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From Transmissive to Transformative Pedagogies: Digital Technologies for
Fostering 21st Century Competencies (TECH2018)


15-17 November 2018


Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India


TECH 2018, UNESCO MGIEP's international conference, aims to showcase the
role of games and digital learning in enabling a shift from “transmissive
pedagogies” to “transformative pedagogies” to create peaceful and
sustainable societies.





Concept Note

About UNESCO MGIEP: The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and
Sustainable Development (MGIEP) is UNESCO’s category 1 Research Institute
that focuses on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4.7 towards education
for building peaceful and sustainable societies across the world. In line
with its vision of ‘Transforming Education for Humanity’, the Institute
employs the whole-brain approach to education, with programmes that are
designed to mainstream SEL in education systems, innovate digital
pedagogies and to put youth as global citizens at the centre of the 2030
agenda for Sustainable Development.

About the Conference: Building on the success of TECH 2017, UNESCO MGIEP
will organise TECH 2018 to delve into the role of digital technologies in
enabling a shift from “transmissive pedagogies” to “transformative
pedagogies” to create more peaceful and sustainable societies. TECH 2018
aims at drawing a blueprint for harnessing pedagogical possibilities opened
up by digital technologies, in order to contribute to enabling a
revolutionary shift in education from individual content acquisition to
collaborative intelligence.



Conference Objectives: TECH 2018 aims to:


1. Provide a platform for dialogue and capacity building across gaming,
digital pedagogy and education stakeholders, including students, teachers
and young people;
2. Showcase and demonstrate pedagogical possibilities opened up by
gaming and digital technologies in enabling learners to develop 21st
century skills and competencies to shape peaceful and sustainable
societies;
3. Critically reflect upon and articulate institutional and ethical
implications of embracing digital solutions to education.



Conference Themes

Theme 1: Transformative Gaming and Digital Pedagogies for SEL

The need for individuals, resilient and adaptive to rapidly changing
environments, is the order of the day. The need for building not only
intellectual intelligence but also emotional intelligence has never been
greater. Recent research increasingly demonstrates what supporters of SEL
have long advocated that students need to be “socially aware” and
“emotionally-connected” for them to learn and for societies to flourish.
In
recent years, it has been demonstrated that SEL skills such as empathy,
mindfulness and compassion can be explicitly taught and learned. Indeed,
research suggests that SEL skills impact positively both academic
performance and behavioural outcomes. UNESCO MGIEP promotes the idea that
building both emotional and intellectual intelligence is key to achieving
peaceful and sustainable societies and this can be delivered to all
learners through the use of innovative technologies. Participants are
invited to: Present the research evidence for SEL delivered directly or
indirectly through transformative gaming and digital pedagogies, which have
implications for achieving SDG 4.7; Showcase good practices in curricula
for building social and emotional skills through gaming and digital
learning tools and methodologies; Provide hands-on training to educators
and youth to develop and employ innovative gaming and digital technologies
to directly or indirectly deliver SEL experiences that promote values of
peace, global citizenship and sustainable development.



Theme 2: Beyond Four Walls of the Classroom

Rather than embracing everything digital, participants are invited to
explore how digital technologies can overcome constraints imposed by highly
institutionalised features of modern schooling, including assessment of
learning as memory of textbook knowledge. Experts and practitioners of
education for sustainable development (ESD), global citizenship education
(GCED), global learning, peace education and education in general are
invited to examine, together with ed-tech stakeholders, the role of digital
technologies in whole-school approaches and other holistic efforts to build
a culture of peace and sustainability at the school and community levels.

Participants are invited to: Explore the role of games and digital learning
in teaching and assessment of knowledge, skills, values and attitudes
associated with SDG 4.7; Highlight the role of digital technologies in
problem-based/project-based learning for peace and sustainability; Present
good practices on the use of crowdsourcing for promoting education for
peace and sustainable development; Present pedagogical possibilities opened
up by digital games, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), or Mixed
Reality (MR) in formal or non-formal ESD and GCED, or in both.



Theme 3: Transformative Gaming and Digital Pedagogiesfor STEM+

Core subjects such as Mathematics, Science, and Languages often occupy a
privileged place in the school curriculum in terms of time allocation and
mandatory and examinable status. These subjects are usually taken seriously
by students, parents, teachers and policymakers alike as they are assumed
to enhance economic competitiveness—both at the individual and national
levels. In fact, many digital learning management systems focus on
delivering content on Mathematics, Science and English. Given the status of
these subjects, it is important to understand: What do transformative
digital pedagogies for STEM+ subjects look like? How can digital
technologies contribute to building problem solving and creative, critical
and systemic thinking skills? How can they facilitate issue-based or
thematic approaches in the teaching of core subjects? How can they combine
learning of the content prescribed by the curriculum with creative
expressions? How can new, innovative and fun ways be used through games and
digital learning for assessment of knowledge?

Participants are invited to: Present cases of Mathematics, Science or
Language Education delivered through transformative digital pedagogies,
which has particular implications for building problem solving and critical
thinking skills; Showcase good practices in digitally mediated pedagogies
for building literacy and numeracy along with curiosity, creativity and
critical thinking skills; Provide hands-on training to educators and youth
to develop and employ innovative technologies to deliver STEM+ education
experiences that promote values of peace, global citizenship and
sustainable development; Demonstrate the use of digital games for learning
and assessment in the STEM+ field; Showcase digital pedagogical innovations
for children with “Difference Learning” (dyslexia, dyscalculia, dyspraxia
and dysgraphia).



Theme 4: Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Education

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has caught the imagination of the world and
has been gaining popularity in the business sector. To date, the use of AI
in education has been limited and at times contested; most arguments
against it centre on how it will make teachers redundant and learning more
automated than it is currently. Rather than replacing teachers and making
learning impersonal, AI could take learning to a completely new level. It
could instantly generate an astounding amount of information, curate
supplementary learning resources to meet individual student interests and
needs, provide teachers with a virtual teaching assistant, and allow
students to connect with peer learners as well as a virtual peer or tutor
wherever and whenever needed. In the classroom, this could increase
valuable time for more teacher-student and student-student interaction and
more engaging and immersive learning experiences. The collective wisdom of
teachers and students could be garnered to expand the realm of
possibilities for education. What are the implications of AI for the future
of education? UNESCO MGIEP embraces the need for education to prepare
learners for the world profoundly changed by new frontiers in AI.

Participants are invited to: Critically reflect upon the profound impact AI
could have on how education and training is organised, including the
automation of not only low-skill or routine tasks but also high-skill and
cognitive tasks; the redefinition of 21st century skills; and the
reinvention of the meaning of human existence and well-being; Share ideas
on if and how we can or should embed the principles and values of peace and
sustainable development in AI; Present innovative ideas on the use of AI as
part of Learning Management Systems(LMS); Present AI options for
assessments and analytics to guide learning; Showcase the use of AI in
harvesting data from existing data sources such as the UNESCO Institute of
Statistics database among others.



Theme 5: The Institutional Framework for Application of Digital
Technologies in Education: Towards Surveillance or Collaborative
Intelligence?

Learning Analytics, enabled by increasingly sophisticated data collection
and information retrieval techniques, holds a great promise for optimising
learning. At the same time, it raises concerns about privacy and data
protection that need to be addressed by normative frameworks and policy
guidelines. A major challenge concerns the ethical implications of data
surveillance. Digital technologies are making personalised learning more
practical and opening up a myriad of pedagogical possibilities. They are,
however, also enhancing the capacity of governments, companies and
individuals to undertake surveillance, which may violate or abuse human
rights, in particular the right to privacy. In addition to privacy, data
protection and surveillance issues, the use of digital media to transform
information to knowledge and then to intelligence also raises issues
related to intellectual property rights and the ownership of intelligence.
The question of what constitutes a private good and a public social good is
critical in determining how education systems evolve in the future.
Participants are invited to: Present efforts to improve national laws and
practices with respect to surveillance issues in a digital age, including
preventative measures, sanction and remedies; Present ideas to prevent the
private sector from committing violations and abuses of the right to
privacy; Discuss moral and policy issues surrounding student privacy raised
by learning analytics.



Still can’t find a match for your idea in any of the above
topics..….It’s
not the end…go ahead and share your story and challenge us!



Conference Formats: The main formats of the conference are:


- Keynotes (Plenary, by invitation only)
- Catalytic Panels and Debates (by invitation only)
- Breakout Sessions (Panel Discussion, Workshop or Paper Presentation)
- E-Poster Exhibitions
- Learning Zone
- Maker Space
- Mock Classrooms

The discussions will be interactive in nature in order to provide
participants with an opportunity to dialogue, exchange good practices and
establish connections and contacts. A highlight of the conference will be
extensive access to academic experts and innovative technologies for
transformative pedagogies. Submissions are invited for all sessions listed
above.



Application Form



Conference Website: http://mgiep.tech



Further Details
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