World Innovation Summit for Education

World Innovation Summit for Education

File:WISE LOGO.jpg
Formation	2009
Type	Non-profit organization
Headquarters	Doha, Qatar
Region served	Worldwide
Website	http://www.wise-qatar.org/

The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) aims to transform education by fostering innovation and linking education to global issues and leading fields of development. WISE was created in 2009 by Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, a non-profit organisation, under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. WISE holds an annual summit in Doha, Qatar, that brings together thought leaders in education and experts from different sectors to share practical new approaches. This unique event acts as a privileged arena for face-to-face networking and dialogue.

In addition to this forum, WISE is also a year-round action-orientated initiative devoted to promoting innovation in the field of education. This includes activities such as the WISE Prize for Education and the WISE Awards together with collaborations with international partners.

1 The Summit
1.1 WISE 2009 Summit
1.2 WISE 2010 Summit
2 The WISE Awards

The Summit

The annual WISE Summit unites over 1,000 experts, thought leaders and pioneering practitioners from multiple sectors worldwide to foster new collaborations and develop innovative solutions with the goal of inspiring creative changes in education. This three-day forum includes a programme of plenary and breakout sessions, together with workshops and networking opportunities. A large exhibition area helps build the WISE community with stands, videos and highly interactive information and activities related to the entire WISE initiative.

Key supporters of WISE

Participants include: Academics: experts from teaching and research areas in national education institutions from pre-school to higher education and life-long learning Policy makers: current and former politicians who are experts on education and interested in international cooperation. Representatives from NGOs/associations: heads of NGOs/associations acting for education development and enhancement or for children’s causes Private sector representatives: multinational companies committed to education and development.

WISE 2009 Summit

The first edition, from 16-18 November 2009, focused on 21st century educational models, innovation, new initiatives, best practices, and educational engagement on a global scale, under the theme “Global Education: Working Together for Sustainable Achievements”. The central theme was complemented by sub-themes of pluralism, sustainability and innovation.

Outcomes of 2009 Summit

WISE 2010 Summit

The second edition, from 7-9 December 2010, further contributed to "Building the Future of Education" by focussing on three themes:

Improving Education Systems: exploring new models of leadership, curricula and open education, and multi-stakeholder partnerships. Exploring Innovative Trends: examining national and international trends ranging from developments in cognitive science and the social media to innovative teaching methods in poorer countries using mobile devices. Funding Education: finding resources to finance education, especially at a time of global economic crisis.

Session highlights from WISE 2010

Outcomes of 2010 Summit The WISE Awards

The WISE Awards recognise, showcase and promote a total of six innovative on-the- ground educational projects from across the world, and from all educational sectors, that have made a positive effect on societies.

The WISE Awards 2009

In 2009, the WISE Awards were divided into three categories aligned with the WISE 2009 summit themes: pluralism, sustainability and innovation: The following six winners were chosen for their achievements in education:

Pluralism Sheetal Mehta, from India, for Project Nanhi Kali with an objective of providing primary education to underprivileged girls in India. Nanhi Kali provides material and educational support to girls in India. Today, the project reaches out to over 57,000 young girls across the country. Its success lies in the fact that it works with the community at large to encourage education for girls.

Vicky Colbert, from Colombia, for Escuela Nueva which contributes to improving the quality of basic education in low income-schools. Escuela Nueva is an innovative educational model that has successfully provided quality education to students from poor backgrounds in rural and urban Colombia. To date, 19 countries have implemented this model benefiting over 5 million children.

Sustainability Martin Burt, from Paraguay, for The Self-Sufficient School which provides education to chronically poor young people without relying on third-party support. The Self-Sufficient School was implemented by Fundación Paraguaya in 2005. In just five years, this school “that pays for itself” has changed the lives of 1,500 students and is currently being replicated in 27 countries in Latin America and Africa.

Joyce Dongotey-Padi, from Ghana, for the Widows Alliance Network (WANE) for Sustainable Economic Development in Ghana which aims at emancipating Ghanaian widows from social, cultural and economic deprivation. WANE helps over 6,000 widows in Ghana to rebuild their lives and those of their children through professional training, support and credit schemes. This network allows them to earn a living, helping limit the number of children out of school because they need to support their families.

Innovation Peter Levy, from the USA for Curriki. The Curriki website is a platform that provides users with the tools and services necessary to develop, aggregate, evaluate and support Open Educational Resources. Curriki offers a global web platform allowing teachers, students and parents to access and share high-quality educational content. With 1.6 million visitors each year, Curriki is working to close the gap between those who have access to quality educational material and those who don’t.

Delio Morais, from Brazil, for the Distance Learning project in the Amazon Forest which involves transmitting live classes via a two-way video-conference link to students in 300 secondary schools and 700 classrooms, throughout the 62 county districts. The Distance Learning in the Amazon Forest project reaches out to extremely remote communities through Internet and satellite technology. Launched in 2007 by the Amazonas State, this revolutionary project is already offering quality education to over 25,000 students.

Find out more here

'The WISE Awards 2010'

In 2010 the WISE Awards focused on “Transforming Education: Investment, Innovation and Inclusion.” The following six winners were selected:

Mushtaq Chhapra, from Pakistan, for The Citizens Foundation, one of the largest educational not-for-profits in Pakistan. Based on the principle that education for the poor should not be poor, it has created, and is running, a network of 660 schools in the poorest rural and urban areas in Pakistan. The Citizens Foundation brings quality education to 92,000 students nationwide, half of whom are girls.

Ayla Goksel, from Turkey, for the Mother Child Education Program (MOCEP) which takes a novel approach by training mothers in their role as “first educators”. This cost-effective programme has already reached over 400,000 people in Europe and the Middle East and has been shown to have a positive and long-lasting impact on mothers and children.

Nnaemeka Ikegwuonu, from Nigeria, for The Smallholders Farmers Rural Radio (Farm 98.0 FM). This radio programme informs over 250,000 small farmers, most of whom are illiterate, on how to improve their agricultural, environmental and market access capacity. Since its creation, the income of 65% of listeners has increased. The programme has also helped reduce soil degradation while conserving wood resources.

Cecilia d’Oliveira, from the USA, for MIT OpenCourseWare, a large-scale, web-based publication of virtually all MIT courses, providing free and open access to content of the highest quality to anyone, anywhere in the world. 100 million individuals from 215 states and territories have visited the site to date. This project has sparked numerous similar initiatives across the globe.

Neil Turok, from South Africa, for The Next Einstein Initiative. Since 2003, the African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) has been training talented students from over 30 countries in Africa thanks to international partnerships between Cape Town’s universities and Cambridge, Oxford and Paris XI. Students obtain an innovative postgraduate diploma in mathematical sciences giving them access to leadership careers. So far, 77% of them have remained in Africa.

Tove Romsaas Wang, from Save the Children, for Rewrite the Future which reaches out to children living in zones affected by conflict and political instability. These areas often have extremely high rates of children who do not attend school. By bringing education to them, the project has managed to get 1.4 million children back into school.

Find out more here

The WISE Prize for Education

The WISE Prize for Education was announced in December 2010 at the WISE Summit in Doha, Qatar. This first major international prize for education rewards an individual or a team for an outstanding, world-class contribution to education. The Laureate’s work should have had a significant, lasting impact at any level of education. The Laureate will be made public at the next WISE Summit in November 2011 and will receive $500,000 and a gold medal. The Prize will place education on the same level as other important fields such as science, literature, peace and economics, raising the status and stature of people working in the field. www.wiseprizeforeducation.org

Other WISE activities

Learning World Learning World is a series of weekly TV documentaries on education developed in partnership with Euronews. It broadcasts 16 times a week to all continents in 10 languages. Viewers can travel the world with these mini-documentaries that inform, entertain, inspire and surprise. Learning World looks not only at current issues but also examines the educational challenges of the future. See videos of Learning World here

Collaborative activities WISE is actively developing new synergies among key international players in the fields of education and international development. At the Ministerial Colloquium on Quality of Education in the Arab World - organised in September 2010 by Qatar Foundation, the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO), and the World Bank - 17 Arab states committed to devising and implementing a transparent shared system of evaluating education.

The WISE Educational Leadership Programme This programme offered, in its first edition, recently appointed university leaders from developing countries a customised master class in administrative and leadership skills.

Partners

The WISE initiative is supported by a network of six dedicated partners and international institutions involved in major education issues: Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF),The Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU), the Institute of International Education (IIE), the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), RAND Corporation and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

See also Qatar Foundation Education in Qatar Education City, Qatar

External links World Innovation Summit for Education WISE Prize for Education WISE Awards Qatar Foundation