2019 Mobiles for Education Alliance Symposium

This 9th annual Symposium will be an exciting opportunity to connect with policymakers and practitioners from government, leading donor organizations, the private sector, NGOs, ICT4E researchers, and other innovators engaged in the field. As in past Symposia, this year’s event will include interactive sessions and formats, including dynamic panel presentations, gallery walks, and intentional networking opportunities.

The 2019 mEducation Alliance Symposium seeks to address how enhancing digital literacy acquisition, instruction, and extension leads to improved national and community development outcomes. As the mEducation Alliance embraces a broad definition of information and communications technology (ICT) including, but not limited to, mobile phones, computers, e-Readers, tablets, flash memory, micro projectors, and audio/video devices, we welcome proposals that feature digital literacy interventions across a variety of media and applications.

When we refer to “digital literacy”, we typically think of a set of digital and information and communication technology (ICT) skills needed for workforce success in the 21st century. Various approaches to developing these important skills, however, often fail to account for a myriad of educational challenges typically found in lower-resource, developing country contexts, including: inadequate numbers of trained teachers; millions of in- and out-of-school learners who lack appropriate access to and instruction in foundational skills such as reading, writing, and socio-emotional skills; and the absence of other essential building blocks (e. g, health, food, and safety) for reaching an individual’s full potential.

Sub-Themes - 

• Bootstrapping Digital Literacy: Where there is No Computer
• Digital Literacy for Youth Entrepreneurship and Employment
• Equity, Inclusion, and Digital Literacy (e.g., young women and learners with disabilities)
• Using Digital Literacy to Advance 21-st Century Foundational Skills of Reading, Writing, and Social-Emotional Learning (SEL)
• Get S.T.E.M ed! – Using ICTs to Deliver Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Instruction in Low-Resource Settings
• Digital Youth Leaders for Development – Engaging Youth through Digital Literacy for Supporting Community Sector Development (e.g., education, health, agriculture)
• Competencies for and Measuring Digital Literacy in Low-Resource Settings for Teachers and Learners
• Funding Digital Literacy in Challenging Environments
• Using AI and Machine Learning in Low-Resource Context to Track Digital Skills Attainment