Education – Page 3 – Integra LLC

Agriculture, Basic Education, Education, Education, Higher Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Brookings: 7 Principles for ICTs in Ed

Photo Credit: National University of Singapore

A new working paper released by the Global Economy and Development at Brookings concludes that if smartly and strategically deployed, modern information and communications technology (ICT) holds great promise in helping bring quality learning to some of the world’s poorest and hardest-to reach communities.

As part of the Brooke Shearer Working Paper Series, the paper entitled “A New Face of Education Bringing Technology into the Classroom in the Developing World” focused on the potentials of using information and communication technologies to improve teaching and learning in the developing nations.

Using two examples of ICTs application in education from Peru and Pakistan – “failed” and “successful”, the paper stated that experience shows that while there are numerous examples of how technology is used to the great benefit of teachers and learners alike, there are also many cases in which it does little to impact educational processes and outcomes.

The example from Peru, South America recalls a number of colorful laptops sitting in a corner of a classroom covered with dust. It argues that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program which was arranged by the Ministry of Education, had the good intention of improving students’ information communication technology (ICT) skills, as well as their content-related skills through the laptops. But because there was no proper support for teacher training in how the laptops are to be used; no follow-up or repair and maintenance contingencies; and with outdated and bug-infested software, the laptops are seen as unusable and serve little purpose.

On the other hand, the successful example recalled a young girl in the small village of Hafizibad in Pakistan using her mobile phone to send an SMS message in Urdu to her teacher. After sending, she receives messages from her teacher in response, which she diligently copies by hand in her notebook to practice her writing skills. She does this from the safety of her home, and with her parents’ permission. The girl is part of a Mobilink-UNESCO program to increase literacy skills among girls in Pakistan which has shown some positive improvements so far.

Based on the above examples, the authors identified some barriers to quality education in the developing world.

Barriers to Learning for All – Primary, Secondary & Higher Education

Distance and Cost – limited availability of schools in remote, inaccessible, or particularly impoverished regions of developing countries with direct and indirect costs barriers.
Quality of Faculty/Teachers – poor quality of teacher training programs, lack of in-service training for those on the field, and lack of graduate level faculty members affect how much time teachers spend and how they teach.
Resources, Materials and Language – limited budget for tertiary education leads to poor quality teaching and learning materials, in appropriate format and language are barriers especially to the early learners.
Management – poor education system management including unwieldy teacher payment systems, limited information collection and management capabilities, and poor learning assessment processes.
Students Academically Unprepared – due to the poor quality of education at the basic and secondary levels, students entering higher education are unprepared and usually with poor performance.

The paper continues that even with the extraordinary growth in access to ICT, its use in multiple sectors of society is uneven because of certain interconnected conditions that needs to be taken care of including the following:

Enabling Conditions for Effective Technology (ICT) Use

Access to Electricity – the use of ICTs requires access to power such as electricity, solar power, batteries, etc.
Internet Connectivity – access to the Internet and wireless capabilities is key for the use of ICTs in classroom
Human Resource Capacity – the need to attract, recruit and train skilled and qualified IT professionals
Political will and Management – development of national and institutional ICT policies and the will to act on them
Financial Resources – most of the developing countries need external support in implementing successful ICT projects in the educational sector
Link between Infrastructure Availability and Ability to Integrate – these countries also need to effectively integrate ICTs into the various sectors once the infrastructure is in place.

The paper then mentioned different types of ICTs for use in education in the developing nations.

Technology Types and their Prevalence

Radio – Even though is being referred to as “old technology,” radio and radio instruction such as Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) has been utilized across the developing world as a tool to help facilitate learning and increase access to educational opportunities.
Television – Television is used to supplement classroom instruction with educational videos that teach and support lessons in language learning, mathematics, history, life skills and among other subjects.
Computers – Personal computers (PCs) are one of the most frequently cited and used forms of technology in education in the developing world and act as indicators of technological progress.
Mobile Phones – Cell phones and smart phones have been seen as increasingly useful educational tools in developing countries.
Tablets and E-readers – Tablet PCs like the iPad and ereaders are becoming a trend in education technology, and many experts see an important future for them in developing countries, due to the relatively low procurement cost.
Multimedia Projectors – These are devices used to project documents and/or computer images onto a wall in an effort to display the image to an entire classroom and allow the teacher to interact with the material along with the students, etc.
Open Educational Resources (OER) – OER are “teaching, learning, and research resources that reside in the public domain or have been released under an intellectual property license that permits the free use and repurposing by others”.
Cloud Computing – Cloud computing allows organizations to increase computing capacity or add computing capabilities without needing to invest in infrastructure or train additional personnel.

The paper suggests seven guiding principles for the use of ICTs in education to be able to achieve the intended teaching and learning goal.

Seven Principles for Smart use of Technology in Education

Educational Problem First – First, identify the educational problem that needs to be addressed, and then assess which, if any, is the best technology to do the job.
Added Value – make sure that the technology will add value to other existing solutions.
Sustainability – Carefully consider the full range of enabling conditions such as the total cost of ownership, the ultimate relevance of the technology to the particular location, access to appropriate infrastructure, and human resource capacity.
Multiple Uses -Where possible, select a technology and design an intervention so that the technology can be used for multiple purposes.
Lowest Cost – While there may be many different types of technologies that can provide the assistance sought, other things being equal, it is best to select the least expensive option for the job(s) desired.
Reliability – Before deploying a technology, ensure it is reliable and will not rapidly break down. Nothing slows a project down more than unresolved problems.
Ease of Use – Finally, in educational interventions, technology should be easy to use.

It concludes that, if these principles are followed it can help avoid many future problems and, more importantly help leverage the power of ICT in educating young people in some of the poorest regions of the world.

The full paper can be accessed here.

January 6, 2012/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICT in Education 2011: The quest to find true cost of edutech projects

Policy-makers, development specialists, and educators around the world generally agree that information and communications technology (ICT) can greatly enhance learning and more efficiently and effectively deliver educational services. In 2011, technology-based education (“edutech” or “ICT4E”) experts talked a lot (and debated a lot) about how to successfully implement ICT initiatives for education in developing countries.

Cost of implementation continued to be a top issue of concern, but the debate shifted from being solely focused on the cost of gadgets (“hardware”) to taking into account the total cost of implementing ICT education solutions. This includes teacher and student training, support and maintenance, and the cost of replacing the hardware. Many in the ICT4E field have opposed the fascination with developing the cheapest educational device possible, a mentality that grew in the late 2000s with projects such as One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). Now-a-days, ICT4E’ers argue that what is needed is not to try and reach the unfeasible goal of getting a laptop into every primary school child’s hands, but for each classroom to be equipped with a “learning system,” such as a teacher-centric computer connected to low-power projector.

Photo credit: www.techmean.com

While acknowledging that hardware is not the main cost in implementing edutech projects, it’s still interesting to see how low the costs of education gadgets can get. The ICT4E sector saw several new low-cost gadgets unveiled this year.

The education gadget that has perhaps received the most press this year is India’s Aakash, launched in October and developed by the company Datawind and the Indian Institute of Technology. DataWind CEO Suneet Singh Tuli recently gave a talk about the device at the World Bank, discussing its functionality, cost (subsidized at $35, unsubsidized around $60), and how it fits into broader sustainable business models of ICT adoption in the developing world. Many are critical of the Aakash; similar low-cost devices had been promised for India before and failed, and some questioned whether the tablet could really be considered “educational.”

Though Literacy Bridge piloted its $10 Talking Book in 2009 in Ghana, the non-profit has expanded the reach of the audio device as well as contributed to ICT in education strategies throughout 2011. The organization claims their device is “the world’s most affordable, durable, audio device” designed to reach people who are not literate and live without electricity. The gadget enables teachers to reach more students; for instance, they can record readings of instructional materials onto the device and create interactive audio lessons like quizzes or games.

Literacy Bridge's "Talking Book"

Next year holds some exciting potential for ICT4E developments. Something to look out for soon (originally set to launch this month by a UK charity) is the Raspberry Pi, a tiny and incredibly cheap ($25!) computer that will be used for teaching computer programming to children. The Raspberry Pi Foundation plans for the credit-card sized device, which can be plugged into a TV, to have a number of applications that can be used both the developed and developing world.

Geeks Without Frontiers announced in August that it has developed a low-cost, open source Wi-Fi software technology that could reach a billion people in 10 years. The technology is estimated to be about half of the traditional network cost once it is up and running. Though it is not specifically designed for educational purposes, it could have huge implications for the ICT4E field, allowing many more students and teachers in low-income areas to connect to the Internet.

2011 also brought good analyses of all the low-cost gadgets that have been developed for educational purposes. One article looked at the best devices for education currently available, based on six success criteria for ICT4E projects in developing countries as determined by researchers and practitioners in the field: infrastructure, maintenance, contents and materials, community inclusion, teacher training, and evaluation.

The credit card-sized Raspberry Pi computer

No doubt the debates about the best way to implement ICT4E projects will continue in 2012, as will the search to find the lowest-cost educational gadgets. The field holds some exciting developments for the new year, so be sure to follow the Educational Technology Debate, ICT Works, the World Bank EduTech blog, and GBI’s education sector, among others, to keep up with the latest updates.

December 22, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Should the $35 Aakash Tablet be Dubbed “Educational”?

Photo Credit: Android Community

From Mr Tuli’s presentation yesterday at the World Bank on India’s new low-cost tablet Aakash, and the discussions that followed, I differ to agree that the device is Educational as being dubbed.

Launched in October this year by the country’s Minister for Human Resource Development, Aakash has been described by some as potentially heralding a new “Internet revolution” within India education, doing for educational computing what the mobile phone has done for personal communications over the past decade.

Through a live Webcast and twitter, the CEO of Datawind, Suneet Singh Tuli presented his case to the World Bank and his global audience on why the Aakash tablet computer will revolutionize education in India and possibly in other parts of the developing world. Mr. Tuli focused his talk on the device, affordability, connectivity or access to the Internet, content, and sustainable business models to drive broad adoption of the device in the developing world through an ecosystems approach in an event organized by the Open Data Innovations Network (ODIN) of the Bank with the key concern of what is different this time around (Listen to the recorded webcast).

In response to his talk, several questions, concerns, and comments both from the face-to-face audience and through social media were centered on content. This is because of the christening of the device as “educational”. I tend to agree with most of the comments that the device could have an educational component but education should not be the heart of the tablet. Aakash is a technological innovation and should be presented as such and left for users to decide how to use it. Using it for education in India because of the available educational content or training materials at the time does not make it an educational device.

I believe Aakash could be revolutionary in nature due to its current low cost – the actual cost of $60 or the subsidized rate of $35. The focus should be on exploring its potential within all sectors of development to facilitate communication of information. Access to information and knowledge is the driving force for development in the current information age and the knowledge society. Mobile technologies are having great impact on the developing world as a result of their unique capability to connect rural people to informational resource – health, agriculture, education, market, democracy and governance, among others. For Aakash to have any impact on any or all of these development sectors will require some kind of collaboration with Value Added Service (VAS) providers – content developers.

The CEO of Datawind also sought the support of the World Bank through its networks with national governments in the developing world to help in the adoption and use of the device to help meet the educational goal by incorporating it into their educational curriculum. But I wonder if this is the right time for such a policy action by an international development agency at this early stage of the innovation.

An interesting review of Aakash can be found here.

December 9, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Agriculture Markets, Education, Extension Service, Food Security, Mobile, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Reforming Ag. Extension, One ICT at a Time!

Photo Credit: M-Kilimo Project

Two recent case studies on some ICTs for agricultural development projects supported through the GSMA Development Fund – mAgri Program reveal an emerging trend within the broader Agricultural Extension Services (AES) and specifically in the developing nations, that worth commenting on. The revealing trend I’ve noticed, is that, either drastic policies and actions be taken to restructure the current educational systems of agricultural extension agents/officers or nations be prepared to seed-off their agricultural advisory services to the private sector (full privatization).

The projects are M-Kilimo in Kenya which has been developed as a result of cooperation between Rockefeller Foundation and KenCall the largest BPO Company in East Africa. The second project is IFFCO Kisan Sanchar Limited (IKSL), which is also a tri-lateral venture between Indian Farmers Fertilizer Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO), Airtel, and Star Global Resources Ltd.

The following two stories tell the kind of impact these two ICT4Ag projects are having on the lives of rural farmers in the respective countries.

Sanjay Mondal, a farmer from India had his cucumber farm infested with necrotic leaf lesions. After discussing his problem with IKSL staff remotely, the disease was diagnosed and a topical spray of Sectin fungicide in the ratio of 2mg per litre of water was prescribed. The total cost of the treatment was 500 Indian rupees. The yield increased by 50% as a result, and income also went up by 50% (India – IKSL).

Nahomi, a chicken farmer in Kenya had problem with thin weak egg shells that did not allow her to sell or store the eggs in that quality. She called M-Kilimo and the livestock expert on the other end of the line suggested that she gives the chicken a feed rich in calcium. By using a calcium rich poultry feed or adding fishmeal to the feeds will increase the calcium content of her feed, the expert explained. Now, Nahomi’s chickens are laying good quality eggs and she can sell more eggs as a result of the advice and availability of M-Kilimo experts (Kenya – M-Kilimo).

A closer look at the design and operational models of IKSL and M-Kilimo predicts the future demise of most National Agricultural Extension Services (NAES) if the necessary reforms of the current educational systems delay. I will attempt to explain my argument from two perspectives – the human resources level of extension staffs and the medium of delivery of the information to the end users (which is also a factor of ICT human resource development).

Human Resource – Agricultural Extension and Education

The traditional agricultural extension service as the main platform for delivery of new innovations, technologies and information to farmers, has its strength in the extension staffs. The extension agent/officer/worker is seen as a “Change Agent”. These officers are mostly public servants trained and equipped to be, most of the time, in direct contact with their clients, the farmers. Even though the service has been engulfed with a host of problems, its human interaction capability is still strong which helps not only to deliver new innovations but also train users how to use these technologies through field demonstrations. However, my personal experience tells me of the poor quality of extension staffs currently on the field in most developing countries due to a number of issues.

A recent study I conducted with over 30 agricultural extension officers from three agricultural districts in Ghana shows that only 39% did receive some form of undergraduate degree in agriculture. The remaining 61% is made up of either certificate in agriculture or diploma in agriculture obtained in the late 70s and early 80s.

The IKSL and M-Kilimo projects have tended to improve upon this traditional human resource development in extension. For example the IKSL project acknowledged that the quality of its experts is critical for their success since these experts decide the content of the messages that are being delivered to the users. As a result, they have a minimum qualification of first degree in agriculture for their first line of staffs that are in direct contact with the users; highly experienced academics and specialists in agriculture for second line experts; and the third line of 10 specialists who regularly convene to vet and validate contents being delivered to the users.

M-Kilimo also has similar model with emphasis on trustworthy and effective system to deliver appropriate information to the end user. The project also requires the experts to have a minimum of bachelor’s degree in agriculture and at least 2 years of relevant field experience. This first line of experts is supported by Subject Matter Experts (SME) to help provide quality assurance service for content and delivery. Also the contents are obtained from the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, National Weather Station, and other Research Institutes within and outside the country.

Photo Credit: IKSL

Medium of Delivery – Timely and Remote Access to Information

Even though the traditional medium for agricultural extension has improved over the years including the mass communication technologies such as radios and televisions; and recently with mobile phones, the face-to-face interaction still dominates most NAES. Extension officers are expected to visit individual farmers’ field and other farmers groups to deliver new information. This continues in the wake of high extension officer-farmer ratios (1:3000 and over), one of the primary indicators used to measure the intensity of extension coverage in a country. Ironically, most of the public extension officers who have access to the new ICT facilities through public telecenters, and other community information centers are not well trained and equipped to use them to facilitate their work.

The result is the deplorable condition of information or knowledge gap as seen in the stories of the two farmers above prior to the intervention of M-Kilimo and IKSL in Kenya and India respectively. But how many rural farmers have access to M-Kilimo and IKSL and similar projects across the developing nations?

With the IKSL and M-Kilimo projects, a critical part as seen in the stories above is ‘remote delivery of information to users’ – either through their mobile phones or SMS messages. The use of these tools facilitates timely delivery of information to users. Apart from the information communication systems that are put in place, ICT human resources development of the helpline experts is important. These features of the emerging information communication systems are helping to ensure more accurate, appropriate, timely and remotely accessible information to end users such as rural farmers whose farming success are previously determined by extension agents/officers.

Implications for National Agricultural Extension Services (NAES)

ICTs are not here to replace the rich human interactions between rural agricultural farmers and extension agents. It should be recognized that the social capital created through face-to-face interactions during extension visits are irreplaceable. ICTs are “technologies” that can enable social behaviors. But without some drastic reforms of the existing extension system, especially the educational standard of the extension staffs, I see the gradual downfall of the public agricultural extension system in most developing countries. Could this be a journey towards a kind of partnership/collaboration in the future where research and development will remain in the public domain while extension and advisory services go to the private sector? With the general acceptance of “Agribusiness Models” across the world within smallholder agricultural production, I do expect to see changes within agricultural extension and advisory services in the next few years – I do expect to see more private sector involvement in extension delivery.

November 1, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

ICT Center Project To Educate Women in Rural Ghana

The international NGO Camfed, the Campaign for Female Education, has collaborated with Google to set up a network of three ICT centers that will reach some of the poorest and most remote rural areas of Ghana.

Photo of woman in Africa from Camfed website

Photo credit: Camfed

The women-run ICT centers will act as “hubs for learning, communication and entrepreneurship.” They will be located in the northern region of Ghana and the first will open later this month in the town of Bimbila.

Camfed’s mission is to fight poverty and HIV/AIDS in Africa by educating girls and women so that they can become leaders of change. The organization’s head of enterprise and leadership, Catherine Boyce, explained to EWeek Europe that because women in Ghana have few employment opportunities and are pressured to marry young, the female center managers will serve as “powerful role models” to the center’s clients.

Photo credit: Blackstarcommunications

Google has pledged to fund the ICT centers during the first two years of operations and while the centers get established with computers, printers, photocopiers and digital cameras. Though Camfed originally thought it would need to rely on solar energy to provide power to the centers, and may explore solar options on a case-by-case basis, the project will likely be able to use electricity since the power supply in Ghana has improved in recent months.

Development projects aimed at educating rural women through the use of ICTs are becoming more prevalent and take many forms. A successful Gates Foundation farm radio project taught women farmers about a drought and disease-resistant rice variety which greatly improved the income of farmers in the area.

Studies have shown that rural women in Africa face many challenges in gaining access to ICTs, such as affordability, distance, and time. Thus simply providing ICTs such as computers and Internet alone will not improve the lives of rural women. Rather, projects must provide low-cost options that contain a strong capacity-building component, such as education, in order to be successful. The Camfed/Google project in Ghana hopes to see success in improving the lives of rural women by providing free access and training in ICTs.

October 14, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Are Robots the School Teachers of the Future?

Have you seen the 1990-film “Class of 1999?” In it, a Seattle school system is so ridden with gang violence and drug abuse that not even the police will dare to intervene. The Department of Defense is brought on to implement a program where robot teachers, referred to as Cyborgs, are employed to educate students and provide discipline when students misbehave.

With programmed tactics for corporal punishment, they have no problem maintaining control of a classroom, but as they develop into more intelligent entities, their decisions trend towards opting to kill off delinquent students.

As a disclaimer, I will point out that I, in no way, recommend this movie for quality or even for entertainment. It does, however, instill appropriate fear of what can happen if we begin to rely on machines for educating students, particularly in developing areas or areas with unstable education practices.

Realistic educational technology

1999 was a bit of an opportunistic estimate for when robots would appear in classrooms. In the past decade, however, advancements in technology have made instruction simulation so effective that the necessity of a well-educated, high quality teacher in a classroom has been brought into question. Several benefits can even be drawn from allowing technology to dictate student education in developing countries.

Relying on technology for classroom instruction creates an even playing field where all students are learning everything that needs to be covered according to curriculum standards. They are all also receiving the same high quality information. This cuts out concern for poor, unreliable, or novice teachers, a problem that unfortunately is prevalent in many developing countries.
Making use of technology ensures proper assessment of students so that unbiased decisions can be made about student progression. This cuts out the worry of teachers “passing students along” rather than ensuring that they really know the material.
Taking advantage of technology for student instruction can greatly cut down on teacher salary costs. By placing the burden of teaching lessons on programmed instruction, paying extra for a well-educated teacher with lots of experience becomes superfluous.

There are currently plenty examples of schools in developed nations embracing this technology. Just last week I was in a classroom that made use of SMART Board technology and associated “virtual teacher” apps. The 4th grade teacher in charge of the room told me that she believed the technology would soon replace her job.

For those not acquainted with the technology, SMART Boards are interactive white boards that can project computer displays and allow students to interact with them through touch. SMART pens allow students to write on the screen, and the board is able to translate the student’s handwriting into computer text and then save it as a Document file on a connected computer. Resources and applications supplied with the board feature “virtual teachers” that provide a lesson, ask students for feedback, and then advance when students give correct responses.

Implementing this technology in a classroom requires existing infrastructure for electricity and Internet, an instructor device (desktop/laptop/iPad) to connect to, and software to enable the use of all aspects of the hardware.

Sound a bit sophisticated for use in the developing world? SMART Technologies doesn’t think so. In December of 2010, they launched the 400 Series SMART Boards, providing the technology at lower cost exclusively to schools in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), Asia Pacific, Latin America and Mexico. These schools could now purchase an interactive whiteboard and short-throw projector for $2,599. This figure does not include software, maintenance, or professional development costs.

Even more outlandish, in 2009 the human-like robot teacher, Saya, was introduced to a classroom in Japan. By manipulating the rubber molding of her face, this robot was programmed to express six different emotions – surprise, fear, disgust, anger, happiness, and sadness.

It could tell students to be quiet and was even reported to make children cry after reprimanding them. While not currently able to deliver classroom instruction, there is hope that by integrating this sort of “emotional” robot teacher with existing “virtual teacher” tools, this technology will change the way today’s classrooms are instructed. The cost of a made-to-order robot teacher from Japan: $51,000.

Let’s take a moment to not even consider these higher cost technologies. More prevalent in the developing world, software is employed on low-cost laptops, desktops, or tablets to simulate teacher instruction. In these classrooms, an entire curriculum can be imparted to students through a computer program, making a quality human teacher unnecessary.

So can technology replace teachers?

Through evidence pointed out above, I am inclined to say yes, or eventually yes. Should technology replace teachers in the developing world? My firm and whole-hearted stance is that it should not.

Think back to primary school. I bet that just about everyone reading this post can point out one teacher that was particularly inspiring. In developing countries where truancy policies are enforced to a much lesser extent, inspiring teachers are vital in encouraging kids to stay in school, rather than opting to stay at home to work and provide for the family. Expectations for students to continue education and earn a promising career are also lower in developing countries, a tendency that can only be transformed with motivational human role models within the classroom.

Unfortunately, there are no inspiring robot teachers. They are all programmed to spit knowledge out at students and expect students to spit it back at them. A computer cannot develop personal distinctions between students. It cannot develop creative or innovative ideas for teaching material in a new way. It cannot comment on papers, providing students with extremely valuable positive feedback or critiques. It cannot pull a struggling student aside and determine if there are personal issues related to his/her performance. It cannot encourage students with a particular strength and interest in a subject to consider certain career paths.

Many will make the claim that technology excites students in developing countries, and this makes them want to be in school and learn. While I agree that interactive technology can add a level of student interest over teacher lectures, once the novelty of technology and computer instruction wears off, students will not maintain this excitement level.

Furthermore, in developing regions where a baseline for education standards and expectations has not been refined, employing technology as an alternative to human instruction makes it much more difficult to gauge design specifications for effective instructional software. Creating instructional software requires having a firm grasp on student expectations and an understanding of what motivates students of a particular background to learn. This is more intuitive in developed countries where methods for effective student instruction have been extensively researched and practiced.

In developing nations, education should be viewed as more than just imparting knowledge. It is responsible for adequately preparing a student for a role in the world. While technology can be a great tool for promoting interactive learning and providing information beyond the scope of a teacher’s knowledge base, it cannot replace the intrinsic value of having a human devoted to a child’s educational development present in a classroom.

October 5, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Can Machines Replace Teachers in Education Systems?

“Any teacher that can be replaced by a machine, should be.” – David Thornburg

Does this statement make you cringe? Squirm a bit in your chair? I’m not surprised if it does. As access to technology proliferates among schools in developing countries, a call for improved teacher training, curriculum, and methods of assessment seems vital to ensuring that the initiatives are sustainable. How else can you ensure that children are using time spent on a computer effectively and for educational purposes?

Despite this logical breakdown, research conducted in India over the past decade disputes these views. Let me preface an explanation of this research with a brief story:

January 2011, Arusha, Tanzania : A brand new computer lab has been set up at Yakini Primary School, and all of the students are extremely excited to use a computer for the first time. Even though there are 13 computers in the room, the solar-powered generator electricity only allows 4 to be turned on at a given time. When the third year class enters the lab, 8 students huddle around each computer.Today, after spending the past few days talking about the uses of a computer and its parts, we will finally be turning the computers on and seeing them in action. The plan is to practice using a mouse by working with windows. The class assignment is to open the ‘My Documents’ folder, maximize the window, minimize it, re-maximize it, and then close it. ”Once you have completed the assignment, please do not touch the computer. Just wait for me to get around to your group.” I begin working with the group of students at the first computer.

By the time I reach the students at the last computer, I am quite surprised to find that, not only have they completed the assignment on their own, but the desktop background has also been changed from the image of green hills to a Black Labrador dog. Awestricken at these novice geniuses, I ask the students, “How did you do that?” With each student chiming in his or her own input, they navigate their way back through the steps to where they changed the image. I’m so impressed that I do not bother reprimanding for not following instructions.

This story illustrates New Dehli researcher, Sugata Mitra’s, suggestion that students using technology in unstructured, self-organized groups can help each other guide their own learning. In 1999, Mitra began experimenting with educational technology by building a PC with a high-speed internet connection into a wall in the slums of New Delhi. He then left the computer with no instructions for use or devices for language translation, planning to observe how individuals interacted with it.

Soon two children were huddled around the computer. Within minutes they had taught themselves how to point and click and were browsing the internet by the end of the day. After repeating this “Hole in the Wall” experiment throughout rural communities in India, he came to the conclusion that children, living in areas that lack adequate resources for instruction, could teach each other how to use a computer by working together in groups.

He makes several arguments for the benefits of this type of learning in classrooms:

It reduces the costs of efforts such as One Laptop per Child. While Mitra supports the design of the laptop, he believes there should be one laptop for every four children so that groups can work through their setbacks together.
When children are learning technology and exploring interests in an unstructured setting, they become excited about learning and retain much more.
Expecting children to work through the dilemmas on their own teaches them innovation and creative problem solving, two skills essential to any job. Instead of producing students that are able to memorize a laundry list of items, this approach produces students that know how to pinpoint where to find the same information.
Having children work together in groups teaches teamwork and collaboration.

I do not doubt that there is a place for Mitra’s recommendation of self-organized group learning in ICT4Ed. It’s a great opportunity for students to explore their curiosities, learn skills in innovation and problem solving, and retain steps to a much greater extent than they can with rote memorization.

However, I do believe that it is important to discern an appropriate time and circumstance for this method of learning. For instance, providing students with an allotment of time each day to freely roam the internet together, researching topics of their own interests, could be a great opportunity to keep them excited about technology and to show them how they can find answers to pressing questions and work through problems on their own.

This, however, can not replace the role of a teacher and a curriculum. Knowing how to use the tools for gathering information is an excellent skill but will not help a student requiring computer knowledge at a time when tools are not at hand. Following a structured curriculum ensures that students have the foundation of fact-based information to make them productive even when technology is not readily available. Furthermore, it ensures that all students are participating and learning the skills that they will need.

To illustrate these points, let’s look at back at my story and point out some of the gaps:

All of the students may now remember exactly how to change a desktop background. This does not mean, however, that they know how to verbalize the steps that they took without the computer screen directly in front of them. If someone were to ask one of the students to write down the steps, the student would not know the terms needed to describe the steps discernibly. Having a solid, curriculum-based foundation in educational technology and being assessed on it without a computer screen makes a student much more productive in times when technology is not available.
Students may have worked together to describe their steps to me, but this does not account for the one student, towards the back of the group, that is not paying attention or contributing to the group’s input. Having teachers and providing assessments can make sure that all students are gaining knowledge, not just the ones that put forth the most effort.
Changing a computer background may have been a great lesson working through computer screens to bring about a change on the computer, but it is not much of a useful skill in technology. If computer instruction consists of students roaming about the computer, exploring their interests, there will be quite of bit of pertinent information that they will likely not take the time to learn on their own. Making the desktop background look pretty is much more interesting to a student than learning the difference between RAM and ROM or how a file system works. These are skills that are important, so it is necessary to have a curriculum in place.

Taking this into consideration, while Sugata Mitra sets forth an interesting model for student learning that may have a place during a fraction of the school day, teachers, curriculums, and assessments cannot be replaced by machines and curious children.

August 26, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Basic Education, Education, Education, Higher Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Changing Teachers’ Pedagogical Beliefs with ICT Programs

Photo: OLPC

In a pursuit to understand the core principles in successful M&E of ICT-based education programs, I spoke with Daniel Light, M&E expert at the Education Development Center (EDC). Light has evaluated EDC and USAID tech-related education programs for around twenty years. As he explains, ICT education programs are only effective to the extent that the teachers utilize ICTs for learning activities and make the student the center of focus. In other words, ICTs cannot add to education much unless the teachers utilize the tools correctly.

Traditional evaluation of education programs focuses on easily quantifiable indicators, such as teacher and student attendance, and student test scores. Though these indicators are important, Light argues that the quality of teaching and learning is not fully captured in these statistics.

Instead, evaluation should consider what researchers know about education quality, namely teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. In education, teachers that focus on rote memorization and lectures are generally less effective than teachers who engage the students in activities and who adapt their lessons to meet particular students’ needs and interests.

Student-centered pedagogical beliefs are especially important in education programs that include ICTs. For example, computers are most likely to be effective tools when each student has access to a computer, and has a teacher to direct their usage. If the students aren’t the ones controlling the mouse, then much of potential knowledge to be gained is lost; they need to direct their own learning.

Photo: Microsoft

Many development funders now require randomized control trials (RCTs) to evaluate the impact of their development program. There is a problem with the emphasis on RCTs, Light argues. RCTs measure specific behaviors, but education is inherently unpredictable in its outcomes, and technology is similar in that regard. Combined, ICT education programs have many unexpected consequences. Many funders want to secure a particular impact, like increased mathematics scores, and want to do so by increasing students’ ICT usage. Light, however, contends that ICT education programs can improve mathematics scores, especially when they are directed to do so, but they will always have other impacts, unforeseeable before the start of the program.

A better way to measure the impact of ICT education programs, says Light, involves a series of phases, lasting about one year per phase. The first phase should be exploratory, to see what is actually happening in a program compared to what was originally planned. Since outsiders design many development programs, implemented programs often turn down different pathways over time. After exploring the program implementation, evaluators should fine-tune their methods, progressively tightening their measurements. They should engage in group observations, participant observations, and focus groups. Through these methods, they can design interview and survey questions, eventually measuring particular behaviors amongst the population under study. RCTs at this stage in the research process are appropriate, since the researchers should have outlined the behavior methods through their observations and discussions with participants.

When used effectively, ICTs increase educational achievement and change teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and practices. In fact, they can change teachers’ role from talking heads to activity facilitators. ICT programs, then, can easily highlight the need for pedagogical teacher change. When they are then applied to national education policy, they can bring about national curriculum changes, affecting all education practices, not just for ICT programs.

August 22, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Education, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

A Film Festival Among the Refugees in the Horn of Africa

Photo Credit: Film Aid

From July 14-21, this year, refugees at the Dadaab, Kakuma, and Nairobi camps in Kenya enjoyed a new film each night as part of the annual FilmAid Festival, run by FilmForward and FilmAid. The film festival provided entertainment to refugees, as well as a portal for reflection and hope. In addition, educational films were showcased during the day about pressing issues in the camps, such as healthcare, agricultural production, gender-based violence, and drug abuse.
The impact of FilmAid’s programs are difficult to quantify and measure. They affect individuals psychologically and emotionally, but not directly economically or in terms of educational achievement or literacy. Arguably, however, the entertainment and education provided by FilmAid gives people hope, helping them to continue struggling for survival at the refugee camps.

During the day, FilmAid runs its MADS (Mass Audience Daytime Screening) educational films. When possible, the films are produced in part by local people in the camps. Here is an example of a short film produced in Haiti last year to educate refugees on the importance of planting crops and how to water them sufficiently.

Additionally, FilmAid worked with local refugees in the three camps to produce short films, which are then shown at the film festival. The films display a level of self-awareness and touch on present social issues in the camps themselves. These films are the epitome of local content produced for a local need.
Last week, FilmAid received a $50,000 grant from the Hollywood Press Association, in part due to their efforts in the Horn of Africa. Grants such as this keep the organization funded and functioning.

August 9, 2011/by actualize

Agriculture, Connectivity, Education, Health, Originally posted on the GBI Portal

Kenya university to roll-out e-care

Kenya’s Kenyatta University

Kenya’s Kenyatta University’s referral hospital’s doctors and interns are getting a boost in the services they are able to provide to patients with the establishment of an e-care system that will enable them to consult with doctors and experts across the globe.

According to Vice-Chancellor Olive Mugenda, the new e-technology will enable patients to receive the appropriate care needed inside the country, and not be forced to travel abroad to consult other experts. The move is likely to see Kenyans overall health costs reduced.

The KES Sh9 billion (about USD $100 million) hospital, funded by the Chinese and Kenyan governments, will also connect medics at the referral hospital with those in rural areas.

Mugenda says the facility would have a cancer unit and a geriatric wing to provide health care for the old. ”The need for a cancer unit is justified by the increasing cases of the disease among our people,” says Mugenda.

The university will, on 8 July 2011, officially launch a centre to equip students with the necessary skills to be job creators.

The Business Innovation and Incubation Centre will offer students office space, Internet facilities, capital to start businesses and assistance in marketing their products.

Janan Yussif

July 7, 2011/by actualize

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