Tomorrow today; 2010 - unesdoc - Unesco

WikiQuESD authoring and learning platformWikiQuESDThis concerns an action research initiative geared towards developingstrategies for using digital media and technology to help pre-serviceand in-service teachers both understand and contribute to theUN Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (DESD). Amajor question addressed in this project is how to profit from openeducation resources concerned with sustainability issues and how toempower teachers to function as change agents with the support ofmore advanced learning technologies. ‘WikiQuESD’ integrates Wikitechnologies, the WebQuest idea and ESD. It is used as a scaffoldinghypermedia tool to turn teachers from instructional content users toICT-enabled ESD curriculum developers. WikiQuESD applicationsare being designed to use multimedia (images, animation, videos,text and sound), various mind tools and open education learningobjects to promote collaboration, connectivity, ‘real-world’ learningand systems thinking, which are emerging as key pedagogicalmethods conducive to education for sustainability. Results of anassessment study revealed that the WikiQuESD concept and platformcan give both teachers and students a voice in teaching andcurriculum decisions that is often neglected in education.ICT-enabled ESDSeven European universities with considerable experience in the fieldsof ICT and ESD, from Greece (University of Crete), Ireland (Dublin CityUniversity), Latvia (Daugavpils University), Cyprus (Frederick Universityand Open University of Cyprus) and Sweden (Uppsala University),formed a consortium under the coordination of the University of Crete(UNESCO Chair ICT in ESD) to submit a project entitled ‘ICT-enabledin Education for Sustainable Development’ within the framework of theERASMUS Virtual Campus Programme. This project, which has beenselected and financed by the European Commission, aims to developa joint online Master’s degree in the field of ICT in ESD, offered inEnglish. It targets experienced practitioners in schools, colleges, communityeducation, non-governmental organozations (NGOs), governmentbodies and development agencies, all of whom are engaged in applyingESD in many different contexts and countries.Through this joint effort, we are making considerable innovativeprogress, both to improve our own universities’ sustainability profilesby developing learning environments conducive to ESD supportedby ICTs, and also to develop a new, open and flexible postgraduateprogramme that responds to the increasing needs of experienced practitionerswho want to play a key role in moving forward the issue ofImage: V. MakrakisESD. The content of the curriculum design and developmentis participatory (e.g. involving end users, teachertrainers, teachers and students in the process), interdisciplinary(involving various subjects), contextual (dealingwith local/global sustainable development issues),holistic (balancing environmental, social, cultural andeconomic pillars of sustainable development) and interactive(ICT-based). It also reflects a shift away fromreliance on structured and compartmentalized Master’scourse curricula by focusing on curriculum as process(learner-centred) and praxis (transformative and reflective).It provides tools and services that facilitate socialnetworking and allows for virtual collaboration andvirtual peer mentoring amongst learners and e-tutors.The joint Master’s programme will be ready to take itsfirst students in the academic year 2012-13. It will consistof 120 European Credit Transfer and AccumulationSystem (ECTS) credits – 90 for the course work and 30for the dissertation.Changes envisaged include: greater access of experiencedteachers and teacher trainers to be trained asESD Leaders in their formal and/or non-formal settingsindependent of temporal and geographical restriction; aninterdisciplinary and individualized programme of studyon how to use ICT in integrating ESD issues reflectingenvironmental, social, economic and cultural perspectives;competent ESD practitioners taking leading rolesin their education settings and functioning as humanresources for transformative ESD practices; and promotionof virtual student and staff mobility, which addsvalue to a new dimension of mobility.TEMPUS Project ‘Reorient University Curricula to AddressSustainability’A consortium consisting of six European Universities(University of Crete, University of Athens, DublinCity University, University of Padova, University ofBordeaux and University of Stockholm), together withuniversities from Egypt (Heliopolis University forSustainable Development and Suez Canal University),Jordan (Hashemite University and University of Jordan)and Lebanon (University La Sagese and Notre DameUniversity), together with the UNESCO RegionalOffice for the Arab States and three NGOs, MIO/ESCDE/MEdIES, IndyACT and SEKEM DevelopmentFoundation, formed a consortium under the coordinationof the University of Crete to submit a TEMPUSproject entitled ‘Reorient University Curricula toAddress Sustainability’. The project was approved bythe relevant authorities of the European Commission.The overarching goal of the project is to help partnerhigher education institutions to infuse ESD into theircurricula and teaching methodology through capacitybuildingamong university staff. The key question ishow to best advance curriculum change towards ESD,given the regional priorities and the need to modernizecurricula to address ESD. This cannot be achievedwithout well-prepared and committed staff to leadcurriculum reform and innovation.[ 170 ]