WCET and GlobalMindED Announce Digital Inclusion Award Winner 2018

July 20, 2018
Contact: Lindsey Downs
303-541-0234
ldowns@wiche.edu

WCET and GlobalMindED are proud to announce the winner of the 2018 Digital Inclusion Award as Dr. Hamid Ikram from Government College University Faisalabad. This award is a unique recognition of an individual, organization or program that has shown significant impact on first generation learner populations regarding advancing the digital inclusion of students.

Boulder, CO: WCET – The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies and GlobalMindED are proud to announce the winner of the 2018 Digital Inclusion Award as Dr. Hamid Ikram. The Digital Inclusion Award is a unique recognition of an individual, organization, or program that has shown significant impact on first generation learner populations regarding increasing digital inclusion. Digital Inclusion is the clearly articulated use of digital technologies to involve ALL learners in beneficial activities, not about infrastructure or software deployments. It is about what learners actually DO with the technologies to improve society. While giving technology to students is important, we must also provide educational opportunities to help them understand more about how technology can change their world.

This year’s award winner promotes digital inclusion by serving high need students in a low socioeconomic community with no access to technology within their schools. During his doctoral studies, Dr. Ikram developed a program to include digital learning media in school curriculum, bringing technology access and programing to both students and teachers in a rural Pakistani school.

During the first two weeks, the program focused on providing professional development to teachers in the school, to help them understand how to include digital technologies in their instruction. During the second part of the program, students engaged with technology for learning, including watching exciting videos, playing learning games on various platforms, experiencing unique animations and digital pictures, using collaboration tools, and even designing their own digital portfolios. The students are more engaged and motivated for learning; attendance increased from 44 students to 80 in the first week of the program. Their parents were inspired by the program and became involved to help the project succeed.

The Digital Inclusion Award was awarded to Dr. Ikram at the GlobalMindED Conference June 9 – 11, 2018 in Denver, CO.