REWIRED: DECLARATION ON CONNECTIVITY FOR EDUCATION
Las Alpujarras,
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CHARTING A NEW COURSEConnected technology must advance our aspirations for inclusive education based on principles of social and economic justice, equity, and respect for human rights.We are convinced that, in addition to enlarging access to information and knowledge,connected technology can enrich educational processes and improve learning outcomes .From enabling anytime and anywhere learning, to assisting students with disabilities,to facilitating more immediate feedback and support, to bridging formal education with informal learning,technology is an important site of educational opportunity and innovation. When appropriately steered, it opens new and more inclusive avenues for teaching and learning. But we are also clear-eyed about the risks that accompany our growing use of connected technology for education—many of them novel or still only coming into focus. During the COVID-19 pandemic and the global turn to connected technologies, we saw how they can,without proper implementation,heighten learning inequality,increase student isolation, narrow educational experiences,and privatize education, undermining its standing as a public good. We have also seen connected technology deployed to constrain knowledge, polarize our societies, and spread misinformation in education and beyond it. As signatories to this declaration, we commit to learning from the lessons of the pandemic response and finding more inclusive, equitable and sustainable approaches to integrate connected technology in education. Our work in this area is framed by two interrelated challenges. First, technical and material access to connectivity remains woefully insufficient with two out of every three children and youth having no internet access at home. This is an alarming shortage in our information and digital age,and it demands bold investment to assure universal access to the internet—a mobilization that includes but also extends well beyond the education sector.In addition to this global gap, digital divides between countries are staggering. In high-income countries 87 per cent of school-aged children and adolescents are connected. In low-income countries this figure is just 6 per cent. And scarcity aside, connectivity in poor countries tends to be slow and unreliable, hampering its educational potential. Second, capacity gaps remain a persistent obstacle to connected education. A 2020 UNESCO-UNICEF-World Bank survey found that Ministries of Education rank inadequate digital skills and competencies as the single greatest barrier to technology use for education,and this regardless of a country’s development status. Ministries of Education also consistently reported that digital skills gaps were most pronounced for parents, followed by teachers, followed by students, indicating that connected education is dependent on digitally literate societies.Capacity development to leverage connected technology for learning and other socially beneficial purposes needs to be stepped up immediately, especially for girls and women who tend to have lower levels of digital skills than men and boys. Education is an important site of this capacity building and will also benefit from it. When learners, teachers and families have stronger digital skills and competencies,connected technologies become more versatile tools for education. Within this context and in the aftermath of the educational disruption wrought by the COVID-19 pandemic, we resolve to better ensure that technology fulfil ls the diverse and ambitious objectives we ascribe to education. We cannot continue on a course of watching education contort to the often-exclusionary logics and business models of private sector technology companies. The educational promises of technology can be realized by adhering to principles that put technology at the service of learners, teachers, and educational institutions.
