Can Technology Lead to System-Wide Change? The Case of Guyana

Abstract

World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS)+10 Review Meeting, UNESCO, France, 26 February 2013, Presented by Professor Asha Kanwar and co-written with Dr. Mark Bullen, Commonwealth of Learning // My topic today is ‘Can technology lead to system-wide change? The case of Guyana’ // I am grateful to the organisers UNESCO and Microsoft for the invitation. It speaks of the ongoing partnership that the Commonwealth of Learning has with UNESCO, the Commonwealth Secretariat, Microsoft and the Ministry of Education and institutions in Guyana. Collaboration with partners who share the same vision and objectives, are willing to pool their resources and bring their strengths to the partnership is bound to result in a win-win situation for each partner as well as a positive outcome for all stakeholders concerned. // Affordable technologies such as the low cost laptops and tablets as well as mobile devices are being increasingly deployed across schools in the developing world. Can this lead to system-wide change? Our educational systems were developed in the nineteenth century to serve the requirements of the industrial age. They were modeled after industry and meant to prepare people for the industrial economy. Will such systems serve the needs of the knowledge and service economies of the 21st century?