Modernizing ICT Education for Harvesting Innovation

ICT is an innovation sector that drives economic growth and job creation. Its’ high growth is a result of the rapid development of networks, which fuels both the demand and supply for digital services. Universities have a responsibility to modernize their educational practices for developing highly skilled ICT professionals capable of putting ideas into action. Building the innovation capacity of ICT students is crucial because: it benefits individuals by building knowledge and skills for pursuing successful careers in a highly evolving sector; it builds a highly skilled workforce; it contributes to community wellbeing through services that address industry and societal issues.Design thinking is an innovation building framework that introduces solutions that better address needs through a process of empathy that allows designers to better understand the experiences and feeling of users. Design thinking enables the definition of more accurate problem statements and encourages brainstorming for building and validating solutions that work, even when none appears to exist at first glance. ICT-INOV aims to enrich ICT higher education in Asia, and specifically Malaysia, Vietnam, Nepal, and Pakistan, for promoting innovation. Implementation in South Asia is important due to the region’s high growth. While educational objectives in these Partner Countries may differ, they all converge to the need of enriching higher education as a vehicle of innovation and growth. ICT-INOV aims to introduce a technology-enhanced, design thinking learning intervention for contributing to the development of an ICT workforce highly capable of innovation. The project will produce:- An design thinking, experiential learning framework for innovation- Physical labs and digital services for promoting collaboration in design thinking - Educational activities that integrate design thinking- Instructor training and community building towards the adoption of design thinking in ICT education