Education Pillar

Vision
Education is not just about creating productive workers it is about the well rounded development of the individual so that this individual is empowered to function in a free society for both his/her benefit and the benefit of the common interest. The effective use of human intellectual capital is vital to our success. A vision of a better world can only tranform if it becomes a integral part of our lives. As we realize our potential as human beings and in the process help others to realize their own potential all over the world this will have a cascading effect on the larger social movement of which we are part. To meet the unprecedented challenges of our age, we must develop educational systems that bring together collective knowledge and expertise to promote sustainability and social justice.

Current Reality and Challenges
Educational systems are pushed to the limit in emerging economies. The demographic transition is bringing more children into cities than most governments are capable of managing, while many in rural regions do not have even the most basic educational services available to them. Even those in school do not have the most rudimentary teaching tools available and teachers are not adequately trained or compensated for their work while at the same at overburdened with huge expectations. Conventional approaches involve continuing to focus investment on urban areas and to develop and import educational approaches and content from developed countries.

Education Divide

	Education in many parts of the world is a luxury
	Approximately 120 million primary school aged children do not attend school globally
	150 million drop out after five years of education
	80 million African children out of school
	2 percent of Africa's school children go to college

Approach
This program will demonstrate on a practical level the compelling nature of an integrated approach to sustainable development. The major fields of this integration will be involve a complex level of interaction which is why we are organizing an academic program to develop knowledge bases that bring together innovative thinkers in an holistic educational program that offer hands on learning experiences promoting technology transfer and training to developing regions that most need these technologies.

We will mobilize development resources through a cooperative networked effort committed to advance education in non-affluent parts of the world as rapidly as possible. To reach the extremely ambitious MDC goals we need a whole systems approach that goes beyond urban regions to provide high quality social and economic services to people in all types of human habitats:

	Human capacity building at the community level the corner stone
	Provide safe and healthy schools and play environments for children
	High quality education for high quality jobs

New Professsional Model - The oneVillage new professional model of development will base itself on helping people to help themselves. The student needs to develop the tools to learn and the openness to new perspectives that result the evolution of both their personal and academic and professional lives. A successful educational experience weaves these two components together in an experiential experience—a life long bond that melts together the theoretical with the practical. Sustainable or restorative economics and involves a consideration of many physical as well as social measures that do not garner serious consideration in many schools, governments or businesses. Social sustainability is an expansion of the relatively straightforward quantitative measures of success towards a restorative economy into the realm of the qualitative—that is what do we need to make us healthy, nourished human beings that are stimulated by the environment and the people in our lives.

Holistic and Interdisciplinary Approach to Education John Todd of Ocean Arks International explains that in order to create and effectively manage sustainable systems we need to develop an understanding of the world that is nonlinear, interdisciplinary and multi-dimensional. This integrated whole brain/whole systems process of thinking will enable us to navigate our way through complex systems in a way that intuitively allows us to select the information that is relevant to our needs, rather than the current cumbersome and highly structured approach that is the norm today. The ICT augmented educational program will involve a series of web-based teaching and interpretative presentations, which will better explain the key role of ICT in teaching us to “think like an ecosystem,” as the ecological designer John Todd says.

Academia has an important role collaborating and coordinating with businesses and nonprofits to promote an integrated sustainable education model at the village level:

	Ecological Design—Develop sustainable organizational models, approaches and technologies necessary to promote this type innovative type of economic growth—including business, planning and sustainable design
	Ecological economics—Refine the economic models and theories needed to sustain the expansion of the restorative economy—economics and finance
	Integrative Studies—Promote an interdisciplinary approach to sustainable development based on a comprehensive, whole systems approach—integrative studies
	New Professional Model—Cultivate a new mindset based on an expanded global social and ecological consciousness—public and governmental relations, advertising and marketing

Critical thinking - Another aspect of this learning process is an emphasis on process and the design of thinking processes rather than the accumulation of knowledge through memorization. Modern systems change too rapidly for us to really effectively justify from an economic, social or cultural perspective much of the time spent on memorization in conventional schools.

Experiential Learning - A vision of a better world can only tranform if it becomes a integral part of our lives. Theories and ideals remain little more than lofty notions unless they are brought down to earth so that they relate to the everyday struggles in people lives.

	Give people an educational experience they can use - practical practices that will work including hands-on work in the field as well as in the classroom
	Get people using tools and feeling what it’s like to build the soil

ICT and Education ICT - Support expanded education programs, providing open and distance learning (ODL) modules that can teach valuable skills of all sorts. NGOs working with this technology can teach villagers how to use the power of ICT described above. NGOs can also teach them to how create their own content, and how to locate content from others that meets their needs.

oneVillage Programs

As we realize our potential as human beings and in the process help others to realize their own potential all over the world this will have a cascading effect on the larger social movement of which we are part. SUsing Unity Centers as practical hands on vehicles for social change we will reconfigure educational systems to promote new understandings and new systems of development dedicated to social and cultural revitalization that is locally based but globally aware.

Objectives

	Train students on how to effectively convert Information Technologies (IT) and environmentally appropriate technologies into tangible products that have economic value
	Emphasize process and the design of thinking processes rather than the accumulation of knowledge through memorization
	Promote experiential Learning - educational experiences people can use in their everyday lives
	Create channel and forums to enable global wisdom exchange
	Empower Youth on IT education, entrepreneurial training and develop platform for Youth to apply their skills

oneVillage Education Ecopartners

Teachers Without Borders

Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

Global Resource Information Network, OAU Student ICT Club

TakingITGLobal

Living Routes Study Abroad Programs for a Sustainable Future

Ecosa Institute

CatchITYoung is a program established by OVF Ghana in that establishes ICT clubs for K-12 students in Ghana.

GRASSUP NOW is a program started by a group of NGOs with the support of the Commonwealth of learning a Canadian Foundation. Their goal is to develop a ICT augmented program that improves awareness of health care and nutritional issues with a particular focus on women.

Professor Akiwowo eLibrary

Downloads

For a more in-depth explanation of the methodology of the OVF educational program download the OVF_Lifelong_Learning.pdf

Go here to read more about OVF's Open and Distance Learning Program  OVF_Eco-NIC.pdf