UNESCO recommends teaching ICT in schools

Following the International Conference on ICTs and Post-2015 Education held last May, UNESCO is proposing an international action plan for the integration and development of ICTs in education by 2030.

Education officials, practitioners, researchers, entrepreneurs and ICT experts met from May 23 to 25 in Qingdao, China, to discuss the potential of these technologies in order to achieve UNESCO's 7 education targets. The International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Post-2015 Education, Organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), was also an opportunity to draw up an international action plan for the integration and development of ICTs in education by 2030.

Five main themes were discussed during the conference:

• What are the scenarios and catalysts to ensure the development of relevant links between education and ICT?
• How to use ICT while ensuring the quality of learning?
• In what ways can ICT be used with a view to continuing and inclusive training?
• What are the challenges, issues and opportunities of free and open educational resources? How to profit from it?
• How to measure the impacts of ICT in education? What are the indicators to remember?

A 22-point Declaration

At the end of the conference, a statement, the Qingdao Declaration on ICT and Post-2015 Education, was adopted. Divided into 22 points, this declaration includes principles, aims and recommendations. Among these, we find in particular the following postulates:

• Knowledge and use of ICT are essential in today's world and schools must participate in their teaching;
• To achieve inclusive, equitable, quality education and adopt a lifelong learning process, ICTs must be harnessed;
• We must assess the potential of free software in a perspective of democratization and access to knowledge;
• Care should be taken to ensure that primary and secondary levels develop skills in the use of ICT;
• It is necessary to ensure the continuous improvement of the actors of education in ICT.

What do you think of this statement? Do you think his recommendations will translate into action? If so, do you think they can have an impact on education?