WSIS Action Line C7 E-learning

Summary

This UNESCO session focused on Action Line C7 concerning e-learning advancements and progress made over the past 20 years since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The discussion centered on transforming education in the era of artificial intelligence and addressing the challenges posed by disruptive technologies like generative AI. Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General, emphasized that educational institutions cannot simply ban AI tools like ChatGPT, but must instead adapt and leverage these technologies responsibly. He argued that teachers must evolve from being knowledge deliverers to facilitators who share personal experiences, guide discussions, and help students develop critical thinking skills that AI cannot replicate.

The speakers highlighted the importance of bridging educational gaps across geographical, gender, technological, and linguistic divides to ensure inclusive access to quality education. Anthony Wong from IFIP discussed their partnership with UNESCO on sustainable digital education initiatives, particularly focusing on training teachers and developing computational thinking skills among students aged 5-18. The session emphasized the need for open educational resources (OER), with UNESCO’s 2019 recommendation serving as a foundational framework for sharing knowledge globally. Cable Green from Creative Commons addressed the challenges AI poses to the commons, introducing CC Signals as a framework to maintain reciprocity between content creators and AI developers.

Multiple speakers stressed the importance of maintaining human-centered approaches to education while integrating AI tools ethically and responsibly. The discussion concluded with audience questions about skills frameworks, open-source software in education, and the need for better engagement with young learners through private sector partnerships. Overall, the session underscored the complex transformation required in educational systems to harness AI’s potential while preserving human dignity and ensuring equitable access to quality education for all.

Keypoints

## Major Discussion Points:

– **Transforming Education in the AI Era**: The discussion emphasized moving beyond traditional “reform” to complete transformation of educational systems, addressing how teachers’ roles must evolve from knowledge deliverers to facilitators of critical thinking and dialogue, especially with the rise of generative AI tools like ChatGPT.

– **Open Educational Resources (OER) and Digital Commons**: Speakers highlighted UNESCO’s 2019 recommendation on OER and the importance of openly licensed educational materials, while addressing new challenges posed by AI systems that may scrape and reuse content without proper attribution or reciprocity.

– **Bridging Educational Gaps and Ensuring Inclusion**: The conversation focused on addressing multiple divides – geographical, gender-based, linguistic, technological, and financial – to ensure equitable access to digital education, particularly in regions with teacher shortages and limited infrastructure.

– **Teacher Training and Capacity Building**: Multiple speakers stressed the critical need for comprehensive teacher training programs to help educators effectively integrate AI and digital tools while maintaining human-centered approaches to learning and developing students’ soft skills.

– **Hybrid Learning Models and Sustainability**: Discussion of practical implementation strategies including blended learning approaches that combine online and in-person instruction, along with the need for policy continuity and sustainable funding models for long-term success.

## Overall Purpose:

The discussion aimed to review 20 years of progress on WSIS Action Line C7 (e-learning) and gather community feedback for the WSIS+20 review process. The session focused on how UNESCO and partners are addressing the challenges and opportunities presented by AI and digital technologies in education while maintaining human-centered, ethical, and inclusive approaches.

## Overall Tone:

The discussion maintained a professional and collaborative tone throughout, with speakers demonstrating cautious optimism about technology’s potential while acknowledging significant challenges. The tone was forward-looking and solution-oriented, emphasizing partnership and cooperation. During the Q&A session, the tone became more practical and urgent as participants shared real-world implementation challenges, particularly regarding student engagement and the need for private sector partnerships, while maintaining the overall constructive atmosphere.

Speakers

**Speakers from the provided list:**

– **Davide Storti** – Session facilitator/moderator for Action Line C7 on e-learning, UNESCO

– **Tawfik Jelassi** – Assistant Director General for Communication and Information at UNESCO

– **Anthony Wong** – President of IFIP (International Federation for Information Processing)

– **Shafika Isaacs** – Chief of Section for Technology and AI in Education at UNESCO

– **Cable Green** – Director of Open Education at Creative Commons

– **Zeynep Varoglu** – Senior Programme Specialist in charge of e-learning at UNESCO, Senior Program Specialist at the Communication Information Sector

– **Paul Spiesberger** – From ICT4D.at

– **Audience** – Various audience members who asked questions during the session

**Additional speakers:**

– **Dr. Nabi** – Faculty member for Modan, founder of a curriculum focused on safe device usage and ethical AI education

– **Kathleen** – From Project Ivy (nonprofit from Romania that teaches IT skills)

– **Unnamed audience member** – From Egypt, inquiring about AI skills framework

– **Unnamed audience member** – Policy Analyst at Access Partnership (tech policy consultancy)

# UNESCO Action Line C7 E-Learning Session: Transforming Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligence

## Executive Summary

This UNESCO session, facilitated by Davide Storti, focused on Action Line C7 concerning e-learning advancements and progress made over the past 20 years since the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). The discussion examined how educational systems must transform to address challenges and opportunities presented by artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. Key stakeholders from UNESCO, international organisations, and civil society explored how educational institutions must evolve beyond traditional approaches to embrace comprehensive transformation in the AI era.

The session emphasised that educational institutions cannot simply ban AI tools like ChatGPT, but must instead adapt and leverage these technologies responsibly while maintaining human-centred approaches. Speakers highlighted the critical importance of bridging educational divides—geographical, gender-based, technological, linguistic, and financial—to ensure inclusive access to quality education globally.

## Opening Remarks and UNESCO’s Vision

### Tawfik Jelassi’s Keynote Address

Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO’s Assistant Director General for Communication and Information, delivered the keynote address establishing the session’s foundation. He argued that technological advancement, particularly in artificial intelligence, represents an unstoppable force that educational systems must embrace rather than resist. “Nobody can stop technological advances. Nobody can fight it. We better make the best out of it,” Jelassi stated.

Jelassi argued that the traditional role of educators as knowledge gatekeepers has become obsolete in the digital age. “A professor cannot be anymore the owner of truth and knowledge, cannot anymore meet students to say here is the definition of concept A and B and C, and here is the way to achieve that. The system is better than us, more updated, more thorough,” he explained. This shift requires educators to evolve from knowledge deliverers to facilitators who share personal experiences, guide discussions, and help students develop critical thinking skills.

The Assistant Director General emphasised that AI democratises access to knowledge through continuous learning opportunities. However, this transformation must be accompanied by a shift in educational philosophy from content delivery to teaching students “how to learn” rather than engaging in rote memorisation.

### Addressing Educational Divides

Jelassi identified several critical gaps that must be addressed to ensure equitable access to digital education:

– **Geographical Divide**: Rural and remote areas often lack necessary infrastructure for effective e-learning implementation

– **Gender Divide**: Women and girls continue to face barriers in accessing digital education

– **Technological Divide**: Availability and quality of technological infrastructure vary significantly across regions

– **Financial Divide**: Cost of devices, internet connectivity, and digital educational resources remains prohibitive for many learners

– **Linguistic Divide**: While there are over 8,000 languages spoken worldwide, only 120 are represented in cyberspace

– **Disability Divide**: Accessibility barriers prevent learners with disabilities from fully participating in digital educational opportunities

### Open Educational Resources Framework

Jelassi highlighted UNESCO’s 2019 recommendation on Open Educational Resources (OER), implemented in more than 35 countries, as the first UN normative instrument linking technology and education. He argued that OER can serve as both substitute for and complement to traditional classroom education, particularly in areas experiencing teacher shortages. He proposed rotation systems where students could combine classroom instruction with e-learning platforms to address demographic increases and resource constraints.

## International Partnership Perspectives

### IFIP’s Contribution to Digital Education

Anthony Wong, President of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), provided insights into their partnership with UNESCO on sustainable digital education initiatives. Wong focused on training teachers and developing computational thinking skills among students aged 5-18, emphasising the critical role of educator capacity building.

Wong delivered a direct assessment of current teacher preparedness: “The weakness is our teachers. We need to upgrade the skills of our teachers, especially if we are going to succeed to create a good digital workforce globally.” He identified teachers as the primary bottleneck in digital education transformation.

IFIP’s approach, outlined in their Stockholm Declaration, emphasises training digital trainers and developing computational thinking skills. Wong stressed that teachers must be equipped with both technical skills and pedagogical knowledge necessary to facilitate learning in digital environments. The organisation offers technical expertise through working groups to support policy implementation globally.

### UNESCO’s Policy Framework for AI in Education

Shafika Isaacs, Chief of Section for Technology and AI in Education at UNESCO, provided insights into the organisation’s approach to developing policy guidance for AI implementation in educational settings. Her presentation emphasised that UNESCO’s work focuses on equity, inclusion, and social justice within AI-enabled education systems.

Isaacs stressed that UNESCO develops policy guidance on AI in education with a focus on human rights and human-centred approaches. This framework recognises that while AI can enhance educational opportunities, it must be implemented in ways that protect learner privacy, promote inclusivity, and maintain human dignity.

The UNESCO framework addresses the need for international cooperation and network building as fundamental to sustainable educational transformation. Isaacs highlighted that educational transformation requires coordinated efforts across multiple sectors, institutions, and stakeholders.

## Open Educational Resources and Digital Commons

### Creative Commons and AI Challenges

Cable Green, Director of Open Education at Creative Commons, addressed complex challenges that AI poses to the educational commons. He introduced a critical concern: while AI has potential to democratise knowledge, it might actually restrict access by enclosing the commons through unregulated use of openly licensed content.

Green explained that “an unchecked AI ecosystem is starting to lead to the enclosure, not the expansion of the commons.” This concern stems from AI systems that scrape and utilise openly licensed educational content without providing reciprocal benefits to creators or the broader educational community.

To address this challenge, Creative Commons has developed CC Signals, a framework designed to maintain reciprocity between content creators and AI developers. The framework includes four key elements that ask AI companies to provide something in return for commons creators.

### UNESCO’s OER Implementation

Zeynep Varoglu, Senior Programme Specialist in charge of e-learning at UNESCO, provided insights into practical implementation of OER frameworks and their intersection with AI technologies. She emphasised that OER must be openly licensed, not just free resources, to allow proper access, reuse, adaptation, and redistribution.

Varoglu explained that effective OER implementation requires proper legal frameworks, specifically Creative Commons licensing, and normative instruments to ensure resources can be legally shared, adapted, and redistributed. She highlighted that educational ecosystems require multi-stakeholder efforts including knowledge institutions, broadcasting companies, and traditional educational bodies working together.

Varoglu mentioned UNESCO’s ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, which provides capacity building support for educators working with technology. She also addressed the Dubai Declaration, which specifically addresses AI’s impact on OER, including considerations of machine learning attribution and discoverability.

## Audience Engagement and Questions

### Student Engagement Challenges

Kathleen, representing Project Ivy, a nonprofit from Romania that teaches IT skills, shared observations about student engagement. She noted that “the young people, namely, for example, high schoolers do not want to engage with that… Recently I partnered with some private initiatives like Google Developer Groups or UiPath and things like that, and I do not have to sell anything to them because they come very easily to these courses, because being children, they are very attracted to the brand.”

This observation highlighted a disconnect between policy frameworks and student preferences, revealing that young people are often more attracted to private sector brands than traditional educational initiatives.

### Curriculum Development for AI Ethics

Dr. Nabi, a faculty member and founder of a curriculum focused on safe device usage and ethical AI education, offered to provide curriculum resources for teaching safe and ethical AI use across all school grades to UNESCO. This contribution emphasised the practical need for structured approaches to AI ethics education.

### Skills Framework Development

An audience member from Egypt raised questions about developing skills frameworks for AI, particularly for designing training programmes to address job displacement and new job creation. IFIP agreed to follow up with Egypt on developing AI skills frameworks for training programmes.

### Open Source Software in Education

Paul Spiesberger from ICT4D.at raised questions about whether UNESCO’s commitment to open education extends beyond content to include software infrastructure that supports educational systems. Varoglu responded by highlighting UNESCO’s work on software heritage projects focusing on software source code.

## Key Themes and Commitments

### Teacher Capacity Building

Multiple speakers identified teacher training and capacity building as critical factors in successful educational transformation. The discussion revealed that while technological tools are becoming increasingly sophisticated, the human element of education requires significant investment and support to adapt to new paradigms.

### Human-Centred AI Integration

Speakers consistently emphasised the need for human-centred approaches to AI integration in education. All agreed that AI should enhance rather than replace human educators, with technology serving to amplify human capabilities rather than substitute for human judgment and empathy.

### Multi-Stakeholder Collaboration

Speakers agreed that educational transformation requires coordinated efforts across multiple sectors, institutions, and stakeholders. This includes traditional educational institutions, technology companies, civil society organisations, and international bodies working together toward common goals.

## Concrete Outcomes and Follow-Up Actions

The session generated several concrete commitments:

– IFIP agreed to work with Egypt on developing AI skills frameworks for training programmes

– UNESCO committed to continuing provision of policy guidance and capacity building support to member states on AI in education implementation

– Zeynep Varoglu committed to sharing links to UNESCO’s ICT Competency Framework for Teachers and the OER Dynamic Coalition

– Dr. Nabi offered to provide curriculum resources for teaching safe and ethical AI use to UNESCO

– Creative Commons committed to continuing development of the CC Signals framework for AI-commons reciprocity

– IFIP scheduled additional sessions during WSIS week on education case studies and AI professional standards

## Conclusion

This UNESCO session demonstrated both the complexity and urgency of educational transformation in the AI era. The discussion revealed consensus on fundamental principles—human-centred AI integration, teacher capacity building, educational equity, and international cooperation—while highlighting significant challenges in practical implementation.

The session’s most valuable contribution was its honest acknowledgement of the gap between educational policy frameworks and practical realities, particularly regarding student engagement with traditional versus private sector educational initiatives. The concrete commitments made during the session provide a foundation for continued collaboration and progress on educational transformation challenges.

The path forward requires continued dialogue, experimentation, and collaboration among all stakeholders committed to ensuring that educational transformation enhances human dignity and social justice while leveraging technological capabilities to improve learning opportunities for all learners globally.

Davide Storti: Good afternoon. We are going to have videos today so please enjoy. Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen, thank you for coming to this session which is a session on the Action Line C7 on e-learning which UNESCO is facilitating and we will be discussing different advancements that have been the progress made on the Action Line of course in the 20 years because this is the point of the session. But as Action Line facilitator we are very much interested in also hearing from you the key messages maybe we should close the door. Key messages for the review itself because we want to of course provide the feedback from the community for the review. So without further ado we have a number of, we have Mr. Tawfik Jelassi Assistant Director General for Communication and Information at UNESCO and we have also colleagues online joining from Paris, Madame Zeynep Varoglu Senior Programme Specialist in charge of e-learning and we have the experts like Mr. Anthony Wong here who is the President of IFIP, the International Federation for Information Processing. We have Mr. Cable Green also joining online for the Director of Creative Commons and Mr. Tafika Isaacs she’s the Chief of Section for Technology and AI in Education at UNESCO. So thank you for coming and I would like to give you the floor Mr. Taufik for some remarks. Thank you Davide.

Tawfik Jelassi: At the end of the previous session I was told that I have given a fiery message. I’ll try to give a subtle message now. The less hot than a few minutes ago and the topic is less hot since we talk about e-learning Action Line 7 which is one of the six Action Lines that UNESCO is the lead implementer of in the context of WSIS. So thank you Mr. Taufik for the of WSIS. So thank you for coming to this session. I’m very pleased to join you. And of course, when you talk about e-learning, we talk about the broader context is transforming education. What is education in an AI era? What is the role of a professor or a teacher? Who owns knowledge? What is e-learning? How do we assess students when in an era of CGPT, when any homework is done by the CGPT and the like? So of course, I mean, that’s why we say it’s not how to reform education, it’s how to transform education in the face of disruptive technologies like generative AI. So I think we all agree here that we have to mitigate the risk, but of course, I mean, some schools, I hear them saying or some eduficials, yeah, we are going to forbid the use of CGPT in the classroom. For me, that is making a losing bet. Nobody can stop technological advances. Nobody can fight it. We better make the best out of it. And this is an old discussion. We saw in 1991, when the Internet became a reality, some countries has forbidden the access to the Internet. And I cannot, my position does not allow me to mention some countries by name, but we know today, the Internet is permitted in those countries who initially opposed Internet or closed the national gateway to the Internet. So again, nobody can stop technological advances. We have to acknowledge a new technological reality and make the best out of it. A professor cannot be anymore the owner of truth and knowledge, cannot anymore meet students to say here is the definition of concept A and B and C, and here is the way to achieve that. The system is better than us, more updated, more thorough. anytime, anywhere learning. I think a professor should share personal experiences, benchmarks, best practices, engage in facilitating a dialogue, reaching a synthesis. It cannot be found on chair GPT. So we have to stand back and say, what is unique to us? How can we, as a professor, as a teacher in an educational setting, how can we bring or enhance or bring about a unique learning value that cannot be found elsewhere? So when we talk about e-learning, yes, e-learning is there. It’s a reality. I can give you examples. The Open University in the U.K. has been around for decades. It has graduated hundreds of thousands of students. And the Open University is fully based on e-learning, fully. No physical classroom experience. This is way before. So there is a reality that has been accelerating lately because of the sophistication of these technologies. And the good news is in places, in countries, in villages where there are not enough schools or not enough teachers, technology and e-learning can be the substitute or complementary to interactions with students. Sometimes you can have a rotation system. Students go to that school and to the classroom two or three days a week, and then you rotate the professor to teach other groups for the rest of the week because you don’t have enough teachers to cater to a large volume of students, especially in Africa where you have demographics increasing by 25% per year. So we don’t have an increase of teachers by 25% per year. We don’t have new schools opening by 25% per year. e-learning could be a way through this alternated model. Pupils go some days to school, some other days they continue through e-learning. So it’s not black or white. It’s not necessarily fully e-learning online or fully in presencia. It could be a hybrid mixed way. And I think what we are talking about as to be able to educate the masses, to give a chance to everybody. And then the teacher or the professor has to focus on the facilitation of discussions, of a group work, of argumentation, developing a critical mindset, a number of things that cannot be done taking into account the specific societal cultural issues of that region, of that country, et cetera, that Chad, GPT or the others cannot really master. Let me here mention one of the contributions that UNESCO has been making since 2019. 2019 is the year when our 193 member states have voted the UNESCO recommendation on open educational resources. In the previous session, I mentioned the legitimacy of states to agree on normative instruments and standards. So this is one of them. The 2019 UNESCO recommendation on open educational resources, today implemented in more than 35 countries worldwide. So of course, this marked a historical step as the first United Nations normative instrument that links technology and education. And we had this past November in Dubai, we had the third OER World Congress, the third Congress on open educational resources on the theme of digital public goods, open solutions and AI for inclusive access. to knowledge. One thing that we all agree upon, I believe, is that technology not only has democratized access to information, but has democratized access to knowledge. Certainly generative AI systems have helped democratize access to knowledge to every student, but also every adult through continuous learning and vocational training. So this is something very important. Also, the 2021 Global Declaration on Connectivity for Education is another major milestone to advance global digital education policies. Clearly, we talk about policies. We are not talking about governance. We are not talking about regulation. We are talking about education policies that leverage the power of technology and try to strengthen the learning value that we, at the end of the day, deliver to the learners. And obviously, this contributes to building an open, inclusive, technology-enabled learning ecosystem. I mentioned the learner and the teacher-professor, but these are only of the stakeholders in an educational and learning ecosystem. So we have to ensure that digital technologies are used purposefully, responsibly, and ethically. This is also why I mentioned in the previous session, but I’m going to repeat it, the importance of the 2021 UNESCO recommendation on the ethics of artificial intelligence. When we talk about the chair, deputy, or others, we are talking about generative AI. And obviously, these digital technologies have must be used also ethically towards achieving inclusion in the educational landscape. And obviously, this requires quite a multi-stakeholder effort to achieve the end result. So, And the end result is partly to bridge the educational gap that we find not only across countries, but within a single country. And the gap is geographical. The gap is gender-wise. I mean, I can tell you even today, I used to be minister of higher education, research and technology there. Even today, if you go to rural areas, you see a major dropout of girls going to school. At the teenager age, they drop out. They don’t continue their education. So the gap is gender gap. It’s geographical gap. It’s technology gap. It’s access to information gap. It’s financial affordability gap. You say, e-learning, you need a device. You need subscription to the internet. Can I afford it? Well, we know very well that it costs quite a bit to buy such digital capabilities, to subscribe to an internet access, and the like. So I think at the end of the day, we want to bridge this gap. We want to be inclusive, regardless of the set of location, regardless of gender. Disability as well. We have to think of persons with special needs, to whom we need to cater to. The slogan of the UN, leave no one behind. How about people with disability, when we design e-learning and educational systems? So this is something. There is another dimension that will be very brief. I’m about to close, Davide. The linguistic divides. In what language are we offering online content? In the world, there are over 8,000 languages. Over 8,000 languages. How many of them are present in cyberspace? 120. How about the others, who don’t speak English, or French, or Spanish, or Chinese, or Arabic, or whatever? If they have a language, or the language they master are not represented online or the educational content is not present in cyberspace, they are excluded from e-learning. So there is also that item which is very, very important and I would say the sustainability issue and the continuity of direction. Sometimes, again I know what I’m talking about, you have a minister of education or certain government officials who push e-learning, who push the use of technology to transform education and then comes another minister or another high-level government saying no, no, no, back to in presencia, classroom-based, school-based, we need continuity of direction if we want to achieve some impact. This does not happen overnight. This at best works medium-term but certainly long-term and therefore that’s why the continuity of direction is very important. So at the end of the day, we really want to have this more inclusive, more cooperative approach, deeply grounded in the principles of equity, openness and empowerment and also co-creation. Again, the technology on one side, the human being, the educational expert on the other side and let me close by quoting the UN Secretary General, Mr. António Guterres, who once said, let’s commit to keeping humanity at the center of education system for everyone, everywhere and I think this is very important if we put the human, we put the learner at the center of what we do. Learner-centered education approach, whether it is through e-learning or in hybrid, very important. So we are at a pivotal point, we are at crossroads. Technology is there, it allows many things. We need to transform not only education, we need to transform mindsets of learner, of teacher, of education policy makers if we want really to achieve or to make education and a truly common digital public good for all. Thank you.

Davide Storti: Thank you, Mr. Jelassi, for this comprehensive presentation. It reminded us a number of the issues that are still there. And this is, I think, very important at the eve of the WSIS 20 review. And I’d like now to give the floor to Mr. Wang.

Anthony Wong: Thank you, Davide.

Davide Storti: Before, I just wanted to tell that we have been working together on some of these issues, particularly on the issues of how to learn how to have information development in a school curricula and to get, for example, informatics in school. So we have already worked, good experience to work with IFIP and get their knowledge in terms of reaching out to the certain age of a group of stakeholders in terms of education. I think you are going to tell us a little bit more on this. Thank you.

Anthony Wong: Thank you, Davide, Assistant Director General Taufik Gelassi, and co-speakers online from UNESCO, and distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to thank UNESCO for our partnership and for inviting me today to this very important session on education. And I’d like to draw on the IFIP intervention, looking at some of the work that we’ve been doing in the last two years will support this UNESCO initiative, starting with the 2025 Stockholm Declaration that the IFIP board agreed to in Stockholm just in April this year. And then the results of our task force on sustainable digital inclusive education for young people, working with UNESCO over the last two years. And then finally, about our TC3 work on AI and education. So those are the quick summary that I’d like to do in my quick intervention in four minutes. So thank you very much. But before I start, I’d just like to brief the audience, who is IFIP? For those of you know, IFIP was actually established in 1960 under- the auspices of UNESCO. So it has a very distinguished lineage, and I think it’s one of the early reasons why UNESCO created IFERB, because if you look at the technical committee education, it’s technical committee three. So it started very early in its history. We are based in Austria, near Vienna, and we have consultative status with UNESCO, obviously. And recently, we got back our consultative status with UNEDO, after many years of absence, and with UNTAC. So the mission of IFERB is very progressive for what we’re looking at in this particular time and challenges with emerging technology. I don’t know exactly who drafted it, could be UNESCO, but we have to look at the archives in UNESCO. Because for what we’re looking at, it says, the mission of IFERB, to achieve worldwide professional and social responsible development and application of ICT. That’s a very, very big mission statement. And if you look at all the sessions that we’re talking about here at WSIS and IFERGOOD, I think half of them is about what that mission’s about. So I’m very glad that we’re in a position to do that and to work closely with UNESCO. And also, I’d like to congratulate UNESCO on the mission, starting with the ICT Competency Framework for Teachers, and also more recently, the AI Competency Framework for Teachers and Students. I’ve read some of the reports, and I think they’re very excellent. And what I’d like to do in my next intervention is to look at how in the work that we’re doing at IFERB, support those reports as mentioned and as published. So starting with the Stockholm Declaration that we just did in April, the board had a workshop with our society in Sweden, and one of the few… bullet points that I’ve listed all relate to digital skills, and particularly the second bullet point talk about train the digital trainers, the teachers. And that you will see will also appear in our task force report as a major feature. And I think UNESCO and IFIP, I think we are all singing the same song. The weakness is our teachers. We need to upgrade the skills of our teachers, especially if we are going to succeed to create a good digital workforce globally. And I think we all know we are short of digital skilled people within the public service, in private enterprise, especially in artificial intelligence and in all walks of life. So this particular initiative that we just launched was highly supportive of this UNESCO initiative. And I’m now going to turn to our next part, which is on the task force. In 2022, when I became president of IFIP, the first task force I created was called Sustainable Digital Education for 5 to 18 year olds. I noticed we’ve got a few students here in the room. I’m sure you’re older than five, but I’m sure you’re between five and 18. I think in this area, I appointed our chair of our technical committee three education, Don Passi, Professor Don Passi from Lancaster University. I think he’s online. He chaired this task force for two years to look at what’s needed for this particular important area on education. With him was a panel from Sri Lanka, Australia, from Africa, from Europe, all got involved in coming up with this report. And I’d just like to mention quickly the five key findings from this report, which you can read online at your leisure. But particularly, I want to draw on particularly the fourth point, because as I mentioned, it also talks about developing teachers, which closely mirrors the report from UNESCO. And I think we aren’t seeing, because as I said, we’re created by UNESCO and have been working with the education section for a very, very long time. So rather than deliberate on the different factors, you can see for yourself, aspiration, number one, diversity inclusion, which is also in the UNESCO mandate and report, computational thinking, teaching our teachers to teach our students how to think rather than just regurgitate from the books and materials that they’re looking at. Because in the age of artificial intelligence, how do we compete with the AI agents and the AI? We have to think about what’s not in the books and the materials that AI has been training on, something to extend our human experience and our human education. And fourthly, developing school teacher practices, and then looking like short and long term plans. Also working with UNESCO, Professor Don Parsee has identified using case studies in Northern Ireland to look at a number of case studies, which you session on Thursday, on Thursday this week here at WSIS. And I’ll mention quickly the reference to that session before I close my intervention. So just to quickly wrap up for my four minutes. minutes. We do have a number of technical committees on education in IFIP. I’ve listed five of them on the screen, and the latest, the most recent one, is AI in Education, which was created quite recently. So UNESCO, IFIP looks forward to support you on this education on AI. I think it’s a very, very important topic. That’s a working group of technical expertise who will support you, not just in the policy and the formulation, but looking at how to implement some of this around the world. Because our members go across five continents, our member societies, whether it’s the British Computer Society, the Australian, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, the ACM, we have half a million individual members from our 50 societies in five continents, who I’ll be most willing to help. So these are the two events that we’ll be speaking this week at WSIS. The first one, as I said, is Thursday. Don Passey will be going to the detail of the taskforce report, particularly about the case study in Northern Ireland to do with education. So if you are available, this will be a very informative session from IFIP, which directly talks to the education for the future. Our next session is about AI and professional standards, how ICT professionals developing technology need to be across ethics and standards in developing ICT. So we hope to see you there. And if you want to know more about IFIP, we’ve got the IFIP website, ifip.org. So thank you very much, Davide, and thank you.

Davide Storti: Thank you very much, Dr. Wong. And I think now, even for the next speaker that is exactly taking it from the call you just made with AI in education, Madame Shafika Isaacs is Chief of Education Secretary at UNESCO. She will talk about the UNESCO’s role in shaping a human-centered AI and digital learning agenda.

Shafika Isaacs: Thank you very much, Davide. A very good afternoon, a good morning to to colleagues perhaps joining online and to everyone in the room. I’m going to speak very briefly given the short time period that we were given, just to give a brief overview of the approach that we’re adopting at UNESCO in the context of the hugely complex and contradictory and volatile change that AI is catalyzing in our education systems worldwide, just building on the excellent overview that was given by ADG Taufik Jelassie and my previous colleague who’s spoken. And I also want to take the opportunity to greet all my fellow speakers as well. So I’m going to, yes, I’m just going to put it in slideshow so that it’s more visible. Yes. So I think I’m going to just use the, so try and capture in a nutshell the five key approaches and areas that as UNESCO we feel we have an important role to play to ensure that we can catalyze a change through the use and integration of AI that is based on perpetuating and deepening human rights, human dignity, enabling equitable access, quality, equity, inclusion, ethics, social justice, and education as a public good. So we know that those are the fundamental principles that would continue to guide as it has been over the past few years, the last two decades with the WSIS process on ICT in education, digital learning, and now the influence of AI. So we, a big focus of our work in UNESCO is building on what Dr. Jalassi has said about normative instruments. We have passed the, and data as also the first global normative instrument on the ethics of AI in 2021. But linked to that, we’ve also developed and continue to work on offering policy guidance on AI. And many people here may be familiar with our guidance on generative AI in education and research, as well as our policy guidance on the use of AI in education. And we continue to receive many, many requests from member states and their partners to provide the kind of support in the development of AI in education policy. So the frameworks we are providing continues to be emergent work and continues to be the second area where we are also responding to demand from our member states and our partners is the demand for thought leadership for the kind of ideas that will ensure that we center our interests on human rights and human-centered AI. And so we are engaged in a number of sense-making dialogues, wayfinding dialogues, global events, where we can in fact facilitate these deep dive conversations that will look and particularly address how AI can be designed and implemented from the perspective of human-centeredness, human rights, human dignity, and so on. And alongside that, our hosting of flagship events, such as the one that we’re hosting at the first week of September, Digital Learning Week, becomes the platform and the spaces to have these conversations and where UNESCO plays the role of convener and orchestrator of the global dialogue. conversation. I deliberately made the third basket bigger because that is the most fundamental work that we do is building capacity and support with member states on how to design and implement policy on AI in education, particularly policies that are grounded on equity, inclusion and social justice within an AI world which is an emergent and ongoing debate and linked to that would also be flagship initiatives such as our global digital that we have launched a few years ago in partnership with UNICEF which is promoting public digital goods in the name of also ensuring that we build our public education systems, public education platforms that are also housing open education resources of the kind that Dr. Jalassi has spoken about. The fourth area relates to the need also for strengthening partnerships, communities and networks in AI and education that could be centered around these values value which the United Nations and its partners stand and so for many of our interventions we’ve formed technical teams and are consistently building networks amongst member states and also with our universities given that UNESCO also houses the UNESCO chairs program and also through that the UNITWIN networks and working with networks of academics who are leading the charge in research around education as a common good in education as well. The final big important area of work relates to conducting research and generating new knowledge, human centered inclusive knowledge around research and evidence and innovation. So building the evidence base is one of the stock issues that have also emerged from the WSIS plus 20 process. The need that our evidence base is so very limited that we need to expand our ways of knowing and our repertoire of knowledge generation to be more plural. And evidence base working with the research and knowledge generation community worldwide on different knowledge traditions is an important part of the work that we are doing as well. And so this continues to be an invitation to partner on this important work, but also not forgetting that the last 20 years of WSIS leading conversations, intervention on ICT in education and digital learning is also rich in lessons and rich with also and failure that we need to build on in order to be successful in our work on AI in education. I’m going to conclude on that note because I think I’ve just spoken within my four minutes that were allocated and would be open to any questions or comments. Thank you very much.

Davide Storti: Thank you. Thank you very much also for reminding how complex this issue is and the different dimensions. I’d like now to, Cable Green, Director of Open Education at Creative Commons for talking about AI and open education. Thank you very much. Hello everyone.

Cable Green: My name is Cable Green. I’m the Director of Open Education at Creative Commons. We are an international nonprofit organization dedicated to helping build and sustain a thriving commons of shared knowledge and culture to address the world’s most pressing challenges. This challenge the all rights reserved versus no rights reserved copyright binary. The result, there are now tens of billions of works on the internet, growing the commons and increasing access to knowledge for all of us, educational resources, scientific research, climate data and cultural works from the world’s museums and individual creators. Creative Commons open copyright licenses are foundational to the creation and sharing of OER. The 2019 UNESCO recommendation on OER called for building capacity of stakeholders to create and share OER. Publicly funded educational resources are OER, encouraging inclusive and equitable quality OER and nurturing the creation and sustainability models for OER. All of these calls to action involve the use of free international open CC licenses. We now live as we’ve been talking about in a new age. We live in the age of AI. And in the 2024 Dubai declaration on OER, it noted, and I quote, the use of emerging technologies and AI tools is increasing at a rapid speed. The advancement of generative AI has fostered significant debates about the new ways in which content and data can be scraped, reused and shared, end quote. An unchecked AI ecosystem is starting to lead to the enclosure, not the expansion of the commons. Creative Commons is building preference signals for AI based on reciprocity. we call this CC Signals. We recently launched CC Signals to help sustain a thriving commons in this new age of AI by building a framework that supports a mutually beneficial relationship between those creating and stewarding knowledge and AI developers. We are trying to prevent the trend toward enclosure and drive systematic change by asking AI companies for something in return for the commons and for the commons creators. We have drafted four signal elements for public feedback designed to reflect core elements of the overarching theme of reciprocity. They are credit direct contribution from the AI companies back to the commons, ecosystem contribution and open or openly licensed AI systems. Creative Commons is ready to support your governments and education institutions in understanding and using both the CC Open Licenses and CC Signals. We don’t have time today to go into greater detail about the signals, but if there’s time for Q&A, I’m happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Davide Storti: Thank you very much for this intervention. Now I would like to refer to my colleague, Zeynep Varoglu, Senior Program Specialist at the Communication Information Sector. Only made too many acronyms at UNESCO about open knowledge systems in the era of AI. Zeynep, you have the floor. We can see the slides, but we don’t hear you. Is this better?

Zeynep Varoglu: Okay, so sorry. Thank you very much for the kind introduction. I’m going to speak to you today about the 2019 recommendation, which is a normative instrument that has established a mechanism for sharing knowledge and for sharing learning. I’ll go quickly because this is four minutes. It was launched in 2019. A. D. G. Gelassi provided the background to it in his opening remarks. And what’s really important in this document is that it has a clear definition, which are learning resources that are available on an open license. Again, taking up from where Cable left off, it clearly defines that these are learning resources that are available on a license, which allows them to be accessed, reused, repurposed, adapted, and redistributed by others. And it’s not just free resources on a web that you could copy if you like. It has to be openly licensed to be real. And this is the most important point. The next thing is the stakeholders. We’re not talking about just traditional educational stakeholders, but as you can see from the list on the screen, this includes the knowledge community. The underlying point is that knowledge is actually shared. Lifelong learning is a fact. The stakeholders include knowledge institutions such as libraries, archives, museums. They include broadcasting companies. They include, of course, the traditional educational bodies also. But we have a wider vision of what learning is and who’s doing it and why. So, the inside of this recommendation, I encourage you to read it. It’s actually quite good. Claire, quite easy to read. It’s about capacity building, about understanding what’s inside, what, how to OER if you like, and it’s added value policy issues about incentives, about procurement models, et cetera. And then a point that to inclusive equitable access to quality OER is underscored and then sustainability models. And that in a nutshell is basically to state that the learner and the teacher are not those that burden, that carry the burden of the cost for the use of these materials. And then underneath all this is, of course, international cooperation. This is the basis of this instrument. And it was done in 2019, it was adopted. And in 2024, we realized that, well, there’s GPT, which was launched and the cable just read out in the previous intervention. And we had the third UNESCO World OER Congress, which resulted in the Dubai Declaration on OER, taking into account the same five areas, but this time looking at things from another angle. In capacity building, we’re talking not just about that of the learners and the teachers, but now we have to talk about also the machines and large language models, OER attribution and discoverability, human rights-based strategies. In policy, we’re talking about, again, the machines. Respect for licenses and AI platforms. It comes back also to the presentation of cable just. Now search on attribution systems, for example, are underscored. Again, we go back to the issue of inclusive equitable access to quality OER. It’s OER translation, contextualization, promoting open ecosystems, et cetera. In terms of sustainability, we’re talking here about interoperability and IPR protection, environmental. sustainability, which is a discussion to be had, and of course, participatory governance and transparency, both for humans and for machine learning and AI. Again, it comes back to the humans, as we spoke earlier, regional international networks, open communities, AI and inter-regional cooperation are very important. One of the issues we have in UNESCO in terms of the responsible use of AI are the UNESCO ROMEX principles. I think some of you may have heard of this. This is the basis of our work in this communication information sector, and it does take up in other areas. It’s rights-based, including human rights-based, promoting openness, accessibility, and multi-stakeholder participation and addressing issues such as ethics, gender equality, sustainability, and these are embedded inside the Dubai Declaration. Now, we have something we call the OER Dynamic Coalition. This is the part where the humans get involved, that would be you and I, and basically, it’s a stakeholder group where it’s made on the implementation of this recommendation, and we do common projects. There’s an update. There’s a lot of different resources, and it’s a great way to become part of a larger community. We started out with 100 people. Today, we have some 800 people involved, and I will put the address in the chat, so you could join if you like. Thank you very much. I think I’ve kept to time, and thank you, and I’ll start sharing.

Davide Storti: Thank you very much, Zeynep.

Zeynep Varoglu: I’m trying to stop sharing. I’m sorry.

Davide Storti: You can close your mic.

Zeynep Varoglu: Yeah, I’m trying to find my mic.

Davide Storti: Sorry. It must be behind some of the slides. Thank you very much for these presentations to all the speakers. I think we have heard about, of course, the most important thing in WIS is probably the dimension, which is one of the key principles of WIS. We heard about the dimension. We heard about the process, and we heard also about the work at stake, because many of the changes in education, particularly, are changes that take a long time to realize and multiple years to actually get some feedback out of the processes or the changes that you are making in the system. So, that’s very hard. Maybe I can take a couple of minutes more if I ask you if you have any questions or maybe any… intervention if you want to share something, please.

Audience: Thank you very much for all the presentation, very useful, and one question regarding IFEP because in Egypt we are looking for a skill set for AI, with what is happening now that the number of jobs will be lost and the new jobs will be coming up. So we wanted to see if your organization can help us in putting a skills framework for specially help us designing our training programs actually. Thank you.

Anthony Wong: Very happy to follow up. So why don’t we talk after the session and I’ll take you through what we can do with you. Thank you.

Davide Storti: Please, maybe you introduce yourself.

Paul Spiesberger: Hello, thank you to all the speakers. My name is Paul Spiesberger from ICT4D.at. I’d like to congratulate UNESCO and Creative Commons and everyone to focus on the Open Educational Research and myself, I know how important it is to actually liberate the learning material. And my question would be for, to anyone of the speakers, so now we liberated the learning material, what about the software behind all of that? Is UNESCO also moving forward with free and open source software to liberate education also in this aspect? Thank you.

Davide Storti: Thank you.

Audience: Maybe I take another question, please. Analyst at Access Partnership, we’re a tech policy consultancy. My thanks to all the speakers and if I may, I’d like to pick up on one of the closing remarks by Dr. Jalessi about this learner-centered approach and putting humanity at the center of education and specifically about the teacher-student connection that I think speaks to how irreplaceable teachers are within this broader process. By way of example, I think there are various reasons why some students might be a lot more receptive to absorbing information if they’re being taught rather than just expected to read it, but the teacher at the front and being in a school environment, it helps you build discipline. It helps you build resilience and team working and problem solving, so much of which cannot be substituted as hard as we try. And based on that, I’d like to ask if there are any existing or ongoing efforts thinking specifically in the realm of teacher training, not only focused on how teachers can use and leverage digital tools as a partner in the classroom in many ways, but potentially laying the groundwork for a broader re-evaluation and transformation of how teachers allocate their time and the skills that we’re really focusing on students on that you need teachers in the classroom and digital tools can’t really bridge that gap in any way. Thank you.

Davide Storti: Thank you. And the very last one.

Audience: Hello, I’m Kathleen from Project Ivy, which is a nonprofit from Romania. We teach IT skills. They’re also instructors from our community there from high school. I have, I wanted to give some feedback on how the young people perceive the courses that we also discussed today. As other organizations or initiatives, also courses on AI or different topics on education. I also tried to do this with the NGO, that’s its main purpose. What I observed in my country, and it may not be a single case, no matter if the course comes from something like UNESCO or Project Ivy or the European Union or things like that. The young people, namely, for example, high schoolers do not want to engage with that. Maybe it may seem to be shallow what I’m going to say, but at least high schoolers are not that concerned with what we’re talking today, like open education being ethical and things like that. We, as adults, should talk about this. In my last one or two years, for example, I targeted my efforts in trying to partner with the private sector. For example, I try selling the… to teach you AI or cyber security or things like that, and very little people come to this, and I have to struggle with them to learn something. Recently I partnered with some private initiatives like Google Developer Groups or UiPath and things like that, and I do not have to sell anything to them because they come very easily to these courses, because being children, they are very attracted to the brand. What I’m trying to get at, being a non-profit, of course I’m very eager for being open source and creating communities and things like that, but I think we should try to create a form of partnership with the private sector, because what the young people want is to be connected with the people that do the innovation. Okay, I agree, we should not do this in any way possible, we should put some rules into this and try to get to a common ground where we do this ethically, but I think we should try as much as possible. That’s what our kids want to connect with, because they want to connect with the people and initiatives that drive our industry and technology. Thank you.

Davide Storti: I think if we want to hear back from the speakers, we originally have like three minutes, so if you have one phrase, please, because otherwise we will not hear back, thank you.

Audience: One phrase. Yeah, thank you very much. My name is Dr. Nabi, I’m a faculty member for Modan, a founder of a curriculum who can teach the students how to use the devices in a safe mode, and how can you use AI in a fixed mode. We can do this for some community that they need with non-profitable issues, but I think that we can cooperate and we can help in this area in training the people and providing this curriculum, because it has, I mean, as with video step-by-step, how to use it in a safe mode and AI ethically in all grades in the schools. So I’m happy to present such an issue for UNESCO. Thank you very much. Thank you so much.

Davide Storti: May I give, I’m sorry, we’re running out of time, can I give the floor to my colleague Zeynep, just to respond quickly to a couple of the issues that were raised?

Zeynep Varoglu: Yes, very quickly. because we are running out of time. First of all, the internet-centered approach teacher connect, oh, the software issue. We have a project on software heritage, and it’s focusing on software source code. So that is an area in which we are working. And then also my colleague, Cable Green, can speak on open source also very quickly. And learner-centered approach, teacher-centered approach, we have the ICT competency framework for teachers, which is based on giving teachers the capacity to work with technology. And this is a wonderful tool. I’ll put the address in the chat, and I think, or you can find it on the UNESCO website, ICT competency, ICTCFT, UNESCO, and you should find it, but I’ll try and put it in. And I think Cable has something to say also.

Davide Storti: Thank you so much, Zeynep. My apologies to Dr. Cable Green, because we really have to leave the room. So I’d like to give the floor to Mr. Jelassi for the questions that were raised, thank you.

Tawfik Jelassi: Thank you, Davide. I’ll try to be brief, because the issues raised are very important ones. First of all, on learner-centric education. It has to be learner-centric in curriculum design, in content development, in pedagogical delivery. You cannot teach the same subject matter through the same material, through the same curricula, to the same students. Each group of students have some unique features, as you know, and as I know. To what extent we adjust what we are delivering to based on age, based on educational background, business profile, if it’s executive education. So when you say learner-centric, we have to mean it. It’s not convenient for a professor to pull teaching material from a drawer and go and add it. It’s easy. There is no preparation. It’s the, I prepare the lecture once and deliver it, your one and your two and your three, to undergraduates, to master level, to MBAs, to whomever. So I think we use this expression, learner-centric, but I think many professors and teachers, I used to be for 30 years, university professor and dean. So I know the ways, pull it out of your drawer, go and deliver it, done. Is that learner-centric? It is not. So we have to walk the talk. Second remark, students need to learn how to learn. We don’t teach them how to learn. You know the saying, don’t give me a fish, teach me how to fish. If you give me a fish, I have my meal today and that’s it. And they depend on you tomorrow or for dinner to give me another fish. If you teach me how to fish, I can do it on my own. We don’t teach students how to learn. In this highly evolving world where knowledge evolves, technology evolves, it’s very dynamic, it’s very volatile. And we need to stop teaching rote learning. When I say teach them how to learn, not to teach them rote learning. I give you a poem, I give you a formula, learn them by heart and give them back to me the day of the exam and you have an A grade and you pass. That’s rote learning. Memorize and give back to the professor. Where is your value added? Where is your creativity? Where is your innovation? Where is your critical mindset? There is none. I think that we should stop. When I was a pupil and a high school student for 13 years, I was taught rote learning. We had one subject matter called recitals, recitation. Give you something, note by heart, recite it back. and you have an A grade. And then when I went to New York University for my PhD, they told me, we want to, PhD is about advancing the state of knowledge in the world, in a discipline. Therefore, we have to think out of the box. I told them, show me where is the box first. Box. And they couldn’t think out of the box because I was put in a mold through rote learning. We have to avoid that. And finally, in today’s digital world, the focus, in my view, is not on hard knowledge. It’s on soft skills. The hard knowledge can be found through any digital system, any chat GPT, whatever. The knowledge is there. The definitions, the concepts, the formulas, it’s there. If you do ABC accounting, that has not changed over time. If you do calculus, that has not changed. It’s, what is evolving is the soft skills. How to communicate, how to think critically, how to present. And they always say, having the right attitude is before having the right competency. Because if a student, the pupil has the right attitude, he or she will learn the competency. If he or she has the wrong attitude, there is no hope. Soft skills. I was told to stop talking.

Davide Storti: Sorry, that’s the matter. So I would like to thank everybody. I thank the speakers and thank you for coming, for being here. And of course, this is one session, but we saw that the issue is pretty lively. So please, let’s continue online in WSIS. Thank you. Recording stopped.

Agreement points

Teacher training and capacity building is critical for successful educational transformation

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Anthony Wong
– Zeynep Varoglu
– Audience

Arguments

Teachers are the weakest link requiring upgraded digital skills to create a skilled global workforce

UNESCO’s ICT Competency Framework for Teachers provides capacity for working with technology

Teacher training should focus on leveraging digital tools and re-evaluating time allocation and skills development

Summary

All speakers recognize that upgrading teacher capabilities and providing proper training frameworks is essential for implementing educational technology successfully and addressing global digital skills shortages.

Topics

Online education | Capacity development

AI and technology cannot be stopped and must be embraced in education

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Shafika Isaacs
– Cable Green

Arguments

Technology cannot be stopped and must be embraced rather than forbidden in educational settings

UNESCO develops policy guidance on AI in education focusing on human rights and human-centered approaches

AI systems require reciprocal relationships with commons creators to prevent enclosure of knowledge

Summary

Speakers agree that resistance to AI and technology in education is futile and counterproductive. Instead, the focus should be on developing frameworks for responsible and ethical implementation.

Topics

Online education | Human rights principles

Education must be learner-centered and focus on developing critical thinking rather than rote learning

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Anthony Wong

Arguments

Education must be learner-centered in curriculum design, content development, and pedagogical delivery

Students need to learn how to learn rather than engage in rote memorization

IFIP’s Stockholm Declaration emphasizes training digital trainers and computational thinking

Summary

Both speakers emphasize the need to move away from traditional rote learning toward developing students’ ability to think critically and learn independently, with customized approaches for different learner groups.

Topics

Online education

Multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential for educational transformation

Speakers

– Shafika Isaacs
– Zeynep Varoglu
– Davide Storti
– Audience

Arguments

International cooperation and network building are fundamental to sustainable educational transformation

Educational ecosystems require multi-stakeholder efforts including knowledge institutions, broadcasting companies, and traditional educational bodies

Multi-stakeholder collaboration is essential for addressing educational transformation challenges

Partnership between public and private sectors is essential for engaging young people in learning

Summary

Speakers consistently emphasize that educational transformation requires coordinated efforts across multiple sectors, institutions, and stakeholders, including both public and private entities.

Topics

Online education | Capacity development

Open Educational Resources require proper licensing and frameworks for effective implementation

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Cable Green
– Zeynep Varoglu

Arguments

The 2019 UNESCO recommendation on OER is implemented in over 35 countries as the first UN normative instrument linking technology and education

Creative Commons licenses are foundational to OER creation and sharing

OER must be openly licensed, not just free resources, to allow access, reuse, adaptation, and redistribution

Summary

All speakers agree that effective OER implementation requires proper legal frameworks, specifically Creative Commons licensing, and normative instruments to ensure resources can be legally shared, adapted, and redistributed.

Topics

Intellectual property rights | Online education

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize that educational equity requires addressing multiple intersecting barriers including geographical, gender, technological, economic, and accessibility dimensions, with particular attention to marginalized groups.

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Shafika Isaacs

Arguments

Multiple gaps exist: geographical, gender, technology access, financial affordability, and disability

UNESCO’s work focuses on equity, inclusion, and social justice within AI-enabled education systems

Topics

Digital access | Human rights principles | Rights of persons with disabilities

Both speakers advocate for prioritizing the development of thinking skills, communication abilities, and critical analysis over memorization of facts, recognizing that information can be easily accessed through digital systems.

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Anthony Wong

Arguments

Focus should shift from hard knowledge to soft skills like communication, critical thinking, and presentation

IFIP’s Stockholm Declaration emphasizes training digital trainers and computational thinking

Topics

Online education | Future of work

Both speakers recognize that AI poses challenges to open knowledge systems and requires new frameworks to ensure that AI development supports rather than undermines the knowledge commons.

Speakers

– Cable Green
– Zeynep Varoglu

Arguments

AI systems require reciprocal relationships with commons creators to prevent enclosure of knowledge

The Dubai Declaration addresses AI’s impact on OER, including machine learning attribution and discoverability

Topics

Intellectual property rights | Online education

Unexpected consensus

The irreplaceable role of teachers despite technological advancement

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Anthony Wong
– Audience

Arguments

The role of professors must shift from knowledge owners to facilitators of dialogue and synthesis

Teachers are the weakest link requiring upgraded digital skills to create a skilled global workforce

Teachers remain irreplaceable for building discipline, resilience, teamwork, and problem-solving skills

Explanation

Despite strong advocacy for AI and technology integration, there is unexpected consensus that teachers remain irreplaceable for developing human skills and facilitating learning experiences that cannot be automated. This represents a nuanced view that technology enhances rather than replaces human educators.

Topics

Online education | Capacity development

The need for private sector engagement in education

Speakers

– Audience
– Zeynep Varoglu
– Anthony Wong

Arguments

Young people are more attracted to private sector partnerships than traditional educational initiatives

The OER Dynamic Coalition provides a platform for stakeholder involvement in recommendation implementation

IFIP offers technical expertise through working groups to support policy implementation globally

Explanation

There is unexpected consensus that engaging private sector organizations is necessary for effective educational transformation, even among speakers from traditional educational institutions. This pragmatic approach recognizes that young people are drawn to innovation-driving organizations.

Topics

Online education

Overall assessment

Summary

The speakers demonstrate strong consensus on fundamental principles including the need for human-centered AI implementation, teacher capacity building, learner-centered approaches, multi-stakeholder collaboration, and proper frameworks for open educational resources. There is also agreement on addressing educational equity through multiple dimensions and the importance of developing critical thinking skills over rote learning.

Consensus level

High level of consensus with complementary rather than conflicting viewpoints. The speakers represent different organizations and perspectives but share common values around human rights, equity, and quality education. This strong alignment suggests a mature understanding of educational transformation challenges and indicates potential for coordinated action in implementing AI and technology in education while maintaining human-centered approaches.

Different viewpoints

Role of private sector in education engagement

Speakers

– Audience (Romania NGO)
– UNESCO speakers (implicit)

Arguments

Partnership between public and private sectors is essential for engaging young people in learning

Young people are more attracted to private sector partnerships than traditional educational initiatives

Summary

The Romanian audience member advocates for embracing private sector partnerships because young people are attracted to brands and innovation-driving companies, while UNESCO’s approach emphasizes public goods and open resources without significant private sector integration

Topics

Online education | Capacity development

Unexpected differences

Student engagement with traditional vs. private sector educational initiatives

Speakers

– Audience (Romania NGO)
– UNESCO speakers (implicit)

Arguments

Young people are more attracted to private sector partnerships than traditional educational initiatives

Partnership between public and private sectors is essential for engaging young people in learning

Explanation

This disagreement was unexpected because it challenges the fundamental assumption that traditional educational institutions and international organizations like UNESCO can effectively engage young people. The Romanian speaker’s observation that students ignore UNESCO-type courses but flock to Google or UiPath initiatives suggests a significant disconnect between institutional approaches and youth preferences

Topics

Online education

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion showed remarkable consensus on major principles (human-centered AI, need for teacher transformation, importance of equity) but revealed subtle disagreements on implementation approaches and one significant challenge to traditional educational engagement models

Disagreement level

Low to moderate disagreement level with high consensus on principles but divergent views on methods. The main implication is that while stakeholders agree on goals, there may be competing approaches to achieving educational transformation, particularly regarding private sector involvement and student engagement strategies

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

Both speakers emphasize that educational equity requires addressing multiple intersecting barriers including geographical, gender, technological, economic, and accessibility dimensions, with particular attention to marginalized groups.

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Shafika Isaacs

Arguments

Multiple gaps exist: geographical, gender, technology access, financial affordability, and disability

UNESCO’s work focuses on equity, inclusion, and social justice within AI-enabled education systems

Topics

Digital access | Human rights principles | Rights of persons with disabilities

Both speakers advocate for prioritizing the development of thinking skills, communication abilities, and critical analysis over memorization of facts, recognizing that information can be easily accessed through digital systems.

Speakers

– Tawfik Jelassi
– Anthony Wong

Arguments

Focus should shift from hard knowledge to soft skills like communication, critical thinking, and presentation

IFIP’s Stockholm Declaration emphasizes training digital trainers and computational thinking

Topics

Online education | Future of work

Both speakers recognize that AI poses challenges to open knowledge systems and requires new frameworks to ensure that AI development supports rather than undermines the knowledge commons.

Speakers

– Cable Green
– Zeynep Varoglu

Arguments

AI systems require reciprocal relationships with commons creators to prevent enclosure of knowledge

The Dubai Declaration addresses AI’s impact on OER, including machine learning attribution and discoverability

Topics

Intellectual property rights | Online education

Key takeaways

AI transformation in education is inevitable and must be embraced rather than resisted, requiring a fundamental shift in how educators approach teaching and learning

The role of teachers must evolve from knowledge deliverers to facilitators of dialogue, critical thinking, and soft skills development that cannot be replicated by AI

Educational equity remains a critical challenge with multiple divides (geographical, gender, linguistic, technological, financial) that must be addressed in AI-enabled learning systems

Open Educational Resources (OER) are essential for democratizing access to knowledge, but must be properly licensed and integrated with AI systems through reciprocal frameworks

Teacher training and capacity building are the weakest links in educational transformation and require urgent attention to develop digital skills

Hybrid learning models combining traditional classroom instruction with e-learning can address resource constraints while maintaining essential human connections

Educational methodology must shift from rote learning to teaching students ‘how to learn’ and developing critical thinking skills

Multi-stakeholder collaboration including public-private partnerships is essential for engaging young people and implementing sustainable educational change

Resolutions and action items

IFIP agreed to follow up with Egypt on developing AI skills frameworks for training programs

UNESCO to continue providing policy guidance and capacity building support to member states on AI in education implementation

Zeynep Varoglu committed to sharing links to UNESCO’s ICT Competency Framework for Teachers and OER Dynamic Coalition in the chat

Dr. Nabi offered to provide curriculum for teaching safe and ethical AI use across all school grades to UNESCO

Creative Commons to continue developing CC Signals framework for AI-commons reciprocity

IFIP scheduled additional sessions during WSIS week on education case studies and AI professional standards

Unresolved issues

How to effectively engage young people who are more attracted to private sector brands than traditional educational initiatives

Specific implementation strategies for addressing the linguistic divide with over 8,000 languages but only 120 represented in cyberspace

Concrete mechanisms for ensuring continuity of educational policy direction across government changes

Detailed frameworks for assessing student learning in the age of AI and generative tools like ChatGPT

Specific funding models and sustainability approaches for scaling OER and AI-enabled education globally

Technical standards and interoperability requirements for free and open source educational software

Practical approaches for re-training existing teachers at scale to work effectively with AI tools

Suggested compromises

Hybrid learning models that combine traditional classroom instruction with e-learning to balance human connection with technological efficiency

Rotation systems where students attend physical schools part-time and continue learning through e-learning platforms to address teacher shortages

Public-private partnerships that leverage private sector appeal to young people while maintaining ethical educational standards

Gradual integration of AI tools in education rather than complete prohibition or unrestricted adoption

Multi-stakeholder approaches that include traditional educational bodies alongside knowledge institutions, broadcasting companies, and technology providers

Reciprocal frameworks between AI companies and educational commons that provide mutual benefits while protecting open access to knowledge

Nobody can stop technological advances. Nobody can fight it. We better make the best out of it… A professor cannot be anymore the owner of truth and knowledge, cannot anymore meet students to say here is the definition of concept A and B and C, and here is the way to achieve that. The system is better than us, more updated, more thorough.

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Reason

This comment fundamentally challenges the traditional educational paradigm by arguing that educators must abandon their role as gatekeepers of knowledge and instead embrace AI as a superior information source. It’s provocative because it directly confronts educators’ resistance to AI integration and reframes the debate from ‘whether to adopt AI’ to ‘how to coexist with AI.’

Impact

This comment set the philosophical foundation for the entire discussion, establishing that the conversation would focus on transformation rather than resistance. It influenced subsequent speakers to build upon this acceptance of AI’s inevitability and focus on adaptation strategies rather than debating AI’s merits.

In the world, there are over 8,000 languages. Over 8,000 languages. How many of them are present in cyberspace? 120. How about the others, who don’t speak English, or French, or Spanish, or Chinese, or Arabic, or whatever?

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Reason

This stark statistical comparison reveals a massive digital divide that goes beyond economic or technological barriers to include linguistic exclusion. It’s thought-provoking because it quantifies a often-overlooked dimension of educational inequality and challenges the assumption that digital education is inherently democratizing.

Impact

This comment expanded the discussion beyond technical implementation to include cultural and linguistic justice considerations. It added a layer of complexity that influenced later speakers to consider inclusivity not just in terms of access to technology, but access to culturally relevant content.

The weakness is our teachers. We need to upgrade the skills of our teachers, especially if we are going to succeed to create a good digital workforce globally.

Speaker

Anthony Wong

Reason

This blunt assessment identifies teachers as the primary bottleneck in digital education transformation. It’s provocative because it shifts blame from systemic issues to individual capacity, while simultaneously highlighting the critical importance of teacher development in any educational reform.

Impact

This comment redirected the conversation toward practical implementation challenges and the need for capacity building. It influenced subsequent speakers to emphasize teacher training and support systems, making it a central theme throughout the remaining presentations.

An unchecked AI ecosystem is starting to lead to the enclosure, not the expansion of the commons… We are trying to prevent the trend toward enclosure and drive systematic change by asking AI companies for something in return for the commons and for the commons creators.

Speaker

Cable Green

Reason

This comment introduces a critical paradox: AI, which could democratize knowledge, might actually restrict it by enclosing the commons. It’s insightful because it reveals how technological advancement can undermine the very open education principles it claims to support, introducing the concept of ‘reciprocity’ as a solution.

Impact

This comment introduced a new dimension of concern about AI’s impact on open education, shifting the discussion from ‘how to use AI’ to ‘how to ensure AI serves the commons.’ It added urgency to the need for proactive policy frameworks to protect educational resources.

The young people, namely, for example, high schoolers do not want to engage with that… Recently I partnered with some private initiatives like Google Developer Groups or UiPath and things like that, and I do not have to sell anything to them because they come very easily to these courses, because being children, they are very attracted to the brand.

Speaker

Kathleen (audience member)

Reason

This ground-level observation challenges the entire premise of the discussion by revealing a disconnect between policy makers’ priorities (ethics, openness) and students’ actual interests (brand recognition, industry connection). It’s provocative because it suggests that idealistic educational goals may be irrelevant to the intended beneficiaries.

Impact

This comment created a reality check moment that forced speakers to confront the gap between theoretical frameworks and practical implementation. It highlighted the need to make ethical, open education more appealing and relevant to young learners, adding a pragmatic dimension to the idealistic discussion.

Students need to learn how to learn. We don’t teach them how to learn… We don’t teach students how to learn. In this highly evolving world where knowledge evolves, technology evolves, it’s very dynamic, it’s very volatile. And we need to stop teaching rote learning.

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Reason

This comment identifies a fundamental flaw in current educational approaches – the focus on content delivery rather than learning methodology. It’s insightful because it suggests that in an AI-dominated world, the meta-skill of learning becomes more valuable than any specific knowledge, challenging traditional pedagogical approaches.

Impact

This closing comment synthesized many of the session’s themes and provided a clear direction for educational transformation. It reinforced the need for systemic change in educational philosophy, not just technological integration, and served as a call to action for fundamental pedagogical reform.

Overall assessment

These key comments collectively shaped the discussion by establishing a progression from acceptance of technological inevitability to practical implementation challenges to systemic reform needs. Jelassi’s opening comments set a transformative rather than defensive tone, while Wong’s teacher-focused critique and Green’s commons concerns added practical urgency. The audience member’s reality check about student preferences forced a reconsideration of idealistic approaches, and Jelassi’s closing emphasis on learning methodology provided a unifying vision. Together, these comments moved the conversation from theoretical policy discussions to concrete challenges of educational transformation, creating a more nuanced understanding of the complexities involved in integrating AI into education while maintaining human-centered, equitable approaches.

How can we develop a skills framework for AI, particularly for designing training programs to address job displacement and new job creation?

Speaker

Audience member from Egypt

Explanation

This addresses the urgent need to prepare workforce for AI-driven changes in employment, requiring specific skill sets and training programs

Is UNESCO moving forward with free and open source software to liberate education beyond just open educational resources?

Speaker

Paul Spiesberger from ICT4D.at

Explanation

This explores whether the open education movement should extend to the software infrastructure that supports educational systems, not just the content

What existing or ongoing efforts focus on teacher training for using digital tools and transforming how teachers allocate their time and skills?

Speaker

Analyst at Access Partnership

Explanation

This addresses the need for comprehensive teacher preparation programs that go beyond basic digital literacy to fundamental pedagogical transformation

How can we create ethical partnerships with the private sector to engage young people in educational initiatives?

Speaker

Kathleen from Project Ivy (Romania)

Explanation

This addresses the challenge of student engagement and the attraction of private sector brands versus traditional educational institutions

How can we develop and implement curricula that teach students to use devices and AI safely and ethically across all school grades?

Speaker

Dr. Nabi, faculty member

Explanation

This addresses the critical need for age-appropriate digital citizenship and AI ethics education integrated into standard curricula

How do we effectively teach students ‘how to learn’ rather than relying on rote learning methods?

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Explanation

This fundamental pedagogical question addresses the need to develop meta-cognitive skills and critical thinking rather than memorization

How can we make education truly learner-centric in curriculum design, content development, and pedagogical delivery?

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Explanation

This addresses the gap between the rhetoric of learner-centered education and actual implementation in diverse educational contexts

How do we shift educational focus from hard knowledge to soft skills development in the digital age?

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Explanation

This explores the fundamental restructuring of educational priorities given that information is readily available through digital systems

How can we address the linguistic divide in e-learning when only 120 out of 8,000+ world languages are represented in cyberspace?

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Explanation

This addresses a critical equity issue in global access to digital education and the need for multilingual educational content

How do we ensure continuity of educational technology policies across changes in government leadership?

Speaker

Tawfik Jelassi

Explanation

This addresses the challenge of maintaining long-term educational transformation initiatives despite political changes