On 8/11/05, Jim Stodder wrote: > Point (1): There would be large pedagogical advantages, even in the 1st > world, to having MUCH greater use of sophisticated DE. However -- and > this is key to my argument -- the institutional constraint of Academic > Tenure, at both the Primary-Secondary and University levels, make truly > widespread adoption impossible for many decades. ... snip .... > Point (2): Furthermore, the supply availability and cost advantages at > the BOP make DE even more overwhelming. DE would be the ONLY way to > feasibly deliver widespread teaching at the BOP. Developing such a DE > program could also actually empower and leverage the resources of > teaching profession in many languages and cultures at the BOP.
Well, just today we had the second meeting of our national committee for support of the use of technology in education where we discussed how to avoid the collapse of 128 computer-labs installed in public primary and secondary education. Here are the hard facts: (a) Nicaragua spends $54 per student a year in primary and $58 in secondary education. (b) This amounts to $0.27 and $0.29 per school day (assuming 200 days per year). (c) Teachers are being paid between $0.52 and $0.58 per class-hour with group-sizes between 35 to 60 students. (d) A single hour of a single computer takes at least $0.38 let alone in electricity, without Internet access. (e) With Internet costs this rises to $0.52 -assuming 12 hours of daily use and fixed cost per month of Internet access- I would be seriously interested in any DE-technology that does it for less and at the same time is more effective than a real teacher in a real "class-room". Yours, Cornelio PS: I've got somewhere UNDP and UNESCO statistics on teachers salaries, which show the Nicaraguan case with regard to spending in education and teacher salaries is by no means an exception. ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
