Ed-Tech Policy Report Roundup

UNESCO Report Calls for Ed. Tech. Training

By Mary C. Breaden — January 15, 2008 1 min read
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The technology-standards project—launched last week in London—released three booklets that outline the policy framework for the effort and the guidelines for the skills educators should be developing.

If teachers around the world do not take part in more professional-development training in information and communication technologies, or ICT, they will continue to lack the skills necessary to integrate technology into the classroom and improve student learning, concludes a report by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization .

Curriculum- and technology-training providers do not have a comprehensive set of international guidelines for training, and as a consequence, teachers in many countries have not developed the skills necessary to integrate technology into classroom curricula, says UNESCO, the Paris-based body of the United Nations that promotes international cooperation in education, science, and culture. It wrote the report in collaboration with the Washington-based International Society for Technology in Education, a nonprofit group that sets standards for how educators should use technology to improve student learning, and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, in Blacksburg, Va.

UNESCO’S goal in producing the report is to establish a basic set of skills and qualifications that educators must acquire and to encourage countries to provide professional development to help them develop those skills.

The technology-standards project—launched last week in London—released three booklets that outline the policy framework for the effort and the guidelines for the skills educators should be developing.

See Also

For more stories on this topic see Technology.

A version of this article appeared in the January 16, 2008 edition of Education Week

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