Academy for Educational Development

The digital revolution promises to transform teaching and learning through access to information and communication technologies (ICTs). Yet many people still lack access to these new learning technologies, in particular girls and women in developing countries. USAID-funded ICT activities under dot-EDU (in the context of the DOT-COM Alliance) promote digital opportunities for developing countries to improve their learning systems in innovative ways. These activities target those too frequently left out of educational systems. Some of dot-EDU’s activities include:

Namibia: Maximizing the use of ICTs in the national curriculum and supporting decentralization. The Initiative for Namibian Education Technology (iNET) is bringing ICTs to teacher training colleges, teacher resources centers regional education offices. At the colleges and resource centers, iNET is working with educators to encourage the use of ICTs to support the Ministry’s educational reform efforts. Its work with the regional education offices seeks to support the Ministry in decentralizing the use education management information system (EMIS) statistical data.

Guatemala: Pioneering education opportunities for indigenous peoples in native languages. Proyecto Enlace Quiché has helped Guatemalan teachers create bilingual interactive multi-media instructional materials.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Increasing the training capacity of local teachers. dot-EDU has designed inquiry-based training courses to enable teachers in an isolated and rural community to develop their own didactic materials using local resources as well as the project-supported multimedia computer lab. Teachers are becoming master trainers in active pedagogy and are using video for reinforcement, self-analysis, and classroom observation.

Uganda: Improving the quality of teacher training through the systematic implementation of ICTs throughout the primary teacher college training network. dot-EDU is continuing the work initiated under AED’s LearnLink activity to improve the capacity of tutors and pre-service teachers to create educational resources, contribute to online versions of teacher training curriculum, and increase the number of curriculum units that are available online.