ICTworks

3rd Annual Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance
International Symposium:
2013- Commit Fair for Project Scaling
October 15-16, 2013
Washington, DC

Session proposals must be received by 5:00 pm EDT Monday, July 22, 2013.
Click here to apply or for more information.

 This year the mEducation Alliance is taking a new, action-oriented approach to its annual Symposium and we are inviting submissions for presentation consideration.

The mEducation Alliance Commit Fair for Project Scaling brings together leading donor, private sector, NGO, researchers, project innovators, and other key policymakers engaged in the field of mobile technologies and education to leverage current commitments to improve and scale carefully chosen projects from the field.

While all selected projects for presentation must have some level of organizational commitment, they may be in different stages of development including the following examples:

• Ready to Launch/Scale: a (new) project or initiative looking for partners in order to get off the ground or scale up;
• Looking for Partners: an established project that is looking for additional partners to address challenges or opportunities (resources or other); or,
• Stocktaking Stage: a project or initiative where project leaders are in need of technical assistance and would benefit from brainstorming with technical experts.

During the mEducation Commit Fair, selected presenters will have the opportunity to showcase their project(s), discuss topics and trends in the field and environments in which they work, share challenges in a safe setting, brainstorm with an elite group of technical experts, identify potential partners, and develop concrete plans of action. Presenters should be prepared to discuss their project at length in intensive, small-group working sessions organized to help identify potential project collaborators and areas of possible partnership (e.g., shared interest, financial, technical platform, and/or technical support).

The overall goal of the mEducation Commit Fair is for participants to meet potential collaborators and partners with whom they can significantly strengthen and scale promising mEducation opportunities, projects, and initiatives. Participants will benefit from a unique environment to engage with their counterparts, mEducation Alliance members, leading technical experts and thought leaders, among other participants. Whether discussing mobile-based technology-supported interventions for improving literacy and numeracy, strengthening youth and workforce activities, and/or scaling mEducation interventions for marginalized and/or hard to reach learners, each Commit Fair session will explore ways to improve outcomes and impact of mobile-based education interventions through informed project-building strategies and collaboration.

The mEducation Alliance embraces a broad definition of mobile devices including, but not limited to, phones, e-Readers, tablets, flash memory, micro projectors, and audio/video devices. We welcome formal Commit Fair presentation proposals representing a range of technological solutions aligned with the following major tracks:

• Mobiles for Literacy
• Mobiles for Numeracy
• Mobiles for Youth and Workforce Development
• Mobiles and Access to Education, particularly in Crisis and Conflict/Post-Conflict Settings

The organizers and review committee encourage sub-themed and cross-cutting proposals which are linked with one or more of the major tracks identified above. Sub-themed proposals might include focus on, but not exclusively, topics such as: Evaluation, Professional Development, Assistive Technologies, Community Engagement, School Leadership, and Girls’ Empowerment.

For more information including submission guidelines, proposal templates and location information, visit the commit fair website.

The Mobiles for Education (mEducation) Alliance is an international collaborative effort between bilateral and multilateral donors, NGOs, foundations, private sector partners, academic researchers, and implementing organizations. Our collective agenda is to explore cutting-edge intersections between mobile technologies for education, particularly in low-resource and developing country context, to reduce duplicative efforts, to promote collective knowledge-sharing, and to identify and support efforts to scale promising interventions. The increasing ubiquity and lowering costs of mobile technologies provides enormously valuable opportunities for supporting quality education impact in developing countries.