Join UNESCO’s Mobile Learning Week, 18-19 February, 2013

The latest data (January 2013) from Portia Research, a leading research company in the mobile and wireless industry, indicates there are 1.15 billion smartphones and 5.4 billion feature phones in active use around the world. While the total number of active mobile phones continues to increase with smartphones growing faster, feature phone market are slowing down.

© Portio Research

About 800 million of these feature phone users are in Africa and the Middle East, where the number of out-of-school children is highest in the world, teacher shortages are rampant, literacy rates are low, and gender inequality is prevalent. We recently spoke with mobile expert Bhanu Potta, the Global Product Leader of Learning & Knowledge Services for Nokia, who told us that many of the feature phones in the Middle East and Africa are being actively shared between parents and children. He also told us that some teachers are using mobile phones to access teaching materials which they incorporate in their classrooms. With such an enormous number of active mobile phones in these countries which are in dire need of better learning outcomes, we must continue to search for innovative solutions to improve basic education around the world.

This week, UNESCO is hosting its second Mobile Learning Week in Paris, France. The event will explore how powerful and affordable mobile technology can contribute to the Education For All goals by improving literacy, improving the quality of education through teacher support and achieving gender equality in education.  The attendees span a broad group of mobile practitioners, researchers, industry partners and government representatives who will share and collaborate on best practices and research.

For those who can’t be in Paris today and tomorrow, the symposium’s main events will be webcast from the UNESCO headquarters. Here is a preliminary program of speakers and topics, including the aforementioned Bhanu Potta who will deliver the first keynote.

Join UNSECO Mobile Learning Week
live webcast

Monday, February 18:

TimeProgramSpeakers09:00-10:15
Paris TimeOPENING CEREMONY (PLENARY)
Opening remarks and launch of UNESCO Policy
Guidelines for Mobile Learning
Opening remarks from major sponsors

• Irina BOKOVA, Director-General, UNESCO
• Erkki ORMALA, Vice-President, Business Environment, Nokia
• Steve DUGGAN, Director, Worldwide Education Strategy, Microsoft

10:15-11:00
Paris TimeKEYNOTE (PLENARY) Bringing mobile learning to scale: Lessons and challenges

• Speaker: Bhanu POTTA, Nokia

14:30-16:00
Paris TimePANEL DISCUSSION (PLENARY)
Content for mobile learning

• Panelists: Michael CARRIER, British Council; Anne GITHUKU-SHONGWE, Afroes; François LEDOUX, Intel; Brahima SANOU, ITU; Matthew SCHNEPS, Harvard University; Steve VOSLOO, UNESCO;
• Moderator: Fengchun MIAO, UNESCO

Tuesday, February 19:

Time Program Speakers 09:00-09:40
Paris TimeKEYNOTE (PLENARY)
Aligning migration with mobility: female immigrants using smart technologies for informal learning show the way

• Speaker: Agnes KUKULSKA-HULME, Open University
• Moderator: Steve VOSLOO, UNESCO

11:40-12:45
Paris TimePANEL DISCUSSION (PLENARY)
Mobile learning from a government perspective

• Panelists: Luis GARIBALDI, Director of Education, Ministry of Education and Culture (Uruguay); Tayeb A. KAMALI, Vice Chancellor, Higher Colleges of Technology (UAE); Aleksandr Vasilevich OSIN, Director of Moscow Centre for Information Technologies & Analytics, Department of Education of Moscow (Russia); Sasithara PICHAICHANNARONG, Secretary General, Office of the Education Council (Thailand); Qamar ZAMAN CHAUDRY, Federal Secretary, Ministry of Education and Training (Pakistan);
• Moderator: Gavin DYKES, independent consultant

16:00-16:50
Paris TimePANEL DISCUSSION (PLENARY)
The cost, scale and sustainability of learning with mobile phones: Looking ahead

• Panelists: Jill ATTEWELL, GSMA; Florence GAUDRY-PERKINS, Alcaltel-Lucent; Greg BUTLER, Microsoft; Bhanu POTTA, Nokia; Isabelle LEUNG, Huawei; Fengchun MIAO, UNESCO
• Moderator: Indrajit Banerjee, UNESCO

16:50-17:00
Paris TimeCLOSING REMARKS

• Francesc PEDRÓ, Chief of Section for Teacher Development and Education Policies, UNESCO

We hope you’ll get involved in helping children learn and grow, and join our conversation on Facebook and Twitter.