The WorLD Policymakers workshop is modular in design, allowing it to be modified and adapted to meet the specific needs of each participating country or region.

This workshop can and should be modified
each time it is delivered!

The information that follows is intended to aid individual workshop facilitators as they construct a workshop agenda and supporting materials appropriate for their audience:

• Workshop Length
• Overview of Workshop Modules
• Modules Included in a "Typical" Workshop
• Notes on Individual Modules
• Additional Documents to Consult

Workshop Length

While this workshop has been given in both three-day and five-day formats, experience has shown that conducting the workshop over five days, with a full day on day one, followed by four half days, is typically the most successful format. The afternoons of days two through five can be used by participants for individual work in the computer lab or to make the necessary return to the office to continue with the "routine work" that never seems to stop for high level officials.

The workshop begins by placing educational technology within a larger context of educational reform and strategic planning, and illustrates how technology can be a powerful catalyst for such reform. The second part of the course builds on the policymakers' own IT skills and introduces them to the full range of issues they need to address in designing and implementing a large scale educational technology program, including technological infrastructure, teacher professional development, local educational content, intragovernmental and intellectual property issues, financial planning and change management.

It is important to remember that the workshop should have a balance of material/information presentation and hands on activities. This first module has by necessity a lot of information presentation. Other modules are more heavily weighted to hands on activities. Be sure and inject activities wherever possible in all the modules. The activities in the change management module are well suited for this purpose. When the participants get into the strategic planning/policy development phase, almost all of their time will be spent on hands on activities.

Workshop Modules

This course has been divided into the following modules:

1. Introduction, Content and Curriculum
   
2. Student use of the Internet and Acceptable Use Policies
   
3. ICT and Education Reform
   
4. Strategic Planning and Vision Statements
   
5. Connectivity, Infrastructure and networks
   
6. Professional Development
   
7. Implementation and Financial Issues
   
8. Communications
   
9. Managing Change
   
10. Intellectual Property and Copyright
    
11. Intragovernmental Issues
    
12. Partnerships
    
13. Additional Resources

Each module is divided into four sections:

Overview & Instructor Notes
- Provides the workshop facilitator with supplementary information regarding the materials as well as some comments on how the materials might be used

Activities
- Group activities, which guide the participants through the strategic planning process, are provided with rationale, desired outcomes and suggestions for use

Presentations
- PowerPoint slides for the use of the facilitator during the workshop with explanatory notes and suggestions for additional local adaptation where required

Resources
- Provides both the workshop facilitator and participants with links to valuable additional resources. The resources found in each module will continue to be expanded and will provide a living laboratory of materials and experiences of both World Links support personnel and policy makers from around the globe.

Some modules may contain additional supporting Documents to supplement various Activities and Presentations.

Modules Included in a "Typical" Workshop

In a typical workshop, participants complete the following modules:

• Introduction, Content and Curriculum
  
• Student Use of the Internet and Acceptable Use Policies
  
• ICT and Education Reform
  
• Strategic Planning and Vision Statements
  
• Connectivity, Infrastructure and Networks
  
• Partnerships

Additionally, participants should complete as many of the remaining modules as possible depending on the needs of the participants and the time available. It may be useful to leave copies of the activities from the modules not used in the workshop with the participants for their information and perhaps for use at a later time.

A sample agenda used at a World Links Policymakers Workshop in Ghana in 2002 is provided for your reference in these workshop materials.

Notes on Individual Modules

The workshop modules divide the course into logical topics. Some of the modules are required topics for each workshop, with other modules included by the workshop facilitator as necessary.

The first modules - Introduction, Content and Curriculum and ICT and Educational Reform - are required modules. These modules are critically important to set the tone of the workshop and to get participants thinking about both issues and possibilities. They can, and typically should, be modified to suit local conditions,

The module Strategic Planning and Vision Statements is also a required module. This module takes up the majority of time during the workshop and includes small group work to establish the policy goals and strategic action items related to each goal. As part of this module critical issues are identified and policy goals and strategic plans are drafted.

The module on Change Management could be used independently to focus on change issues or throughout the policymakers workshop to support the participants' policy development work. The presentation in this module is very short. The many activities in this module are typically used throughout the course of the workshop to take participants through a process of reflection and discovery. The activities at first focus on participants' own beliefs about ICT in education and later about the necessary components and changes that may be required in this important policy development process.

Connectivity, Infrastructure and Networks is not a required module. It is important however to arrange for whatever organization is responsible for Internet Services, typically a Telco, to present their vision for data and Internet services to the country generally and to the education sector specifically. Since long distance telephone rates are often a critical issue, it is important to have the Telco address this issue as well.

Other Policymakers Resources is not meant to be an instructional module but rather a growing set of examples, resources and related web sites.

Please see each individual module for additional Instructor Notes.

Additional Documents to Consult

Please also make sure that you read the following documents:

• Activities and Planning Prior to Workshop
  
• Post Workshop Checklist
  
• Creating a 'Core Team' to Ensure Local Ownership
  
• Internet Tools

notes · general notes · prior to workshop · post workshop · creating core team · internet tools

please note that
additional Instructor Notes are provided
in each of the individual workshop modules