Eurograd message

                *From Transmissive to Transformative Pedagogies: Digital Technologies for
<br>Fostering 21st Century Competencies (TECH2018)*
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<br>15-17 November 2018
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<br>Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India
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<br>TECH 2018, UNESCO MGIEP's international conference, aims to showcase the
<br>role of games and digital learning in enabling a shift from “transmissive
<br>pedagogies” to “transformative pedagogies” to create peaceful and
<br>sustainable societies.
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<br>*Concept Note*
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<br>About UNESCO MGIEP: The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and
<br>Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is UNESCO’s category 1 Research Institute
<br>that focuses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 towards education
<br>for building peaceful and sustainable societies across the world. In line
<br>with its vision of ‘Transforming Education for Humanity’, the Institute
<br>employs the whole-brain approach to education, with programmes that are
<br>designed to mainstream SEL in education systems, innovate digital
<br>pedagogies and to put youth as global citizens at the centre of the 2030
<br>agenda for Sustainable Development.
<br>
<br>About the Conference: Building on the success of TECH 2017, UNESCO MGIEP
<br>will organise TECH 2018 to delve into the role of digital technologies in
<br>enabling a shift from “transmissive pedagogies” to “transformative
<br>pedagogies” to create more peaceful and sustainable societies. TECH 2018
<br>aims at drawing a blueprint for harnessing pedagogical possibilities opened
<br>up by digital technologies, in order to contribute to enabling a
<br>revolutionary shift in education from individual content acquisition to
<br>collaborative intelligence.
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<br>*Conference Objectives:* TECH 2018 aims to:
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<br>   1. Provide a platform for dialogue and capacity building across gaming,
<br>   digital pedagogy and education stakeholders, including students, teachers
<br>   and young people;
<br>   2. Showcase and demonstrate pedagogical possibilities opened up by
<br>   gaming and digital technologies in enabling learners to develop 21st
<br>   century skills and competencies to shape peaceful and sustainable
<br>societies;
<br>   3. Critically reflect upon and articulate institutional and ethical
<br>   implications of embracing digital solutions to education.
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<br>*Conference Themes*
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<br>*Theme 1: Transformative Gaming and Digital Pedagogies for SEL *
<br>
<br>The need for individuals, resilient and adaptive to rapidly changing
<br>environments, is the order of the day. The need for building not only
<br>intellectual intelligence but also emotional intelligence has never been
<br>greater. Recent research increasingly demonstrates what supporters of SEL
<br>have long advocated that students need to be “socially aware” and
<br>“emotionally-connected” for them to learn and for societies to flourish.
<br>In
<br>recent years, it has been demonstrated that SEL skills such as empathy,
<br>mindfulness and compassion can be explicitly taught and learned. Indeed,
<br>research suggests that SEL skills impact positively both academic
<br>performance and behavioural outcomes. UNESCO MGIEP promotes the idea that
<br>building both emotional and intellectual intelligence is key to achieving
<br>peaceful and sustainable societies and this can be delivered to all
<br>learners through the use of innovative technologies. Participants are
<br>invited to: Present the research evidence for SEL delivered directly or
<br>indirectly through transformative gaming and digital pedagogies, which have
<br>implications for achieving SDG 4.7; Showcase good practices in curricula
<br>for building social and emotional skills through gaming and digital
<br>learning tools and methodologies; Provide hands-on training to educators
<br>and youth to develop and employ innovative gaming and digital technologies
<br>to directly or indirectly deliver SEL experiences that promote values of
<br>peace, global citizenship and sustainable development.
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<br>*Theme 2: Beyond Four Walls of the Classroom*
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<br>Rather than embracing everything digital, participants are invited to
<br>explore how digital technologies can overcome constraints imposed by highly
<br>institutionalised features of modern schooling, including assessment of
<br>learning as memory of textbook knowledge. Experts and practitioners of
<br>education for sustainable development (ESD), global citizenship education
<br>(GCED), global learning, peace education and education in general are
<br>invited to examine, together with ed-tech stakeholders, the role of digital
<br>technologies in whole-school approaches and other holistic efforts to build
<br>a culture of peace and sustainability at the school and community levels.
<br>
<br>Participants are invited to: Explore the role of games and digital learning
<br>in teaching and assessment of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes
<br>associated with SDG 4.7; Highlight the role of digital technologies in
<br>problem-based/project-based learning for peace and sustainability; Present
<br>good practices on the use of crowdsourcing for promoting education for
<br>peace and sustainable development; Present pedagogical possibilities opened
<br>up by digital games, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), or Mixed
<br>Reality (MR) in formal or non-formal ESD and GCED, or in both.
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<br>*Theme 3: Transformative Gaming and Digital Pedagogiesfor STEM+*
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<br>Core subjects such as Mathematics, Science, and Languages often occupy a
<br>privileged place in the school curriculum in terms of time allocation and
<br>mandatory and examinable status. These subjects are usually taken seriously
<br>by students, parents, teachers and policymakers alike as they are assumed
<br>to enhance economic competitiveness—both at the individual and national
<br>levels. In fact, many digital learning management systems focus on
<br>delivering content on Mathematics, Science and English. Given the status of
<br>these subjects, it is important to understand: What do transformative
<br>digital pedagogies for STEM+ subjects look like? How can digital
<br>technologies contribute to building problem solving and creative, critical
<br>and systemic thinking skills? How can they facilitate issue-based or
<br>thematic approaches in the teaching of core subjects? How can they combine
<br>learning of the content prescribed by the curriculum with creative
<br>expressions? How can new, innovative and fun ways be used through games and
<br>digital learning for assessment of knowledge?
<br>
<br>Participants are invited to: Present cases of Mathematics, Science or
<br>Language Education delivered through transformative digital pedagogies,
<br>which has particular implications for building problem solving and critical
<br>thinking skills; Showcase good practices in digitally mediated pedagogies
<br>for building literacy and numeracy along with curiosity, creativity and
<br>critical thinking skills; Provide hands-on training to educators and youth
<br>to develop and employ innovative technologies to deliver STEM+ education
<br>experiences that promote values of peace, global citizenship and
<br>sustainable development; Demonstrate the use of digital games for learning
<br>and assessment in the STEM+ field; Showcase digital pedagogical innovations
<br>for children with “Difference Learning” (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia
<br>and dysgraphia).
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<br>*Theme 4: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education*
<br>
<br>Artificial Intelligence (AI) has caught the imagination of the world and
<br>has been gaining popularity in the business sector. To date, the use of AI
<br>in education has been limited and at times contested; most arguments
<br>against it centre on how it will make teachers redundant and learning more
<br>automated than it is currently. Rather than replacing teachers and making
<br>learning impersonal, AI could take learning to a completely new level. It
<br>could instantly generate an astounding amount of information, curate
<br>supplementary learning resources to meet individual student interests and
<br>needs, provide teachers with a virtual teaching assistant, and allow
<br>students to connect with peer learners as well as a virtual peer or tutor
<br>wherever and whenever needed. In the classroom, this could increase
<br>valuable time for more teacher-student and student-student interaction and
<br>more engaging and immersive learning experiences. The collective wisdom of
<br>teachers and students could be garnered to expand the realm of
<br>possibilities for education. What are the implications of AI for the future
<br>of education? UNESCO MGIEP embraces the need for education to prepare
<br>learners for the world profoundly changed by new frontiers in AI.
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<br>Participants are invited to: Critically reflect upon the profound impact AI
<br>could have on how education and training is organised, including the
<br>automation of not only low-skill or routine tasks but also high-skill and
<br>cognitive tasks; the redefinition of 21st century skills; and the
<br>reinvention of the meaning of human existence and well-being; Share ideas
<br>on if and how we can or should embed the principles and values of peace and
<br>sustainable development in AI; Present innovative ideas on the use of AI as
<br>part of Learning Management Systems(LMS); Present AI options for
<br>assessments and analytics to guide learning; Showcase the use of AI in
<br>harvesting data from existing data sources such as the UNESCO Institute of
<br>Statistics database among others.
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<br>*Theme 5: The Institutional Framework for Application of Digital
<br>Technologies in Education: Towards Surveillance or Collaborative
<br>Intelligence?*
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<br>Learning Analytics, enabled by increasingly sophisticated data collection
<br>and information retrieval techniques, holds a great promise for optimising
<br>learning. At the same time, it raises concerns about privacy and data
<br>protection that need to be addressed by normative frameworks and policy
<br>guidelines. A major challenge concerns the ethical implications of data
<br>surveillance. Digital technologies are making personalised learning more
<br>practical and opening up a myriad of pedagogical possibilities. They are,
<br>however, also enhancing the capacity of governments, companies and
<br>individuals to undertake surveillance, which may violate or abuse human
<br>rights, in particular the right to privacy. In addition to privacy, data
<br>protection and surveillance issues, the use of digital media to transform
<br>information to knowledge and then to intelligence also raises issues
<br>related to intellectual property rights and the ownership of intelligence.
<br>The question of what constitutes a private good and a public social good is
<br>critical in determining how education systems evolve in the future.
<br>Participants are invited to: Present efforts to improve national laws and
<br>practices with respect to surveillance issues in a digital age, including
<br>preventative measures, sanction and remedies; Present ideas to prevent the
<br>private sector from committing violations and abuses of the right to
<br>privacy; Discuss moral and policy issues surrounding student privacy raised
<br>by learning analytics.
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<br>Still can’t find a match for your idea in any of the above
<br>topics..….It’s
<br>not the end…go ahead and share your story and challenge us!
<br>
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<br>*Conference Formats: *The main formats of the conference are:
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<br>   - Keynotes (Plenary, by invitation only)
<br>   - Catalytic Panels and Debates (by invitation only)
<br>   - Breakout Sessions (Panel Discussion, Workshop or Paper Presentation)
<br>   - E-Poster Exhibitions
<br>   - Learning Zone
<br>   - Maker Space
<br>   - Mock Classrooms
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<br>The discussions will be interactive in nature in order to provide
<br>participants with an opportunity to dialogue, exchange good practices and
<br>establish connections and contacts. A highlight of the conference will be
<br>extensive access to academic experts and innovative technologies for
<br>transformative pedagogies. Submissions are invited for all sessions listed
<br>above.
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<br>*Application Form *
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<br>*Conference Website: http://mgiep.tech *
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<br>*Further Details *
<br>_______________________________________________
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