Getting to Know Your International Contacts—Part 3

Exploring UNESCO website @ http://www.unesco.org/new/en/education/themes/strengthening-education-systems/early-childhood/

Three new ideas/insights gained from exploring the UNESCO web site include a vast amount of information regarding early childhood education internationally, improvements being made for education interantionally and information regarding various cultures across the globe.

The section that I explored for early childhood education covered areas such as Africa, Arab States, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and North America, and Latin America and the Caribbean. Each section gave a brief statement on what different organizations where doing to help improve the quality of education for children and then several news articles regarding teaching in those regions and what is being done to help make improvements.

One of the improvements trying to be implemented is the use of mobile technologies and learning. According to the Education Sector, “at the end of 2012 there were an estimated six billion mobile phone subscriptions in the world. The unprecedented uptake of mobile phones in particular, in both developed and developing countries opens up new possibilities for increasing education access, equity and quality. Mobile learning, a growing field of ICT in education, has the potential to significantly impact the delivery of education” (2013).

The section that I explored for culture was my favorite. You can access this section here http://www.unesco.org/new/en/culture/

I watched a video regarding saving Mausoleums in Africa that had contained thousands of manuscripts. They discussed trying to reconstruct many of the buildings and the loss of the manuscripts. There was so much information on various cultures and items from around the world and articles for different cultures. I spent an hour just reading about treasures, artifacts, and heritages. It was very interesting as well as informative. Here are some of the manuscripts from the 12^th to 15^th centuries.

  

“Subjects treated in those works span a vast range of ancient learning: from theology to mathematics, medicine, astronomy, music, literature, poetry, architecture, as well as esoteric practices. Together they bear a unique testimony to the cultural past of the city as a centre of learning and crossroad of trade and cultural exchanges. They also contain invaluable information about the pre-colonial history of Muslim Africa” (UNESCOPRESS, 2013).

This section of the UNESCO web site was just so wonderful, and I am glad to have been able to

explore this segment and learn more about what UNESCO does. This was interesting to me also because it gave a glimpse of heritage, culture and background of the children who UNESCO helps with education.

 

Education Sector (February 2013). ICT in Education. Learning with mobile technologies. Retrieved from  http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/themes/icts/single-view/news/learning_with_mobile_technologies/

UNESCOPRESS (January 2013). Timbuku’s documentary treasures. Building Peace in the minds of men and women. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/unesco/resources/preserving-the-moslem-cultural-heritage-of-mali-and-africa/