ESDNET Blog

Do you receive the UNESCO ICT in Education newsletter? This week there is an interesting link on ICT to promote peace.

“Thanks to the revolution in ICTs, there is a real opportunity for ‘multilogue’ to promote mutual understanding and peace,” said Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO’s Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information in Bangkok, Thailand.
The transformative affect of ICTs on the media landscape is helping the media sector fulfil their fundamental role as a witness, as a watchdog and as a means for people to communicate. These simple and often affordable tools empower ordinary citizens, allowing them to document the world around them and share that information beyond their national borders, he said.

Mr Khan stressed that when allowed access to all the information presented without fear or favour, communities seek common ground to resolve their differences. “It is the manipulation of facts, the warping of the truth to secure an agenda benefiting one group over another, which leads to rivalries, misunderstandings and ultimately violence,” he said.

Mr Khan also presented UNESCO’s initiative of the “Power of Peace” network that envisions connecting the power of media and ICTs to the concept of building peace through communication and information.

Vesak Day, the full moon day of the fourth lunar month, is the most important annual event for the Buddhist community. It commemorates the Birth, Enlightenment and Final Nirvana of Lord Buddha. In December 1999, the General Assembly of the United Nations, at its fifty-fourth session recognised the Day of Vesak as an International Day of the United Nations and resolved that an appropriate activity would be held annually at the UN Headquarters and other offices as well.

Find out more about the ICT in Education newletter.

UNESCO Bangkok is organizing a very important event on higher education in Macao on 24-26 Sept 2008. The event is the Asia-Pacific Sub-Regional Preparatory Conference for the 2009 World Conference on Higher Education. The 2009 WCHE will be held in July 2009 in Paris and the sub-regional preparatory conference in Macao is to collect inputs from governments, intergovernmental organizations, non-government organizations, higher education networks and other partners for the global conference in Paris.

We are inviting you to participate in the Macao conference and please visit the website for more information. The important deadlines are as follows:
· Submission of abstracts 23 June 2008
· Announcement of accepted papers 1 July 2008
· Submission of full papers 1 September 2008
· Registration of participants 15 September 2008

Did you know that the Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) has scholarships available to attend those courses at Wageningen International?

The NFP scholarship covers the following costs:
Tuition fees
Travel costs
Full-board accommodation
Health insurance
Allowance for personal expenses
Fellowships are available for candidates from the following Asian countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (excluding Hong Kong and Macao), India, Indonesia, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.

This is a last call for applications with NFP scholarship to the following Wageningen International courses in 2008:
· Fisheries data collection and analysis, 29 September – 17 October
· Towards participatory fisheries management, 20 October – 7 November
· Landscape functions and people: applying strategic planning approaches for good natural resource governance, 27 October – 7 November
· Governance for forests, nature and people: managing multi-stakeholder learning in sector programmes and policy processes, 24 November – 5 December

THE DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION IS 1 JUNE 2008.

More information on:
Netherlands Fellowship Programmes
Application procedures Wageningen International

Feel free to pass on this information to colleagues in your network and others who you feel will be interested. If you have any questions or would like more information, please do not hesitate to contact them.

First it was a bamboo ipod case, followed by a bamboo keyboard, then came along the bamboo mouse and bamboo computer monitors.

Growing between three to 16 inches a day, bamboo is sustainable and renewable. It is the strongest and fastest growing plant on earth and doesn’t need any pesticides. To top it all, it is naturally anti bacterial, making it the perfect fabric for clothes or furniture or houses… anything!

Bamboo seems to be the eco-friendly, sustainable, renewable, durable alternative fabric for a holistic lifestyle… Bamboo is hot!

Sustainable advertising goes even further: wear bamboo, plant bamboo. At John Hardy they have chosen to offset the greenhouse gas emissions generated by their advertising through the planting of bamboo.

It seems that the long-lived, rapidly growing woody perennial grass is capturing the attention of environmentalists and sustainability advocates around the globe.

One of the members in our ESD-Net discussion asks what ESD learning materials actually are… “Because many materials can be used in teaching ESD, it is more a question how these are used. Therefore, ESD teaching material should then be more like a reference book on teaching methods and examples of lessons that promote creativity, critical thinking, problem solving, planning, communication…”

One of the objectives of this discussion is to make a reference list of ESD teaching and learning materials. Here are some sites we should definitely include in that list:

• The ESD Toolkit – The ESD toolkit helps teachers and their community, school, or institution take the first steps toward creating an education for sustainable development program.
• Teachernet - The Sustainable Schools area is designed to support schools on their journey to sustainability, introducing the principles of sustainable development and offering guidance on how to embed these principles into the heart of school life.
• UNICEF – A wealth of resources on ESD
• Sustainable Cities - A good place to start your search for information on sustainable cities.
• Sustainability Now - An introduction to sustainability.
• Responsible Consumption – About responsible consumption.
• Teachernet – tips to reduce water use in schools.
• My Footprint - Calculate your own footprint.
• Overpopulation - A more radical but revealing source.
• 19.20.21 - A great resource on how society has changed and will continue to change in urbanization. And note where the majority of the big cities will be located…

Also, complete your reference list with the UNESCO Bangkok Teacher Education webpage on ESD.

Send us your ESD learning materials so we can include them in our ESD reference list.
Thanks,
Bart Cornille

We are currently holding an ESD-Net E-list discussion on ESD Teaching and Learning materials. The best place to start digging deeper into the concept of ESD is the UNESCO Teaching and Learning for Sustainable Future (TLSF) webpage. It provides a self-study ESD resource for pre-service teachers, experienced teachers and other educators. It contains 25 four-hour modules on ESD concepts and is organized into four themes to support the reorientation of ESD curricula and teaching and learning. As an ICT resource, TLSF can be used independently by individuals or small groups and be used as a resource for teacher education courses. TLSF is also available on CD-ROM and utilizes multimedia for presenting information and engaging learners through an interactive and experiential approach to learning.

If you have used it before, kindly give us some feedback. What are the problems? Lessons learned? Thanks.

Bart Cornille

The Webby Awards are the Oscars of the Internet. This year the Educational Webby Award went to The Earth Institute of the Colombia University!

As soon as you browse through the website of the institution you understand why it has won. The Earth Institute’s overarching goal is to help achieve sustainable development primarily by expanding the world’s understanding of Earth as one integrated system. They work toward this goal through scientific research, education and the practical application of research for solving real-world challenges. With 850 scientists, postdoctoral fellows and students working in and across more than 20 Columbia University research centers, The Earth Institute is helping to advance nine interconnected global issues: climate and society, water, energy, poverty, ecosystems, public health, food and nutrition, hazards and urbanization.

Get involved! Also, take your time to look at the video of the Millenium Development Goals.
Here they challenges you to get involved by doing five quick actions! Do it now!

Long before ESD there was Rudolf Steiner. EduCareDo is a one way of self awakening and learning based on the works of Steiner.

It evolved in response to the needs of many people who are searching for new possibilities to develop their capacities in freedom on the path of self-knowledge.

This path is not only for self development, but also for the benefit of fellow human beings and the world.

It is for people, who, because of their life circumstances such as family, work, time restrictions, health or financial difficulties or distances from learning centers cannot attend regular courses, seminars or colleges.

EduCareDo offers Self Awakening Study Courses in Distance Education Mode

OpenLearn is on-line learning that is open to anyone, anywhere in the world using materials taken from the Open University (UK) courses. Instead of attending classes, learners study on-line, free of charge, using materials that have been specially designed for distance learning.

OpenLearn is a service for informal study - in their own time learners access materials in areas familiar or new to them, without the pressure of keeping to a timetable or sitting exams. Instead, they assess their own progress by keeping an on-line learning journal, discussing the topics with other on-line learners in forums and completing self assessment exercises where they may control when the answer is revealed. While OpenLearn isn’t exactly the same as studying at university, it gives real learning experiences taken from degree courses.

Study topics are sorted into 11 categories such as Business and Management, Mathematics and Statistics, Education or Science. Each topic has a range of study units from access to Masters level, each lasting between three and 20 hours.

Do you know the Green School at the Kul-Kul Campus in Bali?

Start your exploration of the Green School and discover more about the vibrant holistic Curriculum, their commitment to sustainability, the lush and spectacular campus, and the inspiring example of the founders, John and Cynthia Hardy.

The Green School was planned and constructed within the concept that education consists of more than ‘school’. In addition to the classrooms, athletic facilities, student and faculty housing, and numerous other buildings, an integral feature of the school is the Learning Village. In this specialized setting, the students have the chance to apply lessons to specific disciplines and real business situations, making abstract ideas come to practical life with results they can witness on a daily basis. Students are involved in everything from manufacturing their own chocolate to helping to manage the organic fields, bamboo plantations, and rice paddies that are integral to the campus. By working with dedicated teachers and experienced professionals, students solve problems while developing entrepreneurial skills that will inform and empower them to become the leaders of their generation.
Check it out on You Tube!