-Original Message-
From: Paperless Homework [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Sent: Sunday, October 05, 2008 2:32 PM
To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group
digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net
Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC
Hello steve,
I do generaly agree with your views except that I would like to change this
little bit..
You said The real choice is between online learning or
no learning.
It would be more appropriate to rephrase it as
The real choice is between online/offline learning throug ICT or
no learning.
This is because to say online learning is the only choice for ICT in Education
is not exactly right. More learning today are learnt through offline than
online... in many homes and schools around the world. More people are offline
at anyone time than online.
Another thing, having a computer or two in a telecenter does not mean only 1 or
2 students may benefit. That is the old model. Today telecenters can make use
of 1 or 2 computers to serve entire class of students using projectors etc. So
it depends on how you use the computers.
Having one computer for each(as originally intended in the OLPC) is good but in
more cases than not ...impractical in third world countries (in fact I really
doubt any third world country).
The real issue of the digital divide as far as schools are concerned today is
the inabilities to
reach out to the unreached anytime any place and any cost.
We can talk until the cows come home about other issues highlighted by many
contributors here, without this being solved first, we are like trying to teach
the rural folks to run before they able able to walk.
Hence to really close the digital divides among nations around the world, look
into issue of reach... then we can start talking about pedagogy.
Read an article about our initiative here and perhaps most will understand what
the world is doing and what she lacks as far as trying to reach the unreached 5
billion.
http://www.govtech.com/dc/articles/270167
Meanwhile we should not forget about the environment impact our current schools
are contributing to the deteriorating environments filling land fills with
millions of tons of paper wastes. This in spite of all the high techs.
Read about about a Practical tech not high tech article by a 14 years
experieced ICT journalist.
www.paperlesshomework.com/surf
Regards
Alan
www.paperlesshomework.com
An elearning solution for rural areas where online/CDs cannot reach.
Get the latest happenings through paperlesshomework tool bar
www.paperlesshomework.communitytoolbars.com
--- On Sat, 10/4/08, Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
From: Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC
To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group
digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net
Date: Saturday, October 4, 2008, 3:55 AM
Hi Tom,
Sorry to be so slow in responding. For some reason I missed this message of
yours when it arrived.
Perhaps it would be useful to put the matter of moving out of what Bourdieu
called
the scholastic enclosure into the new spaces of communication
technology
into an action research mode.
For example: we know that the poor nations aren't going to meet the
Millenium Development Goals for education by erecting buildings to teach and
house those now left untaught. The real choice is between online learning or
no learning.
One question, then, for research is how to bring computers and students
together.
Sarah talked about community computers. I've used the term
social
computers, to contrast with the taken-for-granted rich country assumption
of the personal computer. The telecentre is one
approach to the social
computer, and it has clear limitations. We can put a computer in a school, a
church, a kiosk, a cafe and it can serve one, three, five students.
Will such an approach do the job? We don't know for sure, but we can try,
keep careful records and report results.
On the matter of pedagogy: perhaps we need a transitional strategy, rather
than insisting that all existing syllabi and curriculum materials and
instructional strategies are hopelessly inadequate, an approach guaranteed
to frighten or threaten or anger many of the faculty whose support we need.
I, for one, would rather make existing instructional strategies made
available via ICT than nothing at all. Again, we encourage an action
research approach, and we report on how well the traditional pedagogies do
when compared to the new ones that seem more authentic and relevant to us.
Steve
On Tue, Sep 23, 2008 at 9:19 AM, tom abeles [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Hi Steve
You are right, there are transitions and there are different models. What
might be appropriate today in Ghana might be different, today in the US.
The
approach of education planners is to want to eventually find the one
global
model. Yet with technology, as you suggest, there are many models for
learning including different approaches from didactic, sage of stage, to a
