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Asia-Pacific Ministerial Forum on ICT in Education (AMFIE) 2012

For the past two years, UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Bureau for Education (UNESCO Bangkok) and Intel Cooperation co-organized Asia-Pacific Ministerial Forum on ICT in Education (AMFIE), successfully creating an annual platform for policy-level knowledge exchange and dialogue. The Forum showcased a number of promising models and experiences in developing, adapting and/or monitoring ICT in Education policies and practices in countries at different development levels. Likewise, participating high-level officials were invited to present specific needs and challenges that their countries face, opening up inter-directional dialogues to initiate or strengthen partnerships between emerging and high-performing countries.

As a lead agency to organize such dialogue and exchange of policy ideas and practices, UNESCO persistently incorporates the use of ICT in education as a critical policy agenda. Likewise, UNESCO continues to facilitate enriching the ongoing debate and offer options and solutions to Member States, giving emphasis on ICT in education through upstream policy and capacity building. UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova stated that “[t]he enormous potential of ICTs for development must be reflected systematically in national development policies strategies and legislation, in regional policy and within global frameworks…This means also integrating more clearly ICT projects into wider policy frameworks. Isolated initiatives, without a clear link to development objectives, run the risk of delaying efforts to reach Internationally Agreed Development Goals.” (Speech during the 4th UN conference on Least Developed Countries themed “Harnessing ICTs for Development: Opportunities and Challenges for LDCs” in  Istanbul, Turkey, 2011.)

Scope of AMFIE 2012:
In response to the key issues and recommendations articulated in the past two years, UNESCO Bangkok, Intel and Ministry of Education of Thailand will organize the 3rd AMFIE with the theme “The Power of ICT in Education Policies: Implications for Educational Practices”. This year’s AMFIE is inspired by a recent UNESCO publication, “Transforming Education: The Power of ICT Policies”. As illustrated in the publication, envisioning clear policy goals and translating them into appropriate implementation strategies and action plans is the key factor in achieving the systematic transformation of education through ICT.

Delegates and international experts are invited to share regional and national cases at different development levels. Their first-hand experiences and lessons learnt from various initiatives in ICT in education from policy implication perspectives will be shared around the following four interlocked areas:

(1) Smart partnership for ICT infrastructure development and deployment for education;

(2) Alignment between national ICT policy, ICT competency standards for teachers and professional development; and

(3) Role of policies in school-level reforms and emerging technologies.

Participatory workshop sessions are also planned to provide policy makers with opportunities to update innovative policy making practices.
 
Forum objectives:
ICT in education is indeed no longer a novelty or luxury enjoyed by more affluent nations. Ultimately, the role of ICT in education is to support teaching and learning practices, enhancing the ways through which educators can nurture human potential.  Evidently, it is crucial that governments raise their capacity to exploit it to the advantage of their national context and needs. It is the hope of UNESCO Bangkok and its partners that AMFIE will become a catalyst in building that capacity.

Specifically, the forum aims to:

  • Provide a platform for sharing policy, experiences, good practices, and lessons learned from ICT in Education programs and practices in their respective countries

  • Strengthen the network of ICT in Education stakeholders and policy makers in member states by effectively engaging ministers and senior officials in dialogue on key issues relating to ICT in education;

  • Raise awareness of some of the useful tools through participatory workshop sessions to help Member States build capacity in developing robust ICT policies; and

  • Initiate focused reflection on key issues and concerns on ICT for education as well as future activities on the application of ICT to achieve education for all.

Further information:

Presentations