wise 2010 • biographies speakers and moderators

Biographies

Speakers andModerators

• 41

WISE • DOHA - DECEMBER 7 - 9 2010 > PROGRAMME

His Excellency Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani is Vice President, Education, Qatar Foundation.

Qatar Foundation was established in 1995 with the aim of accelerating human development in Qatar and the Arab world. Its fl agship project, Education City, is a consortium of higher education institutions which are operating individually and collectively to build an acknowledged centre of excellence in scholarship and research in the State of Qatar.

Since taking up the position of Vice President, Education, in 2005, Dr Al-Thani has devised and implemented an educational master plan for Qatar Foundation. His team provides direction and support for the Foundation’s higher education and pre-university member institutions and is creating a unique extra-curricular student experience based on a philosophy of holistic development of the individual within an Arab and Islamic environment.

Dr Al-Thani leads the project to build and commission Qatar Foundation’s Central Library which will be the main information resource of Education City and will serve as the national library of the State of Qatar. When completed, it will house one of the largest collections in the Middle East. He serves on the Executive Council of the World Digital Library, based at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.

He is convener and Chair of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE), launched in 2009 on the premise that in the 21st century high-quality education will be the greatest single asset of individuals and societies. WISE aims to become the premier forum for the development of educational theory and implementation of innovative practice.

Dr Al-Thani is a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning in Hamburg, and Board Member of the Palestine Happy Child Center in Ramallah. He is Chair of Stars of Science, a “reality television” series which stimulates scientifi c innovation in young people and is seen throughout the Arab world. He is also a board member of Nakilat, a Qatari shipping company which owns the world’s largest fl eet of liquefi ed natural gas carriers.

In September 2010 Dr Al-Thani was co-organiser with the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientifi c Organization and The World Bank of the Ministerial Colloquium on Quality of Education in the Arab World which resulted in the Doha Declaration, committing the signatories to a common evaluation system of basic education.

In October 2010 he co-chaired a special session on The Future of Education at a summit of the World Economic Forum on the Middle East and North Africa held in Marrakesh, Morocco.

In 2004-05 Dr Al-Thani worked with the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute on projects which included the reform of Qatar University and the development of initiatives to foster quality and innovation at a national level in Qatar.

He is a member of the Board of The Supreme Education Council, the highest educational body in Qatar. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of Qatar University, where his career began in 1997 as Assistant Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering. In 2003 he was appointed Assistant Professor.

Dr Al-Thani is a keen patron of the arts. In 2008 he established the Al-Markhiya Gallery in Doha which has a mission to promote the work of young Qatari and Arab artists and to encourage emerging artists in the region.

H.E. Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali AL-THANI, PhD., Chairman of WISE, Qatar Foundation,

Chairman of the WISE Awards 2010 International Jury

ADAMS, J. Michael, President, Farleigh Dickinson University, and President-Elect, International Association of University Presidents (IAUP) (USA)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Education and Reconciliation> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 11.00-12.30

Dr. J. Michael Adams became Fairleigh Dickinson University’s sixth President in 1999, following 15 years as an academic dean at Drexel University in Philadelphia. At Fairleigh Dickinson, he inspired a new mission: to prepare world citizens through global education. He also led the development of major initiatives including the United Nations Pathways Program and the creation of Global Virtual Faculty™, scholars and professionals from around the world who contribute to the classroom via the Internet. The author of nine books, Dr. Adams’ publications cover a wide variety of topics including print, publishing, communication and career development, as well as topics specifi c to the fi eld of higher education. His most recent book is Coming of Age in a Globalized World: The Next Generation, published in 2006.Dr. Adams began his academic career at the State University of New York (SUNY) at Oswego, where he moved through faculty ranks to Senior Graduate Professor and received the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence. He also served as a US Congressional Fellow, working on higher education legislation and advising US congressional leaders. Dr. Adams is active with many national and international education organizations. He is President-Elect of the International Association of University Presidents (IAUP), chair of the IAUP North American Council, and is an IAUP representative to the United Nations. He also serves on the UN/IAUP Commission on Disarmament Education, Confl ict Resolution and Peace. He is a member of the Governing Council of the United Nations University and is a National Council member of the United Nations Association of the United States of America. Dr. Adams also is a member of the Steering Committee of the World Bank’s Researchers Alliance for Development and the Editorial Advisory Board for International Educator, the fl agship bimonthly magazine of NAFSA: Association of International Educators.

ABU-WARDEH, Nima, journalist and broadcaster, presenter of BBC World’s Middle East Business Report

Session: Opening and Closing Plenary Sessions> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 9.30-10.30

> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 15.00-16.00

Nima is a bilingual English-Arabic broadcast journalist specialising in Arab issues. She presents BBC World’s weekly business and fi nance programme, Middle East Business Report (MEBR) and was part of the team that set up the programme. She has also reported, produced and presented programmes for Al Jazeera and Dubai’s Business Channel. Before joining MEBR, Nima was a regular guest on BBC Radio 4’s Four Corners addressing Arab issues, and a guest on BBC World’s Dateline London as a regional expert. Nima is also the founder and CEO of cashy, the fi rst dedicated personal fi nance website in the Arab world. Informative and interactive, cashy is available in both English and Arabic, providing real-world suggestions and solutions on a wide range of subjects that help individuals manage their money, all in a friendly and entertaining format. Nima is regarded as an opinion leader and is approached by think-tanks, the corporate world and government organisations for her insight. She has written opinion pieces for Forbes Arabia and has taught media courses at Zayed University in the UAE as a visiting lecturer. Nima regularly chairs, and is a speaker at, regional and global gatherings, notably the World Economic Forum and the Arab Business Council meetings. Nima is keen to encourage talent and the region’s youth and has helped create competitions that serve this purpose, such as the Scintilla Monaco poetry competition. Nima also enthusiastically promotes Arab culture, identity and unity. She has been a member of the Arab Thought Foundation’s Advisory Committee as well as a board member of the World Congress for History Producers. Nima has received awards for excellence from regional businesses and communities. A recent achievement was winning the fi rst Oxford Alumni debate to be held in this region, in June 2009. Nima is a Young Arab Leader.

• 43


AL-HAIDOOS, Sabah, Education Institute Director, Supreme Education Council (Qatar)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Learning from Reforms of National Education Systems> Day: Tuesday 7 December 2010 – Time: 11.00-12.30

Miss Sabah Ismail Al-Haidoos is Director of the Education Institute of the Supreme Education Council, member of the Aljazeera Children’s Channel Board of Directors and member of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs. She has a BA in Education and Science (majoring in mathematics and science), a Diploma in English and a Diploma in Advanced School Management.

Miss Al-Haidoos began her career in the fi eld of education as a teacher before becoming Vice Principal and later Principal of Al-Bayan School. After this, she became Principal of the Al-Bayan Complex, an institution which includes fi ve schools and a kindergarten. In 2004 she assumed her duties as the Director of the Education Institute. Her responsibilities within the Education Institute include the management of the licensing process for independent schools, the provision of appropriate fi nancial resources and professional development opportunities to schools and the deployment of all the required resources that enable schools to provide effective education opportunities and experiences for their students. She is also responsible for the development of criteria to guide the effective operation of schools and to appraise their performance. Miss Al-Haidoos is also responsible for supervising the work of the fi ve offi ces within the Education Institute: The Independent Schools Offi ce, The Finance Offi ce, The Curriculum Standards Offi ce, The Professional Development Offi ce and The Private Schools Offi ce.

Miss Al-Haidoos is honored to be a member of numerous offi cial committees and has participated in a large number of courses, workshops and professional development activities. She has attended many conferences locally and internationally and has been a keynote speaker at many of these conferences. In addition, she has delivered a signifi cant number of training courses in the fi eld of education and has delivered speeches at several educational symposiums.

AHO, Esko, Executive Vice-President, Corporate Relations and Responsibility, Nokia Corporation, and former Prime Minister of Finland (Finland)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Learning through Mobile Devices> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Esko Aho heads Nokia’s government and public affairs function and oversees the company’s global policies and activities regarding sustainable development and social responsibility. He has been a member of the Group Executive Board since 2009 and was appointed to his current position in 2008. He reports to the CEO. Before joining Nokia in 2008, Esko enjoyed a long and distinguished career in government service. He was Prime Minister of Finland from 1991 to 1995. After the presidential campaign in 2000, he joined Harvard University as a lecturer and, following his retirement from the Finnish Parliament, he worked as a consultant. He was elected to Parliament in 1983 and served on several key committees. He also served on the Nordic Council and the Finnish Delegation to the Council of Europe, is a former Vice Chairman of Liberal International, and a former Chairman of the Finnish Ski Association. In addition, Esko is a former Vice Chairman of the Finnish Olympic Committee and a former President of the Finnish Innovation Fund, SITRA. Currently, he is a member of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) World Council and Vice Chair of ICC Finland, as well as a board member of the Technology Academy Finland. He also serves as a board member of Fortum Corporation and is Vice Chairman of the board of Technology Industries of Finland. Esko is an invited member of the Club de Madrid, an independent organisation of former heads of state and government dedicated to strengthening democracy, and the InterAction Council, an organisation of former heads of state and government that seeks solutions to the economic, political and social problems confronting society. He holds a Master’s in social science from the University of Helsinki. Esko was born on May 20, 1954, in Veteli, Finland. In his spare time, he enjoys literature and golf.

AL-THANI, Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa, Chairperson, Qatar Museums Authority Board of Trustees, and Chairperson, Reach Out to Asia (ROTA) (Qatar)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Shared Values> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 11.00-12.30

Her Excellency Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani has played a pioneering role in the fi elds of culture, education and outreach, spearheading and supporting a number of local and international organizations. As the Chairperson of the Qatar Museums Authority Board of Trustees, H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa guides the vision for future museums and cultural projects, with the aim of transforming the State of Qatar into a leading centre of culture and education for its region and the world. The Museum of Islamic Art, the fl agship project of the QMA, embodies Her Excellency’s vision of bridging East and West, as well as past and present.In addition to her work on cultural initiatives, H.E. Sheikha Al Mayassa is the Chairperson for Reach Out To Asia (ROTA), a philanthropic non-governmental organization that is dedicated to assisting the victims of recent natural disasters, as well as aiming to improve the quality of primary and secondary education in Asia.

ANAMUAH-MENSAH, Jophus, see page 104

AL-OTHMAN, Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman, Rector, King Saud University (Kingdom of Saudi Arabia)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Leadership Models> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 16.30-18.00

Professor Abdullah bin Abdul Rahman Al-Othman was appointed as Rector of King Saud University in 2008. Prior to that, he worked as the Vice-President of King Saud University for Research, Development and Monitoring, and the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Higher Education for Education Affairs. He also worked as the Dean of Students Affairs, Chairman of Students’ Fund, Deputy of Student Affairs for Housing and Nutrition. In 1985, Prof. Al-Othman took his Bachelor’s degree from King Saud University. He took his Master’s degree in 1990 and Ph.D. in 1992, both from the University of Arizona (USA).In the Rector’s offi ce, Prof. Al-Othman launched several pioneering development programs: the university was fi rst computerized, as all transactions came to be achieved on the Internet. He also established the Research Chair Program to fasten the relationship between university and community and industry. To help make the university fi nancially independent, Abdullah launched the University Entailment Project that makes it possible for the university to be income-generating.Prof. Al-Othman also presides over many state and non-state agencies and organizations. Among these are the Centers of Research Excellence, the Founding Committee of Girls’ League, the Higher Education Statistics Center, the Founding Committee of the National Center for E-Learning and Distance Education, the Committee for Developing Creativity and Excellence among Faculty Members, the Preparatory Committee of the Government Scholarships to University and Community Colleges, and Vice-Chairman of the Accreditation Committee for Universities and Community Colleges. Abdullah Al-Othman is also a member of many national cultural, social and scientifi c agencies. Among these are the Executive Committee of King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz for Developing Public Education, the King Abdulaziz Foundation, the Institute of Public Administration, the Board of Trustees of the University of Prince Sultan, the University of Faisal, the University of Prince Mohammed bin Fahd and the Supreme Council of the Prince Sultan Military College for Health Sciences in Dhahran.

• 45


AWUAH, Patrick G., Founder and President, Ashesi University (Ghana)


Ashesi University is a private, not-for-profi t institution that has quickly gained a reputation for innovation and quality education in Ghana.Before founding Ashesi University, Patrick worked as a Program Manager for Microsoft where, among other things, he spearheaded the development of dial-up internetworking technologies and gained a reputation for bringing diffi cult projects to completion. He holds Bachelor degrees in Engineering and Economics from Swarthmore College, and an MBA from UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business. In 2004, Swarthmore awarded Patrick an honorary doctorate in recognition of his leadership in African higher education.Patrick was nominated as a Global Leader 2007 by the World Economic Forum and in recognition of his service to Ghana, was awarded Membership of the Order of the Volta by His Excellency, President J.A. Kufuor in July 2007. The Order of the Volta is one of Ghana’s highest awards, given to individuals who exemplify the ideal of service to the country.In November 2009, he won two prestigious awards: the 2009 Microsoft Alumni Foundation “Integral Fellow” award - a program honoring Microsoft Alumni who have made a meaningful difference in the daily lives of others by using their talents, time and resources to contribute to the community - and the John P. McNulty Prize, Aspen Institute which also recognizes an extraordinary young leader making creative, effective, and lasting contributions to his or her community.In May 2010 he was nominated as the 8th Ghana’s Most Respected CEO voted out the top ten in Ghana (ranking based on a survey of 208 CEOs). He is a Fellow of the Africa Leadership Initiative (a branch of the Aspen Global Leadership Network), a member of the United States Council on Foreign Relations, the Pacifi c Council on International Policy, and the United States Tau Beta Pi honor society for excellence in engineering.

ANDLER, Daniel, Chair of Philosophy of Science and Epistemology, Université Paris-Sorbonne, and member of the Institut universitaire de France (France)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Lessons from Cognitive Science> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Daniel Andler holds the Chair of Philosophy of Science and Epistemology at Université Paris-Sorbonne (Paris IV). In 2007 he was appointed to the Institut universitaire de France. Trained in mathematics and philosophy in Paris and at the University of California at Berkeley, he holds doctorates from both. A specialist of model theory, he fi rst taught in mathematics departments, then moved to positions in philosophy. He is the author and/or editor of several books and numerous papers.For the last 25 years he has focussed on cognitive science, extending from foundational issues to applications in education and social science. The connecting theme is the role of naturalistic approaches in human affairs and the attending sciences. On the theoretical side, while defending and illustrating a moderate form of naturalism, Andler emphasises the crucial role of context and the limits of any given state of human knowledge. On the practical side, these lead to a pluralistic view of science and a balanced form of objectivism regarding science in use, science-based policy-making and education. Andler has played a key role in organising philosophy of science and cognitive science in France and in Europe. In 2001, he created the Department of Cognitive Studies at Ecole normale supérieure and co-founded the most important graduate programme in cognitive science in the country. In 2006, he founded Compas, an interdisciplinary think-tank devoted to exploring the potential and signifi cance of IC technology in education, in the light of the accelerating development of cognitive science. A key insight of the group is that technology-enhanced education, and educational change generally, take place against a background of constraints which include not only the now familiar social, political and economic factors, but also the structure of the embodied, situated human mind in constant interaction with the evolving context of shared meaning.

BELLAMY, Carol, Chair of the Education for All / Fast Track Initiative and former Director, UNICEF (New York)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Access to Quality Education for All> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 11.00-12.30

Carol Bellamy presently serves as the Chair of the EFA/FTI Board of Directors. Since its creation in 2002, EFA/FTI has grown to become a dynamic global partnership endorsing the education sector plans of 41 low-income countries around the world and granting $2 billion in support of these strategies. Prior to this, Ms. Bellamy served as President and CEO of World Learning, a private, non-profi t organization promoting international understanding through education and development in over 70 countries.Bellamy previously served 10 years as Executive Director of UNICEF, the children’s agency of the United Nations. She was also the fi rst former volunteer to become Director of the Peace Corps.Ms. Bellamy has worked in the private sector at Bear, Stearns & Co., Morgan Stanley, and Cravath, Swaine & Moore. She spent 13 years as an elected public offi cial, including fi ve years in the New York State Senate. In 1978, she became the fi rst woman to be elected to citywide offi ce in New York City when she was elected President of the NYC Council, a position she held until 1985. Bellamy was named one of Forbes magazine’s 100 Most Powerful Women in the World in 2004. In 2009, Bellamy was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by the government of France. Bellamy also Chairs the Board of Governors of the International Baccalaureate.

BAKER, Mike, education journalist, broadcaster and author (UK)Sessions: Plenary • Improving Education Systems > Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 14.30-16.00

Plenary • Funding Education > Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

Plenary • Exploring Innovative Trends > Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

Mike is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and “blogger” specialising in UK and international education policy. A former Education Editor for the BBC, he now writes a regular column for both The BBC News Website and The Guardian. He also presents his own series on Teachers TV and is a regular pundit on TV and radio. His recent broadcasts include a history of primary schools on BBC Radio 4 (2009) and a six-part TV series on vocational education for BBC World (2008). He has twice been UK Education Journalist of the Year and won the Ted Wragg Lifetime Award for education journalism. Mike spent 27 years at BBC News, where his roles included Political Correspondent, Foreign Correspondent, and Deputy Home News Editor. From 1989-2007 he covered education for national BBC TV and radio. He is a former Visiting Professor at the Institute of Education, and has held fellowships at the universities of Oxford and Michigan. His publications include: Who Rules Our Schools, A Parents’ Guide to the New Curriculum, and Does Education Get the Media It Deserves?. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Teachers and is a trustee at two education charities, the National Education Trust and Villiers Park Education Trust. He is a judge for the Teaching Awards and is on expert advisory committees for England’s Children’s Commissioner and exams watchdog, Ofqual. Now a freelance, Mike also provides consultancy and media training to the education sector and regularly chairs major education conferences in the UK and abroad. Educated at state schools and Cambridge University, Mike also has an MA from Kingston University.

• 47


BETHELL, Andrew, Vice-Chair and Director of External Affairs, Teachers TV (UK)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Creating Teachers for Tomorrow> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Andrew Bethell has pursued a highly successful career as a practising teacher, a television producer, and as the founding director and creative and editorial leader of Teachers TV, the innovative digital television and online professional development service. He began his teaching career in an inner London comprehensive school in 1971. Sixteen years later he was Head of Year, Head of English and Media, and Head of Sixth Form. He also developed a reputation as a curriculum innovator and was actively engaged in in-service training, as a lecturer and course planner. In 1987, Andrew Bethell founded an independent television production company, Double Exposure. Under his leadership it established a reputation as one of the country’s leading producers with the highly praised and controversial series about a year in the life of an inner-city primary school “Culloden”, and with the BAFTA and Emmy award-winning BBC series “The House”. In June 2001 Andrew Bethell received the Royal Television Society’s Judges’ Award for Outstanding Contribution to Educational Broadasting. In early 2003 he joined the consortium bidding for Teachers TV, was responsible for devising the programming and scheduling strategy for the winning bid, and has been the creative and editorial force behind the success of the fi rst genuinely public-service digital channel and groundbreaking broadband offering. In 2010 he took on the role of Vice-Chair and Director of External Affairs, responsible for the global development of the Teachers TV model, as well as promoting the use of high-quality video in the improvement of teaching and learning. Teachers TV has won many prizes for its educational content, including the prestigious international Japan Prize for Best Website Prize 2007 and, most recently, Best Specialist Channel 2009, The Broadcast Digital Awards, UK. Andrew is currently advising the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation on their teacher development initiatives.

BEN ACHOUR, Mohamed El-Aziz, Director General, Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organisation (ALECSO) (Tunisia)


Prof. Dr. Mohamed-El Aziz Ben Achour was born on 5 January 1951 in La Marsa, the Northern suburb of Tunis, and is a historian specialised in Islamic civilization in Tunisia and the Arab World. He has a Doctorate in Islamic Civilization (Paris – Sorbonne, 1977) and a Doctorat d’Etat in Arts and Humanities (Paris - Sorbonne, 1986).

Prof. Dr. Mohamed-El Aziz Ben Achour is currently Director General of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientifi c Organization (ALECSO). He was elected in December 2008 and took up duties in February 2009. He has held senior political posts, including a ministerial appointment (Minister of Culture and Heritage Preservation from 2004-2008). Prior assignments included his nomination as Tunis town council member (1995-2000) and Vice Mayor of Tunis and City Manager of the Medina (2000-2005). He has actively taken part in various national, Arab and international meetings through the presentation of a number of lectures and papers. He has also participated in a number of radio and TV programmes dealing with topics related to Islam and Tunisian cultural heritage.

He has written several books and is an associate member of different international research teams. He has won several awards and decorations, among which the following can be cited: Commander of the Order of 7 November (Tunisia); Grand-Offi cer of the Order of the Republic of Tunisia; Knight of the National Order of Merit of the French Republic; Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters (France); Offi cer of the Order of Academic Palms (France); and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture, Lahore (1980), in recognition of the measures he has taken as keeper of the Sidi Bou Said site.

BIR SETHI, Kiran, Founder-Director, the Riverside School (India)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Designing Adaptable Curricula> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 16.30-18.00

Kiran Bir Sethi is the Founder-Director of the Riverside School in Ahmedabad, India. She has a design background, having received her diploma in visual communication from the National Institute of Design (NID). She is also the Founder of “aProCh” – which stands for “A Protagonist in Every Child” - an initiative that is attempting to make Ahmedabad more child-friendly, for which she was made an Ashoka Fellow in 2008.

In 2009, she was also presented with the “Call to Conscience” award from the King Centre at Stanford for the citizenship/liberation curriculum that Riverside School implements. In 2009, she conceptualised and promoted India’s largest Design for Giving contest for school children which got over 100,000 children to design solutions for some of India’s most challenging problems.

Currently she is promoting the world’s largest “Design for Change” contest, which has over 22 countries participating. She was also invited recently to be a speaker at TEDIndia. She was a symposium member at the Rockefeller Centre, Bellagio, looking at Design for Social Change.

In May-June 2010, she was a Keynote Speaker at the M.I. Symposium in Beijing, alongside Dr Howard Gardner. In July this year, she was a Speaker and Panellist at a Conference titled “Where Do We Go From Here?: Achieving Global Peace with Justice in a Sustainable Environment” at The Martin Luther, Jr., Research and Education Institute at Stanford University.

BIELACZYC, Katerine, Deputy Head and Associate Professor, Learning Sciences Lab., National Institute of Education (Singapore)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Skills for the 21st Century> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Dr. Katerine Bielaczyc’s expertise is in the area of teacher and student learning and epistemic change within contexts of classroom innovation, and new methodologies for assessment of such innovations. Her background includes the development of technology-based learning environments. In 2006, Kate joined Singapore’s National Institute of Education, and is currently serving as Deputy Head of the Learning Sciences Lab. She was formerly an Assistant Professor at Harvard University in Technology in Education and Teacher Education; a Senior Scientist at Bolt, Beranek, and Newman; and Director of the Learning Communities Research Group at Boston College. Kate also worked as a cognitive researcher and systems designer at the Learning Research and Development Center in Pittsburgh and at universities in the UK, France and Italy. Kate was the Director of Research on a large-scale school reform effort through the NSF Vanguard for Learning project, and also worked with colleagues at the Harvard Institute for International Development and the Secretary of Education in Bogota, Colombia, on the evaluation of an ICT project in the Bogota School District.

• 49


BOTMAN, H. Russel, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of Stellenbosch University (South Africa)


Professor H. Russel Botman, Vice-Chancellor and Rector of Stellenbosch University (SU), is an esteemed academic and theologian, and reveals a keen awareness of the need for close interaction with the community. These three components, namely academia, theology and the community, are closely interwoven in his professional career.Prior to becoming Vice-Chancellor, he was responsible as Vice-Rector (Teaching) for the management of a portfolio that is very close to his heart: the development and enrichment of the teaching and learning experience of the student in the classroom. He puts a high premium on the student-centred nature of the university. Before joining SU as Professor in Missiology, Ecumenism and Public Theology, Professor Botman was Dean of the Faculty of Religion and Theology at the University of the Western Cape, where he was directly involved in the transformation, rightsizing and institutional reorganisation of the faculty.He is a former President of the South African Council of Churches and has also served in the ministerial task group that advised the Minister of Education on matters regarding religion and education. He is well known for his national and international leadership, as a public theologian and ecumenical role-player.Outside of the academic world, he serves on the boards of various organisations and companies: he is Chairperson of the Absa Klein Karoo National Arts Festival and non-executive Director of Media 24 and Media24 Holdings.

BOKOVA, Irina, Director-General, UNESCO (Paris)

Session: Plenary – Funding Education> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

Born in Sofi a in 1952, Irina Bokova obtained an MBA from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations and studied at the universities of Maryland and Harvard in the USA. During her long and distinguished career, she served as Bulgaria’s representative to the United Nations, as her country’s Secretary of State for European Integration, as a member of the Bulgarian Parliament, as Foreign Minister, as Ambassador of the Republic of Bulgaria to France and Monaco, as Representative to the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and as Permanent Delegate to UNESCO.

As Founder and Chairperson of the European Policy Forum, Mrs Bokova worked to overcome divisions in Europe and to promote the values of dialogue, diversity, human dignity and human rights. She has received many distinctions for contributing to the development of Bulgarian foreign policy and was laureate of the Golden Lyre distinction for the promotion of Bulgarian music and performance art.

Irina Bokova is the fi rst woman to be elected Director-General of UNESCO, the United Nations specialized agency whose mission is to build peace through education, science and culture. She took offi ce on 15 November 2009 and will lead the Organization for the following four years.

© U

NES

CO

/ M

iche

l Rav

assa

rd

BURT, Martin, Founder and CEO, Fundación Paraguaya and Co-Founder, Teach A Man To Fish (Paraguay)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Plenary – Exploring Innovative Trends> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

Martin Burt is Founder and CEO of Fundación Paraguaya, a 25-year-old NGO devoted to the promotion of entrepreneurship among the world’s poor. He is a pioneer in applying microfi nance, microfranchise, youth entrepreneurship, and fi nancial literacy methodologies to address chronic poverty in Paraguay. He has also developed one of the world’s fi rst fi nancially self-suffi cient agricultural schools for the rural poor. He is Co-Founder of Teach a Man to Fish, a global network based in London (2000 members, 119 countries) that promotes “education that pays for itself” and which is partnering with more than 50 organisations from 27 countries to establish self-suffi cient schools, mostly in rural areas. He participates in the Education Global Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum and is Visiting Professor in Social Entrepreneurship at the University of the Pacifi c in California. He is a pioneer in environmental protection in Paraguay, having co-founded the Bertoni Nature Conservancy and the Mbaracayu Forest Reserve Foundations, two of the country’s largest nature conservation institutions. He has served as Vice Minister of Commerce and was elected Mayor of Asunción. Burt has received the Microfi nance Award from the Inter-American Development Bank, the Outstanding Social Entrepreneur Award from the Schwab Foundation, the Skoll Foundation Social Entrepreneur Award, the World Innovation Summit for Education Award, the Oikocredit Award, the Templeton Freedom Award, and the distinguished alumni Award from the George Washington University and University of the Pacifi c.He is an Avina Foundation leader and a Synergos and Eisenhower Fellow. Burt has been awarded the UNESCO Orbis Guaraniticus Medal and the Inter American Development Bank and UNESCO Best Practice Award. He serves as a Board Member for Junior Achievement Worldwide and Accion Microfi nance Network. Burt has published books on economics, development, municipal government, poetry, and education.

BUCKLEY, Dan, Director of Research and Development, Cambridge Education (UK)


For establishing the world’s fi rst 1:1 laptop model to use a learner-led competency curriculum model, Dan gained the BECTA National Secondary Leadership award in the UK, having earlier won the National Teacher of the Year award for Innovation and Creativity. Over the past seven years Dan Buckley has worked nationally and internationally to develop ways of achieving large-scale, sustainable transformation of school systems. As a fellow of Education Impact he has worked with ministers of education in numerous countries advising on large-scale strategic change management, building design and new pedagogic models. In his current role of Director of Research and Development at Cambridge Education he has developed the fi rst internationally benchmarked system for measuring progression in 21st-century skills such as collaboration, creativity and critical thinking at the individual, school, district and national level. He is currently testing what promises to be the world’s fi rst scalable methodology for providing teachers with 360-degree impact assessment of their work in progressing these skills scaled over school districts in Australia, US and the UK using his Personalisation by Pieces (PbyP) framework which was described by Carole Whitty, former Deputy President of the NAHT, as “a revolutionary tool which opens the door to a new pedagogical paradigm.” Dan was commissioned by Microsoft to write their future school visions for the UK “Building Schools for the Future” initiative and has since provided workshops for the fi nalists of their worldwide Innovative Schools Program in Brazil, followed up in 2010 with a series of worldwide workshops to schools across Europe, Asia and Australia which will culminate in the 2010 workshops in Cape Town, South Africa. Dan is a passionate advocate of empowering young people and is frequently invited to provide keynote presentations at national and international events.

BYUN, Kiyong, Associate Professor, College of Education, Vice-Director, Higher Education Policy Research Institute, Korea University (Republic of Korea)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Learning from Reforms of National Education Systems> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 11.00-12.30

Professor Byun passed the senior government offi cials examination in 1991 after graduating from the Seoul National University, College of Education. He was appointed a Deputy Director at the Korean Ministry of Education in 1992 and since then worked for the Ministry, except for the time when he was seconded to the OECD program on Institutional Management in Higher Education (IMHE) from 2002 to 2005. When he worked for the OECD/IMHE program, he took charge of a project entitled “Supporting the contribution of higher education institutions to regional development” where 12 countries including Korea participated. During his service at the Ministry of Education, he served in a number of positions, including Planning Offi cer and Head of Graduate School Reform Team, before moving to Korea University as a Professor in September 2008. Professor Byun earned a PhD in Educational Policy and Management from the University of Oregon (Eugene) in the US. His scholarly interest is higher education policy, in particular, higher education governance, the internationalization and globalization of higher education. He has published a number of reviewed original papers in the area of higher education policy. Currently, he is an Associate Professor in the College of Education, Department of Education, and also serves as a Vice-Director of the Higher Education Policy Research Institute at Korea University.

BYLL-CATARIA, Ahlin, Executive Secretary, Association for the Development of Education in Africa, and member of the governing board, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL) (Tunisia)


Ahlin Byll-Cataria has extensive experience in the identifi cation, elaboration and development of education programmes with bilateral and multilateral development agencies. He is currently the Executive Secretary of the Association for the Development of Education in Africa (ADEA), whose mandate is to act as a catalyst of innovative policies and practices for the qualitative change of education in Africa. He heads the secretariat in Tunis (Tunisia) and oversees nine ADEA working groups, mostly located in other African countries. He is also a member of the Governing Board of the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL), representing Togo.Prior to becoming ADEA’s Executive Secretary in August 2008, Ahlin was Senior Advisor for the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC). From 1979 he worked in the fi eld for 10 years as a trainer of trainers in the Swiss literacy project and as a deputy representative of SDC in Niger. At SDC headquarters in Bern, he worked for 10 years in the West Africa Division, responsible for programme and fi nancial planning, development, management and evaluation in Mali and Niger. Most of his career was spent at SDC, where he also worked for eight years in the education sector, responsible for the elaboration of basic education policies and programme management. From 1995 to 2003, he worked as a consultant in education, completing mandates in various countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East for UNESCO and various NGOs.

• 53


CHUN, Se-Yeoung, President, Korean Education and Research Information Service (KERIS) (Republic of Korea)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Appraising the Impact of ICT> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 15.30-17.00

Dr Se-Yeoung Chun is the current President of the Korean Education and Research Information Service (KERIS). Since assuming his role as President, he has been overseeing the update and improvement of customised Web 2.0-based service systems such as Korea’s National Education Information Service (NEIS), the Research Information Service System (RISS) and EDUNET, an online portal site which connects teachers and students and provides a wide range of education services to the public. He is also responsible for the activation of Korea Open Courseware (KOCW), another online educational service which provides online lectures to university students free of charge. Dr Chun’s top priorities are creating an unrivalled public education system and providing the people with e-learning services through proper information networks.In addition to his obligations as President of KERIS, Dr Chun currently serves as President of the Korean Society for Education Policy and the President-Elect of the Korean Society for the Economics and Finance of Education. Other organisations that Dr Chun has been involved with include the Korea Education Development Institute (KEDI), UNESCO’s Korea National Commission, and Korea’s national coordinator of the OECD Educational Indicator Network. In 2008 Dr Chun was chosen by current President Lee Myung-Bak to serve as a presidential advisor and assisted in the development of expansive policies related to education.Dr Chun’s experiences have been highlighted by a 30-year-long career in educational research and policy. He holds a Ph.D. in education from Seoul National University and was a Fulbright Fellow at George Mason University and the University of Pittsburgh. Dr Chun has published a number of books in the fi eld, the most recent of which is titled Research in Korea’s Educational Finance. Presently, he is advising Ph.D. candidates as a Professor of Chungnam National University.

CARBONARO, Simonetta, Professor of Design Management and Humanistic Marketing, University of Borås, The Swedish School of Textiles (Sweden)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Creative Arts in Education> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 15.30-17.00

Simonetta Carbonaro is an expert in consumer psychology, strategic marketing and design management. She carries out research in the area of consumer ethos and behavior, forecasting the directions consumer culture is moving in. Since 2002 she has been professor in Design Management and Humanistic Marketing at the University of Borås, where she directs The Design of Prosperity Centre, a think tank focused on socio-cultural forces infl uencing new cultural movements, driving societal changes and fostering new lifestyles.

She has been teaching at the postgraduate design school Domus Academy in Milan for more than 10 years and is today a partner of the research pool and member of the advisory board of the Swiss Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute for marketing and social studies.

For the last 15 years, Carbonaro has been working as senior strategic advisor for main consumer goods companies. She is a partner at REALISE, a business consulting fi rm based in Germany, where she is actively involved in values branding, strategic design and innovation management. Simonetta Carbonaro is also a co-founder and member of the European Cultural Parliament, a forum for European personalities in the fi elds of arts, culture and letters for dialogue, discussions and debate about crucial and burning issues linked to democracy and culture.

COLAÇO, Jessica, Manager, iHub - Nairobi’s Tech Innovation Hub (Kenya)


Jessica Colaço is the Manager at iHub – Nairobi’s Tech Innovation Hub and a TEDGlobal Fellow 2009. She is a researcher and a mobile technology evangelist in Kenya. She is the founder of Mobile Boot Camp Kenya Edition which was recently profi led on CNN Labs. She is passionate about innovation, research, mobile technology and entrepreneurship in Kenya as she uses her position at iHub to court local, regional and international stakeholders to adopt Kenyan-made solutions.She holds a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the School of Computing and Informatics, University of Nairobi, and is currently pursuing an Executive MBA at Strathmore Business School. She is a certifi ed researcher and has carried out various research studies in conjunction with Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre (SRCC) at Strathmore University in Nairobi, Kenya.She was the Research Leader at Strathmore Research and Consultancy Centre (SRCC) at Strathmore University and used her position to spearhead and manage the research projects within the company. She has spoken about her work at various conferences including IDRC’s Africa’s New Frontier: Innovation, Technology and Prosperity and Relief 2.0 in Haiti at Stanford in February 2010. She has spoken about Innovation and Technology in Kenya during the Mobile Monday Summit and Mobile Brain Bank in Helsinki, Finland in September 2010.In February 2009, Business Daily named her as one of the top 40 women under 40 years of age in Kenya’s business scene. “Ms Colaço is a trailblazer,” said the Business Daily, “and she has been instrumental in connecting young software developers with multi-national ICT companies.” In March 2008, Ms Colaço helped organise the fi rst ever Nairobi Facebook Developer Garage, an event that served as a forum for students from different universities and professional developers in Kenya to learn about the Facebook programming platform.

CLARKE, Charles, Former Secretary of State for Education and Skills (UK)


Charles Clarke was born in London in 1950 and educated at Highgate School, London. He read mathematics and economics at Kings College Cambridge.In 1977-8 he was the UK representative on the preparatory Committee for the World Youth Festival in Cuba. From 1978-80 he worked for Hackney People in Partnership, which was part of the Government’s urban renewal programme. In 1980 he was elected Labour councillor for Chatham ward in the London Borough of Hackney and between 1980 and 1986 he gained extensive experience of local government, becoming Vice Chair of Economic Development and then Chair of the Housing Committee.From 1980-83 he worked as a part-time researcher for Neil Kinnock MP, then Opposition Spokesman on Education. From 1983-92 he was political adviser and then Chief of Staff to the Labour Party Leader and Leader of the Opposition, Neil Kinnock MP. From 1992-7, he established and ran a public affairs management consultancy, Quality Public Affairs, which advised organisations how best to make their case.In May 1997 he was elected Labour Member of Parliament for Norwich South, which he remained until May 2010. In 1997-98 he was a member of the Treasury Select Committee, and then in July 1998 he became Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for School Standards. In July 1999 he was appointed Minister of State at the Home Offi ce, with particular responsibility for the police. After the 2001 general election, he joined the cabinet as Labour Party Chair and Minister without portfolio. He was appointed Secretary of State for Education and Skills in October 2002, and then in December 2004 Home Secretary, leaving the Home Offi ce on May 5th 2006, returning to the backbenches.

• 55


COWEN, Scott S., President, Tulane University (USA)

Session: Plenary • Funding Education> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

Scott S. Cowen is the 14th President of Tulane University, one of the most highly regarded and selective independent research universities in the United States.Since Dr. Cowen’s arrival in 1998, Tulane University has more than quintupled its undergraduate applications while experiencing all-time highs in student quality. In addition, Tulane has more than doubled the level of total private giving to the university and received a record level of research awards. The university has also implemented a number of innovative academic and research program initiatives and made community outreach the centerpiece of a Tulane education. In recognition of Tulane’s accomplishments under Dr. Cowen, it has twice been noted as one of the “Hottest Schools in America” by Newsweek magazine and recognized on multiple occasions for its civic engagement programs. In 2009 TIME Magazine named Dr. Cowen one of the nation’s top 10 Best College Presidents and he was one of only four university leaders nationwide to receive the 2009 Carnegie Corporation Academic Leadership Award. In 2010 President Cowen was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, one of the world’s most prestigious honorary societies. He is also the recipient of several national awards and honorary degrees from institutions such as Brown University, Yeshiva University, the University of Connecticut and the University of Notre Dame. In addition to his role as university President, Dr. Cowen is one of the leading forces in the transformation of kindergarten through 12th grade public education in New Orleans. Widely regarded as one of the worst school systems in the U.S. before its devastation by Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans’ public schools have made remarkable strides in student achievement, teacher quality and physical reconstruction with Dr. Cowen and the Cowen Institute for Public Education Initiatives playing a vital role.

COLBERT, Vicky, Founder and Executive Director, Fundación Escuela Nueva (Colombia)


Vicky Colbert is Founder and Executive Director of Fundación Escuela Nueva, and original co-author of the Escuela Nueva (New School in English) pedagogical model, known worldwide for its proven effectiveness in improving the quality and relevance of basic education. Initiated in Colombia, Escuela Nueva became a national policy reaching over 20,000 rural schools. Over the following decades, the success and effectiveness of the model inspired further implementation throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, Uganda and the Philippines. To date, Escuela Nueva has been adapted to urban and internally displaced populations, and has been implemented in 16 countries, reaching over 5 million children. Vicky Colbert has developed, expanded and sustained this innovation from different organisational spheres, as the fi rst Escuela Nueva National Coordinator, Vice-Minister of Education of Colombia, UNICEF’s Regional Education Adviser for the Latin American and Caribbean Region and, now, from Fundación Escuela Nueva, an NGO she founded to expand Escuela Nueva and to ensure its quality and sustainability in Colombia and abroad.Internationally, she has been recognised as an Outstanding Social Entrepreneur by the Schwab Foundation, founded by the President of the World Economic Forum; and a Leading Social Entrepreneur and Senior Fellow of Ashoka. In 2005 she received the World Technology Award in Social Entrepreneurship by the World Technology Network. In 2006 she received the Skoll Foundation’s Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship, and was awarded by President Clinton the fi rst ever Clinton Global Citizenship award. Most recently, she received the 2009 WISE Award for her efforts in education for Pluralism. She is also a member of WEF’s Global Agenda Council in Education. In Colombia, she has been selected among the 100 most infl uential women of Colombia’s history. Vicky has a BA in Sociology and two MAs in Sociology of Education and Comparative International Education from Stanford University (USA).

DE FREITAS, Sara, Director of Research, Serious Games Institute, Coventry University (UK)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Games for Serious Learning> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Sara is Director of Research at the Serious Games Institute at the University of Coventry where she leads an applied research team working closely with industry. Appointed Professor of Virtual Environments, she holds a visiting senior research fellowship at the London Knowledge Lab, London, and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. In 2003 Sara founded (and continues to Chair) the UK Lab Group, which brings the research and development community together to create stronger links between industrial and academic research through supporting collaborative programmes and for showcasing innovative R&D solutions for the knowledge economy. Voted the Most Infl uential Woman in Technology 2009 and 2010 by US Fast Company, Sara chairs the IEEE Serious Games and Virtual Worlds conferences (VS-Games), and is a regular speaker at international conferences. Sara currently holds funding from the Advantage West Midlands, Erasmus Scheme, European Regional Development Fund and European Union. Her current lines of research are examining multimodal interfaces, experience design and perceptual modelling in games and virtual worlds towards developing the next generation of intelligent tutoring environments. Sara publishes widely in the areas of: pedagogy and e-learning; change management and strategy development for implementing e-learning systems and serious games and virtual worlds for supporting training and learning. Her most recent book Rethinking Learning for a Digital Age (edited with R. Sharpe and H. Beetham) was published by Routledge. Her forthcoming book Digital Games and Learning (edited with P. Maharg), published by Continuum Press, is due out in early 2011.

DAVITT, John, education innovator and digital toolmaker, NewTools.org (UK)


John Davitt is a teacher, inventor, broadcaster and digital toolmaker. He has worked in the international education sector for the last 25 years and is a specialist at cutting through the mystique to assess the practical potential of new resources. John has worked alongside teachers in schools in the UK, Africa, the USA and China and he is committed to levelling the playing fi eld regarding access to new learning opportunities.John is the author of the book New Tools for Learning (2006), a practical guide as to how to make the technology fi t the learning need, and WordRoot, an interactive CD guide to words and their etymology. In 2010 he also launched “The Learning Score” (www.learningscore.org), a visual tool that maps out and shares learning intentions as a graphical event - rather like a music score. His latest project is the open-source Learning Event Generator and “the RAG” - an interactive learning tool for mobile devices where you literally shake up a learning challenge. John’s latest work is with education centres around “Designs for active and affordable learning” (D4AL). As well as work with individual governments and consortia, John takes D4AL on the road as an Active Learning Roadshow - in Australia, October 2010, and America, February 2011. In his keynotes and training sessions John champions a pragmatic and realistic view of the new technology revolution. His approach is one that fuses intermediate and advanced technology approaches where we keep the best of past practice and augment it with the benefi ts that new tools have to offer.

• 57


D’OLIVEIRA, Cecilia, Executive Director, MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) (USA)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Open Education Models> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

As Executive Director of OpenCourseWare (OCW) at MIT, Ms. d’Oliveira provides leadership for the institution’s highly acclaimed OCW program. She heads a staff of 20 professionals working with Massachusetts Institute for Technology (MIT) faculty to publish MIT’s educational materials for free and open access and with external groups such as the OCW Consortium to advance the adoption of the OCW approach worldwide. She also works with internal and external advisory groups to plan for OCW’s evolution and sustainability. As Technology Director for OCW, from 2002 to 2007, she implemented the technical infrastructure supporting OCW’s publishing process and worldwide distribution. Ms. d’Oliveira is a member of MIT’s Council on Educational Technology and works closely with MIT faculty and staff on issues related to educational technology innovation, implementation and support on the MIT campus. She has been a member of the MIT community for over 30 years, initially as a student and subsequently in professional roles which have focused on the application of IT in support of MIT’s education, research, and administrative programs. Her work has involved the introduction of many technology innovations to the MIT campus including networking, email, computing clusters, the Web, and e-commerce.Ms. d’Oliveira received a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and a Master of Science in Management from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Open Learning Exchange, a non-profi t dedicated to the concept of universal access to basic education by 2015. She has spoken at numerous conferences on the topic of OCW implementation, impact, and future challenges.

DIXON, Bruce, Director, Preston Dixon Consulting (Australia) and Founder and President, Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation (USA)


From a background as an educator, educational software developer, business and social entrepreneur, and strategic consultant, Bruce Dixon has developed a unique niche in building effective strategies for educational leaders and policy makers around the effective use of emerging technologies. He has a global reputation for his insight and foresight in understanding what technology makes possible for learners and how it can genuinely transform schools and education systems across diverse cultures and communities. His work throughout the late 80s and 90s led the development of the fi rst 1-to-1 initiatives in the world, in schools across Australia. In 1996 he took the concept to North America, Canada and the UK, before co-founding the not-for-profi t Anytime Anywhere Learning Foundation, which provides thought leadership and resources to policy makers and educational leaders in the effective implementation of 1-to-1 initiatives worldwide. His work in pioneering and evangelizing the transformative opportunities that become possible through the provision of ubiquitous access to technology around the world has been responsible for hundreds of thousands of young people having their own personal portable computers as their preferred medium for learning. In 1997 Bruce received an award from the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC for his work worldwide pioneering ubiquitous access to technology and in 2006 was named as one of “20 People to Watch” by the National School Boards Association of America. He consults to schools, school districts, education departments, ministries of education and corporations in the US, Australia, Canada, Europe, and Asia and regularly speaks at national and international conferences around the world; over the past two years he has spoken at numerous events in more than 35 countries, reaching educational and political leaders from around the world. Over the past year he has also been the founding consulting Director of ideasLAB in Broadmeadows, Australia.

ETUK, Ntiedo (Nt), Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Tabula Digita, Inc. (USA)


Tabula Digita is the company behind the award-winning DimensionU Learning System - a universe of multi-player educational video games where students learn, practice, compete, and collaborate, globally, in core K-12 subjects including math, literacy, science and history. Prior to founding Tabula Digita, Nt (pronounced EN-tee) worked for a number of years managing the creation, implementation and analysis of various disruptive consumer products for Bank One and Citigroup. At Citigroup, he was a member of the Payment Innovation Team, a Research and Development group responsible for the creation and implementation of concepts projected to generate $100 million in profi ts. At Bank One, Nt was responsible for the analysis and implementation of initiatives generating over $100 million in annual revenue for the company. He has also worked with McKinsey & Company. In 2010 Nt was selected by Technology & Learning as one of the 30 Future Leaders of Education Technology. He was also honored as one of six “Top Entrepreneurs” by Crain’s New York. In addition, Nt is a member of the 2010 Henry Crown Fellows class at the Aspen Institute and a member of The Aspen Institute’s Nigeria Leadership Initiative program. He has been identifi ed as one of Black Enterprise Magazine’s Masters of Technology and has been featured in numerous publications including Forbes, BusinessWeek, and The New York Times. Nt earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Cornell University, and an MBA at Columbia Business School where he was a Beta Gamma Sigma graduate, a recipient of the Board of Overseers Fellowship, winner of the Heffernan Award for Outstanding Service, and recipient of the Lang Fund Award for outstanding business ideas.A Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and an avid reader of science fi ction and fantasy novels, Nt’s game name is The_Man, so that IF the kids beat him they can say they beat The Man.

DU TOIT, Fanie, Executive Director, Institute for Justice and Reconciliation (South Africa)


Fanie du Toit specializes in post-confl ict reconciliation and transitional justice with a focus on education. In January 2008 Fanie was appointed the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation’s second Executive Director. He joined the Institute in 2000. Fanie, together with his colleagues at the Institute and other partner organisations, is engaged in facilitating reconciliation and transitional justice in South Africa, Rwanda, Sudan, Burundi, Mozambique, the DRC, Zimbabwe and Uganda. He has, amongst other projects, led the Institute’s “Education for Reconciliation” project which produces textbooks, guides and other support strategies on the teaching of reconciliation, history and life orientation in Africa. Resources from this project have been widely disseminated. In 2008, the Institute was awarded UNESCO’s international Prize for Peace Education in recognition of efforts to educate and promote reconciliation in Africa.He is editor of three volumes: Learning to Live Together – Practices of Social Reconciliation; Truth and Reconciliation in South Africa: Ten Years On; as well as In the Balance – South Africans debate reconciliation. He is author of various journal articles, shorter essays, book chapters and regular media pieces. He was elected Rhodes Scholar in 1991 and completed a doctoral degree in Philosophy of Religion at Oxford University in 1995.

FEDOROV, Alexander, Pro-Rector, Taganrog State Pedagogical Institute, and President, Russian Association for Film and Media Education (Russia)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • New Perspectives for the Media in 21st-Century Education> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 15.30-17.00

Professor Alexander Fedorov completed his Ph.D. thesis at the Russian Academy of Education (Moscow) in the fi eld of media education (1993). Currently he is President of the Russian Association for Film and Media Education, Editor-in-Chief of the pedagogical journal Media Education (http://www.edu.of.ru/medialibrary) and Pro-Rector of Taganrog State Pedagogical Institute. He is also a member of the Russian Academy of Film Arts and Science, the Russian Union of Filmmakers, CIFEJ and FIPRECI.Professor Fedorov is the author of 20 books on media education literacy (for example, Development of Media Competence and Critical Thinking of Students of Pedagogical Universities, Moscow, 2007; On Media Education, Moscow, 2008; Media Education: Past and Present, Moscow, 2009). and more than 400 articles (in Russian, American, Canadian, French, German, and Norwegian media studies and media literacy journals). He is the head of the Scientifi c Centre “Media Education and Media Competence” (in Taganrog State Pedagogical Institute). This Centre created and now supports several websites dedicated to media education, including a site on the federal portal of the Russian Ministry of Education and Science (http://edu.of.ru/mediaeducation) and the “Information Literacy and Media Education” website (http://www.mediagram.ru).Since 1997 he has received scientifi c research grants on media culture and media education topics from the Russian Ministry of Education, the President of the Russian Federation, the Russian Foundation for Humanities, the Kennan Institute (USA), IREX (USA), the MacArthur Foundation (USA), the Open Society Institute (Soros Foundation, USA), DAAD (Germany), and others. He has been a guest professor and research fellow in the Norway Association for Media Education (Oslo), the Central European University (Budapest), Kassel University (Germany), Maison des sciences de l’homme (Paris), the Kennan Institute, (Washington D.C.), Humboldt University (Berlin) and Mainz University (Germany). Professor Fedorov has participated in many international media education conferences.

EZZINE Mourad, Education Sector Manager, Middle East and North Africa, The World Bank (Washington D.C.)


Mourad Ezzine is the Education Sector Manager, Human Development Department in the Middle East and North Africa Region of the World Bank. He joined the World Bank in 1992 and worked extensively on human development issues and the linkages between education and economic development, in North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East. Before joining the Bank, he was Director of Planning and Information Systems in the Tunisian Ministry of Education and held management-level positions in a Tunisian private development bank. Mr. Ezzine holds a post-graduate degree in economics and statistics from the Ecole Nationale des Statistiques et de l’Administration Economique in Paris, a Master’s degree in development economics from the Sorbonne University in Paris, and a Maîtrise in Mathematics from the University of Sciences of Tunis.

• 61


GERGELY, György, Professor of Psychology, Cognitive Development Center at the Central European University (Hungary)


György Gergely is an internationally acclaimed scientifi c authority in the cognitive and developmental sciences. He is currently Professor of Psychology and founding member of the graduate department in social cognitive science recently created at Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. He was educated in the UK and the US, receiving his fi rst PhD in experimental psychology from Columbia University. He later earned a second PhD in clinical child psychology and is also a well-known expert in clinical developmental theory and developmental psychopathology. Professor Gergely’s innovative research spans several areas of cognitive science including early social cognitive development, psychology of language, thought, and communication, cognitive neuroscience, comparative and cross-cultural psychology, attachment theory and developmental psychopathology. He has published widely in these areas in high-impact scientifi c journals (including Nature and Science) and is the author of several scholarly books. He has received many international awards including the Guggenheim Fellowship (2004). He was Resident Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences (CASBS) at Stanford, US (2007-2008) and received the 2011 Jean-Nicod Prize & Lectures in Philosophy and Cognitive Science of the Mind (awarded by the Institut Jean-Nicod-CNRS-EHESS-ENS in Paris, France).His current research on the human social cognitive instinctual system, called “Natural Pedagogy”, demonstrates already in preverbal infants our biological preparedness to use communication to “teach” and “learn” new and relevant cultural information. This communicative cultural learning provides the evolutionary basis for the uniquely human ability not only to “create” culture, but also to transmit new and increasingly complex cultural knowledge across generations. At the same time, the increasing neuro-scientifi c understanding of the cognitive architecture of the social mind can provide us with the biological platform for designing optimal (bio-friendly) educational technologies for the effi cient intergenerational transmission of cultural knowledge in the future.

GIBBONS, Mike, see page 105

FONTAINE, Yvon, President, Université de Moncton, and President, Agence universitaire de la Francophonie (AUF) (Canada)


In 2000, Yvon Fontaine became the eighth President of the Université de Moncton, Canada’s largest French-language university outside Québec with campuses in Edmundston, Moncton and Shippagan, New Brunswick. Mr. Fontaine holds a Master’s degree in law from the University of Toronto, as well as Bachelor’s degrees in law and in social sciences from the Université de Moncton. He also pursued graduate studies in political science at the Université Paris 1 (Panthéon-Sorbonne).Appointed law professor at the Université de Moncton in 1983, he served as both Associate Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Law and was later named Director of the university’s international co-operation offi ce. In 1997, he was appointed Academic Vice-President. He also completed a two-year term as Vice-President of Assumption Life, a New Brunswick-based fi nancial institution.Mr. Fontaine is past-President of the Association of Atlantic Universities and of the Association des universités de la francophonie canadienne. He also served on the board of directors of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada. In 2005, he was elected Vice-President of the Agence universitaire de la Francophonie, a world-wide network of 700 French-speaking advanced learning and research institutions from 80 countries. In May 2009, he was elected to a four-year term as President of this global institution.In recognition of his exceptional contribution to the advancement of French, Mr Fontaine was named jurist of the year in 1993 by the Université de Moncton’s Faculty of Law. In 1994, he was admitted to the Ordre de la Pléiade of the International Association of French-Speaking Parliamentarians. He was also awarded the Croix de Chevalier des arts et des lettres by the French government in 2004 and received an honorary degree from the Université de Poitiers in 2007.

GOODMAN, Allan E., President and CEO, Institute of International Education (IIE) (USA)


Dr. Goodman is the sixth President of IIE, the leading not-for-profi t organization in the fi eld of international educational exchange and development training. IIE administers the Fulbright program, sponsored by the United States Department of State, and 200 other corporate, government and privately sponsored programs.Previously, he was Executive Dean of the School of Foreign Service and Professor at Georgetown University. He is the author of books on international affairs published by Harvard, Princeton and Yale University presses and Diversity in Governance, published by the American Council on Education. Dr. Goodman also served as Presidential Briefi ng Coordinator for the Director of Central Intelligence and as Special Assistant to the Director of the National Foreign Assessment Center in the Carter Administration. He was the fi rst American professor to lecture at the Foreign Affairs College of Beijing. Dr. Goodman also helped create the fi rst U.S. academic exchange program with the Moscow Diplomatic Academy for the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs and developed the diplomatic training program of the Foreign Ministry of Vietnam. Dr. Goodman has also served as a consultant to Ford Foundation, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, the United States Information Agency, and IBM. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Dr. Goodman has a Ph.D. in Government from Harvard, an M.P.A. from the John F. Kennedy School of Government and a B.S. from Northwestern University. Dr. Goodman also holds honorary degrees from Toyota and Chatham Universities, Mount Ida, Ramapo, and Middlebury colleges, and The State University of New York. He has received awards from Georgetown, Johns Hopkins, and Tufts universities, the University of South Florida, and the French Légion d’honneur.

GOLDMAN, Charles A., Senior Economist, RAND (USA)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Assessment and Education Improvement> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 16.30-18.00

Charles A. Goldman is a senior economist at RAND, specializing in the analysis of elementary, secondary, and postsecondary education in a number of countries. Since 2002, he has worked closely with the government of Qatar to expand high-quality options for schooling at all levels. He has also analyzed education systems in the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Syria, Lebanon, the Palestinian territories, South Korea, Singapore, China, India, and the United States. His work includes comparative studies; system design, governance, and fi nance; evaluation of program implementations and impacts; effective use of data resources and design of data systems; and strategic planning. His recent major monographs and books include Education for a New Era, Building a Successful Palestinian State, In Pursuit of Prestige, The PhD Factory, and Paying for University Research Facilities and Administration. Dr. Goldman also holds an appointment as Professor of Economics at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. He has previously been Associate Director of RAND Education and Associate Director of the RAND Arroyo Center Manpower and Training Program. Prior to joining RAND in 1993, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in computer science and engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a PhD in Economic Analysis and Policy from Stanford University, and held a postdoctoral fellowship in the Stanford School of Education.

• 63


HARRIS, E. Nigel, Vice-Chancellor, the University of the West Indies (Jamaica)

Session: Plenary • Improving Education Systems> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 14.30-16.00

Guyanese by birth, Professor Harris served as Dean and Senior Vice-President for Academic Affairs of The Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta, USA from 1996-2004.Professor Harris graduated magna cum laude from Howard University in 1968 with a degree in Chemistry. He later received a Master of Philosophy in Biochemistry from Yale University and a medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He is internationally known for his work as a rheumatologist. With Doctors Aziz Gharavi and Graham Hughes, he helped to defi ne and develop a diagnostic test for Antiphospholipid Syndrome. Professor Harris and his colleagues have published over 150 papers on the subject. In 1987, he joined the University of Louisville, Kentucky, and in 1993 became Professor of Medicine and Chief of Rheumatology. In this position, he launched the Antiphospholipid Standardisation Laboratory that led worldwide efforts to standardise diagnostic testing. In 2004, Dr Harris accepted the post of Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies (UWI). UWI serves 15 Caribbean countries with major campuses located in Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad. Since coming to the University of the West Indies, Professor Harris has focussed on programmes that enhance contributions of UWI to Caribbean governments, broadened funding and enhanced alumni relations. A key initiative launched by Professor Harris was the creation of an “Open Campus” which uses the Internet to reach students in the dispersed islands of the Caribbean Sea.In addition to his university position, Professor Harris holds a number of international leadership positions. He is currently President of the Caribbean Association of Universities and Research Institutes (UNICA), and Deputy Chairman of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU). He has received many honours and awards, including the Centennial Award for contributions to medicine by the National Medical Association (USA) and the Martin Luther King International Legacy Award.

HAMBER, Brandon, Director, The International Conflict Research Institute (INCORE), University of Ulster (UK)


Professor Brandon Hamber is Director of the International Confl ict Research Institute (INCORE), an associate site of the United Nations University based at the University of Ulster. He is also Visiting Professor of Psychology at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. He was born in South Africa and currently lives in Belfast. In South Africa he trained as a clinical psychologist at the University of the Witwatersrand and holds a Ph.D. from the University of Ulster. Prior to moving to Northern Ireland, he co-ordinated the Transition and Reconciliation Unit at the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation in Johannesburg. He co-ordinated the Centre’s work focussing on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. He was a visiting Tip O’Neill Fellow in Peace Studies at INCORE in 1997/1998. He was also the recipient of the Rockefeller Resident Fellowship (1996) and was a visiting fellow at the Centre for the Study of Violence in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He has consulted to a range of community groups, policy initiatives and government bodies in Northern Ireland and South Africa. He has undertaken consulting and research work, and participated in various peace and reconciliation initiatives in Liberia, Mozambique, Bosnia, the Basque Country and Sierra Leone, among others. He has lectured and taught widely, including, on the International Trauma Studies Programme at Colombia University, New York, and the Post-War and Reconstruction Unit, University of York; and at the University of Ulster. He has written extensively on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the psychological implications of political violence, and the process of transition and reconciliation in South Africa, Northern Ireland and abroad. He has published some 40 book chapters and scientifi c journal articles, and his latest book Transforming Societies after Political Violence: Truth, Reconciliation, and Mental Health was published by Springer in 2009. Qualifi cations: BA (Hons) MA (Clin. Psych) PhD.

HIBI, Yoshihiko, Executive Director, Learning Media Division, NHK Educational Corporation (Japan)


Yoshihiko Hibi is the head of the Learning Media Division at the NHK Educational Corporation and leads the project team developing advanced audio-visual contents for digital media. The NHK Educational Corporation is the most important provider of content to NHK’s Educational TV channel. NHK (Nippon Hoso Kyokai: Japan Broadcasting Corporation) is Japan’s largest broadcasting organisation and sole public broadcaster. NHK operates fi ve television and three radio channels including online services in Japan.Yoshihiko Hibi joined NHK in 1980. He is a producer of numerous educational TV programmes (science, social studies and history) and special documentaries. In 1989, he launched the production of the integrated programmes for both TV broadcasting and the educational use of computers. In 1991, he won the special prize at the Montreux Electronic Cinema Festival (Switzerland) for these programmes. This was an innovative attempt to produce interactive TV well before the appearance of the Internet or QuickTime.Besides working as an NHK producer, he held the professorial chair for the Media Literacy course in the Faculty of Education of the University of Tokyo from 1998 to 2004. He was also a member of the subdivision committee of The Central Council for Education (established in the Ministry of Education) from 2004 to 2007. The Central Council for Education is an organisation that carries out research and deliberates on important matters related to the promotion of education.Recently, from 2007 to 2009, he was the Secretary General of the Japan Prize International Contest for Educational Media. During this period, he redeveloped this renowned contest that specialises in educational media around the world. As the digital era evolves, broadcasting and telecommunications continue to converge, and the world becomes truly borderless. Hibi thinks it is important to continue to provide high-quality content in every format to people of all ages and interests.

HEPPELL, Stephen, Founder heppell.net, and Professor, Bournemouth University, Chair in New Media Environments (UK)


Professor Stephen Heppell is CEO of Heppell.net, Professor at Bournemouth University, Chair in New Media Environments, Emeritus Professor at Anglia Ruskin University, Visiting Professor at the University of Wales, Newport, and Executive Chairman of LP+.Stephen founded Ultralab in the 1980s, moving there from the UK Government’s groundbreaking Microelectronics Education Programme. Over a score of years, Ultralab grew to become Europe’s leading learning technology research centre with projects that pioneered multimedia CD-ROMs and on-line communities in the 1980s - before the web. In recognition of this work, along with others - including Damien Hirst, Jarvis Cocker, Harrison Ford, Lauren Bacall and Muhammad Ali - Stephen became an Apple Master in the 1990s.Stephen was the guiding “father” of a number of social networking projects including *ESW in the 1980s, Schools OnLine for the Department of Trade and Industry in 1995/6, Tesco Schoolnet 2000 from 1999, and Think.com from 1999. He left Ultralab to found his own fl ourishing policy and learning consultancy, Heppell.net, which now has a portfolio of international projects including Learnometer and HorizonTAL. Stephen was a founder Board Member for Teachers.TV - a UK public service TV and broadband channel for professional development of teachers.In June 2006 Stephen was awarded the Royal Television Society’s Judges Award for Lifelong Services to Educational Broadcasting. Stephen is retained by a number of organisations to help with future policy and direction, including the BBC, is an Associate of KPMG, and is retained by UK government in Horizon Scanning work to advise on future directions for educational policy. Stephen is Executive Chairman of LP+ who are currently developing a Chinese-language learning community for 20 million Chinese school students, in partnership with China’s Sun New Media corporation.

• 65


ISLAM, Safiqul, Director of BRAC Education Programme (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee) (Bangladesh)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Social Entrepreneurship in Education> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 15.30-17.00

Dr. Safi qul Islam is the Director of BRAC Education Programme. He received a PhD in Economics from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences in 1985. Before joining BRAC in 1987, he was a Research Associate at the Center for Integrated Rural Development for Asia and Pacifi c (CIRDAP). At BRAC, he has held different positions including Senior Research Economist at the Research and Evaluation Division and Programme Coordinator at the Monitoring Department. In 1995, he joined BRAC Education Programme. He worked for UNICEF in Pakistan during 1997-8 as a consultant to the government of North-West Frontier Province on non-formal education. He was seconded to the Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) to work for the Directorate of Non-Formal Education of Bangladesh Government during 2001-2002. In 2004, he became the Director of BRAC Education Programme that engages above 6,000 full-time personnel and 43,000 part-time teachers, and reaches 1,180,294 pre-primary and primary school students; 33,475 secondary school teachers; 222,654 adolescents; and almost one million library members. He is a member of BRAC’s senior Executive Management Team and represents BRAC in national and international forums.Dr Islam was a member of the policy-making group in 2008-2009 coordinated by the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education (MoPME) that drafted the country’s framework on Early Childhood Development and of the core group of the Ministry that organised the SAARC EFA (Education For All) Ministerial Meeting in April 2010. He is now a member of the working group of the government’s Bureau of Non-Formal Education. His major publications include (1) Reaching the Hard to Reach Population in Rural Bangladesh through BRAC Education Programme, (2) BRAC Approach in Assessing Learning Progress in Adult Education in Bangladesh, (3) Community Learning Centre (CLC): Developing a Learning Society in Bangladesh, and (4) Monitoring Non-Formal Primary Education.

JALAL, Fasli, see page 105

IRWIN, Rita, President of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) (Canada)


Rita L. Irwin is a Professor of Art Education and Curriculum Studies, and Associate Dean of Teacher Education, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Rita has been an educational leader for a number of provincial, national and international organizations, including being President of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education, the Canadian Association of Curriculum Studies and the Canadian Society for Education through Art. She is the current President of the International Society for Education through Art (InSEA) and is on the Presidential Council of the World Alliance for Arts Education. Her research interests have spanned in-service art education, teacher education, socio-cultural issues, and curriculum practices across K-12 and informal learning settings. Rita is a prolifi c scholar and a passionate artist who is perhaps best known for her work in a/r/tography. Her most recent co-edited books include Curriculum in a New Key: The Collected Works of Ted T. Aoki (co-edited with William F. Pinar), Revisions: Readings in Canadian Art Teacher Education (co-edited with Kit Grauer and Mike Emme), and Being with A/r/tography (co-edited with Stephanie Springgay, Carl Leggo and Peter Gouzouasis). Rita is an artist, researcher, and teacher deeply committed to the arts and education. In recognition of her many accomplishments and commitments, she has received many awards for her teaching, service and scholarship including the distinction of Distinguished Fellow of the National Art Education Association in the USA, the Ted T. Aoki Award for Distinguished Service in Canadian Curriculum Studies, the Canadian Art Teacher of the Year Award (2006), and the Killam Award for Excellence in Mentoring (UBC).

KANWAR, Asha Singh, Vice President, Commonwealth of Learning (Vancouver)


Professor Asha Singh Kanwar became Vice President of the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) on 1 April 2006 and assumed additional responsibility as Programme Director in April 2007. She is specifi cally responsible for stakeholder engagement and programme direction.Before joining COL, Professor Kanwar was a consultant in open and distance learning at UNESCO’s Regional Offi ce for Education in Africa (BREDA) in Dakar, Senegal. Professor Kanwar’s engagement with distance education began when she joined Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) where she served as Professor, Director of the School of Humanities and Pro-Vice Chancellor. Professor Kanwar has over 30 years of experience in teaching, research and administration.A recipient of several awards and fellowships, Professor Kanwar brings with her the experience of having studied and worked in different contexts, both developing and developed. She received her undergraduate, Master’s and MPhil degrees from the Panjab University in India and a DPhil from the University of Sussex. She was also a Fulbright Fellow for post-doctoral research at Iowa State University, where she was later invited to teach. Professor Kanwar received the International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) Prize of Excellence in 2009.

JENKINS, William M., Chief Scientific Officer and Founder, Innovation and Research Department, Scientific Learning Corporation (USA)


William M. Jenkins, Ph.D., is Chief Scientifi c Offi cer at Scientifi c Learning Corporation. Scientifi c Learning is the publisher of the Fast ForWord™ family of learning products along with other technology-based learning tools. One of the founders, he joined the company at inception 15 years ago from a faculty position at the Keck Center for Integrative Neurosciences at the University of California, San Francisco Medical Center.Prior to co-founding Scientifi c Learning Corporation, Dr. Jenkins collaborated with Dr. Michael Merzenich at the University of California San Francisco on pioneering work in brain plasticity research. That research helped reveal the importance of behavioral training in driving physiological changes in the brain of adult animal and human models that underlie performance improvements. Dr. Jenkins also led the design and development team at UCSF that collaborated with researchers at Rutgers University in the development of the computer-based learning tools for use with children with delays in language development. These tools formed the basis for the fi rst Fast ForWord product.Dr. Jenkins is an expert in learning-based brain plasticity, behavioral algorithms, and psychophysical methods, as well as an expert in multimedia and Internet technology. He is an author or co-author of more than 100 publications and holds 46 U.S. patents and 12 foreign patents.Dr. Jenkins earned his Bachelor’s degree in psychology, along with a Master’s degree and Ph.D. in psychobiology, from Florida State University. Jenkins has authored or co-authored 13 commercial software products. He was recognized by Discovery Magazine in its annual Awards for Technology Innovations and received the Year 2000 Thomas Alva Edison Patent Award.

• 67


LAINÉ, Sylvie, General Managing Director, Fondation Nationale Entreprise et Performance (France)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Multistakeholder Partnerships in Education> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Sylvie Lainé is currently the General Managing Director of the Fondation Nationale Entreprise et Performance. The French Fondation Nationale Entreprise et Performance (FNEP) has been working for over 40 years to promote the removal of barriers between private companies and administrations at regional, national and European levels. The Foundation organises research studies which bring together the executives of different organisations, create close contacts, foster personal development and international experience and help to improve the effi ciency of the French economy. The Foundation is a place of exchange and debate. It promotes the analysis of major current issues which are key to understanding the economy as well as social and international trends concerning companies and administrations and the public and the private sectors. The Foundation’s aim is to improve refl ection and action by concrete and pertinent propositions useful to both administrations and companies and to help in assessing their performance by publishing analytical annual reports.From 1994 to 2008, Sylvie Lainé was a senior consultant: coaching management staff in development of management techniques, leadership of change and inter-cultural management. She has contributed research, conference speeches and publications on her specialized topics. From 1973 to 1994, she held the following high management positions in multinational groups: General Inspection, Training Director, Marketing Director, Director of Negotiations and Strategy, Corporate Communications Director. She has a PhD in Business Law and speaks French, English and Italian. She has published the following books: Le relationnel utile, savoir-faire, savoir-être (Editions Demoq, 2000), Le management de soi (Editions Démos, 2002), Guide d’entraînement à la conduite de réunion, (Editions Démos, 2003), Management de la Différence, Apprivoiser l’interculturel (AFNOR Editions, 2004), Maîtriser la gestion de son temps en 4 semaines et 85 questions-réponses (Editions Démos 2005), Managers, réussissez l’interculturel, la clé de votre performance (AFNOR Editions, 2009).

KRAGH, Jacob, President, LEGO Education (Denmark)


Jacob Kragh is President of LEGO Education. LEGO Education is a division of the LEGO Group, based in Billund, Denmark. The division was established in 1980 in response to demands from childcare practitioners, and today it develops educational solutions for children and students from 1½ to 16 years and beyond. LEGO Education is committed to the development of children’s creative, problem-solving and teamwork abilities and its solutions are sold through specialised educational distributors in more than 50 countries around the world.Prior to his position as head of LEGO Education, Jacob Kragh held various marketing and management positions within the LEGO Group. He has been with the company for 13 years. Jacob Kragh is M.Sc. in Business Administration and has studied at the University of Arhus, Denmark as well as at Universitá degli Studi in Bologna, Italy. He has studied and worked in the US, Italy and Switzerland but is now, at the age of 40, back in native Denmark. Jacob is committed to making a positive difference to children in their development. Not just to his two children at home but also to the millions around the world.

LASSEN, Steen, Senior Adviser, Department of General Upper Secondary Education, Ministry of Education, Denmark


Steen Lassen was born in 1950 and holds an MA (Danish Language and Literature) from the University of Copenhagen (1977). He has been educational adviser for the Ministry of Education (1984-1995). Today he is Senior Adviser in the Ministry of Education in Denmark, Department of General Upper Secondary Education. He is Chief Adviser to the Minister of Education concerning ICT in General Upper Secondary Education and responsible for the pedagogical use of ICT. He is Head of Educational Research and Innovation in General Upper Secondary Education and Head of Evaluation Research concerning the implementation of educational reform in General Upper Secondary Education in 2005. He is also Head of the Secretariat for the Ministers Advisory Committee for General Upper Secondary Education.Steen Lassen’s major current tasks concerning ICT are responsibility for the ministerial orders concerning ICT in General Upper Secondary Education, e.g. ICT in all subjects, blended learning, ICT allowed at all exams. He is also head of a pilot project with ICT-based exam assignments with access to the Internet in six subjects.He has been responsible over the last 10 years for the fi eld of ICT and exams. Since 2001 there have been digital exam assignments based on a CD-Rom in several subjects, but with no access to the Internet at the fi nal exam. In recent years it has been obvious that one of the limitations is the prohibition of the use of the Internet which constitutes a missing relation to the students’ daily work. Therefore the Ministry developed ICT-based exam assignments with access to the Internet. The fi rst exam was in June 2010 and the pilot continues next year.Steen has, over the last years, given international keynotes and presentations at conferences in e.g. Seoul, Brussels, Frankfurt, Berlin, Oslo, Austin (Texas), Washington D.C. and Brasilia.

LANDOR, Liliane, Controller Languages, BBC Global News, BBC World Service (UK)


Liliane has been working at the BBC since 1989, when she joined the BBC French service.She presented a news programme in French before presenting Europe Today in the News and Current Affairs department of BBC World Service. Hers was one of the fi rst non-British voices on air.Two years later, Liliane moved on to Newshour, BBC World Service’s fl agship news and current affairs programme. When The World Today started, Liliane became one of the programme’s core presenters and subsequently the programme’s editor.In January 2002, she joined the senior management team as Editor, Programmes in News and Current Affairs, eventually becoming Head of BBC World Service News and Current Affairs in 2006 – responsible for all the BBC World Service news and current-affairs programmes in English.At the end of 2009, Liliane became Head of the Middle East Region, BBC World Service, editorially and managerially responsible for TV and radio broadcasts as well as future media in Arabic.Liliane is now Controller, Languages, Global News, editorially and managerially responsible for all 32 language services on radio, TV and online.Liliane was born in Lebanon and educated in France and Switzerland. She speaks fi ve languages.

LINDLEY, Richard, veteran British television journalist (UK)


Richard Lindley is a veteran British television journalist who for many years worked for news and current affairs programmes at the BBC and ITV, reporting the world from Cape Horn to Alaska, from Tristan da Cunha to Kathmandu. In Africa he covered confl icts in Angola, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and in the Far East he reported frequently from Vietnam during the war, and from Cambodia before and after the Khmer Rouge reign of terror. In the Middle East he covered both the Six Day War of 1967 and the October War of 1973 – the fi rst from Israel, the second from Egypt - and he returned many times afterwards to Israel and the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank. In Iran he reported the fall of the Shah and the establishment of the Islamic Republic. Covering the war between Iran and Iraq, he became the fi rst western television journalist to interview the former President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.In the UK he reported on many educational issues, including comprehensive schools, university education and the vocational alternatives to academic courses. As presenter of the BBC’s fl agship Panorama programme he interviewed the British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during the Falklands War.He has written two books about television journalism: Panorama – 50 years of Pride and Paranoia (2002), and And Finally…? The News from ITN (2005).A former President of The Media Society, which has a membership drawn from both old and new media, he has most recently served as Chairman of Voice of the Listener and Viewer, a national voluntary organisation striving to uphold quality radio and television programme standards in a fast-changing digital world.

LÉAUTIER, Frannie, Executive Secretary, African Capacity Building Foundation (Zimbabwe)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Human Capacity Development> Day: Tuesday, 7 December 2010 – Time: 16.30-18.00

Dr. Frannie Léautier is the Executive Secretary of the African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF). A Tanzanian national, she served as Vice President of the World Bank and Head of the World Bank Institute from December 2001 to March 2007. She also served as Chief of Staff to the former President of the World Bank from 2000-2001. Cumulatively, Dr. Léautier served in various capacities at the World Bank from 1992-2007. From 2007-2009, she was a Managing Partner at The Fezembat Group, a company focused on risk management and leadership development. Dr. Léautier holds a Bachelor of Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Dar es Salaam (1984); a Master of Science in Transportation from MIT (1986); and a PhD in Infrastructure Systems from MIT (1990). She is also a graduate of the Harvard University Executive Development Program. Dr. Léautier has published a number of articles in top-tier economic journals and magazines; she has also edited three books, including a recent one on Cities in a Globalizing World. She is currently Founding Editor for the Journal of Infrastructure Systems, Advisory Board Member for the MIT OpenCourseWare, and Secretary of the Board for the Nelson Mandela Institute for Science and Technology in Africa. Dr. Léautier is a charter member of the Advisory Board for EuropEFE and a founding Board member for the Africa Institute for Governing with Integrity.

• 71


MAGYAR, Bálint, Member of the Governing Board, European Institute of Innovation and Technology, former Minister of Education (1996-1998; 2002-2006) (Hungary)


Dr Magyar obtained his MA in History and Sociology at the Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest. Having started his career as a researcher (1977-1990), he was a member of the Democratic Opposition as well. He was the liberal party’s delegate at the political transition negotiations at the Opposition Roundtable and National Roundtable.He became a member of the Hungarian Parliament in 1990 and served on several parliamentary committees until 2010. Appointed Minister of Education and Culture (1996-1998, re-appointed Minister of Education and Science, 2002-2006), he initiated and carried out the public and higher education reform process. He made a move towards competency-based education, initiated a schoolnet program for spreading digital literacy, directed the introduction of the Bologna process, modernised the management and business structure of higher education institutions, and carried out a huge PPP program, renewing the infrastructure of HEIs. He developed and passed the Act on Innovation, set up an Innovation Fund and founded the National Offi ce for Research and Technology. He was Vice-President of the National Development Council under the direction of the Prime Minister (2006-2008) and Secretary of State for Development Policy (2007-2008).Dr. Magyar is currently a member of the Governing Board of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology and a senior researcher of the Financial Research Ltd. at Budapest.

LITTKY, Dennis, Co-Founder and Co-Director, Big Picture Learning (USA)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Designing Adaptable Curricula> Day: Tuesday 7 December 2010 – Time: 16.30-18.00

Dennis Littky is Co-Founder and Co-Director of The Big Picture Company, The Met School and College Unbound. He is nationally known for his extensive work in secondary education in urban, suburban and rural settings, spanning over 40 years. Dr. Littky holds a double Ph.D. in psychology and education from the University of Michigan. His work as a principal at Thayer Junior/Senior High School in Winchester, NH, was featured in an NBC movie, A Town Torn Apart, based on the book, Doc: The Story of Dennis Littky and His Fight for a Better School. He published a book, in collaboration with Samantha Grabelle, on The Big Picture’s philosophy entitled, The Big Picture: Education is Everyone’s Business (ASCD, September 2004).The honors he has received include the 2002 McGraw Hill Prize in Education, The George Lucas’s Daring Dozen in Education Award and the 2006 Innovator of the Year Award, from the Rhode Island Development Corporation. As a social entrepreneur, Dr. Littky has successfully helped develop an innovative, replicable model for schools that has led to the creation of a network of 75 schools in 20 cities, nationally, and 20 abroad. In addition, Littky and Big Picture were asked to lead the Gates Foundation’s Alternative High School Initiative, for youth at risk of “falling through the cracks” of the present system, most notably high school dropouts. Clayton Christensen author of Disrupting Class says, “Big Picture Learning is a perfect example of a heavyweight team that has redefi ned – indeed, revolutionized – schooling.” Just recently, Dennis founded a new college program, College Unbound - in partnership with Roger Williams University - that challenges the way colleges work with fi rst-generation students.

MEANS, Barbara, Director, Center for Technology in Learning, SRI International (USA)


Dr. Barbara Means directs the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International, an independent nonprofi t research organization based in Menlo Park, California. Dr. Means’ research focuses on the interplay between technology, education systems, and student learning. She specializes in defi ning issues and approaches for evaluating the implementation and effi cacy of technology-supported educational innovations. Currently, she is working with the global evaluation team for the international Innovative Teaching and Learning research sponsored by Microsoft’s Partners in Learning. She is also principal investigator for a study of science learning in California afterschool programs and for a national study of how schools are using student data to inform instructional decision-making. Dr. Means’ other recent work includes supporting the development of the new U.S. National Educational Technology Plan (Transforming American Education: Learning Powered by Technology); a meta-analysis of research on the effectiveness of online and blended learning; and an examination of specialized high schools with a science, technology, engineering, mathematics (STEM) focus. Dr. Means served on the National Academy of Sciences’ Committee on Developments in the Science of Learning, which produced the volume How People Learn, and has been a member of the Academy’s Board on Testing and Assessment (BOTA). Her published works include the edited volumes Evaluating Educational Technology, Technology and Education Reform, and Teaching Advanced Skills to At-Risk Students as well as the jointly authored volumes Using Technology Evaluation to Advance Student Learning, The Connected School, and Comparative Studies of How People Think. Dr. Means earned her Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Stanford University and her Ph.D. in educational psychology at the University of California, Berkeley.

McCARRON, Suzanne, President, ExxonMobil Foundation and General Manager, Public and Government Affairs, ExxonMobil Corporation (USA)


Suzanne McCarron is the President of the ExxonMobil Foundation and General Manager of Public and Government Affairs for ExxonMobil Corporation. In her capacity as President of the ExxonMobil Foundation, Ms. McCarron has responsibility for the primary philanthropic arm of the ExxonMobil Corporation. Globally, ExxonMobil provides funding to improve basic education, promote women as catalysts for economic development, and combat malaria and other infectious diseases in developing countries. In 2009, together with its employees and retirees, ExxonMobil provided $235 million in contributions worldwide. Ms. McCarron is also a member of The ExxonMobil Foundation Board of Trustees and Chair of ExxonMobil’s Women’s Economic Opportunity Initiative that manages the corporation’s philanthropic initiative to equip women and girls in developing countries with the resources they need to fulfi ll their economic potential.

As General Manager, Public and Government Affairs, Ms. McCarron is responsible for the Company’s public and government affairs activities for all of its operational affi liates in the upstream, downstream and chemical sectors worldwide. These activities include government relations, global corporate positioning, NGO outreach, external and internal communications strategy development, and media relations.

Ms. McCarron serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the United States Council for International Business, the Dallas Committee on Foreign Relations and is a Corporate Member of the Women’s Leadership Board at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is also a member of the Board of Trustees of the Eisenhower Fellowships program which engages emerging leaders from around the world to enhance their professional capabilities.

• 73


NUISSL von REIN, Ekkehard, Director, German Institute for Adult Education/Leibniz Center for Lifelong Learning (Germany)


Born in 1946, Prof., Dr. and Dr. honoris causa Ekkehard Nuissl von Rein studied sociology and pedagogy. He was Manager of the Heidelberg Institute for Educational Research and Director of the Adult Education Centre (Volkshochschule) in Hamburg.From 1991 until 2003 he lectured as a university professor on adult education at the Philipps-University in Marburg. Since 1991 he has been Director of the German Institute for Adult Education (DIE) in Bonn. In addition, he has held a chair in adult education at the University of Duisburg-Essen since 2003 and has visiting professorships at the Universities of Torun (Poland), Timisoara (Romania) and Florence (Italy). He has represented Germany at the OECD, UNESCO, the European Conference on Lifelong Learning and the European Commission in Brussels. In 1998, he was elected President of the European Research and Development Institutes of Adult Education (ERDI); since 2003 he has been serving as Past-President. From 1998 to 2004 he was Vice-President of the Leibniz Association. For almost 40 years, he has been working in several contexts as counsellor and advisor in the fi eld of education - mainly adult education - and as member of advisory boards in several federal organisations. In 2006 he was elected member of the International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame. Since 2008 he has been a member of the Advisory Board for Educational Research at the Federal Ministry of Education and Research.At the European level, he has worked as an expert in the context of the Socrates Programme (1996–2000), as German delegate in the Grundtvig working group (2000–2005), as evaluator of projects for the Leonardo, Socrates and Grundtvig programmes (since 2000) and as member of the “Implementation of the Action Plan on Adult Learning“ focus group at the European Commission in Brussels. Several of his more than 600 publications are available in English and many other languages.

NIGRO, Salvatore, Chief Executive Officer, Europe, Education for Employment Foundation (Spain)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Multistakeholder Partnerships> Day: Wednesday, 8 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Salvatore Nigro manages the relations of the Education For Employment Foundations in Europe. He is a leader, manager and team builder with exceptional planning, fund-development and communication skills associated with more than 10 years of non-profi t management. In his current position he has created a wide and strong network of organizations that believe in youth potential. The Foundation designs tailor-made training programs that give unemployed young people the specifi c skills to get and keep a job. At the end of the training programs, the graduates are placed in jobs that partner companies commit before training begins. Graduates receive ongoing support through mentoring and alumni networks. Prior to joining EuropEFE he was the Director of the Advocacy Department of the Global Forum and contributed to organizing one of the largest fundraising concerts for children: “We Are the Future”. He is used to negotiating, mediating and facilitating at the highest levels of national and international institutions and has a strong record in creating multistakeholder partnerships. Mr. Nigro has published various articles in academic reviews on international relations and youth employment issues. He has experience working both with governmental offi ces such as the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, with non-governmental organizations and in multicultural, multi-linguistic environments. Mr. Nigro holds an MA in International Political Science and an MA in International Studies from the LUISS University in Rome and a Master in Business Administration with distinction from the University of Malta.

PILLAI, V. N. Rajasekharan, Vice-Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) (India)


Prof. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai is the Vice-Chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), New Delhi and Chairman of the Distance Education Council (DEC), which looks after the co-ordination of standards, quality, recognition and developmental assistance to all the 13 State Open Universities, and many other open and distance learning institutions in the country. Prof. Pillai has been at the helm of affairs of many higher education institutions during his career spanning about four decades. He has served as the Chairman and Vice-Chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi; Director of the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC), Bangalore; Vice-Chancellor of the Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala; Vice-Chancellor of the Cochin University of Science and Technology and Founder-Director of the School of Professional Distance Education among others. He is a Fellow of the prestigious Indian Academy of Sciences and an Honorary Senior Fellow of the Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientifi c Research, Bangalore.An active teacher and researcher in the fi eld of Chemical Sciences, Prof. Rajasekharan Pillai has held visiting research professor positions in Germany and Switzerland. He created an internationally renowned research group in the area of biopolymers and peptides and has published extensively. He is one among the top-cited chemists in the country. He received the Presidential Gold Medal of the Indian Science Congress from the Prime Minister of India (2008), the Triennial National M. V. Pylee Award for the Top Academician of India (2007) and the R.R. Varma Foundation Best Teacher Award (2006). In 2005, he received the Indian Chemical Society Award for his life-long research achievements in the area of chemical sciences. His contributions to science and education have also been recognized by the conferment of honorary doctorates. Dr. Pillai has presented papers, given lectures and chaired sessions in many conferences all over the world.

PETERSON, Patti McGill, Senior Associate, Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) (USA)


Dr. Peterson is Senior Associate at the Institute for Higher Education Policy (IHEP) whose mission is to increase access and success in postsecondary education around the world through research and programs that inform key policy makers. Previously, Dr. Peterson served as Executive Director of the Council for International Exchange of Scholars (CIES) and Vice-President of the Institute of International Education (IIE). CIES coordinates international educational exchange with over 150 nations and has administered the Fulbright Scholar Program since 1947. During her tenure the Fulbright Program added innovative programs that fostered higher education development through academic exchange and greater cross-cultural collaboration on issues of global signifi cance.Dr. Peterson is President Emerita of Wells College and St. Lawrence University where she held presidencies from 1980 to 1996. She served on the faculty of the State University of New York, Syracuse University and Wells College and was Senior Fellow at Cornell University’s Institute for Public Policy. Her leadership positions have included Chair of the U.S.-Canada Commission for Educational Exchange, the National Women’s College Coalition, the Public Leadership Education Network and President of the Association of Colleges and Universities of the State of New York. As a member of the American Council on Education’s (ACE) Commission on National Challenges in Higher Education she helped to identify higher education priorities for the President of the United States. She served on the ACE Governmental Affairs Commission, the Board of Overseers of The Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government and the Ford Foundation’s International Fellowship Program. Her current board memberships include the University of Wisconsin Board of Visitors, National Research University, HSE, Moscow, the Council for International Educational Exchange and the Roth Endowment. Dr. Peterson holds a B.A. from the Pennsylvania State University, an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin and did post-graduate study at Harvard University. She has received numerous grants and awards, including fi ve honorary degrees.

• 75


PROSSER, David, Head of Programmes for Asia, BBC World Service Trust (UK)


David Prosser is Head of Programmes for Asia at the BBC World Service Trust, the BBC’s international development charity.

David has produced around 50 documentaries and over 100 hours of live programming for BBC Radio, winning two Sony Gold Awards along the way. He co-founded All Out Productions in 1994 and built it up into one of Britain’s most successful production companies, serving as Joint Managing Director until 2001. He joined the BBC World Service Trust in 2003.

David has been involved in a number of media initiatives designed to improve the lives of people throughout Asia and the Pacifi c. He is also currently working in Rwanda.

David led the team that established BBC Janala, which makes innovative use of mobile phones - alongside television, print and web - to deliver affordable English learning in Bangladesh. It is part of English in Action, a UK Department for International Development-funded initiative, which aims to improve the lives of 25 million people by 2017. The BBC Janala mobile learning service launched at the end of 2009 and within 12 weeks over one million English lessons had been accessed. The latest innovation features lessons and audio quizzes to support a popular TV drama shot between Bangladesh and the UK – the fi rst time that TV drama has been combined with mobile learning in this way.

David was Executive Producer on BBC Bangladesh Sanglap, a weekly debate programme, that brought voters face to face with politicians and reached a TV and radio audience of 25 million. Sanglap took to the rural waterways of Bangladesh in 2007, as part of a BBC initiative on climate change, picking up a Sony Gold Award.

PRENSKY, Marc, writer and consultant in education and learning, author of Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning (USA)


Marc Prensky is an internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and game designer in the critical areas of education and learning. He is the author of three books: Digital Game-Based Learning (McGraw-Hill, 2001), Don’t Bother Me Mom – I’m Learning (Paragon House, 2006) and Teaching Digital Natives: Partnering for Real Learning (Corwin, 2010). Marc’s many articles on education and learning have been published in Educational Leadership, Educause, Edutopia, Educational Technology and other publications worldwide. Marc is the Founder and CEO of Games2Train, whose clients include IBM, Bank of America, Microsoft, Pfi zer, the U.S. Department of Defense and the L.A. and Florida Virtual Schools. Marc’s current focus is on reinventing pedagogy to engage all our students. He has taught at all levels, and has created over 50 software games for learning, including the world’s fi rst fast-action, video-game-based training tools. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Economist, appeared on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, and the BBC, and was named as one of training’s top 10 “visionaries” by Training Magazine. He holds a Master’s in Teaching from Yale and an MBA from Harvard, and has a Japanese wife and a fi ve-year-old son, Sky.

ROBERTSON, Derek, National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning, Learning and Teaching Scotland (UK)


Derek Robertson’s career in education has seen him work as a primary school teacher, a staff tutor in a council education department, a lecturer on the B.ED(P) and PGDE(P) teacher preparation courses at the University of Dundee and now as National Adviser for Emerging Technologies and Learning at Learning and Teaching Scotland. In his current position he leads the team responsible for exploring and developing the effective uses of computer games to enhance teaching, learning and assessment approaches that underpin Scotland’s new curriculum: Curriculum for Excellence.

A major aspect of Derek’s work has been involved with exploring and articulating just how game-based learning can have a positive impact on children’s learning experiences and to this end he established Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Consolarium initiative, which was aimed at exploring how the challenging, demanding and culturally relevant and appealing world of the computer game could play a valid and worthwhile part in Scottish pupils’ educational experiences.

His work includes his published research into the impact on mental maths attainment of the Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training game for the Nintendo DS and many of his ideas and initiatives - such as using Guitar Hero, Nintendogs and Endless Ocean - have become popular in schools. Currently he is looking much closer into the design of computer games in terms of their learning paradigm so that the self-determination, self-assessment and self-improvement that appears to occur naturally in the computer games environment can be exploited and transferred into how schools present learning to learners. His grounded approach to any use of technology always makes him ask just what positive impact there is on learning and he is passionately convinced that appropriate and informed use of computer games can most certainly have that desired impact.

PUTTNAM, David, Chairman, Futurelab (UK)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Plenary • Exploring Innovative Trends> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

David Puttnam spent 30 years as an independent fi lm producer. His many award-winning fi lms include The Mission, The Killing Fields, Local Hero, Chariots of Fire, Midnight Express, Bugsy Malone and The Memphis Belle. He retired from fi lm production in 1998 and now focusses on his work in education and the environment. He is Chancellor of the Open University. In 1998 he founded the National Teaching Awards which he chaired until October 2008. He served as the fi rst Chair of the General Teaching Council (2000-2002), and on other public bodies. He was founding Chair of the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, and for 10 years chaired the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television and served as a Trustee of both the Tate Gallery and the Science Museum. Recently he became a Trustee of the Eden Project. He was Vice-President and Chair of Trustees at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) from 1994 to 2004, and was awarded a BAFTA Fellowship in 2006.From 2002-2009 he was President of UNICEF UK and played a key role in promoting UNICEF’s advocacy, awareness and fundraising objectives. In February 2006, he became Deputy Chairman of Channel Four and, in April 2006, Chairman of Futurelab. In April 2007 he became the Chairman of Profero, becoming Deputy Chairman in 2009. In 2007 he served as Chairman of the Joint Parliamentary Climate Change Bill Scrutiny Committee and was appointed Chairman of North Music Trust, The Sage Gateshead. Most recently he was made President of the Film Distributors’ Association (FDA).David was awarded a CBE in 1982, received a Knighthood in 1995 and was appointed to the House of Lords in 1997. In France he has been honoured as a Chevalier (1985), Offi cer (1992) and Commander of Arts and Letters (2006).

• 77


ROY, Bunker, Founder-Director, Barefoot College, Social Work and Research Center (India)


Bunker Roy is the Founder-Director of the Barefoot College (www.barefootcollege.org) based in the village of Tilonia in Rajasthan India. Started 40 years ago, it is the only college built by the poor for the poor and managed by the poor who earn less than $1 a day. The college follows the work style and lifestyle of Mahatma Gandhi. Living conditions are simple, austere and down to earth, there are no written contracts and no one can receive more than $100 a month as wages.Since 1972 more than 20 Barefoot Colleges have started in over 13 Indian states. The Barefoot approach of training rural semi-literate middle-aged women to solar electrify their own villages has been replicated in nearly 25 of the Least Developed Countries around the world including Afghanistan, Timbuktu (Mali), Siberia (Russia), Bhutan and Namibia. Bunker Roy is also Founder-Chairman of the Global Rain Water Harvesting Collective (www.globalrainwaterharvesting.org), based in India, which focuses on collecting rainwater from the roofs of remote rural schools. More than 100 million litres have been collected in over 1,000 schools all over the world.His work has earned him many awards and honours, such as the AGFUND Award for promoting Volunteerism, from HRH Talal Bin Abdul Aziz of Saudi Arabia, in Geneva, Switzerland (2001); the Schwab Foundation Award for Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs, World Economic Forum (2002); The Ashden Award for Sustainable Energy, UK, (2003); the Skoll Foundation (2005); the US$ 1 million ALCAN Award for Sustainability (2006); the Sierra Club Environment Award (2009) and the Conde Nast Environmental Award, USA (2009).Bunker Roy was identifi ed as one of the 50 environmentalists in the world who could save the planet (The Guardian, January 2008) and as one of the 100 most infl uential people in the world (Time magazine, April 2010).

ROTH, Martina A., Director, Global Education Strategy, Research and Policy - Corporate Affairs Group, INTEL Corporation (Germany)


Dr. Roth is responsible for Intel’s Global Education Strategy, Research and Policy.She joined Intel in 1997 as Program Manager for “Kids and Creativity» at Intel’s Content Group, managing Intel Software Developers throughout Europe and providing leading-edge education content to the school and after-school market. From 1999 to 2002 she led the Intel Education Programs for Central Europe, especially Teacher Professional Development, Math Science and Higher Education. From 2002 to 2007 she was Director of the Intel® Education Group for Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and responsible for the development and implementation of Intel’s Education Programs in the region, covering approximately 50 countries on three continents.Prior to joining Intel Corporation, Dr. Roth was Methodic Director of the Management Training Center at Carl Zeiss Jena GmbH, Germany; Marketing and Multimedia Instructor at 3V Multimedia in Munich, Germany; Lecturer and Scientifi c Collaborator at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. Dr. Roth holds an M.A. in Pedagogy and a Ph.D. in Philology from the University of Jena, Germany. She received an additional qualifi cation as Media-Didactic and Lecturer for Learning Systems in Munich, holds a Certifi cate for Market Strategy at INSEAD, Fontainebleau/France and Entrepreneurship from UC Berkley/US. Dr. Roth is invited as a speaker to various international events including the World Economic Forum, UN and UNESCO conferences, World Bank, LATWF etc. She is a board member of various education initiatives like the Global Education Initiative of the World Economic Forum, the Global Agenda Council of Education of the World Economic Forum, PISA OECD, IEA etc. and board member of the Austrian Research Studios.

SACHS, Jeffrey D. Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University; Special Advisor to the United Nations Secretary-General (USA)Session: Plenary Closing> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 15.00-16.00

Jeffrey D. Sachs is the Director of The Earth Institute, Quetelet Professor of Sustainable Development, and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University. He is also Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. From 2002 to 2006, he was Director of the UN Millennium Project (www.unmillenniumproject.org) and Special Advisor to United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan on the Millennium Development Goals, the internationally agreed goals to reduce extreme poverty, disease, and hunger by the year 2015. Sachs is also President and Co-Founder of Millennium Promise Alliance (www.millenniumpromise.org), a nonprofi t organization aimed at ending extreme global poverty. From 1998 to 2002, Prof. Sachs was Director of the Center for International Development at Harvard University. He is widely considered to be the leading international economic advisor of his generation. For more than 20 years Professor Sachs has been in the forefront of the challenges of economic development, poverty alleviation, and enlightened globalization, promoting policies to help all parts of the world to benefi t from expanding economic opportunities and wellbeing.As Director of the Earth Institute, Prof. Sachs leads a large-scale effort to integrate the sciences, including climatology, hydrology, engineering, economics, geography, and public health into a new fi eld of sustainable development. In this capacity, he has helped to launch major new education programs, public outreach, and public policies, to promote the practical application of inter-disciplinary knowledge to solve global problems. He is author of hundreds of scholarly articles and many books, including the New York Times bestsellers Common Wealth: Economics for a Crowded Planet (Penguin, 2008) and The End of Poverty (Penguin, 2005).

RYLANDS, Tim, innovative educator (UK)

Session: Improving Education Systems • Creating Teachers for Tomorrow> Day: Wednesday, 8 December, 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Tim Rylands has been described as “an extremely gifted and inspirational teacher, with a love of the creative potential of technology and an excellent rapport with his pupils”. With over 25 years of classroom experience in the UK and beyond, including four years in West Africa, Tim is now much in demand for training days, conferences and seminars around the world, presenting the results of his work in an inspiring, practical and often humorous way.Observers have commented on his imaginative and encouraging style of teaching, which allows children to express their creativity and make signifi cant gains in attainment. He has received notable recognition for using computer games, including those in the “Myst” series, and Web 2 technologies to inspire children’s creative confi dence in many areas of the curriculum - creative writing, speaking and listening, music, thinking skills, collaboration, interaction and much more.Tim has received a vast amount of press coverage for his innovative use of ICT, and has featured on the BBC, “Teachers TV”, CNN, in The Times, The Guardian, The Independent, and many others. In addition, Tim is also well known for the musicals he has written for children, which have been performed to great acclaim. Tim is a fi rm believer that ICT is about communication more than technology … and that it should be FUN! In 2005 he won the 2005 Becta ICT in Practice Award.

SALT, Toby, Deputy Chief Executive and Strategic Director for School Leadership Development, National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services (UK)


Toby is the Deputy Chief Executive and Strategic Director for School Leadership Development at the National College for Leadership of Schools and Children’s Services. As such, as well as leading the College’s programme of activities in leadership development and school improvement, he has also led effective and direct communication with ministers and senior offi cials to inform national policy. Toby has created a positive national and international profi le for the college through keynote speeches and networks and leading an extensive conference programme. He is a member of various government groups including the Cabinet Offi ce Innovator’s Council.Toby has held a variety of leadership roles within social care and education. His previous job was as the executive head teacher of a federation involving three schools and formerly he was Director at the Department for Education’s Innovation Unit. Here he led and supported entrepreneurial and innovative projects across policy teams offering brokerage, challenge and advice to senior offi cials and school and local authority leaders. He also contributes to, and is on the editorial board of, a range of national and international professional journals and publications.Toby has worked across the age phases in a range of leadership and management roles but has developed a specialist interest in challenged and disadvantaged young people. Recently he was asked to lead an Independent Review into the supply of teachers for children with profound and multiple learning diffi culties. Throughout his career, Toby has pushed the traditional boundaries by encouraging innovation and creative reform.Toby remains a governor of a further education college and a federation of schools. He is married with three children, who attend their local schools. Toby enjoys hill running and spending time with the family.

SALCITO, Anthony, Vice-President, Worldwide Education, Microsoft Corporation (USA)

Session: Plenary • Exploring Innovative Trends> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

As Vice-President of Education for Microsoft Corp.’s Worldwide Public Sector organization, Anthony Salcito works with education institutions and partners globally to embrace technology to optimize learning environments and student achievement. In this role, he oversees the worldwide execution of Microsoft’s vision for education and its partnership and technology outreach efforts via the Worldwide Partners in Learning, Partners for Technology Access, and Public and Private Alliances programs.Previously, as General Manager of Education in the United States, he had responsibility for supporting K-12 and higher education institutions across the U.S. and leading Microsoft’s efforts to support and increase the role technology plays to enhance learning. He developed education partnerships and innovative programs to better support education customers nationally. He helped launch the U.S. Partners in Learning program in 2003, which was recognized in 2009 with the Public-Private Partnership Award from the U.S. National Governors Association. He was the catalyst for Microsoft’s involvement in the creation of the School of the Future which has served as a blueprint for Microsoft’s worldwide Innovative Schools program. Anthony has created several programs that have been leveraged broadly to support the company’s giving efforts and Microsoft’s Connected Learning Community initiative. He created the Microsoft Technology Friends Network, which links IT professionals and developers to schools and nonprofi ts to donate their technical expertise to aid with technology support. He joined Microsoft in 1992, helping to architect Microsoft’s marketing outreach plan in the early 1990s. Anthony is involved with a variety of outreach projects. He has served on the Board of Directors for Stevens Institute of Technology WebCampus and Western Governors University, and currently serves on the Board of the National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship and the National Community Education Association.

• 81


SHAWKI, Tarek, Director, Regional Bureau for Sciences for the Arab States, UNESCO (Egypt)


Tarek Galal Shawki (born June 12, 1957 in Cairo, Egypt) is the Director of UNESCO’s Regional Bureau for Sciences in the Arab States (since June 2008) while he served as the Chief of the Section for ICTs in Education, Science and Culture within the Information Society Division in UNESCO (Paris, France, November 2005 to May 2008). Dr. Shawki served as the Regional Advisor for Communications and Information at the UNESCO Cairo Offi ce (UCO) between January 1999 and November 2005. The UCO is a regional offi ce for science, technology, and information for Arab States. Dr. Shawki manages UNESCO’s fi le on public-private partnerships with the IT private sector and he was the key architect behind the signing of the UNESCO-Microsoft Cooperation Agreement in November 2004. In addition, Dr Shawki is the architect behind the emerging UNESCO framework for ICT Competencies of Teachers besides being directly responsible for a number of national, regional and global UNESCO projects in the fi elds of ICTs, Education, Science and Culture. Dr Shawki spent 13 years as a researcher and Professor of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, one of the top engineering schools in the world. He also served as a panellist on the National Science Foundation and the National Research Council. His leadership is considered paramount to the Arab region in modernizing university education in basic and engineering sciences.Educated at Cairo University in Egypt and Brown University in Rhode Island, U.S., Shawki has a Ph.D. and an M.Sc. in engineering, an M.Sc. in applied mathematics, and a B.Sc. in mechanical engineering.

SÂRB, Lucian, Director of News and Programmes, Euronews (France)


Lucian Sârb began working for TVR (Televiziunea Româna), the Romanian public broadcaster and shareholder of Euronews, in 1994. During his time with TVR, Lucian Sârb came to know Euronews in his capacity as a member of the Board of Directors, from 2003 to 2005. He was instrumental in organising a project between Euronews and TVR to launch the fi rst daily news programme of Euronews in Romanian, in 2004, broadcast on the channel TVR2. Since then, the service has been expanded to include fi ve weekly magazines, still broadcast on TVR2. Lucian Sârb then went on to serve as Project Manager and Editorial Director of The Money Channel. Since 2006, he has helped establish and develop the leading business and fi nancial news channel in Romania. Prior to these functions, he was head of the TVR newsroom as of 2001, where he completely re-branded news programmes, editorial concept and budget. In 2005, he was in charge of the world politics magazine broadcast live every Saturday on TVR1. In parallel to these duties, Lucian Sârb was a member of the Executive Committee Newsgroup of the EBU (European Broadcasting Union).Following his studies in Communication and International Relations and Politics, Lucian Sârb decided to start a career as a journalist, becoming a news correspondent for TVR in 1994. His work took him around the world, including the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.Since May 2009, Lucian Sârb has been working for Euronews as Director of News and Programmes, managing a newsroom of 220 journalists that make up the 10 language teams.

STEVENSON, Michael, Vice President Global Education, Cisco (UK)


Since 2007, Michael Stevenson has been Vice President of Global Education for Cisco. After establishing a school system practice within Cisco’s corporate social responsibility programme, he has recently assumed responsibility for developing and implementing Cisco’s commercial education strategy, across schools, colleges, universities and lifelong learning.

Stevenson has a range of education technology experience garnered through roles in government and the media. From 2005 to 2006, Stevenson was Chief Information Offi cer and Director of Technology at the Department for Education and Skills (DFES) in England, driving the use of ICT in schools, colleges and universities. He also served as Director of Strategy and Communication for DFES from 2003 to 2005.

From 2000 to 2003, Stevenson founded and led the BBC’s Factual and Learning Directorate, responsible for factual programmes and content across television, radio and online. He also spearheaded the development of an innovative education strategy that created an online curriculum for children at school and at home.

After studying Classics at Oxford, Stevenson joined the BBC as a graduate trainee. As a programme producer he specialised in politics and religion, and founded and edited the fl agship political programme On the Record. He then went into management, initially as BBC secretary for the years leading up to the successful 1996 Charter Renewal. In 1996 he became Deputy Director of Nations and Regions, leading BBC Scotland and BBC Wales through the period of political devolution.

Together with his wife Deborah, Stevenson has three children - Tom, Celia and Beatrice.

STECHER, Brian, Acting Director, RAND Education (USA)


Brian Stecher is a Senior Social Scientist and Acting Director of the RAND Education program. His research focuses on measuring educational quality and evaluating education reforms, particularly assessment and accountability systems. During his 20 years at RAND, he has directed prominent national and state evaluations, including No Child Left Behind, the Empowering Effective Teachers program of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Mathematics and Science Systemic Reforms, and Class Size Reduction. His measurement-related expertise includes test development (prototype performance assessments for teacher certifi cation, hands-on science tasks for middle school students), test validation (the quality of portfolio assessments in Vermont and Kentucky and new assessments in Washington), and the use of assessments for school improvement (formative and interim assessments, quality of classroom assessments). He has presented fi ndings to policymakers at the state and national level, to practitioners and to the public. Dr. Stecher has served on expert panels relating to standards, assessments and accountability for the National Academies, and is currently a member of the NAS Board on Testing and Assessment (BOTA). He has published widely in professional journals, and is currently a member of the Editorial Boards of Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis and Educational Assessment Journal.

• 83


TADDEI, François, Genetician and Systems Biologist at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM), and Director of the Centre for Research and Interdisciplinarity at Paris Descartes University (France)Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Social Media: Trends in Collaborative Learning> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

François Taddei heads the Evolutionary Systems Biology team at INSERM in Paris-Descartes University. After a generalist scientifi c education, with majors in physics and biology at the École Polytechnique, he became a tenured higher civil servant at the French Ministry of Agriculture, before earning a PhD in genetics, studying the evolution of the rate of evolution with Miroslav Radman.After postdoctoral training with John Maynard-Smith, for the last 10 years his research team has been studying innovation and degeneracy in biological systems. This work has produced many publications in generalist scientifi c journals and has been recognised by several awards (the European Young Investigator Award, the Human Frontier Science Program Award, the INSERM Award for Fundamental Research, and the Liliane Bettencourt Life Science Award). Over the last fi ve years, he has created the CRI (Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity) in Paris, which offers a Master’s degree (Interdisciplinary Approaches to Life sciences, AIV), a doctoral school (Frontiers of Life, FdV), supported by the generosity of Liliane Bettencourt, and holds chairs funded by Orange and Axa. CRI‘s dedicated facilities host visiting professors and several student discussion clubs. CRI’s main role is to promote new pedagogies to help creative students take initiatives and develop their research projects, with the help of mentors, research institutions, private companies and foundations, such as the Bettencourt Foundation, which has supported many student-created activities. These activities range from the fi rst French synthetic biology team (which won the Foundational Research Award at its fi rst participation in the MIT-sponsored iGEM competition) to the Paris-Montagne science festival and the Science Académie, an outreach program that allows high school students from disfavored neighborhoods to discover the creativity of science while spending their vacations in research labs. In 2010 he became an Ashoka fellow for his role as a change maker in education.

SUTCH, Dan, Head of Development, Futurelab (UK)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Social Media: Trends in Collaborative Learning> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 11.15-12.45

Dan has been actively researching education-technology for over ten years as a teacher and a researcher. His research has focussed upon the use of technology to support teaching and learning, with a particular focus on the role of the teacher in technology-rich classrooms and the processes of educational change and innovation. Dan’s current role is as Head of Development at Futurelab, where he works with a range of individuals and organisations to create resources and tools to support young people, teachers, education advisers and the education industry to develop new, innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Dan is also the Director of Pedagogy 3.0 as part of the HP Catalyst Initiative. Prior to joining Futurelab, Dan was a primary school teacher on the outskirts of Bristol.Dan is experienced in a range of areas of education, specifi cally in the processes of educational change, education futures and the use of digital technologies for learning. Dan has particular expertise in developing and delivering resources to support teachers and schools to develop new educational practices through linking insight, invention and application with an understanding of how schools adopt and adapt new practices. Further, Dan works to engage new audiences with the complex processes of educational change and throughout all of Dan’s work is a commitment to developing the most appropriate learning experiences for all young people.

TANG, Qian, Assistant Director-General for Education, UNESCO (Paris)


Dr Qian Tang was born in Beijing, China. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Education from Shanxi University, China, in 1976 and then taught at the high school level before moving to Canada for graduate studies. From 1979 to 1985, Dr Tang studied at the University of Windsor, Canada, and obtained a Master’s degree in Exercise Physiology and a Ph. D. in Biology.Upon completion of his graduate studies, Dr Tang worked at the Chinese Embassy in Ottawa, Canada. From 1985 to 1989, he was Second and then First Secretary for Academic/Educational Affairs and responsible for promoting bilateral cooperation between Chinese and Canadian universities.He subsequently returned to China and worked at the Ministry of Education in Beijing from 1989 to 1992. There he was Director of the Division of Policy, Planning and Coordination in the Department of Vocational and Technical Education and then Assistant Director-General of the Department. In 1992 he became Deputy Director-General of the Bureau of Science and Technology of Shanxi Provincial Government in Xi’an. In 1993, Dr Tang joined UNESCO as Senior Programme Specialist with the Section for Technical and Vocational Education, of the Education Sector in Paris. He became Chief of the Section in 1996 and in 2000, he was appointed as Director of the Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education where he was responsible for the implementation of UNESCO’s programme activities in general secondary education, science/technology education, as well as technical/vocational education. From July 2001 to June 2005, Dr Tang was Director of Executive Offi ce for the Education Sector. In July 2005 he became UNESCO’s Deputy Assistant Director-General for Education in charge of the overall coordination of the Education Sector’s strategic planning, programme implementation, fi nance and human resources management.

Dr Tang was appointed Assistant Director-General for Education in April 2010.

TAGOE, Clifford Nii Boi, former Vice-Chancellor, University of Ghana (Ghana)


Professor Clifford Nii Boi Tagoe is the immediate past Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ghana, a position he held from October 2006 to July 2010. Prior to this he held offi ce as Dean of the University of Ghana Medical School and also Provost of the College of Health Sciences of the University of Ghana. Over the years, he has served on numerous boards and committees of the University and was a member of the University Council between 1995 and 1997.Professor Tagoe holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and Surgery (MB., ChB.) from the University of Ghana and a PhD in Anatomy (1983) from the University of Leicester, UK. As a professor of anatomy he has been a medical educator for over 25 years. In the course of his academic career he has been at various times external examiner and held visiting lectureships/professorships at a number of medical schools at the Universities of Ibadan and Ilorin, Nigeria, University of Sierra Leone, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana, and Tulane University, New Orleans, USA. As Vice-Chancellor, he attended several higher education conferences and presented papers on topics including “Provision and Financing of Higher Education in Africa”, “Some Aspects of Intra- and Inter-Regional Cooperation in Africa” and “International Code of Ethics for Higher Education”. He is the current President of the Anatomical Society of West Africa, a Member of the Council of the Association of Commonwealth Universities and a member of the Administrative Board of the International Association of Universities. In 2008, the Government of Ghana conferred on him national honours, the Order of the Volta, for services to higher education in Ghana.

• 85


THOMAS, Elaine, Vice-Chancellor, the University for the Creative Arts (UK)


Professor Elaine Thomas is Vice-Chancellor of the University for the Creative Arts. She is currently a Board member of the Quality Assurance Agency, the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education and Higher Education South East. She is a member of HEFCE’s Research & Innovation Strategic Advisory Committee, Sustainable Development in Higher Education Strategic Review Steering Group and Burgess Implementation Steering Group. Elaine is also a member of GuildHE and the United Kingdom Arts and Design Institutions Association, the Council for Industry and Higher Education’s Creative & Digital Task Force and Universities UK’s Creative Industries Steering Group. A practising fi ne artist, Elaine also has experience in arts and museum policy, having been Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ulster Museum and Chair of the Board of Trustees of the Ormeau Baths Gallery in Belfast.

TARRANT, John, former Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities (ACU) (UK)


Professor John Tarrant retired as Secretary General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities in June 2010. The Association was established nearly 100 years ago to serve the interests of member universities throughout the Commonwealth. There are now over 500 members from 42 countries.

After a two-year appointment at University College Dublin (1966-1968), he joined the University of East Anglia (1968-1995) as a founding member of staff in the School of Environmental Sciences, from where he went on to become Dean of the School and later Deputy Vice-Chancellor of the University. In 1995 he was appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal of the University of Huddersfi eld, retiring from that position in 2006.

Professor Tarrant’s research and teaching interests have been in national and international food and agriculture policy, the infl uence of agriculture on the environment and of climate change on agriculture. He has worked in the United States as a visiting professor at Texas A and M University and at the University of Nebraska, and as a visiting scholar at the Food Research Institute at Stanford University and at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington DC. He has also worked in Australia and New Zealand, and has acted as a consultant in Russia, China, India, Bangladesh, Thailand and Pakistan.

Degrees and fellowships: BSc (University of Hull), PhD (University of Hull) Hon. DSc (University of Hull), Hon. DSc (University of Huddersfi eld). Hon. Fellow of the University of East Anglia.

TRUCANO, Michael, Senior ICT and Education Policy Specialist, The World Bank (Washington, D.C.)


Michael Trucano is the World Bank’s Senior ICT and Education Policy Specialist, serving as the Bank’s focal point on the topic within the education sector. In this role he provides support to World Bank education projects with ICT-related “components”, and is involved in a variety of research activities. Current areas of focus include policy development, the use of mobile phones in education, ICT and education indicators, “new economy skills for Africa”, development of national ICT/education agencies, and low-cost “ICT devices”. He is also the principal contributor to the World Bank’s popular EduTech blog and oversees the organization’s internal knowledge base on ICT/education topics.He previously served as the ICT and Education Specialist at infoDev, the multi-donor “ICT knowledge shop” housed within the World Bank’s Global ICT Department, where he coordinated activities related to Information and Communication Technologies and the Millennium Development Goals (“ICTs for MDGs”), especially as they related to education. He also led infoDev’s work exploring the use of various low-cost ICT devices to meet developmental objectives in the social sectors. Highlights during his time at infoDev include the infl uential publication Knowledge Maps: ICT and Education (what we know, and what we don’t, about ICT use in education in developing countries), over 75 country-level surveys of ICT and education in Africa and the Caribbean, a handbook on Monitoring and Evaluation of ICT in Education Projects, and the ICT in Education Toolkit for Policymakers, Planners & Practitioners (with UNESCO).Mike joined the World Bank Group in 1997, fi rst with the IFC, and then served on the education team at the World Bank Institute, where he was a core member of the team that developed the World Links for Development Program.

TOYAMA, Kentaro, Senior Researcher, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley (USA)


Kentaro Toyama is a visiting researcher in the School of Information at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkeley, he is working on a book arguing that increasing human wisdom should be the primary goal of international development activities. He also writes a blog critiquing technology for development.Until 2009, Kentaro was Assistant Managing Director of Microsoft Research India, which he co-founded in 2005. At MSR India, he started the Technology for Emerging Markets research group, which conducts interdisciplinary research to understand how the world’s poorest communities interact with electronic technology and to invent new ways for technology to support their socio-economic development. Among the group’s prize-winning projects are MultiPoint, the use of multiple mice per PC to allow many children to interact with a computer simultaneously; and Digital Green, a method for amplifying agriculture extension efforts through locally produced video and mediated instruction to smallholder farmers. In 2006, he co-founded the IEEE/ACM International Conference on Information and Communication Technologies and Development (ICTD) to provide a global platform for rigorous academic research in this fi eld, and he remains active on its advisory board.Prior to his time in India, Kentaro did computer vision and multimedia research at Microsoft Research in Redmond, WA, USA and Cambridge, UK, and taught mathematics at Ashesi University in Accra, Ghana. Kentaro graduated from Yale with a PhD in Computer Science and from Harvard with a Bachelor’s degree in Physics.

VAN DER LEEUW-ROORD, Joke, Founding President and Executive Director of EUROCLIO (The Netherlands)


Joke van der Leeuw-Roord, Founding President and Executive Director of EUROCLIO - The European Association of History Educators - received her degree in history at Groningen University in the Netherlands. She worked from 1972 till 1993 as a history teacher, teacher trainer and history advisor. She was President of the Dutch History Teachers Association, VGN and editor of the Magazine on the Learning and Teaching of History in the Netherlands, Kleio. She was chair of the WIEG, the committee which designed and implemented innovative national examinations for history and citizenship education. As a leading expert on history education, innovative methodology and trans-national history, she has initiated and coordinated a multitude of national, trans-national projects in Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Russia, Serbia Turkey and Ukraine. The projects are characterized by a focus on professional capacity building, development of educational tools, implementation through training and the development of independent local networks and organizations promoting innovative history education. She works as consultant for the Council of Europe, UNESCO, OSCE, International Alert and the European Union. She is Vice-President of the Advisory Board of the Georg Eckert Institute in Braunschweig (Germany) and member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Historical Culture at the Rotterdam Erasmus University. Joke van der-Leeuw-Roord is the author of publications by the Koerberstiftung, UNESCO and many international journals on history and history education. Joke van der Leeuw-Roord has been decorated in 2009 by the Dutch Queen as Offi cer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau and honored by the Dutch History Educators Association with the Huib de Ruyter Award for History Education. Both awards stipulated her important contributions to the national and international quality development of history education. She is Honorary Member of the Bulgarian and Estonian History Educators Associations.

UNWIN, Tim, UNESCO Chair in ITC4D and Professor of Geography, Royal Holloway, University of London (UK)


Tim Unwin (born 1955) is Chair of the Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the UK, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D, Director of the ICT4D Collective and Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. From 2001-2004 he led the UK Prime Minister’s Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education initiative based within the Department for International Development, and from 2007 he was Director and then Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Partnerships for Education initiative with UNESCO. He was previously Head of the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London (1999–2001), and has also served as Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) (1995-1997). He has written or edited 15 books, and more than 200 papers and other publications, including Wine and the Vine (Routledge, 1991), The Place of Geography (Longman, 1992), as well as his edited Atlas of World Development (Wiley, 1994) and A European Geography (Longman, 1998). His research has taken him to some 25 countries across the world, from Estonia to Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia to Singapore, and he has worked on subjects as diverse as the role of banknotes as expressions of national identity, and the historical-geography of viticulture and the wine trade. Over the last decade his research has concentrated particularly on information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D), focussing especially on the use of ICTs to support people with disabilities, and to empower out-of-school youth. His latest collaborative book, entitled simply ICT4D, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2009.

• 89


WAGNER Dan, Professor of Education, and Director, National Center for Adult Literacy (NCAL), International Literacy Institute (ILI) and Literacy.org, Graduate School of Education, University of Pennsylvania (USA)


Dan Wagner is Professor of Education and Director of the International Literacy Institute, co-founded by UNESCO and the University of Pennsylvania (www.literacy.org). He is also Director of the National Center on Adult Literacy at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Wagner is Director of Penn’s International Educational Development Program (IEDP) in graduate study.After an undergraduate degree in Engineering at Cornell University, and voluntary service in the Peace Corps (Morocco), he received his Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Michigan, was a two-year postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, a Visiting Fellow (twice) at the International Institute of Education Planning in Paris, a Visiting Professor at the University of Geneva (Switzerland), and a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Paris. Dr. Wagner has extensive experience in national and international educational issues, and has served as an advisor to UNESCO, UNICEF, World Bank, USAID and others on international development issues.His most recent multi-year projects have been in India, South Africa, and Morocco. In addition to many professional publications, Dr. Wagner has written/edited over 20 books, including: Literacy: Developing the future (in 5 languages); Literacy: An international handbook; Learning to bridge the digital divide; New technologies for literacy and adult education: A global review; Monitoring and evaluation of ICT for education in developing countries.

VAN LEEUWEN, Fred, Secretary General, Education International (Belgium)


Former teacher in The Netherlands, he joined the Dutch union Algemene Bond van Onderwijs Personeel (ABOP) and became responsible for this union’s International Affairs Department in the late 70s.Fred van Leeuwen was elected General Secretary of the International Federation of Free Teachers’ Unions (IFFTU) in 1981 and held this post until the dissolution of the Secretariat in 1993. During his term of offi ce, the membership of the organisation almost doubled, rising from 5.5 million to 9 million members.After spearheading the merger of IFFTU with the World Confederation of Organisations of the Teaching Profession (WCOTP), Fred van Leeuwen took the offi ce of Secretary General of the EI Interim Board during the Education International Constituent Congress held in Stockholm (Sweden) in January 1993. He was re-elected as EI Secretary General at EI’s next World Congresses in July 1995 (Harare, Zimbabwe), in July 1998 (Washington D.C., USA), in July 2001 (Jomtien, Thailand), in July 2004 (Porto Alegre, Brazil) and in July 2007 (Berlin, Germany).Education International now comprises 402 national organisations representing over 30 million teachers and education workers in 173 countries or territories.From January 2007 to February 2009, Mr van Leeuwen chaired the Council of Global Unions (CGU), which brings together all the Global Union Federations, the International Trade Union Confederation and the Trade Union Advisory Committee to the OECD. As Chair of the Conference of Global Union Federations (GUFs) from January 2005 to January 2007, he was instrumental in the establishment of the Council.Mr van Leeuwen was born on April 22, 1950. He currently lives in The Netherlands.

WEINSTEIN CAYUELA, José David, Vice-President of Education, Fundación Chile, and former Minister of Culture (Chile)


Mr. Weinstein holds a Sociology degree from the University of Chile and a PhD in Sociology from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium). With over 25 years of experience in research, policy making, and implementation in the topic of Education, Weinstein was Chile’s Undersecretary of Education (2000-2003), successfully leading negotiations with the Teachers’ Union on teacher assessment and incentives.Chile’s fi rst Minister of Culture (2003-2006), he led the creation of a new governmental institution dedicated to the promotion of the arts, the National Council of Culture and Arts. Working for different educational institutions throughout his career, he has created and directed programs on improvement in secondary education, leadership development in vulnerable schools, and new opportunities for culture development in youth. His experience and expertise have been requested by important international organisations, including the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and UNESCO. He has published over 40 articles in books, reviews and periodicals focussing on education, poverty, youth and culture. He is currently the VP of Education at Fundación Chile, a public-private organisation dedicated to the creation of innovative solutions for Chile’s future development. His recent work has focussed greatly on school leadership development and capacity improvement of vulnerable schools.

WANCHISEN, Barbara, Director, Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences and Committee on Human-Systems Integration, National Research Council (USA)


Barbara Wanchisen, Ph.D., serves as the Director of both the Board on Behavioral, Cognitive, and Sensory Sciences and the Board on Human-Systems Integration at the National Research Council in Washington, D.C. She received a B.A. in English and Philosophy from Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Literature from Villanova University, and her doctorate in Experimental Psychology from Temple University. She is a long-standing member of the Psychonomic Society, the Association for Behavior Analysis - International, and the American Psychological Association, where she is a Fellow of Division 25 (Behavior Analysis). She has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and The Behavior Analyst while also serving as a guest reviewer of a number of other journals. From November 2001 until April 2008, Wanchisen was the Executive Director of a non-profi t advocacy organization called the Federation of Behavioral, Psychological, & Cognitive Sciences in Washington, DC., and, during that tenure, she was instrumental in the founding of the Federation’s Foundation for the Advancement of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, which assumed the educational mission of the Federation. Previously, Wanchisen was Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the college-wide Honors Program at Baldwin-Wallace College, Cleveland, Ohio, USA.

• 91


WHITMAN, Ian, Head, Programme for Co-operation with Non-Member Economies, Directorate for Education, OECD (Paris)


Ian Whitman is Head of the Programme for Co-operation with Non-Member Economies in the Directorate for Education in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).The Directorate’s mission is “to assist Members and Partners in achieving high-quality lifelong learning for all that contributes to personal development, sustainable economic growth and social cohesion.”The Directorate’s current programme is organised under six strategic objectives: 1) Connecting lifelong learning policy with other social and economic policies; 2) Evaluating and improving outcomes of education; 3) Promoting quality teaching; 4) Rethinking tertiary education in a global economy; 5) Building social cohesion through education; and 6) Building new futures for education.The Programme for Co-operation with Non-Member Economies works with the OECD Centre for Co-operation with Non-Members (CCNM) in the area of education and training. Work includes policy reviews, working in partnership with member countries and international organisations to foster education reform and assisting countries to participate in activities of the Directorate’s programme of work.Ian Whitman is the Co-ordinator for Education Policy and System Change in the Task Force for Education and Youth of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, is a member of the Advisory Forum of the European Training Foundation (ETF), has carried out more than 60 policy reviews and participates in the work of other international organisations such as the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Ian Whitman joined the OECD in 1990 and has worked with transition economies since 1991. Prior to joining the OECD, Ian Whitman worked for the Chambers of Commerce and Industry of Northern France in the area of further training and for Cold Rolling Mill Indonesia Utama for recruitment, training and placement. Ian Whitman holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and an MBA from Hartford University.

WHEELER, David, Managing Editor, The Chronicle of Higher Education (USA)


David L. Wheeler, the Managing Editor for The Chronicle of Higher Education, has a Master’s degree in journalism from Columbia University and was awarded a Vannevar Bush Fellowship in science journalism at MIT. He has been with The Chronicle for 23 years, also working as a science writer, international editor, and writer of the feature Notes from Academe. Although for many years his area of specialty was biomedical research, he has written on topics ranging from poetry to quantum physics. He has served as president of the D.C. Science Writers’ Association and has won numerous awards. In the service of The Chronicle, he has attended academic conferences and visited campuses in 20 countries and made presentations around the world, including at meetings in Beijing, Liverpool, and Madrid.

YOWELL, Constance, Director of Education, Program on Human and Community Development, MacArthur Foundation (USA)


Connie M. Yowell is the Director of Education in the Foundation’s Program on Human and Community Development. In this role, she focuses on grants relating to public education, and on the implications for education of young people’s use of digital media.Prior to joining the Foundation, Yowell was an Associate Professor in the School of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, where her work included the study of reasons why Latino youth drop out of high school. Previously she worked as a Policy Analyst in the Offi ce of Policy and Planning of the U.S. Department of Education. Before that Yowell was a Research Assistant at the University of California at San Francisco and at Stanford University.Yowell earned her Bachelor’s degree from Yale and her Ph.D. from Stanford University.

ZHOU, Qifeng, see page 106

WOOD, John, Secretary-General, Association of Commonwealth Universities (UK)


Professor John Wood CBE, FREng, is the Secretary-General of the Association of Commonwealth Universities. He has doctorates from Cambridge and Sheffi eld Universities. He has held academic posts at several universities prior to Imperial College. He was Dean of Engineering at Nottingham and Principal of Engineering at Imperial and then Senior International Adviser before taking up his present post.From 2001-2007 he was seconded to the Council for the Central Laboratory of the Research Councils as Chief Executive where he was responsible for the Rutherford-Appleton and Daresbury Laboratories in addition to shareholdings in ESRF, ILL and the Diamond Light Source. He is a non-executive director of a number of companies including Bio-Nano Consulting and sits on the advisory board of the British Library. Currently he is on the board of the Joint Information Services Committee responsible for the UK academic computing network and chairs their Support for Research Committee.He was a founder member of the European Strategy Forum for Research Infrastructure and became Chair in 2004 where he was responsible for the fi rst European Roadmap. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering in 1999 and was made a Commander of the British Empire in 2007 for “services to science”. In 2008 he became the fi rst chair of the European Research Area Board and in 2010 was made an “Offi cer of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany”.

Dr Judith S. Eaton, President of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) (USA)

Dr Judith S. Eaton is President of the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA), the largest institutional higher education membership organisation in the United States. A national advocate and institutional voice for self-regulation of academic quality through accreditation, CHEA is an association of 3,000 degree-granting colleges and universities and recognises 60 institutional and programmatic accrediting organisations.Dr Eaton has served as CHEA’s President since 1997, one year after CHEA’s formation. Under her leadership, CHEA has emerged as a major voice in discussions of higher education and accreditation. As the only organisation focussed exclusively on accreditation, CHEA serves as a reliable and comprehensive source of information on accreditation and as an effective representative of member institutions.Prior to her work at CHEA, Dr Eaton served as Chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, where she was responsible for the leadership and coordination of 32 institutions serving more than 162,000 students statewide. Previously, she was President of the Council for Aid to Education, Community College of Philadelphia and the Community College of Southern Nevada, and served as Vice-President of the American Council on Education. She also has held full- and part-time teaching positions at Columbia University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University.CHEA works with the presidents and chief academic offi cers of colleges and universities, accreditors, policy-makers and higher education leaders around the world, providing authoritative information and leadership on issues related to accreditation and quality assurance, the federal government-accreditation relationship and enhancing public confi dence in accreditation. CHEA is the only private-sector body in the United States that “recognises” U.S. institutional and programmatic accreditors for quality, scrutinising them and affi rming that they meet CHEA’s quality standards.

Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Executive Chair of Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa (TESSA), and Director of School and Community Science and Technology Studies (SACOST) at the University of Education, Winneba (Ghana)


Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, Ed.D., is Executive Chair of Teacher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa, and the Director of School and Community Science and Technology Studies (SACOST) at the University of Education, Winneba (UEW), Ghana. He was for nine years the Principal and Vice Chancellor of the University of Education, Winneba, the fi rst university in Africa dedicated to teacher education. He has taught and researched in science education from kindergarten to the university level. He has contributed greatly to the development of open distance learning in Ghana and was the chair of the committee that produced a blueprint for an open university for Ghana. He established the Centre for SACOST in 2000 and the Department of Early Childhood Care and Development in 2005 at UEW. He also set up the National Centre for Research into Basic Education to provide evidence-based information that addresses issues covering the 11 years of basic education, i.e., from kindergarten to junior high school. In 1996, he started a PhD programme at the University of Cape Coast, which became the yardstick for similar programmes in other areas. He is the chief architect of Ghana’s current educational reform, which introduced Early Childhood Development (ECD) into the formal curriculum and placed emphasis on science, technology, innovation and skill development. In 2006, Professor Anamuah-Mensah was given the country’s second highest award, the Order of the Volta, by the President of Ghana. In 2010, he received an award from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs of Ghana for his dedication to the cause of Ghanaian children. In 2009, a book, Teaching and Education for Teaching in the Era of Globalisation in Developing Countries: Essays in Honour of Prof. Jophus Anamuah-Mensah, was written by colleagues in recognition of his work in education.

Biographies

International Jury

H.E. Dr Abdulla bin Ali Al-Thani, Chairman, WISE Awards 2010 International Jury. See his biography on p. 41.

• 105

WISE • DOHA - DECEMBER 7 - 9 2010 > WISE AWARDS

Prof. Dr Fasli Jalal, Vice-Minister of National Education (Indonesia)


Before being appointed Vice Minister of National Education to the Republic of Indonesia in January 2010, Professor Fasli Jalal worked as Director General in three Directorate Generals: the Directorate General for Non-Formal Education and Youth (DGNFEY), 2001-2005; the Directorate General for Quality Improvement of Teacher and Education Personnel (DGQITEP), 2005-2007; and the Directorate General for Higher Education (DGHE), 2007-2010.Fasli Jalal began his governmental career in 1991 as the Head of the Department of Nutrition, Bureau of Health and Nutrition, National Planning and Development Board (Bappenas), Republic of Indonesia. He was then appointed by the Minister of Education to become one of the Special Expert Assistants to the Minister in the area of Educational Resources in 2001.During his professional career, Fasli Jalal has worked actively with international organisations such as the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as a consultant and has attended training courses held by these organisations. He has often represented Indonesia as a keynote or invited speaker at various conferences and seminars. Fasli Jalal has an avid interest in youth education development and always gives a warm welcome to youth organisations that need advice or guidance. He is also still active as a counsellor at Canada World Youth Alumni Association of Indonesia. In 2001, he was awarded The Most Outstanding Alumni from Canada World Youth, Montreal.Fasli Jalal still writes and edits articles, journals and books. His special interests include education, early childhood education and nutrition. Collaborating with the World Bank, he recently published a monograph on teachers’ education. He completed his PhD in Nutrition from Cornell University, USA, in 1991. He has also been a Professor in Clinical Nutrition at Andalas University, West Sumatra, since 2009.

Mr Mike Gibbons, CEO, Richard Rose Federation (UK)


Mike Gibbons’ career in education and public services began in 1972, teaching English and Drama in a large comprehensive school in the West Midlands. In 2002, four headships later, he joined the Senior Civil Service as the founding Lead Director of The Innovation Unit. The Innovation Unit was inspired by the Secretary of State for Education and the Prime Minister as a way of connecting the ambition of government with the expertise of the country’s best and most innovative educational practitioners here and abroad. In 2006 Mike became The Innovation Unit’s fi rst CEO when it subsequently became independent of government. The Unit, with its unique mission of connecting practitioners with policy makers, now has links with education in all parts of the globe. In 2009, he was asked by the Minister for Schools, Jim Knight, to become the Chief Executive of The Richard Rose Federation in Carlisle after one of the Federation’s academies was placed in “special measures” by Ofsted.Mike has deep experience in school leadership. He now leads a federation of academies. Previously he led four large schools, three in the Midlands and the North, and then became Principal and Chief Executive of a 3-18 International School in Brussels with students from 65 different countries. He is a founder member of the Governing Council of the National College for School Leadership.He speaks extensively in the UK and internationally on innovation and reform in education and public services and has worked with a wide range of agencies and organisations, both public and private. In December 2008, he was part of the government’s delegation to the International Education Leaders Dialogue in Melbourne. In 2007 he spoke on Innovation and Reform at the Public Services Summit that happens in tandem with The Nobel Peace Prize ceremonies.

Prof. Zhou Qifeng, President, Peking University (People’s Republic of China)

Session: Exploring Innovative Trends • Plenary – Exploring Innovative Trends> Day: Thursday, 9 December 2010 – Time: 9.00-10.30

Prof. Zhou Qifeng graduated from the Chemistry Department of Peking University in 1970 and received a Ph.D. degree in February 1983 from the Department of Polymer Science & Engineering of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA. He then returned to Peking University, teaching in the Chemistry Department. In 1986, he became Associate Professor and, in 1990, Full Professor, serving as the Chair of the Department of Polymer Science and Engineering until November 2008. In 1995 he became Executive Vice-Dean of the Graduate School of Peking University and Vice-Provost of Peking University until 2001 when he served joint appointments as the Director of the Ministry of Education’s Graduate Students Affairs Offi ce (then Director-General of the Division for Academic Degrees and Graduate Education), the Offi ce of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council, the China Academic Degrees & Graduate Education Development Centre, the General Affairs Offi ce of the 985 Project, as well as the Offi ce of the Inter-Ministerial Coordination Group of the 211 Project. In 1999 he became an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2003 he was made a member of the Academic Degrees Committee of the State Council (a position he continues to hold), of which he was Deputy Secretary-General from June 2003 to July 2004. In 2004 he also became a Standing Committee Member and Vice-Chair of the Chemistry Division of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2004 to 2008 he was the President of Jilin University and, in November 2008, was appointed President of Peking University. He has published a few internationally acclaimed books and over 200 papers. President Zhou has received many honours for both teaching and research. He is also a deputy of the National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China.

Dr Abdul Waheed Khan

President, Talal Abu Ghazaleh Business University (Kingdom of Bahrain)Former Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO

Dr Abdul Waheed Khan, who is currently the President of Talal Abu Ghazaleh Business University, Bahrain, and Senior Adviser to the Arab Open University, was the Assistant Director–General for Communication and Information of the United Nations Educational, Scientifi c and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) from July 2001 – 2010. In this capacity, Dr Khan was responsible for leading UNESCO’s programme on “Building Inclusive Knowledge Societies”, the primary focus of which was to harness the potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) to enhance access to quality education, facilitate the acquisition of scientifi c knowledge, promote cultural and linguistic diversity and foster digital opportunities for social and economic inclusion through public-private partnerships.Dr Khan has worked for several international organisations including UNFPA, UNDP, FAO, UNESCAP, ADB and the World Bank. He coordinated UNESCO’s contribution to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) (Geneva 2003 and Tunis 2005) and represented UNESCO at major international events and fora in the fi eld of information and communication.Prior to joining UNESCO, Dr Khan served as the Vice-Chancellor (President and CEO) of the Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU); Chairman, Digital Opportunity Trust (DOT), Canada; Chairman, Development Communication (India); Member, International Advisory Committee, University of Wisconsin, USA; and Member, International Advisory Board, Wawasan Open University, Malaysia. He has contributed to the boards of various national and international bodies. In 2008, Dr Khan was made an Honorary Fellow of the Commonwealth of Learning. He has received several distinctions and awards and is the author of a number of books and articles published in various academic journals.Born in 1947, and of Indian nationality, Abdul Waheed Khan holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA.

Biographies

International Jury

Photo credits

Photographs courtesy of Qatar Foundation (Photographer: Adrian Haddad) with the following exceptions:

p. 3 ©Offi ce of Her Highness Photo Library: www.hhopl.com • p. 4 WISE 2009 Plenary Session. ©WISE-Auditoire • p. 10 Escuela Nueva, Colombia, 2009 WISE Awards Laureate. ©Fundacíon Escuela Nueva Volvamos a la Gente, Bogotá, D.C. • p.12 2009 WISE Awards Laureate Joyce Dongotey-Padi at 2009 WISE Summit. ©WISE-Auditoire • p. 16 Young Indian Pupils ©Marie-Aimée Menuet • p. 23 Students at Darulhifaz Boys Seminary school in Jalalabad, Eastern Afghanistan, Rewrite the Future, 2010 WISE Awards Laureate. ©Mats Lignell / Save the Children UK – leading for Save the Children International • p. 29 WISE 2009 Gala Dinner and Awards Ceremony. ©WISE-Auditoire • p. 33 AIMS Next Einstein Initiative, South Africa. ©African Institute for Mathematical Sciences (AIMS) • p. 34 Mother Child Education Programme (MOCEP), Turkey. ©ACEV (Mother Child Education Foundation) • p. 40 Nima Abu-Wardeh ©WISE-Auditoire • p. 51 Distance Learning in the Amazon Forest, Brazil, 2009 WISE Awards Laureate. ©Secretariat of Education and Learning Quality of Amazonas State Centro de Midías de Educação do Amazonas SEDUC/AM • p. 59 Asociación Ak’ Tenamit, Guatemala. 2010 WISE Awards fi nalist. ©Asociación Ak’ Tenamit • p. 69 Una Laptop por Niño, Peru. 2010 WISE Awards fi nalist. ©Jeffery Salter/Redux and Ministry of Education of Peru • p. 79 Saltash.net Community School, UK. 2010 WISE Awards fi nalist. ©Microsoft and Ltd/Saltash.net Community School • p. 87 T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood®, USA. 2010 WISE Awards fi nalist. ©Child Care Services Association • p. 94 Ensuring Every Child Learns, India. 2010 WISE Awards fi nalist. ©Naandi Foundation • p. 107 The Bilingual Education Continuum, Burkino Faso. 2010 WISE Awards fi nalist. ©Œuvres Suisse d’Entraide Ouvrière (OSEO)

wise 2010 • biographies speakers and moderators

Documents