Could your students make a real difference? Take part in a world first!

ITU Telecom is part of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union), the United Nations specialized agency for telecommunications. ITU Telecom organizes global events for the governments, industry leaders and regulators that form part of the world’s ICT community. The first ITU Telecom event was held in 1971 and marks its 40th anniversary in 2011. The next ITU Telecom World event, will take place from 24 to 27 October 2011 in Geneva, Switzerland.

The ITU Telecom World 11 MetaConference [http://world2011.us] is all about seeing how young people think technology might solve some of the world’s greatest problems. You can sign up to get involved right now in this project brought to you by the United Nations agency responsible for ICT: http://world2011.us/get-involved/

ITU Telecom World 2011 [http://world2011.itu.int] is the MetaConference’s physical event in Geneva, Switzerland, bringing together thousands of influential delegates from the telecommunications and technology industries to discuss what steps need to be taken to get more of the world connected. It’s the world’s most important ICT event, where big decisions are taken on how technology can be used to solve some of our biggest problems.

And they need the help of your students!


By asking your students how they would go about solving problems running through seven major themes, you are not just covering content that is almost certainly in your curriculum – you’re offering a global stage for the ideas in front of the very people making the decisions for all our futures.

 

Conference organisers are  inviting 10,000 global school children (8-18)  to design the innovations that could make a real difference to their world, and submit their videos, blog posts, photographs and sketches, through you, to http://world2011.us/get-involved/

We want them to tell us how technology could be harnessed to:

•        alleviate poverty and hunger

•        improve education for all

•        address gender inequality

•        make sure everyone has access to health care

•        protect our environment

•        make disabled people’s lives easier

•        close the gap between the developed and developing world

 

Ideas and prototypes will be shown to delegates at the World 2011 event in Geneva, Switzerland on October 25-27. In addition,  all students will be encouraged to send in their ideas live during the event, with the event’s expert panels answering their questions and points.


 

There are  some brief online lesson starters and project ideas to help you make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for your students [http://world2011.us/category/inspiration/]. There’s also a collaborative space to share your own teaching and learning approaches, as well as upload video, audio, photographic or written content from your students’ work.

 

This is YOUR chance to be part of a world-first experiment, to have YOUR voice heard on a   global platform, to have YOUR ideas seen by the very people who make the decisions that affect our everyday lives. How can technology make our world happier, safer and smarter? How can people from different countries work together to make our world more sustainable

 

Once you’ve registered [http://world2011.us/get-involved/], you can share your ideas and prototypes with each other. Your ideas will also form a significant part of World 2011’s Manifesto for Change; a blueprint for using technology to make a real difference. 

This challenge comes to you from the International Telecommunication Union http://www.itu.int

Sign up today: http://world2011.us/get-involved/

It is amazing what kids can achieve: