IGF 2021 WS #118 Learning resilience in the face of the pandemic

Description:

The COVID-19 pandemic has undeniably caused major disruption to all aspects of people’s lives at an unprecedented global scale. With economies going into lockdown, businesses have changed their mode of operations and people have adjusted the way they interact for work, education, and entertainment. As these activities shifted online, demand for Internet access increased exponentially. One of the many areas that had adapted their delivery methods during the COVID-19 pandemic are educational activities, shifting their operations from face-to-face interactions to remote and online engagements. This is also the case for community-driven efforts to increase technical capacity. In the community of network operators, there are many examples of collaborative efforts, through formal training programs or informal peer-to-peer offers of assistance, where friends help each other to maintain resilience and help adapt to changed circumstances. This session will also share experiences of local actors such as educators who were driven to find practical solutions to adapt their work online. One case study, for instance, is the “Nagasaki-Takaoka Model”, which is a prototype of distance learning for K12 education over an open network policy in Japan. This model, which combines cloud service, authentication, and encryption to protect student data, is being implemented in Japan. In the specific case of technical training and technical assistance: what are the best practices for delivering technical training remotely? How have these trainings supported networks to adapt their operations in response to the pandemic? What social and technological adaptations are required for an online-only delivery environment? How have these practices been affected by differences in availability of bandwidth? While the circumstances of the pandemic have forced people to adopt more online habits, this session will also seek to understand what the remaining barriers to meaningful access that people continue to face are. Agenda 2 mins Introduction by moderator. Why is this topic important? 5 mins Distance learning over open network policy for K12 education in Japan, KEIO university study (academia) 5 mins Technical assistance to the community (Technical community) 10 mins SWITCH SEA project fostering diversity and gender empowerment in Southeast Asia’s Internet industry (Technical community) 15 min Discussion and Q&A 10 min Work towards compiling lessons learned and best practices Breakout groups, including presence group. Facilitated discussion using online whiteboards to aggregate breakout group outcomes Final remarks from the panel.