| APrIGF 2022 Session Proposal Submission Form | |||||||||||
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| Part 1 - Lead Organizer | |||||||||||
| Contact Person | |||||||||||
| Mr. Ashirwad Tripathy | |||||||||||
| Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate) * | |||||||||||
| Internet Society SIG on Internet for Education | |||||||||||
| Designation | |||||||||||
| Chair | |||||||||||
| Gender | |||||||||||
| Male | |||||||||||
| Economy of Residence | |||||||||||
| Nepal | |||||||||||
| Primary Stakeholder Group | |||||||||||
| Civil Society | |||||||||||
| List Your Organizing Partners (if any) | |||||||||||
| Merged session with session organized by Winston Roberts IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions) Prof. Rei Iwasaki, Kyoto Notre Dame University, Japan. (Ms Iwasaki is also a member of the IFLA Regional Division Committee for Asia-Oceania, and the Lead of the IFLA Regional Division committee's working group on Internet governance. Email: iwasaki@notredame.ac.jp ) |
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| Part 2 - Session Proposal | |||||||||||
| Session Title | |||||||||||
| Resilience and inclusion in digital education | |||||||||||
| Session Format | |||||||||||
| Panel Discussion | |||||||||||
| Where do you plan to organize your session? | |||||||||||
| Onsite at the venue (with online moderator for questions and comments from remote participants) | |||||||||||
| Specific Issues for Discussion | |||||||||||
| Issues for discussions The discussion will focus on the wider social context in which the internet operates, meaning it must be well-governed for all sectors in the community, emphasizing on human rights, inclusion and diversity. We aim to find answers to the following questions: 1) How to improve the accessibility of infrastructure (meaningful connectivity, tools, devices) required for providing digital education at school and at home? 2) What should be done to improve capacity building for both educators and learners? Under the capacity building dimension, the issue of technical skill deficit among educators and language gap in accessing meaningful educational contents will be discussed. The scope of discussion covers the ‘supply side’ – ensuring that teachers and other educators (including libraries) have the skills needed to provide meaningful education as well as the ‘demand side’- ensuring that learners themselves have the skills and tools necessary to make best use of online education 3) It is important tailoring digital education to prepare the future workforce. Learning is not the same as being ready for the world of work. With unprecedented economic changes ushered by technological innovations, digital education is uniquely positioned to build the future workforce's skill sets. But is digital education sufficiently equipped for the task? Expected Session Outcomes: The session aims to elicit strategies and best practices that support and create a resilient digital education ecosystem, from infrastructure to reforms to policy designs and adequate implementation capacity to workforce strategies. The discussion outcomes will help build on the existing discourse and guide appropriate investment in the space. |
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| Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF | |||||||||||
| Designing a people-centric internet is different from a techno-centric one. It caters to the impending needs of people and their aspirations and brings forth an overall improvement in people's lives. In the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic, as schools shut down, the educational crisis came to the forefront. While the educational crisis received its fair share of attention, what remains overlooked is the pandemic's potential to leverage technology for education or digital education. The proposed session attempts to bring the issue of 'resiliency in digital education' to the forefront and, in doing so, discusses the following three challenges: Firstly, the challenge of ensuring an equitable supply of suitable infrastructure – from telecommunication networks to digital technologies. This strand of enquiry covers the sub-themes of Inclusion (digital divide, accessibility, empowerment) and sustainability (socio-economic impact of sustainability) Secondly, the challenge of equipping educators including librarian with the necessary skills and competencies is that educators cannot be expected to be effective digital facilitators without capacity building. Parallelly, while ed-tech innovations flourish, both educators and learners expose themselves to cyber risks and need to be trained on cybersecurity. This strand of enquiry covers the sub-themes of Inclusion (capacity building, empowerment) and Trust (cyberbullying and cyber-crime) Thirdly, the challenge of empowering young people to become more resilient and adaptable to rapidly changing labour market dynamics across Asia-Pacific. The world of work is increasingly reliant on emerging technologies. As digital education incorporates tech tools, it is likelier to impart relevant skillsets for the future workforce. This strand of enquiry covers the sub-themes of Inclusion (capacity building, empowerment) and sustainability (future of work, socio-economic impact of the internet) |
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| Methodology / Agenda (Please add rows by clicking "+" on the right) | |||||||||||
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| Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible) | |||||||||||
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| Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session. | |||||||||||
| Ashirwad Tripathy: As this session is organized by Internet Society SIG on Internet for education, Ashirwad will set the stage and give a brief overview of education ecosystem and the digital divide. Binod Basnet: Binod Basnet is a MPhil scholar in Development Studies. He is also APrIGF2017 fellow. He is a researcher with special interest in inclusive education for marginalized communities and person with disabilities. Australian awards recipient Binod Basnet brings in his unique experience as an academic as well as a stakeholder for implementation of inclusive digital education in practice and policy making. Nina Nakaora: Nina Nakaora is the School Librarian at International School Suva, Fiji and has experience in public and special libraries. She is also a fellow this year. She is a Fiji Library Association member, USP Pacific TAFE Library Information Studies - Industry Programme Advisory Committee Chair. She is a founding member of the Pacific Libraries Network and graduate of the INELI Oceania programme (2016-2018). Nina has a Diploma in Library and Information Studies and is currently completing a degree in Psychology with the University of the South Pacific. Through her professional and academic activities and networks, she is closely involved in the community and fully informed of social trends and the impact of social media. She is well aware of the reality of the digital divide and its effects. Misako Nomura: Misako Nomura has long been committed to activities that guarantee the right to information for people with special needs, such as the dissemination of DAISY and improvement of library services for print disabilities. This guarantee of rights is closely related to the development of the Internet. (Misako San could not attend due to personal reason so Mr Hiroshi Kawamura, an expert in the field presented online) Gene Tan: Gene Tan has had a distinguished career in the cultural heritage sector, directing and rolling out programmes which Singaporeans could trust as faithful reflections of their country's history and its present in the digital era. He directed the Singapore Bicentennial Office, and was Director of the National Library where he developed the digital Singapore Memory Project. He oversees the delivery of Internet-based information services to Singapore, and has developed a new digital platform for leaders in the region and beyond to share their insights on major professional developments. As Assistant CE at the National Library Board he leads strategy, international relations, partnerships and transformation. |
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| Please declare if you have any potential conflict of interest with the Program Committee 2022. | |||||||||||
| Yes | |||||||||||
| If yes, please detail the person and his/her level of engagement on your session proposal. (e.g. 1 or more of the PC members are co-hosting/moderating/speaking at the session) | |||||||||||
| The organizer is a PC member | |||||||||||
| Are you or other session contributors planning to apply for the APrIGF Fellowship Program 2022? | |||||||||||
| No | |||||||||||
| APrIGF offers live transcript in English for all sessions. Do you need any other translation support or any disability related requests for your session? APrIGF makes every effort to be a fully inclusive and accessible event, and will do the best to fulfill your needs. | |||||||||||
| I am satisfied with APrIGF support to address special needs. | |||||||||||
| Brief Summary of Your Session | |||||||||||
| The session on resilience and inclusivity in digital education was a hybrid session conducted jointly by ISOC and IFLA on 12 th September. This session covered wide range of issues relating to digital education. Firstly, issues relating to infrastructural aspect was discussed along with existing digital poverty, digital divide and language barriers that has been a constraint to effective, inclusive and equitable education system. The next aspect was about technological transformation of libraries to enhance the knowledge of students and create a resilient digital platform for learning. The other important aspect of this session was on improving internet accessibility for person with print disability using Daisy and e-pub international standards for accessible multimedia. The session was summed up by advocating for digital literacy and digital competency of stakeholders in education system in order to provide necessary skillset needed for workfare in the 4 th Industrial Revolution. | |||||||||||
| Substantive Summary of the Key Issues Raised and the Discussion | |||||||||||
| The key issues raised during the session were about ways to connect the unconnected and means of making connectivity meaningful by eliminating digital divide. The next issue raised was about finding solution to digital education during internet shutdowns or in places that do not have connectivity. The issues also included finding ways to upgrade curriculum for vocational schools in alignment of technology and finding training modules for current employees to make themselves ready for the future workforce. The other issue raised for digital resiliency was on finding affordable software for digital education including the protection of digital content used in education. The session also raised issues on effectiveness of libraries in the times of pandemic when online modules were introduced including the latest standards necessary for multimedia accessibility for person with visual impairments. | |||||||||||
| Conclusions and Suggestions of Way Forward | |||||||||||
| The session was successfully conducted with fruitful discussion with the participants. In the way forward, we need to create a resilient and inclusive digital education system and that entails improving digital infrastructure and digital literacy. After the pandemic, there has been a shift in educational paradigm. In order to match the targets of SDG 2030, it seems to be high time to make necessary intervention towards inclusive digital learning, especially for marginalized communities, IDPs and PWDs. As the economies are changing, LDCs need necessary interventions in educational curriculum to match learners with skillset necessary for Industry 4.0. | |||||||||||
| Number of Attendees (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||
| Gender Balance in Moderators/Speakers (Please fill in numbers) | |||||||||||
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| How were gender perspectives, equality, inclusion or empowerment discussed? Please provide details and context. | |||||||||||
| The discussion took a holistic view to the future of digital education centered around the issues of equality, the multidimensional complexities that exists when it comes to the gender divide and the need of empathetic approach when it come to bring policy reforms. Specific issues of people with print disabilities were discussed. Multiple issues of Land locked Developing States in asia and pacific islands were discussed. | |||||||||||
| Admin Use | |||||||||||
| S05 | |||||||||||
| Consent | |||||||||||
 I agree that my data can be submitted to forms.for.asia and processed by APrIGF organizers for the program selection of APrIGF 2022. |
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