Helping kids learn in times of pandemic

Part 1 - Lead Organizer

Contact Person

Talant Sultanov

Organization / Affiliation (Please state "Individual" if appropriate)

ISOC Kyrgyz Chapter

Designation

Public Association

Gender

Male

Economy of Residence

Kyrgyzstan

Primary Stakeholder Group

Civil Society

Part 2 - Session Proposal

Your proposal is for

Main Conference (Day 1-3)

Session Title

Helping kids learn in times of pandemic

Track

Inclusion Sustainability

Session Format

Panel Discussion

Where do you plan to organize your session?

Virtual / online

Specific Issues for Discussion

The main issues to be discussed: - How to organize online/distance learning for children and young people in remote and unconnected communities - How to develop relevant and engaging educational content in local languages - What are the best practices that could be applied in developing countries - What are potential solutions to bridge the digital divide in terms of internet connectivity, devices, skills - Regulatory, technical, operational, administrative challenges and ways for tackling these issues

Describe the Relevance of Your Session to APrIGF

This session would help address the issues related to closing the digital divide in unconnected communities across Asia Pacific. Our workshop aims to discuss the extent to which civil society organizations and individuals can help children and youth, especially in remote and rural communities, deal with challenges in education posed by the Covid pandemic. Some of experiences include delivering educational materials through offline digital libraries such as ilimbox in Kyrgyzstan. Other experiences include the approaches of dealing with lack of devices like in Kazakhstan. Also, the speakers would cover the issues related to digital skills development for children, teachers, and local communities. Also another important issue is the availability and promotion of digital educational content in local languages. The goal of the discussion is to share experience and knowledge in closing the digital divide in times of the pandemic, so that no children would miss out of educational opportunities due to challenges related to internet connectivity, devices accessibility, availability of relevant content, and other challenges.

Methodology / Agenda

Description of the current status of knowledge on online/remote learning and digital skills development in Asia. • Introduction (5 mins) • Presentations (45 mins) • Questions posed from the audience to panel and other participants (35 mins) • Conclusion (5 mins)

Please provide 3 subject matter tags that best describe your session.

#CapacityBuilding #DigitalSkills #YouthEngagement

Moderators & Speakers Info (Please complete where possible)

Please explain the rationale for choosing each of the above contributors to the session.

Yulia Sarviro focuses on digital accessibility issues and on bridging the digital divide for People with Disabilities because of the inaccessibility of many digital solutions; procurement of inclusive ICTs by the education system; the role of teachers capacity-building. Gulnaz Kordanova and her team are working in the field of Equity in Education, particularly Digital Equity (https://connect-ed.kz/) Marija Novkovic is the COO of Giga - the global initiative to connect every school to the Internet and every young person to information, opportunity and choice Talant Sultanov has hands-on experience in connecting remote communities to the internet, in designing IlimBox offline digital library, and in developing digital educational content