Announcement
October 4, 2006
Each year at the beginning of October, thousands of publishers, authors, and book lovers gather in Frankfurt, Germany for the world’s largest book fair. What better place, then, to launch "The Literacy Project" – a resource for teachers, literacy organisations and anyone interested in reading promotion and education, created in collaboration with the Frankfurt Book Fair literacy campaign (LitCam), and UNESCO’s Institute for Lifelong Learning.
As a problem that touches all countries and populations, there’s a pressing need to share ideas, successful projects, information, and statistics about literacy – as well as find new ways to collaborate. Google believes that the Internet can be a powerful tool in connecting the organisations leading this fight. The more people that have access to reading tools, project ideas, and resources, the further we will go in combating this problem.
From Bollywood-inspired e-learning tools and book clubs, to classic children’s books and scholarly articles about phonological awareness – users can find books, videos, articles, blogs, and groups about literacy, as well as share all of their own ideas and projects.
- Books: find and search within books about literacy, reading promotion, and education.
- Academic Texts: search for literacy-related content in peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
- Video: See what literacy organisations, schools, and educators around the world are doing to promote literacy – or share your own project with the world.
- Blogs: Share your knowledge and ideas about literacy with the world by creating a "blog" – short articles and stories that you write for others to read.
- Groups: Discover forums on literacy projects and ideas or start your own debate.
- Maps: From Kenya to Bangladesh, Canada to Mexico. Find literacy organisations around the world.
For more information about the site go to: google.com/literacy
QUOTES
"Litcam is excited to have partnered with Google on this site. A global problem deserves a global solution, and we believe that cooperation and the sharing of best practices is key in the fight against illiteracy."
— Karin Plötz, Director of Education for the Future, LitCam
"Education for All is UNESCO’s first priority. Literacy is at the heart of Education for All and is an issue of vital importance for individuals, families, communities and societies. Literacy and Basic Education give individuals chances to succeed, open a world of limitless opportunities, contribute to equality, improve health and economic self-sufficiency. The aim of this site reflects one of the key missions of UNESCO, and in particular of its Institute for Lifelong Learning: to encourage the promotion of literacy around the world to build capacity and to enhance access to information about the issue."
— Adama Ouane, Director, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL)
"Literacy changes lives. The new Google literacy site is a brilliant opportunity for literacy organisations around the world to share imaginative ideas and research about what really works. The opportunity to view videos showing how to engage a wide range of audiences to help raise standards is inspiring. We hope all relevant organisations and interested individuals will not only use the site but contribute to it. Together we can help to get the whole world reading, writing and communicating."
— Julia Strong, Deputy Director, National Literacy Trust
"Booktrust exists to encourage people of all ages and cultures to discover and enjoy reading. This new site could be a powerful tool for sharing information and ideas to improve literacy and encourage access to books across the planet – we’re very pleased to be involved."
— Chris Meade, Director, Booktrust
"The Literacy Project has great potential to improve literacy and promote reading for pleasure and I welcome this exciting new initiative."
— Lord Andrew Adonis, UK Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Schools
"In India, PlanetRead’s Same Language Subtitling programme enhances the entertainment value of Bollywood film songs while providing subconscious reading practice literally, for over two hundred million early-literates. The Google-Litcam Literacy Project presents a fascinating opportunity for PlanetRead to partner with literacy groups around the world who understand the power of a song… or even a story."
— Dr. Brij Kothari, Founder and President, PlanetRead & BookBox, Inc.
"Only with combined efforts will we have the opportunity to fight illiteracy effectively. This initiative is a great move in that direction."
— Ulrich Aengevoort, Director of The German Adult Education Association
"Fighting illiteracy is all about communication. Communication to get rid of the taboo, communication to raise awareness and communication so that we don’t have to reinvent the wheel, but make the wheel turn faster. Therefore I’m really happy with The Literacy Project. It gives us the chance to share our ideas and research but also to learn from and be inspired by other organisations in the world. After all, we can only fight illiteracy effectively if we work together."
— Margreet de Vries, Director, Stichting Lezen & Schrijven, the Netherlands
0 comments:
Post a Comment