A project that particularly caught our eye is Hole-in-the-Wall, the inspiration for the book “Q&A” which inspired the movie Slumdog Millionaire.  Bridging the digital divide by reaching previously underserved youth in the developing world … urban slums and remote-rural populations, ethnic minorities, juvenile home detainees, and children with special needs … Hole-in-the-Wall has installed over 700 internet-enabled public Playground Learning Stations across India, Bhutan, Cambodia and countries in the African continent.  Game-activities promote experiential learning that is mapped to prescribed primary grade curricula across various subjects, Hole-in-the-Wall’s Activity Based E-Learning Solution imparts a playful learning environment by encouraging learning through self and group exploration beyond the classroom.

Related articles:

• Teaching: Inspiring British children, Slumdog style (telegraph.co.uk)
• Slumdog reveals learning treasures (guardian.co.uk)
• Hanging Out, Messing Around, and Geeking Out (debaird.net)
• Reimagining Learning: Vote in a Digital Media Competition (wired.com)
• Fiji Reef- From The West Side To West Pacific. (stuckinfijimud.blogspot.com)
• Guest Post: Four Insights for Youth Marketers from DML 2010 (ypulse.com)

A computing device for every teacher and student so they can access the Internet at school or at home? That, along with an embrace of cloud computing, Creative Commons, and open-source technologies is part of a new set of recommendations from the U.S. Department of Education.

On March 5, the department released an 80-page draft of its National Educational Technology Plan entitled Transforming Education: Learning Powered by Technology. The plan lays out an ambitious agenda for transforming teaching and learning through technology.

Much of the NETP emphasizes “21st Century learning” as the path to transforming education: “engaging and empowering learning experiences for all learners… and leveraging the power of technology to provide personalized learning instead of a one-size-fits all curriculum.” The plan seeks to challenge the traditional model of the isolated teacher in a classroom, promoting the idea of “always on” learning resources and online communities for both educators and students.

In addition to changes to the US education model, there are some bold technology recommendations in the plan.

• Adequate broadband and wireless access inside and outside of school
• At least one Internet access device for every student and educator inside and outside of school
• R&D into the use of gaming, simulations, and virtual worlds for instruction and assessment
• Encouragement of cloud computing for school districts
• Use of Creative Commons and Open Education licenses
• Changes to FERPA (Family Educational Rights & Privacy Act) to open access to student data
• Changes to CIPA (Children’s Internet Protection Act) to open access to the Internet and rethink how filtering works in schools.

Continue reading via Read Write Web

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Lawrence Lessig, is the foundational voice and an advocate of the free culture movement, Creative Commons and Open Source. The Open Video Allience will present a live webcast of a talk by Lawrence Lessig at the end of Feburary. For more background on his ideas view his speech: Free Culture: What We Need From You (Ogg). This was Prof. Lessig’s keynote speech at LinuxWorld in San Francisco. (via Lessig.Content: Audio/Video ) In this video he discusses the emerging remix culture as both the source and outcome of societies embrace of digital technology. Lessig feels a new literacy has emerged due to these changes which should be embraced and taught because it is the key to preparing society for further innovation into the 21st Century. Last year at Educause 2009 he stated:

The ‘ecology of education and science,’ Mr. Lessig said, is inherently collaborative, and it is being strangled by copyright-law principles based on exclusivity…”Scientists and educators are busy creating,” he continued, “so it is up to chief information officers and other information-technology specialists to devise ways to make those creations both legal and widely accessible.”

The Open Video Alliance recently announced a “Wireside Chat” webcast of a talk he will deliver at the end of February 2010:

On February 25th, 2010, the Open Video Allience’s will present their first Wireside Chat.  This will be a live webcast of a talk by Lawrence Lessig. Professor Lessig will deliver a talk on fair use and politics in online video from Harvard Law School in Cambridge, MA. Come in person, or tune in to a live webcast at http://openvideoalliance.org/lessig.

In conjunction with the Cambridge event, the Open Video Alliance is hosting live webcast screenings in cities around the world. Many of these screenings will be followed by special presentations. In New York, check out a curation by the ReMixed Media Festival. In Los Angeles, take part in a Critical Commons workshop. If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, check out a live audiovisual demonstration by Eclectic Method at Stanford Law School. For more details, or to host your own event, visit http://openvideoalliance.org/lessig.

Lessig’s talk will explore copyright in a digital age, and the importance of a doctrine like fair use. Fair use allows limited use of copyrighted material without requiring permission from the rights holders, and is essential for commentary, criticism, news reporting, remix, research, teaching and scholarship with video. As a medium, online video will be most powerful when it is fluid, like a conversation. Like the rest of the internet, online video must be designed to encourage creative expression and political participation, not just passive consumption. More info via Open Video Alliance.org

Related articles:

• Copyright and Fair Use (stoopidnoodle.wordpress.com)
• Lawrence Lessig at Educause 2009 (q-ontech.blogspot.com)
• A Doctrine for Change – Lawrence Lessig Again (java.sys-con.com)

The iPad was unveiled this week by Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs to rave reviews from techies everywhere. It is predicted that base models will cost about $499. I was lucky enough to spot a pre-production version of one at an ad firm last summer and I have longed for one since then.  This device promises the usability of the iPhone in a package that is better for learning because it offers more real estate for the display of information.

I can’t wait to see what app developers do with the screen extra space. Here is a video of a great app that proposes ways this tool can be used on the university level to do away with textbooks and enhance education:

It is also revolutionary because it offers the wealth of info found on the web to students anywhere, anytime if you opt to spend a bit more ($130 or so) for the 3G connected version. As an instructional designer/technologist the combination of form and function that this new learning tool offers is powerful. At this point iPhone OS is accepted as being rock solid and free from the crashes (and even mobile virus issues) that hinder Windows Mobile devices. That said, it is is still hindered by its inability to display Flash-based media on websites.

I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this device will be using the open ePub format for electronic books. This is a huge endorsement of the Open Education movement and it’s exactly the tool educators, like myself and the members of  The Learning Collective have been waiting for. The open education movement is a consortium of educators and institutions that feel,

“…that knowledge should be free and open to use and re-use; that collaboration should be easier, not harder; that people should receive credit and kudos for contributing to education and research; and that concepts and ideas are linked in unusual and surprising ways and not the simple linear forms that textbooks present.” via campustechnology.com

Tools like this can hasten the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) because has been created to seamlessly blend the tools that convergence has touted. It’s limitations lie in the restrictions that Apple places on developers. Understandably these restrictions are the reason that the iPhone OS has remained virus free and the App store is well trusted but these restrictions also hinder the development of a truly open ecosystem of innovation. Grassroots developers that don’t have limitless funds like major software development firms are stifled by the seemingly arbitrary approval process that can cause your app to sit for months or even years awaiting approval without explanation. It seems Apple is loosening up this process a bit with the victory of the, innovative, live video sharing app Knocking Live. It has been rumored, developers had to pull strings and call Steve Jobs personally to get the app released after it was initially denied approval (due to a private API). The jury is still out on whether the iPad can overcome this inertia of this strict approval process and become the democratizing educational device I think it can become.

Related articles:

• Apple Tablet iPad Official Pictures and Images (shoutmeloud.com)
• iPad UI Roundup (macstories.net)
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• An Interview with Michael Flarup About the iPad (macstories.net)
• iPhone OS 3.2 is iPad-only (ubergizmo.com)
• Slideshow: Hands on with the iPad (macworld.com)
• Facebook Dev. Who Left iPhone Loves the iPad (appscout.com)
• iPad Lacks Flash Support, Adobe Decries Choice (multiplayerblog.mtv.com)

There are numerous benefits to using e-learning to engage a target audience.  E-Learning can be tailored to meet the needs of individuals whether that means offering activities and content to cognitively challenge the learner at the appropriate level or providing a flexible experience accessible anywhere and anytime.  Thru e-learning the best content – from the top university lecturer to the most compelling community discussions and crowd-sourced solutions – can reach large numbers of people.   And e-learning can enable your organization to quickly evaluate the initiative’s effectiveness and make rapid, well-informed improvements.

Notably, the U.S. Department of Education’s published analysis of more than 1,000 studies of online learning over a twelve-year period found that university students in online learning generally performed better than those in face-to-face courses.  See Evaluation of Evidence-Based Practices in Online Learning: A Meta-Analysis and Review of Online Learning Studies, Means, B.; Toyama, Y.; Murphy, R.; Bakia, M.; Jones, K. (2009)

Related articles:

• Why E-Learning is So Effective (downes.ca)
• Distance Learning / Distance Education (downes.ca)
• Will online education become a revenue stream for news organisations? (guardian.co.uk)
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