Comments on: WISE Qatar – Doha Diaries 3 – A Call to Action?

By: Julie Lindsay

Julie Lindsay — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Tom, excellent discussion happening here, thanks for starting this. I have been searching the WISE website for a discussion forum but there is nothing happening yet. A Word doc press release is available from here http://www.digitalnewsroom.co.uk/wise09/closing... but it contains no extended details apart from what you have already told us. My concern is that this is a top-down approach to educational change and also that K-12 education was not well represented at WISE. As you know we saw, heard and met people more from the research, independent organisation and tertiary levels rather than from the K-12 areas. As you also may agree with me the most radical transformation in education is starting to happen at this level in isolated areas. This is something WISE organisers need to acknowledge and support further, as they have done by inviting some us to Doha.
In terms of the 10 priorities, I tend to agree these could be the outcome of any top quality education conference in the 21st century however I think they take a very global view and are not specific to one system, organisation or country. This IS a chance to really focus on the needs of education GLOBALLY. #5 for example came out of discussions about making education available to all and looking at the many situations around the world where minority groups are not allowed access (ties in with #1 as well). I am focusing on #3 as an immediate 'take-away' I can share with my school here in Beijing. As an IB school we talk a lot about what it means to be a global citizen, however even though we are an international school I do not believe we are truly addressing this idea/need and taking advantage of emerging technologies to connect, communicate and collaborate with a view to understanding the world more fully. This is something EVERY school must be talking about. Learning is not in isolation anymore. Connections with other classrooms, educators etc must become the norm and embedded into the curriculum, rather than a novelty and something one teacher in a school does independently.
Re the comment to this post about governments and profits and education for the masses taken out of the hands of grass roots movements…..well, once again let's look at this from a global persepctive and not just a western viewpoint. There are countries taking an holistic view to educational development and implementing (or considering implementing) initiatives based on recent grass roots developments. The Omani government for example are considering how a country-wide 'flat classroom project' or similar initiative could be implemented and how all teachers and students could fast-track into a global mode of working. The Jordanian government have a progressive view on education, as do the Qatari. These countries, amongst many others, have the opportunity to bypass the past 10-15 years of online learning and mobile computing development in more developed education systems to now take advantage of enhanced connection and better tools along with proven pedagogy.
My hope is that WISE opens it's website to formal discussion and continued input from participants. Those who contribute in a meaningful way and continue the discussions with a view to finding solutions are the people who deserve to attend WISE in 2010 (in my humble opinion). But here we are now waiting from something to happen. One of the sessions we attended I spoke to a person on the panel and said I wanted to be on the 'committee' or whatever they formed to take this further, but my name and details were not taken…..so how can they find me? I will find them if given an opportunity!

By: Julie Lindsay

Julie Lindsay — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 01:46:00 +0000

By: cogdog

cogdog — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 23:29:06 +0000

I would have thought a logical followup to establish an online community to connect a WISE community; otherwise, events like this are single blips in the sea. And I found it ironic, from a comment on my site, that a month earlier, there was a rather similar event in Bahrain
http://www.educationprojectbahrain.org/

Gotta connect, connect, connect.

By: A triumph of humanity, not of technology! - Blog Post

A triumph of humanity, not of technology! - Blog Post — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 14:06:52 +0000

[...] website, and some fellow participants (Times Ed correspondent Michael Shaw and educator/blogger Tom Barrett) have done a good job of covering various aspects of the event. Despite the [...]

By: CogDogBlog » Doha Reflections

CogDogBlog » Doha Reflections — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 07:36:12 +0000

[...] (I dont recall any process where people were asked for these, but they did emerge I guess)- see the summary by Tom Barrett. I really don;t know what to make of them; they are high level, and not really arguable, but I [...]

By: Richard Hein

Richard Hein — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:53:04 +0000

Perhaps these might be outcomes of 2,5 and 8 -Access to technology. A curriculum that uses technology as a tool in every subject. Communication. Collaboration.

As has been pointed out by others, these aims as listed above are to be worked at well above the chalkface. As you pointed out in your wordle notes, student needs to be largest, closely followed by teacher and empowered.

Thanks for your notes.

By: Doug Belshaw

Doug Belshaw — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 16:19:22 +0000

Tom, I wasn't there (wish I was!) but they sound like the output from every conference ever. The problem is that – and I'm not sure those who tread the conference circuit realise this – phrases such as 'A future built on multi-stakeholder partnership' mean *absolutely nothing* to those in the classroom, at the 'chalkface'.

This disconnect is a reason why we've still got very traditional teaching and learning going on in the majority of classrooms in the western world. It would seem that the WISE conference was as much about raising the status of Qatar than about actually effecting educational change.

Am I wrong?

By: Yitzchak Freeman

Yitzchak Freeman — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:09:16 +0000

For me, no 4 (education embedded in the local community) is key – it may be a failure of imagination on my part, but several of the other strategic priorities sound like either uncontentious slogans or are so vague as to elude any clarity as to what they mean.

However, I strongly believe in the value of education embedded in the local community. It echoes (for someone of my advanced years) the '70s slogan of global activism and change – which is after all one of the goals of 21st century education that has been brought to new levels of potential through current technological and communication developments – that is rooted in local realities. We need to discover the resources and diversity of that which is close to us. One example: taking groups of children out to discover the different cultural groups that exist within their locale, seeing shops, places of worship, community centres, etc, and taking geotagged photos of these, and then importing these to Google Earth to help children share their”discoveries” with other groups and see how they are all part of the area of which they live.

For me as a special educator, too, it reminds me that education has to equip children for life – and for most children, especially those with major learning or physical disabilities, that life is likely to remain within their local communities. They must first learn how to function and play a valuable, contributing role within their local community. What we can do to expand children's horizons in this context is to make links between our local communities and those in other societies, effecting change locally by learning about and importing to our local community the richness and diversity of human society around the planet. ICT has a revolutionary potential in this goal.

By: tomgbarrett

tomgbarrett — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:11:46 +0000

You haven't misunderstood Peter, you are absolutely on the money! Unless governments sign up to change it is questionable what can really happen. Partnerships and projects will spring up but will we be effected by top-down change? Unlikely. Maybe WISE can help to tell our stories and shout them out even louder.

By: tomgbarrett

tomgbarrett — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 08:05:18 +0000

Thanks Julia – yes it is a positive step for all. There were many government officials from other countries, as Joga5 has mentioned the real opportunity for change is in their hands. So what does WISE become other than a pressure group? I want WISE to listen to the stories of innovative change taking place and to help amplify those projects. They have begun with the WISE Laureates (which were incredibly inspiring) but it is crucial that the bigger lessons are highlighted, so it goes from just being an inspiring story to something that can help innovate and address issues on a local level.