The Global High-Tech Melting Pot
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Lauren Barack -- School Library Journal, 01/28/2008
Teachers worldwide need the best information and communication tech training available so that students—and their countries—have a bright future.
So says a new report from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), released Jan. 8, to help provide uniform guidelines for educators and the institutions that support them.
Acknowledging that knowing how to navigate through a technologically driven world is critical in the 21st century, UNESCO, along with commercial outfits such as Cisco, Intel, and Microsoft, and the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) and the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech), launched the ICT Competency Standards for Teachers.
The report identifies four approaches to global education reform—“Policy and Vision,” “Technology Literacy,” “Knowledge Deepening,” and “Knowledge Creation”—hoping to provide a clear set of appropriate ICT skills and development that educators will need to help their students thrive.
Graduating into the workforce without a solid grasp of new technologies, and how to manipulate them, can harm a nation’s ability to compete in a global marketplace.
Because UNESCO understands that world communities can differ dramatically in their financial abilities and what standards they already have in place, the report offers different launch points on how to implement the guidelines.
Still, all share the same ultimate goal—to get their teachers trained so that students, and eventually their country, not only benefit from technology advancements, but invent them as well.
