Professor Tim Unwin to chair ITU’s m-Powering Development Initiative on m-education

Professor Tim Unwin to chair ITU’s m-Powering Development Initiative on m-education

London, 18 October 2013 – The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation (CTO) Professor Tim Unwin is to chair the working group on m-education as part of the ITU’s m-Powering Development Initiative until 2015.    Professor Tim Unwin (right), Secretary-General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications  Organisation, during the m-Powering Development Initiative’s first Advisory Board meeting,  October 2013, Geneva (Source: ITU) The objective of the ITU’s m-Powering Development Initiative is to extend the benefits of mobile technologies to all, especially those in remote rural and underserved areas. The m-Powering Development Initiative will pool the strengths of governments, international organisations, the private sector and civil society to create a dynamic partnership for the purpose of increasing reliable mobile connectivity globally to support m-education, m-health, m-government, m-banking and m-sport development programmes. “ICTs in Education is one of the CTO’s six focus areas, and the Organisation is committed to delivering on its mission through various means, including through partnerships of this kind. Gaps in access to education are persistently wide globally, partly due to cultural and financial factors. With more affordable and accessible mobile technologies, we have a unique opportunity to help remove many of the existing barriers to education,” said Professor Unwin at the end of the Geneva meeting. Professor Unwin’s appointment as chair of the working group on m-education took place at the first meeting of the Advisory Board of the m-Powering Development Initiative held on 15 October 2013 in Geneva. He had joined the initiative earlier this year as advisory board member.  The working group will amongst other matters identify existing good practices in the use of mobile devices in education as well as the gaps that the m-Powering Development Initiative might seek to fill.  For more information, please contact Marcel Belingue at m.belingue@cto.int or call +44 20 8600 3816. Commonwealth Telecommunication Organisation  With a history dating back to 1901, the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation is the oldest and largest Commonwealth organisation in the field of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), and uses its experience and expertise to support members in using ICTs to deliver effective development interventions that emancipate, enrich, equalise and empower all peoples within the Commonwealth and beyond.