Hi Edward, In response to several sections of your post, numbered below:
1. The remaining gap in the plan is then to create the digital replacements for textbooks in every subject for every grade level. Given the potential savings, it should be possible to get governments to fund creation of these materials for free distribution. On WikiEducator, we have a publishing option for the creation of low-cost textbooks - see: www.wikieducator.org/WikiPublishing - by using the wiki, folks can easily update and revise texts for smaller production runs. My understanding is that WE received Hewlett funding for the beta. 2. To make this plan a reality requires finding the people and resources to do it. I hope that the possibility of employment in creating a new generation of digital teaching materials, superior in every way to books, would interest some here, and that we can network to find others to take part. Yes, agreed. 3. For example, do we have anybody interested in creating materials to teach village power engineering and finance, and village wireless? Do we have anybody with access to grant writers? The US Dept, of Education wants to hand out $44 billion in stimulus money for projects in educational innovation. Politicians often have staffers available to help navigate the bureaucracy. I have started that conversation, and will have much more to say about it after I get settled in in my new home in Indiana. Regarding this point, it probably would be best to repost this as a separate request to the list. There's lots of interest here, I believe. Also, one of WikiEducator's core values is about networking on the development of funding proposals. We've had successed in getting funding, and for example, the successful Learning4Content proposal is on the wiki. http://www.wikieducator.org/Metawikieducator/Learning4Content/Hewlett_bid I've even used the wiki for my company (Intersol's) development of a proposal for the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum (we'll see if we get that work - if we do btw: a percentage of our success will go back to the OER Foundation!). http://www.wikieducator.org/Intersol/Proposals/CAF_October_2009 I am using the wiki for other proposal development opportunities, and I encourage others to do the same. Why reinvent the wheel here, when we can use and remix content - even proposal development content - to achieve worthy goals and objectives. Cheers, - Randy On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 4:19 AM, Edward Cherlin <echer...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Sun, Nov 29, 2009 at 18:13, simonfj <simo...@cols.com.au> wrote: > > Congrats guys, > > > > Yu really are doing wonderful stuff. > > > > Can I bring up this one about the "technology required to make the OER > > vision a reality". I wish i could talk about the physical > > infrastructure/distribution meaningfully but this is beyond me. > > My group, Earth Treasury, is on it. The absolute minimum requirement > to run computers appropriately is electricity and Internet. We have a > wide range of renewable power technologies, including solar, wind, > water, biofuels, animal power and child power. The hand crank on the > prototype OLPC XO was removed after Kofi Annan broke one off in a > demo, but it was becoming clear that hand cranking was inefficient, > and that it was necessary to be able to use any available power > source. So users can charge XOs from anything that will charge a > 12-Volt car battery. > > WiMax is the most promising broadband technology for general use, with > an installed cost of $10 per person in whole countries, for better > than 90% coverage. On the other hand, the XO has built-in mesh > networking, with a range comparable to WiMax. It is necessary also to > consider fiber optic landing points into countries, and the > distribution system from there. Although the very first cable to > Africa was put in only a few years ago, there are now numerious fiber > optics projects springing up, including undersea cables, links > overland to land-locked countries, and countries making deals with > international companies for building up a grid to link all cities and > towns. Plans to extend this network to villages are taking shape in > some countries, often using point-to-point wireless technology. > > It would be helpful if someone would undertake to create a > co-ordinated and funded research plan to determine the best > combinations of available technologies for every inhabited terrain and > climate, out to the poorest and remote villages, considering both > available financial resources and new economic possibilities. > > We propose to tie all of this together with microfinance: electricity, > Internet, education, jobs and new businesses. Preliminary study > indicates that it should be possible to do all of this at a profit, if > countries themselves can fund the basic education functions. In many > countries this should be straightforward, given that XOs already cost > less than printed textbooks in many places, and we can recruit > translators locally. > > The remaining gap in the plan is then to create the digital > replacements for textbooks in every subject for every grade level. > Given the potential savings, it should be possible to get governments > to fund creation of these materials for free distribution. > > To make this plan a reality requires finding the people and resources > to do it. I hope that the possibility of employment in creating a new > generation of digital teaching materials, superior in every way to > books, would interest some here, and that we can network to find > others to take part. > > For example, do we have anybody interested in creating materials to > teach village power engineering and finance, and village wireless? Do > we have anybody with access to grant writers? The US Dept, of > Education wants to hand out $44 billion in stimulus money for projects > in educational innovation. Politicians often have staffers available > to help navigate the bureaucracy. I have started that conversation, > and will have much more to say about it after I get settled in in my > new home in Indiana. > > > I've > > set myself up an impossible enough task by attempting to get the > > content creators, many of whom are OERers, and the infrastructure > > guys, to collaborate. Or at least gain some understanding of what each > > community is doing. Their ends do coincide, if not their language and > > agendas. > > We should share resources. > > > Most of the global infrastructure developments in the edu/research/gov > > domains can be seen through this euro centric portal. > http://global.dante.net/ > > Another important source is WiserEarth.org. > > > So far as the language in this technical space is concerned, the main > > language revolves around what is called "Middleware"; the software > > layer that helps apps talk to one another and sits above different > > operating systems. The apps are what content creators just want access > > to. We need a user name & password, usually issued by single > > institution to their version of an app and content = duplicate ad > > infinatum. This is something the OER Foundation is addressing > > fundamentally. > > > > At the moment, throughout the (mainly developed) world, there is a > > push on by all NREN to create federations. Rather than going into > > great detail, let me just point you at this Aussie initiative. Take > > for granted with a bit of work i could point at a similar initiative > > in your country. http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/services/ > > > > Long story short, we are getting to the point whare the NREN are > > reconfiguring to support global groups (taskforces/ committees) rather > > than national institutions. All the groups tend to be subject specific > > in their interests and the bandwidth, apps - in short, the 'network > > services' - which their global community will want to use. The > > middleware guys in each NREN understand that the only way they can > > satisfy these disparate needs is to try and talk to each community, > > which is a bit like herding cats on a global basis = impossible > > I have some experience in herding cats. The secret is to convince them > that where you want them to go is where they wanted to go in the first > place, and it has nothing to do with you. This requires good > listening, questioning, and translating skills, among other things. > > > So we have a catch 22. Communities like wikipedia and wikiedicator. > > i.e. passionate people who prefer to use one tool to produce open > > content often duplicate wonderful stuff in their attempts to acheive > > their related visions. Rarely do they have an opportunity to > > contemplate what other ICT services may be identified which could be > > shared between communities. (I noticed the Connexions Google group as > > another duplication) Meanwhile, the Middleware guys who must allocate > > resources, and try and figure out what service may be demanded and > > when, are simply bamboozled. > > There is no way to avoid substantial duplication of effort in > currently unconnected islands. Better connections will necessarily > arise, and most islands will join in. But compare this with the > mindless duplication of effort that we get by assinging the same > homework from the same book to every child of a certain age in a > school system. We can actually have schoolchildren work on some of our > local and global necessities, as part of their studies of particular > subject matter and of languages. Children can collect data in > otherwise inaccessible places for aggregation, analysis, mapping, and > sharing with the community. There are many other such opportunities. > > > OK. That the rave. I'm sorry for it. I'm sitting in Manila after > > talking to their preginet, after taking for years with the likes of > > aarnet, karen, internet2 (do a google search on NREN if yu want the > > list), and it seems like the right time and place to start looking at > > this. Let me bring it down to something concrete. If you're in the > > APac region, this is the hub of the geekly get together. > > http://www.apan.net/meetings/Sydney2010/schedule.php > > My interest is in the e-culture thread, cause the WP community has it, > > and APAN members have a clue but no experience of it. > > > > I'll be be talking to terena's taskforces who look at this convergence > > and be pushing to have a VC link up between Euro sites and Sydney. It > > would be great if we could get the ice broken here to run, not just > > for a singular event, but a series of get togethers which might help > > welcome a few nearsiders to the e-culture fold, and give us an > > opportunity to see which basic tools (services) many global OER > > communities could share. > > I will be fascinated to hear what you can come up with, and I can > recommend a number of groups to bring into the discussion, many of > them listed in the EarthTreasury Web site under Replacing Textbooks. > > > regards, > > > > PS Randy, How about Canada (canarie)? > > > > > > > > > > On Nov 28, 10:35 am, Wayne Mackintosh <mackintosh.wa...@gmail.com> > > wrote: > >> Hi Edward, > >> > >> Always interested in talking about the learning infrastructure needed > >> to make OER happen globally :-) > > > >> > >> > Are you interested in discussing the infrastructure needed to make > >> > this happen globally? > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > > To visit the discussion forum: > http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > > To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > > > > -- > Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin > Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation. > The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination. > http://www.earthtreasury.org/ > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com > -- Open Education is a sustainable and renewable resource. ________________ Randy Fisher, MA, OMD Senior Consultant, Organization Development, Intersol Group, Canada Senior Consultant, Organization & Business Development International Centre for Open Education / OER Foundation, New Zealand Elected Member, WikiEducator Community Council, www.wikieducator.org +1 613.230.6424 x144 (EST) Skype: wikirandy Twitter: wikirandy * Stakeholder Engagement, Change / Transition Management & Performance * Organization Design & Development * Sustainable Project Implementation & Community-Building * E-Learning, Online Collaboration & Communities of Practice * Coaching & Facilitation * My Bio: http://www.communitybuildingexpert.com -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. 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