From UNESCO's 8th Policy Dialogue Forum Forum of the Teacher Task Force for Education 2030

1. Summary of ICT and distance education
for teacher development
14th March 2016, 10.00 am – 12.30 pm
Panellists
1. Leader: Dr. Jessica N. Aguti, (Commonwealth of Learning, Canada) jaguti@col.org
2. Dr. Aminudin Zuhairi (Universitas Terbuka Indonesia) aminz@ut.ac.id
3. Prof. Veronica McKay (University of South Africa) mckayvi@gmail.com
4. Dr. Freda Wolfenden (Open University, UK) freda.wolfenden@open.ac.uk
5. Dr. Salome Essuman (Ghana) sallyessuman@gmail.com

2. Activities
1. Video – the participants will watch a short TED video Teachers as
gardeners
2. Facilitator responses to the video
3. Presentation by Dr. Jorge Alfaro on work by Teachers’ Union in
Mexico
4. Participants responses to the video
5. Group work
6. Plenary sessions

3. Key Issues raised
 ICT and DE are all still vital for teacher education
 ICTs should be viewed as a tool
 ICTs provide opportunity for creation of dialogue
 Teachers are like gardeners; & like gardeners teachers also need
tools for their trade
 Teachers need to know and understand their children
 Teacher education requires creativity & innovation
 Teacher educators should model all methods and practices
 Training and retraining of teachers is vital to ensure quality and
continued relevance
 More active involvement of teachers in decision making

4. Recommendations
a) OER for quality teachers’ development
1. High level commitment from governments and educational
sectors for the development, adoption/adaptation of OER
materials for training and CPD
2. Involvement of local experts and other main actors at all
levels during creation, use and sharing of OER
3. Institutional support should encourage OER creators to
earn points for scholarship

5. Recommendations…
b) MOOCs for increasing access and professional development
1. MOOCs as part of a holistic solution or plan and blended
with other forms of teacher support
2. MOOC content should focus on teachers’ classroom
practices to close the theory/ practice gap
3. MOOCs should be developed on open platforms and with
open content to enable contextualization
4. Partnerships with local school systems/ organizations/
institutions
5. Quality assurance strategies to ensure quality in MOOCs
and training of teachers to benefit from online courses

6. Recommendations…
c) Digital skills and new pedagogies for 21st century
teachers
1. Need a broader definition of digital skills – technical
competencies, teaching and learning processes,
instructional strategies, and use of appropriate
technology
2. Government support and engagement of stakeholders
and societies for development of digital skills and new
pedagogies for teachers
3. Continued training and retraining of teachers and
teacher educators throughout their professional lives

7. Recommendations…
d) Mobile technologies and/or social networking tools
1. Ensure capacity building for teachers and teacher
educators
2. Ensure course design should include use of the mobile
technologies and social networks; and changes in
course materials and methodologies should be
accompanied by changes in assessment
3. Governments and institutions need creativity in working
out funding options for increasing access to
technologies
4. Create platforms (national & regional) to share expertise
and resources

8. Recommendations…
e) Quality assurance
1. Deploying appropriate modes of ICT: fit for purpose
2. Careful considerations before deploying technologies
3. Promote use of blended modes (synchronous &
asynchronous)
4. Transformation of assessment as curricula and
pedagogies are transformed

9. Thank you