The UNESCO ICT in Education Toolkit Training Workshop, held between 5 and 10 September 2005 in Chiang Mai, Thailand, successfully introduced a newly-developed policy-makers toolkit, which is designed to assist in improving decision-making with regard to the integration of ICT in education. The workshop was the first time that the toolkit was used and tested by those involved in educational planning and policymaking, and was an important opportunity for the sharing of knowledge and ideas in this area.
Participants included representatives from three countries in the Asia-Pacific region that are currently in the process of updating their national plans to integrate ICT in education: Pakistan, Philippines and Thailand.
Interested observers were also present at the workshop, including observers from: World Bank InfoDev; the UNESCO Jakarta office; and the Education Sector Reform Agenda (ESRA), a major education project funded by USAID in Pakistan. These observers have been closely following the development of the Toolkit.
The success of the workshop was shown in two ways. First, the activities engaged the full interest of the 25 participants throughout the six-day workshop, confirming that the toolkit will be useful and relevant to their needs. And second, at the end of the workshop all participants, as well as the facilitators, observers and organizers, had a range of ideas for activities in which the toolkit and the training received will be of great value. The message that came out from the workshop was that the toolkit is the start of something big in policymaking and planning for ICT in education.
The workshop was organised by the ICT in Education Unit at UNESCO Bangkok in cooperation with the toolkit co-developers: the Academy for Educational Development (AED) and Knowledge Enterprise (KE); with funding support from the Japanese-Funds-in-Trust (JFIT).
The first day of the workshop began with a presentation about general ICT in education concepts, followed by presentations about decision making, and an introduction to the toolkit. The gist of the message was that education should be the primary focus and that policymakers should consider technologies in terms of how they can contribute to achieving eight key educational objectives.
The ICT in Education Toolkit (www.ictinedtoolkit.org) is available for the participants online use with the understanding that the toolkit developers will continue to modify the toolkit by incorporating the valuable comments and suggestions raised during the workshop, and undertaking finalisation stage activities. The completed ICT in Education Toolkit for Policymakers, Planners and Practitioners will be announced, when it is finalised. Following the completion of the toolkit, subsequent workshops will be organised for policymakers and educational planners in the Asia-Pacific region.
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