UNESCO Call for Individual Consultant – Media and Information Literacy for Adult Educators: APPLY NOW!
Call for Individual Consultant – Media and Information Literacy for Adult Educators
Duty Station: Hamburg
Application Deadline (Midnight Paris Time) : 19-MAR-2024
OVERVIEW OF THE FUNCTIONS OF THE INDIVIDUAL CONSULTANT POST
1. Objective
This call aims to identify a contractor to produce thirteen practical and short unitsunits in English on various media and information literacy topics (set out below). These units will be used by adult educators, for example adult literacy educators, librarians, vocational education trainers, non-formal education facilitators, in diverse contexts to deliver short lessons to their learners. The countries involved in the project are located in East and Southern Africa, Central Asia, and Latin America. The units will be accompanied by one Training of Trainers manual for adult educators to use the units with appropriate pedagogical guidance.
Long Description
2. Background
The rapid digital transformation of society has significantly impacted adult education throughout one’s lifespan as technologies become increasingly integrated into the lifelong learning process. Digital technologies have the potential to support these adult learners achieve their learning goals by enabling access to educational materials, facilitating communication with educators and peers, and offering personalized learning experiences. Adult learners are increasingly able to access learning opportunities and consume a wide range of media every day through multiple digital devices.
However, the digital transformation has led to serious challenges to society notably as regards vulnerabilities around the spread of disinformation and access to accurate and timely information. An opinion poll conducted by IPSOS for UNESCO, with over 8,000 respondents across 16 countries where elections will be held in 2024, found that 85% of citizens are worried about the impact of online disinformation, at a time when social media platforms have become the primary source of information for a large majority of them. 87% of citizens believe that this misinformation has already had a major impact on their country’s political life and fear that it will influence the results of their country’s elections in the next year.
The rapid increase in the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) is increasing the threats as research shows that AI tools and deepfakes, including those that use GAI, have generated disinformation and hate speech and presented them convincingly as credible to users. Such uses could have a deep impact on crucial moments of collective decision-making such as elections or public consultations.
UNESCO recommends the scaling up of Media and Information Literacy (MIL) as one of the key answers to this global challenge to prepare for a future where GAI is used in online content and in the workplace. To achieve that, educators will need to train learners on the basics of MIL, while learning to navigate the new online ecosystem, recognize synthetic media when they encounter it, which may imply teaching them to master prompts, or the art of designing queries that will yield valuable outputs.
UNESCO and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning recognize that supporting media and information literacy in lifelong learning will empower people with the critical thinking skills they need to harness the opportunities of the new online ecosystem while being resilient to online threats such as disinformation or hate speech.
Long Description
Adult educators play a critical role in reaching most of the adult population around the world. Adult educators are key to learner success and are often voices of influence in their local communities, leading them to be important partners in the delivery of MIL competencies that promote critical thinking and decision-making, active citizenship, respect for diversity, countering extremism and respect for freedom of expression.
UNESCO’s decades of experience promoting MIL has led to the development of many resources that can be adapted and integrated in formal, nonformal and informal education contexts across the world, such as the MIL Model Curricula for Educators and Learners.
This assignment aims to build on these resources specifically for adult educators to be able to teach MIL effectively, while leaving room for flexibility and adjustment according to the diverse needs of their learners and the cultural context.
3. Individual Consultant Main Tasks and Responsibilities
Under the overall authority of the Director of the UNESCO Institute of Lifelong Learning (UIL) and the supervision of the Team Leader at UIL, the contractor shall provide the following services:
1. Develop thirteen units on media and information literacy for use by adult educators in diverse contexts, including adult literacy educators, librarians, technical and vocational education trainers, non-formal education facilitators. The provisional titles of the units are as follows:
Long Description
| Unit No. | Title |
| 1. | Media and information literacy within adult learning contexts: Basics |
| 2. | Access to reliable information, the role of journalism in the new online ecosystems, and freedom of expression |
| 3. | Children, parents and social media |
| 4. | Misinformation, disinformation and fake news |
| 5. | Active citizens, thinking citizens: Citizenship engagement through MIL |
| 6. | Making a stand against hate speech and extremism |
| 7. | Savvy users – Scams, phishing, identity theft |
| 8. | MIL and Artificial Intelligence |
| 9. | The workplace and media and information literacy |
| 10. | Gender equality in online spaces |
| 11. | Intellectual property and authorship |
| 12. | Socio-emotional skills in critical media literacy |
| 13. | Buyer beware: Knowing about advertising |
2. Each unit is expected to comprise the following sections and not exceed five A4 pages, 1.2 line spacing:
a. Learning Outcomes
b. Knowledge section comprising content written in simple English and links to online resources. The knowledge section should be presented in a way that identifies content suitable for a beginner, intermediate or advanced learner of the topic.
c. Activity section that contains three different learning activities of approximately 30 minutes duration for learners who have a Beginner’s understanding of the topic, learners who have an Intermediate understanding of the topic and learners who have an Advanced understanding of the topic.
d. Assessment section that explains how different formative assessment techniques can be used to support learning if learners struggle with the content.
e. List of References
3. The units should contain prompts that explicitly gives space to an adult educator to consider and adapt the provided content to different learning environments, cultures, languages, and social contexts.
4. Develop a Training of Trainers manual that identifies the key competencies required by an educator before they start using the units, explains how the units are to be taught, key adult learning principles, and additional resources.
5. Ensure the legal rights to use the different types of learning assets, such as pictures, diagrams, tables, designed text, etc, are assured and/or sources properly acknowledged. Open educational resources are preferred.
6. The units should be in a format that can easily be shared and edited by the intended users, such as commonly used word processing software formats.
The contractor must ensure that sources are properly cited by using the Harvard referencing style, following international academic standards and making sure that no copyrights are violated. Please refer to the UNESCO Style Manual for citation style, terminology and spelling, abbreviations, references, etc.
4.Individual Consultant Deliverables and Schedules
1. First draft of the thirteen units and Training of Trainers manual are to be submitted by 15 May 2024.
2. Final version of the thirteen units and Training of Trainers manual are to be submitted by 14 June 2024.
5.Remuneration instalments
| Payment No. | Upon submission to and approval by UNESCO of the following work | Last date for submission | Distribution of payment (%) |
| 1. | Draft units and Training of Trainers manual | 15 May 2024 | 30% |
| 2. | Final units and Training of Trainers manual | 14 June 2024 | 70% |
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6. Qualifications and requirements
• The applicant must have at least 5 years experience in developing content for media and information literacy training and delivering such trainings to adults.
• The applicant has demonstrated experience with developing and delivering media and information literacy training to adults in multiple countries.
• Prior experience working in both national and international contexts would be an advantage.
• Prior experience developing and delivering media and information literacy trainings for entities within the United Nations systems would be an advantage.
• The applicant must have excellent oral communication and writing skills in English.
7. Logistics
The contractor will be responsible for arranging their own logistics: office space, administrative and secretarial support, team members, telecommunications, travel arrangement, printing of documentation, etc. The costs of these logistics, including all research-related travel costs, will be included in the lump sum payment of the consultancy contract.
APPLICATION PROCESS
8. Submission of Application
Interested individuals are invited to submit the application and requirements through the UNESCO Careers website
Interested candidates should click on “Apply Now” and download and complete the Employment History form (Word document) in ‘Employment History Form / My Documents’. Before uploading the document, at the end of the Word document, please insert the extra pages with the following required information:
Before uploading the document, at the end of the Word document, please insert the extra pages with the following required information:
• Technical proposal comprising:
1. An updated Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a cover letter indicating how your qualifications and experience make you suitable for the assignment.
2. Short Approach to work (maximum 3, A4 pages) identifying the specific components of these TORs and how the intended objectives/outputs/delivery shall be addressed, and including specific hyperlinks or attachments of relevant examples of equivalent or comparable assignments.
• Financial proposal that states the total compensation as a lump sum in US dollars, together with a breakdown according to the time-on-task or per output. No travel is expected for this assignment.
UNESCO places great emphasis on ensuring that the objectives of the work assignment, as described in the Terms of Reference, are met. Accordingly, in evaluating the proposals for the assignment, attention will focus first and foremost on the technical elements. From those proposals deemed suitable in terms of the criteria in the Terms of Reference, UNESCO shall select the proposal that offers the Organization the best value for money.
The complete application shall be submitted on or before 19 March 2024 (Midnight Paris time). Please note that only pre-selected candidates will be contacted.
Queries of a technical nature about these TORS may be directed to: uil-learningecosystems@unesco.org
SELECTION AND RECRUITMENT PROCESS
Please note that all candidates must complete an on-line application and provide complete and accurate information. To apply, please visit the UNESCO careers website. No modifications can be made to the application submitted.
The evaluation of candidates is based on the criteria in the vacancy notice, and may include tests and/or assessments, as well as a competency-based interview.
UNESCO is committed to achieving workforce diversity in terms of gender, nationality and culture. Candidates from non- and under-represented Member States (last update here) are particularly welcome and strongly encouraged to apply. Individuals from minority groups and indigenous groups and persons with disabilities are equally encouraged to apply. All applications will be treated with the highest level of confidentiality. Worldwide mobility is required for staff members appointed to international posts.
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