Digital Learning: Reforming Teacher Education to Promote Access, Equity and Quality in Sub-Saharan Africa

The purpose of this report is to provide an overview of the present and future impact of digital learning on teacher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Digital learning in this report is defined as any instructional practice that uses new communication technologies effectively to improve access to and strengthen learning. The focus of the report is student-teachers and teachers. The 2015–2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) explicitly seek to substantially increase the supply of well-qualified teachers in the region, drawing on international forms of development and co-operation where necessary (Goal 4)

Upgrading of Symbolic and Synthetic Knowledge Bases: Analysis of the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry and the Automotive Industry in China

The degree and the way of upgrading differ widely per industry. This article tries to give some new insights in these differences by linking the concept of upgrading to that of the knowledge base. Moreover, we try to identify barriers to upgrading as well as the appropriate spatial scale on which upgrading takes place, again for different knowledge bases. We support our argument by analysing the process of upgrading in two industries in China: the AEC industry (in Beijing and Shanghai) and the automotive industry (in Shanghai). Within these industries we focus on upgrading on two levels: within firms and within projects. Our findings for both industries suggest that the principal ways of upgrading of the symbolic knowledge base are joint brainstorming in internal and external project teams and labour mobility. Major factors that hinder the upgrading of symbolic knowledge include the development stage of China, the Chinese educational system and tensions about duplication of western designs. Upgrading of the synthetic knowledge base takes mainly place via inter-company training programmes of foreign firms, technology transfer and labour mobility on the long run. A possible barrier for upgrading of synthetic knowledge, especially in the automotive industry, is that foreign firms tend to keep certain engineering activities in their home base because of the risk of knowledge leakage. However, this is changing quickly as many foreign carmakers and their suppliers invest in engineering centres in China due to an increasing demand for cars, to governmental regulations and to intensifying competition.Urban development, upgrading, automotive industry, AEC industry, knowledge economy, China.

Building new modes of teacher education: research analyses for the Teacher in Education in Sub Saharan Africa programme

The provision of basic education for all children by 2015 is now one of the world’s major educational objectives. Through UNESCO’s Education for All (EFA) commitments and the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) national and international attention has been focussed on measures to achieve this end. There has been some progress. The number of school age children with no access to schooling is dropping (from x to y in the period 1999–2005?). There is, however, some way to go in terms of the basic provision and the gender parity that the MDGs seek to achieve. Most significantly attention has now turned to the challenge of providing sufficient teachers of the appropriate quality to staff such rapid expansion. The focus of enquiry of this proposed keynote symposium is the ways in which different forms of research are contributing to: • analyses of factors impacting on teacher supply and retention; • developing conceptual understanding of the ‘life’ experiences of teachers working in challenging circumstances, with a special emphasis on female teachers in rural communities; • evidence about the nature and effectiveness of new modes of education and training. The symposium papers will explore the different research and investigative methodologies being drawn on and the different forms of international co-operation and collaboration being used. The papers will explore the issues of teacher supply, retention and education through educational and development studies, theories of change and intervention. A key issue the symposium will address is the need to bring together theoretically and through research practice the related separate specialist domains of education and development enquiry. In doing this the papers will provide a new patterning or mapping of the literature. The five papers draw particularly on the work of UNESCO, including the widely respected annual monitoring reports evaluation the progress to EFA and the new Teacher Training in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA) initiative (see tessaprogramme.org). One of the papers will look at the research around teachers in Sub-Saharan Africa by reference to developing country contexts in other parts of the world. It has been argued that the challenge to provide schooling and teachers for the children of Sub-Saharan Africa represents the world’s biggest educational challenge (Moon, 2007). In identifying key research findings, for example significant variables impacting on teacher supply and retention, the relationship between teacher quality and pupil achievement and comparative evidence on the effectiveness of different modes of education and training, the symposium will point to the ways in which researchers in the field of education and the research community generally can contribute to increasing capacity in this enormously important area

Designing Open and Distance Learning for Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa: A toolkit for educators and planners

Everyone remembers a good teacher. Good teachers are the key to educational expansion and improvement. In many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, there is an urgent need to expand the number of primary and secondary teachers. In all African countries, there is an equally important need to improve the quality of teaching. To achieve this, it is clear that new approaches to teacher education are essential. Existing institutions of teacher education will continue to play an important role, but, alone, they will not meet the goals of Education for All (EFA) by 2015. It is fortunate that, just as the twin needs to improve the quantity and quality of teachers become imperative, so new forms of education and training are becoming available. The world is witnessing a revolution in information and communication technologies (ICTs), which can offer training and support of a type and at a cost hitherto impossible to consider, and thus, must be fully explored given the scale and urgency of demand. In doing so, however, it will be necessary to build on existing and well-tested strategies, including the best models of open and distance learning. This toolkit is the third in a series of recent publications by the Africa Region Human Development Department of the World Bank to share knowledge and experience on how distance education and ICTs can support education in Sub-Saharan Africa. It emphasizes the rigorous process by which new forms of distance-education programs for teacher education can be planned and implemented. The best models of established programs are considered along with the potential for incorporating, as the means become available, new modes of communication. Most forms of teacher education, particularly those concerned with qualification upgrading and ongoing professional development, will have to be based in schools. The authors demonstrate how school-based programs, appropriately resourced and supported, have the potential not only to raise significantly the number and quality of teachers, but also to improve classroom practice and school organization, generally. The guidance and advice, which is drawn from many years of experience in design and implementation, and embraces a range of case studies from across the region, will be of considerable value to those preparing new policies and programs of teacher education and to those seeking to improve existing programs

SMS Management System for Direct Sales and Network Marketing

SMS management system in direct sales and network marketing is a concept of integrating information system with mobile phone as well as using short message service (SMS) as a medium of communication in the business process of direct sales and network marketing sector. Direct sales and network marketing sector is a business phenomenon which expanding rapidly within these few years and it will keep on expanding. To deal with the large members and distributors joining the company, the management of these companies started to seek for new direction in upgrading the relationship management between the company and the distributors. This is important when the low cost and time saving SMS is introduce to these direct selling companies. With the intention of enhancing the connection between distributors is an opportunity to integrate SMS system in the management system in this industry. In this paper, we have analyzed how the SMS will play an important role in the business process by allowing the end user and the company will benefit from its simple and cost saving

Холістичний підхід до підготовки ІКТ-компетентних педагогічних кадрів

The article intends to explore and estimate the possible pedagogical advantages and potential of cloud computing technology application with aim to increase organizational level, availability and quality of ICT-based learning tools and re-sources. Holistic model of a specialist is proposed and the problems of development of a system of methodological and technological support for elaboration of cloud-based learning environment of educational institution are considered.Cтаття присвячена аналізу і оцінці можливих педагогічних переваг і потенціалу застосування технології хмарних обчислень з метою підвищення організаційного рівня, доступності і якості засобів та ресурсів ІКТ-орієнтованого навчання. Запропонована холістична модель фахівця та висвітлено проблеми розвитку системи методичного та технологічного підтримування процесів розгортання хмаро-орієнтованого навчального середовища освітньої установи

Internationalisation of Innovation: Why Chip Design Moving to Asia

This paper will appear in International Journal of Innovation Management, special issue in honor of Keith Pavitt, (Peter Augsdoerfer, Jonathan Sapsed, and James Utterback, guest editors), forthcoming. Among Keith Pavitt's many contributions to the study of innovation is the proposition that physical proximity is advantageous for innovative activities that involve highly complex technological knowledge But chip design, a process that creates the greatest value in the electronics industry and that requires highly complex knowledge, is experiencing a massive dispersion to leading Asian electronics exporting countries. To explain why chip design is moving to Asia, the paper draws on interviews with 60 companies and 15 research institutions that are doing leading-edge chip design in Asia. I demonstrate that "pull" and "policy" factors explain what attracts design to particular locations. But to get to the root causes that shift the balance in favor of geographical decentralization, I examine "push" factors, i.e. changes in design methodology ("system-on-chip design") and organization ("vertical specialization" within global design networks). The resultant increase in knowledge mobility explains why chip design - that, in Pavitt's framework is not supposed to move - is moving from the traditional centers to a few new specialized design clusters in Asia. A completely revised and updated version has been published as: " Complexity and Internationalisation of Innovation: Why is Chip Design Moving to Asia?," in International Journal of Innovation Management, special issue in honour of Keith Pavitt, Vol. 9,1: 47-73.