On 13-14 May 2013 in the city of Kazan (Russian Federation) the UNESCO Institute for Information Technologies in Education in close cooperation with UNESCO Moscow office, Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, University of Management “TISBI”, UNESCO Chair in Training and Retraining of Specialists under Market Economy Conditions and National Coordination Center of the UNESCO Associated Schools of the Russian Federation organized the International Conference of UNESCO IITE, UNESCO Associated Schools, UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs and UNEVOC Centres “Improving the Mechanisms of Cooperation between UNESCO ASPnet, UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs and UNEVOC Centres for Sustainable Development: Challenges, Projects, Prospects”. The conference was devoted to the 60th Anniversary of the UNESCO ASPnet and became a platform to cross-share policies, best practices and lessons learnt in integrating ICT into the education systems via implementation of the UNESCO IITE Pilot project “Learning For the Future”.
The main objectives of the conference were the following:
- to define both the effective mechanisms and the ways of improvement of a partnership of UNESCO global networks for the solution of topical issues of the sustainable development of Inclusive Knowledge Societies as well as of the modernization of national professional education systems taking into account a change of the global context and on the basis of generalization of the best practices of ICTs in education and networking of the UNESCO Associated schools of CIS and Baltic countries in the framework of UNESCO IITE andUNESCO ASPnet pilot project "Learning For the Future";
- to support an interaction of UNESCO global networks and partners in the framework of the International Year of cooperation in the field of water resources (2013), proclaimed by UN as one of the directions of providing sustainable development of countries and regions, considering climate changes, food security and gender equality.
More than 183 participants from 15 UNESCO Member States took part in the conference, in particular high-level officials of the Government of the Republic of Tatarstan, the representative of UNEVOC, Secretaries-General of the National Commissions for UNESCO of the countries-LFF participants and their representatives, representatives of the ministries of education, science, youth and sport of the countries-LFF participants, directors and teachers of 42 schools-LFF participants from 14 countries, international experts from International Academy Modern TRIZ (Germany) and GlobalLab International (USA-Russia/Skolkovo), representatives of Coca-Cola Hellenic, ETIC, MIMIO/Rene, Microsoft, other state organizations and private companies.
At the opening session the following high-level officials welcomed the participants and guests of the conference: Mr. Rustam MINNIKHANOV, President of the Republic of Tatarstan; Mr. Mintimer SHAIMIEV, State Counselor of the Republic of Tatarstan; Ms. Nella PRUSS, National UNESCO ASPnet coordinator of the Russian Federation,Rector of the University of Management “TISBI”, Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in Training and Retraining of Specialists underMarket Economy Conditions; Mr. Dendev BADARCH, UNESCO Representative in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, the Republic of Moldova and the Russian Federation, Director of the UNESCO Moscow Office and Director a.i. of UNESCO IITE; Mr. Grigory ORDZHONIKIDZE, Secretary-General of the Commission of the Russian Federation for UNESCO, Deputy Director of the Department of International Organizations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Ms. Livia SALDARI, Focal Point for the International Coordination of UNESCO Associated Schools Network, UNESCO, France; Mr. Shyamal MAJUMDAR, Director, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre, Bonn, Germany; Mr. Engel FATTAKHOV, Minister of Education and Science of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russian Federation.
The Programme of the conference consisted of the Plenary session “UNESCO Global Networks Partnership For Sustainable Development on the Road Towards Global Inclusive Knowledge Society”; section ”Pilot Project ‘Learning For the Future’ as ICT Based Platform for the Improvement of UNESCO Global Networks Interconnection for Quality Education, Sustainable Development and New Humanism”, in which LFF national coordinators and their representatives made reports; Round Table (Section) “Experience of ICT and innovation methods application in organizing of educational process in UNESCO Associated Schools – participants of the Pilot project ‘Learning For the Future’” , in which LFF school coordinators – directors and teachers of schools-LFF participants – made their presentations; and Section “The effective mechanisms of cooperation between UNESCO ASPnet, UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs and UNEVOC Centres taking into account a change of the global context and modernization of national education systems”, where the Secretaries-General of the National Commissions for UNESCO, representatives of the UNESCO Chairs, national and regional ASPnet coordinators took part in the discussions.
Within the conference the summing up competition on the best emblem for the LFF project http://lff.iite.unesco.org/ was carried out. By results of vote the emblem prepared by the students of the Baku European Lyceum (Azerbaijan) was recognized as the best.
The UNESCO IITE partners: GlobalLab International, International Academy Modern TRIZ and MIMIO/Rene – carried out the Master Classes for the participants and guests of the conference.
In the framework of the conference the Special event devoted to the UN International Year of cooperation in the field of water resources was organized, where the following programmes were presented: Joint program of Coca-Cola Hellenic in Russia and UNESCO Moscow Office “Living Volga” 2006-2013; International Youth Forum “Water and World Heritage”, Inclusive camp shift “Preserving Heritage”, All-Russia Ecological Action “Clean riverbanks”: Russian UNESCO ASPnet; Water initiatives of students of the Republic of Tatarstan; UNESCO – GlobalLab cooperation in establishing international student’s water-monitoring network. Meantime, on May 13th , 2013 the All-Russia Ecological Action “Clean riverbanks": Russian UNESCO ASPnet was held in the context of the conference, in which pupils of the UNESCO ASPnet schools from the City of Kazan, Nizhniy Novgorod, Samara, Tver and other cities situated on the Volga river banks, were actively involved and made a vast contribution.
On the results of the conference the Resolution was adopted.
