop (Mexico, Burkina Faso,

Nepal, Kenya, India) Community building Reference Group, chaired by Prof. Olive Mugenda, VC

Kenyatta University, Kenya with representatives from all regions of the world

HEEFA Portal: http://www.heefa.net Commitment building Action plans Advocacy (Conferences; Member of the CC-NGO for EFA)

Today’s context __________________

2015: End of EFA and MDGs. Real progress made but goals will not be attained

On-going drafting of new: Development Agenda (UN) « Eradicate poverty and transform economies

through sustainable development »– 12 goals, only goal 3 on education: « Provide quality education and lifelong learning » - High-Level Panel on the Post-2015 Agenda

Education Agenda (UNESCO) Overarching goal : « Ensure equitable and

inclusive quality education and lifelong learning for all by 2030 »

Today’s context (2) _________________

From information to knowledge societies Societies that are well educated, that transform

information into resources From closed to open source content Open educational resources (OER)

From limited access to education to MOOCs Massive open (but not all are adaptable and re-

usable) online courses To, possibly, elite F2F higher education vs mass

online education

Photo credits : Ferenc Isza / AFP

Impact on higher education (1) Need for more teachers (and quality teaching) Need for constant re-training (for quality teaching but

also for the constantly evolving knowledge societies)

Impact on higher education (2) Need to provide access to a growing number of

students Need for an increasingly important critical mass of

well-educated people

Greater use of technologies ___________________ To address the issues of: Costs: less public funding or at least funding that has not

proportionnally increased to match the demand and higher costs (fees) for students

Quality: increasingly rapidly evolving nature of science

and techniques and of market needs Place and time for education demand for education at all times, everywhere,

and for everyone

Emerging technologies in HE - 2013 Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One year or less Massively Open Online Courses Tablet computing

Time-to-Adoption Horizon: 2 to 3 years Games and gamification Learning analytics

Time-to-Adoption: 4 to 5 years 3-D printing Wearable technology

Digital literacy Because technological innovations are

increasingly used in HE, students, faculty, and staff must be digitally literate.

What is Digital Literacy?: The ability to use digital technology, communication tools or networks to locate, evaluate, use and create information. The ability to understand and use information in multiple formats from a wide range of sources when it is presented via computers. A person’s ability to perform tasks effectively in a digital environment... Literacy includes the ability to read and interpret media, to reproduce data and images through digital manipulation, and to evaluate and apply new knowledge gained from digital environments. Source: University Library, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Digital literacy (2) If the fact that today’s students are digital natives

makes the use of information technologies relatively easy;

Other aspects of digital literacy are increasing in importance at a time when higher education might be mainly provided online to: Make an informed choice of HE path and provider; Deal with distractibility and succeed in online

training; Analyse online information, its use and usability

(including copyrights), use the adequate tool, and avoid plagiarism

Know the rules for e-safety

Plea for digital literacy Because education will be more and more

provided online and at a distance, digital literacy has to be included in all education agendas and everywhere at HE level: Included in teachers’ training Specific research undertaken Outreach activities conducted to reach non-

digitalized populations Minimum level of digital literacy when accessing HE

should be sought and refreshment courses should be offered

Links to IAU projects Higher Education for Education For All (HEEFA) www.heefa.net http://www.iau-aiu.net/content/efamdgs

Open Education Resources and the Academic Librarian (launched in Accra, Ghana for the African region in September 2013)

And, in partnership with the European Agency for Development in Special Needs Education: ICT for Information Accessibility in Learning

(ICT4AL)

THANK YOU

i.turmaine@iau-aiu.net http://www.iau-aiu.net