Experts Collaborate To Ensure Quality Digital Learning Policy At UNESCO MGIEP Event

UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP), as a prelude to TECH 2019, brought together policy makers on digital learning, representatives from educational technology companies and other relevant stakeholders at a Policy Forum on Digital Learning. The forum provided a platform for policy dialogue around the use of digital technology in education, including the role of Artificial Intelligence in supporting teaching and learning. 

Prof. Anantha Duraiappah, Director UNESCO MGIEP, inaugurated the Forum in Vishakhapatnam. 

Building on the Vizag Declaration on Guidelines for Digital Learning adopted last year, the forum discussed the current state and future prospects on the use of digital technology with exchange of some great insights to ensure quality digital learning, in support of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a statement from the Institute said.

Twelve countries participated in the event. 

There were official delegates from Bangladesh, Japan, the Maldives, New Zealand, Quebec (Canada), South African and Sri Lanka which comprised experts nominated by governments, senior government officials and policy makers representing the ICT or digital education units within the Ministries of Education or other Ministries or Departments in charge of digitalization of education. 

The event was also attended by unofficial delegates from Sweden, the former Minister of Higher Education and Research in Sweden Mr Tobias Kranz, and an expert from Kyrgyzstan, as well as by Indian policymakers and teachers from five countries including Bhutan. 

The event helped in unifying the agenda to form 'Friends of UNESCO MGIEP', a group of countries committed to promoting the wise, innovative and ethical use of digital technology as a new dimension in achieving inclusive and equitable quality education, said the statement.   

"We are proud to be joined by the participants in the Policy Forum for TECH 2019. This platform reinstates our commitment to promote 'social and emotional learning' (SEL) and digital learning to transform the educational landscape by collaborating with our eminent stakeholders.  Such discussions are imperative to drive awareness about transformative digital pedagogy. The world is changing at a brisk pace and through these conversations education systems will prepare learners and educators for both the changes and the challenges of the 21st century," Prof. Duraiappah said.

Building on the neurosciences of learning, which shows that parts of the brain can be 'wired' or 'trained' in intellectual as well as emotional intelligence, the Institute promotes the whole-brain approach to learning and harnesses the power of digital technologies to enable innovative pedagogies.

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