Technology and Development II: New Opportunities for Education

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ICTs hold great promise for improving the efficiency, reach and character of learning opportunities in developed and developing countries. Yet many (most?) of these potential gains are undocumented. Among the obstacles that we will explore are the familiar structural and cultural issues embedded in educational programs around the world and a newer variety of Internet-mediated challenges.

Readings

Additional Resources

Class Discussion

Here are a couple of articles about using Twitter as an educational tool:

--Zsaulkalns 12:53, 29 February 2008 (EST)

If on one hand the potential gains from ICT and Education are huge, on the other hand extra effort should be made to guarantee that it delivers what has been promised. Buying computers and giving them to public schools is not enough. Bob Hawkins lessons are of great value. If applied in Brazil, it could have made a difference in the way Brazilian government is using computers at schools. A recent research found that children using computer are performing worse than the ones who do not use them. Instead of studying and learning, children use the computer to access social networks and play games. According to VEJA, a weekly magazine, teachers are not been trained properly and do not know how to use these machines. Google translation of the article:

Link

--Andre Monteiro 23:51, 28 April 2008 (EDT)

There are certainly very different approaches today when it comes to the better way to attain a good educational and computer literacy level in the developing countries. This two projects are an example: The OLPC program aims to put computers and internet access in as many hands as quickly possible, expecting that a flood in available technology will detonate the benfits of a connected society. On the other hand is Room to Read, a program that adopts an approach aimed at solving the most pressing problems first (books, libraries, education, sanitation) and then exploring the use of IT in communities. The first has been decried as a commercial strategy with no pedagogic background, the second can be seen as paternalistic and avoiding the needs of a young adult generation. As always, the best approach will depend on the problem at hand. Experience shows that governments should use caution with projects that put connectivity and hardware as the top priority. The eMexico project demostrated that the installation of over 8000 rural internet centers resulted in more problems than solutions. The educational aspect was largely ignored, focusing just on connectivity. But connectivity is an asset that quickly loses value when not used properly and mantained and updated. The community must have an imperative to put value on connectivity. The imperative comes by way of quality and cost of the service, education, access to markets, government and banking services and communal appropiation. The community as a whole has to learn the use and benefits of the new tools before attempting to implement an education strategy in schools that puts emphasis on the use of IT.

--Oscar 08:13, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

While OLPC is an interesting product, it feels like a solution looking for a problem to me. How many people in developing countries would place lack of a computer among their primary concerns? Even when thinking specifically about education, it's difficult to imagine how a laptop is better than well-trained teachers, access to books, and the time and freedom to learn.

--Luke 10:11, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

That OLPC must go through governments to get the laptops into the hands of the children creates a bottleneck that I think somewhat impedes the goal of the organization. I wonder why it did not stay a little project at the Media Lab where they could have let students innovate it and then conservatively distribute it to children in rural areas of the globe through smaller actors and let the organization slowly grow from the grassroots. The OLPC project is definitely enjoying success, and nobody questions the relevance of its goals, but I wonder at the route it's taking to reach them. It seems to have started out on a huge scale right away.

--Mfregosi 11:25, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

In a nutsell, I am all for the use of computer in education. Look around, how many of us are using computers in our class? If we don't see the benefit will we use it? Having say that, we must aware that computer is a tool and it must be used appropriately for students to realise its benefits. We also need to bear in mind that computing is only one aspect of learning. Classrooms in most developing countries are facing problems like inadequate teachers, poor classroom facilities, lack of books,insufficient training for teachers, to mention a few. So it seems that the use of computer is really way down the list. True, there are many problems to be fixed to improve quality of education, and computer if used properly will definitely contribute to this purpose.

--Williamctam 12:52, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

I'll comment more later, but thought I should share this relevant video. Nicholas Negroponte: The vision behind One Laptop Per Child

--OPJ 17:32, 29 April 2008 (EDT)

I've spent some time thinking about Sam's question of what my thesis is for this project, and after listening to our guest speaker last night, my thoughts have gone to how the video I put together actually goes along well with OLPC and it's potential educational use. My conclusion from the video interviews was that it was not the capabilities or comfort of the teacher, nor the generation the teacher belonged to to that seemed to most influence the comfort-level of the students with technology. Student's technological literacy in the early elementary grades seemed to be more tied to the socio-economic status of the student. The students with highly educated parents and access to computers at home seemed to be far more comfortable with technology than those without that access. So brining OLPC into the picture, wouldn't it be interesting to see how a school with a relatively low economic status (large amount of aid, lots of free and reduced hot lunch, etc.) was impacted by the OLPC program. The goal of OLPC is to give the laptop to the child - make it their own to use in school and out of school. This seems to play into helping those students that may not have regular access to computers at home have access to their own computer at all times. Since OLPC is rolling out a pilot in Birmingham, it will be interesting to see how this impacts students there. I'm leaning towards focusing on the question of whether giving students better access to technology outside of school helps their ability to use technology to learn inside the classroom. This idea would build on what I put together in my video, with the potential to use the OLPC pilot programs as resources for more information.

--Srusso 20:47, 30 April 2008 (EDT)

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