ABOUT VIRTUAL EDUCA

 

VIRTUAL EDUCA, A MULTILATERAL INITIATIVE IN EDUCATION

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

1. Aims and goals

Virtual Educa is a multilateral cooperation initiative in the area of innovation applied to education and professional training for human development and social inclusion.

Virtual Educa encourages innovation in education and training as a mechanism for favoring inclusion, boosting competitiveness, and achieving a higher level of development, with special emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Virtual Educa organizes activities and collaborative spaces to promote, debate, share, and exchange ideas to improve education using the information and communication technologies (ICT).

Since its inception, one of Virtual Educa main objectives has been the organization of an annual international conference on education, innovation and ICT, known as the �Virtual Educa Symposium�. The idea behind it was to create a specific gathering that would contribute to cooperation, collaboration, and the exchange of experiences and ideas on the realities and challenges of OAS member states in the field of education and continuing education, using ICT from a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectorial point of view.

2. Chronological data

[2001] The development of the initiative was undertaken by the Organization of American States (OAS), supported by the National Distance University of Spain (UNED), throughout the Institute of Advanced Studies of the Americas (INEAM) headquartered in Miami [USA].

[2003] Signature of the Virtual Educa institutional framework agreement OAS - General Secretariat of the Ibero-American Presidents Conference (SEGIB) - UNED.

[2004] Virtual Educa was formally adopted as a project of the Ibero-American Presidents Conference [Fourteenth Summit, San Jose, Costa Rica].

[2011] The Virtual Educa Secretariat headquarters were transferred from SEGIB, in Madrid, back to the OAS in Washington, D.C., allowing greater collaboration with other networks in the hemisphere and opening the way for non-Spanish speakers OAS member states to benefit from Virtual Educa programs.

3. Vision and Mission

Vision

Virtual Educa promotes innovation in education and training in order to enable inclusion, to maximize competitiveness and to achieve a higher level of development, with special emphasis on Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mission

a. To contribute in the design of public policies with regard to innovation in education, what is achieved through: needs assessments, technical reports, case studies, and presentations of successful practices. To recommend on the most efficient use of resources.

b. To establish permanent cooperation mechanisms between the public and the private sector, balancing investment, profit and efficacy in corporate and institutional terms. To facilitate dialogue and joint decision-making on strategic education issues by governments, the academia, corporations, and civil society.

c. To support the implementation of quality educational projects and systems to improve academic results and to address the factors involved with school dropout issues.

d. To organize national, regional and international specialized forums, such as the Virtual Educa Annual Symposium, for gathering experts and decision-makers to discuss solutions to challenges in education.

e. To promote measures to reduce the digital gap and to integrate those at risk of geographical and social exclusion. To coordinate the Exhibition �Innovation in Education. Good practices in Latin-America and the Caribbean� and to disseminate projects of inclusion through innovation in Education.