Tim Unwin to speak at TIER workshop

October 17, 2008: 9:15am - 10:00am
Location: 112 Wurster Hall, UC Berkeley

"ICT4D: Reflections on an Unfinished Journey"

Tim Unwin, UNESCO Chair in ICT4D at University of London

Professor Unwin will deliver the keynote talk for the upcoming TIER Workshop: http://www.citris-uc.org/TIER

Abstract:

ICT4D present many challenges: intellectual, professional, ethical…. This keynote, explores aspects of these from a very personal perspective. Why does someone best known for a book on the historical geography of viticulture and the wine trade, finish up leading a global initiative on the use of ICT partnerships in African education? Three particular themes are addressed: the challenges in crafting a research agenda for ICT4D in a global context, focusing particularly on the role of academics; the inter- and multi-disciplinary challenges of ICT4D, drawing on experiences of creating a graduate community of researchers; and reflections on how we might work more collaboratively together to achieve changes that benefit poor and marginalised people and communities. The mode will be gently provocative; the intent is to identify common ground through which TIER and the ICT4D Collective can develop mutually beneficial synergies,

Biography:
Tim Unwin is UNESCO Chair in ICT4D and Professor of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London. From 2001-2004 he led the UK Prime Minister’s Imfundo: Partnership for IT in Education initiative based within the Department for International Development, and he is currently Senior Advisor to the World Economic Forum’s Partnerships for Education initiative with UNESCO, a High Level Advisor for the UN’s Global Alliance for ICT and Development, and President of the Advisory Board of Eduvision.

He was previously Head of the Department of Geography at Royal Holloway, University of London between 1999 and 2001, and has also served as Honorary Secretary of the Royal Geographical Society (with The Institute of British Geographers) (1995-1997). He has written or edited 13 books, and over 170 papers and other publications, including "Wine and the Vine" (Routledge, 1991; translated into three languages), "The Place of Geography" (Longman, 1992), as well as his edited "Atlas of World Development" (Wiley, 1994) and "A European Geography" (Longman, 1998).

His research has taken him to more than 25 countries across the world, from Sénégal to Singapore, and Estonia to Ethiopia, and he has worked on subjects as diverse as the role of banknotes as expressions of national identity, and the educational needs of out of school youth in the Philippines. His recent research has concentrated especially on ICT4D, focusing on its use in the context of teacher training in Africa, on a critique of budget support mechanisms in international aid, and on the use of partnerships in ICT4D practice.

He has recently completed a collaborative book on ICT4D to be published by Cambridge University Press in 2008. The UK’s Secretary of State for International Development appointed him as a Commonwealth Scholarship Commissioner in 2004, and he has just been appointed Chair of the Commission with effect from January 2009; he also serves as Academic Advisor and External Examiner of the Institute of Masters of Wine.