Visual Teach blog

ICT - why an intermediate step?

2010-10-05T00:05:00.002+02:00

Digital learning environments are demanding:

• material and digital content infrastructures need to be in place
• teachers know to use these purposefully

Find our reports on ICT in education informative? Then find the most relevant list in the second part of this post. These reports concentrate on opportunities in the use of ICT to improve education. Experiences with digital teaching technologies in rich countries are taken at heart when looking for realistic ways to foster progress in developing economies.

One thing becomes clear - indisputable. There is a link missing for in the classroom:
an intermediate step using lo-tech ICT.

So, first let us introduce the Nationwide Visualisation Project in all its simplicity and beauty. It is the most innovative ICT technology currently available: this is achievable now. It can be safely implemented nationwide on highschools in a sustainable manner. Within five months. It is time-proven and it delivers reliably, even in harsh conditions (click 'Testimonials' above).

Visualisation and interactivity are the key modernisations here. It provides excellent working conditions for teachers in 'chalk and talk' situations to prepare themselves and their students for digital teaching strategies.
This approach needs a one-off investment and only electricity is required.

Teachers in developing economies need robust and reliable tools in their classrooms. The
Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces simple to use teaching aids for highschools.

One of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off"
Just ask: "What tries this visual to explain?"

"Erosion and sedimentation"

The modernisation: from 'chalk and talk' (repetitive learning) to visualisation

and interactivity for efficiency in learning and to train thinking skills.

This system is effective. It gives full control to teachers used to 'chalk and talk'.

Teachers will train themselves each lesson in visualisation, to set clear goals

and to involve pupils: basic teaching skills to work with digital tools - when ready.

The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids
for five key-subjects: Geography, History, Physics, Chemistry and Biology

learning through thinking - strong visual clues as memory anchors
better results guaranteed

A systematic innovation - seven viewpoints: from modernisation of teaching, implementation, institutionalisation and training of teachers to cost-efficiency and more

On each high school in 15 classrooms: powerful teaching tools for each lesson

Visualisation and interactivity in the classroom are the key-modernisations here.

Top pedagogy for efficiency in education now and for capacity building of teachers.

Allow your highschool teachers to work with up-to-date resources.

All it needs is electricity and a one-off investment at low cost.

For more on the Nationwide Visualisation Project, click here

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but ........

But why not computer projectors and using the internet?
Look at the future!

On ICT in education:
recent news from near and far - below, in six selected and updated reports

Summary Over-viewing the big picture makes clear that at this stage in emerging economies the first priority should be investing in computer labs in schools (for computer-literacy and as digital libraries) and systematically preparing the infrastructure needed for digital education.
In the mean time, UNESCO and other ICT-promoting donor agencies - very cleverly - invest in testing and customizing new promising yet unproven technologies in a few (small) countries as testing grounds. Until this new technology is made sustainable, really improves learning and is marketed at affordable prices, developing economies are paying over the odds. Experience in rich countries teaches that improving standards using ICT will take a while.
As an intermediate step for the classroom is lo-tech ICT - already achievable through school radio, TV and the most practical teachers' assistant, the overhead projector.

This summary sounds logical?

What about the vision and today's reality in a typical low-income country:

Telling news from Nigeria, as numbers of pupils grow and quality of education declines: 'Lagos State Trains Teachers on Cost-Effective Teaching Aids'
Quote: "Some teachers in Junior Secondary Schools (JSS) drawn from three education districts in Lagos State were recently empowered to produce and use cost-effective instructional materials to stimulate teaching and learning among their students. The participants demonstrated their skills with the use of cardboard and paper to produce learning aids, depending on their subjects of specialization with enthusiasm at the five-day training programme ...
Aina, who has been teaching since 1987, added that the training would, aside from minimising the stress of teachers, also help students to learn more. "Though I have been using some of these methods before as a Visual Arts teacher, I have learnt new ones."
In 'This Day - Education' Sept 1, 2010.
Imagine the real progress with five days of training in using transparencies and a sturdy overhead-projector instead of paper and cardboard - see the Nationwide Visualisation Project.

FRIDAY, 28 MAY 2010 Nigeria
1 E-learning is not the point here!
For decades in Nigeria the numbers of pupils are increasing but the quality of education is deteriorating because of lack of money for the most elementary things. Last May the government decided to base education on digital ICT to turn the tide. But locals are convinced this policy is unrealistic. Reasons from the front line - why education in most African countries is not ready for the digital revolution. Read more

Five more reports with news to consider:

THURSDAY, 26 AUGUST 2010 -                   as in Australia

2 Why to save $46 billion (US$41 billion) on ICT
An update with recent publications on experiences in rich countries. Billions of dollars are spent every year without good success. As digital learning environments tend to lower learning results nationwide, governments now concentrate on better teachers. Digital pedagogy needs a leap forward first before it will live up to expectations. With conclusions for lower income countries. Read more

WEDNESDAY, 14 JULY 2010
3   Worlds of opportunities to improve education - a leap in digital pedagogy
Overview of purchasing power in high, middle and low-income countries and their investments in computer-based education. Also in Hong Kong it is concluded that a leap forward is needed in digital pedagogy to make their US$ 8 billion investment productive. On what innovations should each of the groups of countries concentrate now to prepare for their (digital) future? Read more

THURSDAY, 17 JUNE 2010
4    How to save US$120,000,000 on ICT - costs of digital learning
In the UK large savings are made by dismantling BECTA, the organisation to implement digital teaching throughout the educational system. It sheds a light on the high demands and complexity of digital learning and the huge costs involved. How can lower income countries prepare for digital teaching? Read more

MONDAY, 7 JUNE 2010
5    Evidence Please! - digital learning in poor countries
A short yet powerful statement about the failure of "one-laptop-per-child" projects. It is remarkable that Wayan Vota, for 5 years one of the strongest OLPC promoters, now launches a new but similar vision: "One powerful smartphone per teacher, or a combination of voice/SMS phones and smartphones for teachers and students, have the potential to actually achieve the unfulfilled technology saturation promise of One Laptop Per Child" (Edutech-debate Sept. 14, 2010).
For the reader to judge the realism.
There is a growing popularity in the ICT community for "leap-frog models" into the future with unproven ICT solutions for poor countries. As if the future is now. Step by step approaches which can help out today, get abandoned. Read more

How to avoid waste ... ?!

SATURDAY, 29 MAY 2010
6 Avoid only "worst practice ICT use in education"?
The internet debate in April/May 2010 organised by InfoDev/World Bank: "Most Investments in Educational Technology are Wasted". In-depth on the wastes resulting from efforts to introduce computer-based learning in poor countries. Money is not used to prepare the infrastructure and other pre-conditions for digital teaching. Hopeful technologies are tried and again untested. What is the role of the advisors? What should be improved to get more digital value for money? Read more

Other articles in our archive bring forward the hopes and challenges for digital teaching and the urge for realistic policies to modernise education for all involved.

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In the mean time:

How to explain the flow of lowland rivers?

Here one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off"

Just ask: "What changes the flow?"

.................................

This system gives full control to teachers used to 'chalk and talk'.

Teachers will train themselves each lesson in visualisation, to set clear goals

and to involve pupils: basic teaching skills to work with digital tools - when ready.

All it needs is electricity and a one-off investment at low cost.

For more about the Nationwide Visualisation Project, click here

Why to save $46 billion (US$41 billion) on ICT

2010-08-26T11:47:00.060+02:00

Evaluating 30 years: computers do not yet live up to their (full) potential in education. In rich countries investments in computer labs proof to be productive. However, it seems like digital teaching and learning tools in optimal situations improve, but in many cases bring down learning results - nationwide. Governments have started to reverse policies: from technology to better teachers.

Policy effects of digital tools in classrooms in rich countries as summarised recently:

United Kingdom. Evidence on the positive impact of ICT on standards remains unclear in 'PS Public Service' on 22 July 2010: "The most fundamental application of technology in schools is the way in which it enables teachers to concentrate on what they do best – teaching. Too much of the education budget in recent years has been spent on getting technology into the classroom with a view that the mere injection of technology itself will contribute to raising standards. However, it is the case that the evidence on the positive impact of ICT on standards remains unclear. The focus on the use of technology in schools, therefore, should be to support teachers' professional needs".

USA. Obama's revolutionairy low budget Reform in Education
focuses on quality teachers to turn the tide
in 'The Financial Times' on 28 July 2010: "In the last generation, America’s “K-12” (primary and secondary) public schools system has gradually fallen behind other developed countries (during the era that digital teaching moved centre stage at the expense of trillions of US$ - VT).
American pupils come 31st in a worldwide ranking of proficiency in mathematics and even lower down in some of the sciences.

On some measures US pupils have a lower level of literacy in English than in some northern European countries where English is the second language.
Thirty years ago (before computers) the US regularly came in the top five on such measures."

With an eye on low-income countries: note that quality decline parallel with the introduction of digital teaching, occurred especially on weaker and on deprived schools (in USA one-third of public schools).

Australia. Computers alone provide a low-level of learning in 'Computerworld. The Voice of Management' on 23 July 2010: "The existing program is quite targeted around computers in schools. The coalition could very well look more broadly at supporting software and learning aids, because computers alone provide a low-level of learning.” Therefore the planned investment of $46 billion for National Broadband Network, the "Digital Education Revolution" is considered to be cancelled.

These are "Frameworks for Interpreting the (negative results in) Romania and North Carolina Home Computer Use Studies" were Wayan Vota looks for in the Edutech-debate. They underpin the relevance of the August discussion of InfoDev (World Bank/UNESCO) about long-denied evidence that access to computers in many circumstances leads to poor educational attainment.

These evaluations feed the wider debate that is now surrounding Nicholas Carr's book The Shallows (2010). Carr argues that the Internet is leading to a short-attention-span culture. He cites a pile of research showing that the multi-distraction, hyper-link world degrades people’s abilities to engage in deep thought or serious contemplation. Digital teaching might increase motivation of students - the stimuli used by teachers and the information is so diverse that it is merely processed in the short-term-memory. Like watching good National Geographic documentaries: after seen and understood: soon forgotten. Teaching becomes "edu-tainment". Knowledge that pupils have to learn does not get connected to or stored in the long-term-memory, which is the basis of secure learning.

Effective digital teaching. We obviously do not know yet how to use new technologies to really optimise learning processes. For established school subjects, teaching with digital equipment involves more than offering knowledge in understandable and interesting formats - the premises on which most ICT enthusiasts promote computer use by pupils. From various studies we learn that the approach has to be holistic. To start with: pupils need varied and relevant exercises to fixate information into their long-term-memory. In neuro-physiological terms, to develop new neuron-clusters and the lasting neurological pathways to link new understanding to existing knowledge. What it takes to achieve this is gravely underestimated - joyful exercises commonly used in e-learning software turn out to be not good enough.
Secondly: digital equipment, being so flexible in offering so much, has proved to be a double-edged sword. Teachers must have clear lesson targets, know how to reach those and do so in a disciplined manner, otherwise learning suffers.

Thirdly, for high school students digital learning involves the need for personal interaction, role-models and teachers. Learning as part of growing up is a social process in which technology can help but cannot assume centre stage. 'Social learning' has become a high priority on the agendas of rich countries' educational practices. But creating a productive balance using a simple model with appropriate variation in activities is still a major challenge for 'the new digital pedagogy'. Not to mention how to prevent distraction and pupils just entertaining themselves.

A 'pedagogic leap' is needed for digital teaching to become truly effective. How will the average teacher develop - and how to be trained? We are now much more aware of the missing link between computers being motivational and engaging for youngsters and their role in developing effective, durable learning in school. This gap may take a generation to bridge. More sophisticated pedagogical understanding of digital teaching has to be developed and applied before students of the average teacher in rich and in developing countries can benefit from this type of technology in their classroom. There is, however, plenty of evidence, for instance from independent OECD studies in Europe, that the use of computers in computer labs and libraries has a positive impact - contributing to teaching and to learning. An area to prioritise in countries where budgets are low.

1899 Jean Cote's vision of a classroom in the year 2000: a teacher transmits books to pupils via a kind of

mechanical micing device. It illustrates the long history of technological fantasies about education.

Image in David Buckingham: 'Beyond Technology - Children Learning in the Age of Digital Culture'

Startling rhetoric Considering its results the marketing of educational technology is startling. From the start it doesn't want to see any problems but only "practical solutions". True: the debatable effects could not have been foreseen 20 years ago, although negative results time and again were brought forward in independent studies (see menu-bar: Sound pedagogy). But up till today the marketing messages are relentlessly upbeat. Digital tools… motivate, inspire and stimulate teachers and students; the latest technology is Engaging - Enriching - Empowering; IT transfers the learning experience by lightning the flame of learning. ICTs inspire creativity in the classroom, share knowledge, spark brilliance and transform the future.

Technology is about creating opportunities, realizing potential, achieving excellence. The effects of this rhetoric, and other aspects of the marketing of this trillion dollar saga, are evaluated in 2007 in the opening chapters of 'Beyond Technology' by Prof. Buckingham of London Institute of Education - a study in the United Kingdom, arguably world leader in digital education.
In low income countries with a poor educational infrastructure in all respects, a similar rhetoric is used by the ICT industry and experts to introduce the one-laptop-per-child concept after 2005 and other digital tools as the (only) solution.

"ICT as a teacher substitute"
ICT rhetoric can explain Ugandas' Minister Bitamazires' hope in 'technocentric' solutions as expressed in her statement on a symposium with "experts tipping the region over importance ICT" in Kampala on 29 of June 2010:
"Students learn more on their own when they interact with ICT than with their teachers". (Photo Bitamazire © Uganda news-net)

The new promise Mitras' and Negropontes' philosophy of 'self-learning' of pupils in low income countries promises "… to leap-frog decades of development… (with computers giving access) to illimitable knowledge and to their own creative and problem solving potential". Experiences in rich countries where children over the age of four are surrounded by computers do not confirm this for the established school subjects and bring to light that reaching learning targets has become more difficult than before. "OLPC pupils will educate themselves"
That is why John Spencer in "Computerworld UK" (August 5 2010) concludes under the title "ICT as a teacher substitute": "CAL (computer assisted learning) and the VLE (virtual learning environment); don’t make me laugh. Never has so much money and time been wasted on such delusional nonsense. No amount of theorising about ‘constructivist pedagogy’ or ‘creating independent learners’ from the apologists can change this". As ICT specialist Spencer recognizes the importance of computers in education but not yet in the classroom. That can change in the future after a 'pedagogical leap' forward.

ICT aid promoting unproven ICTs (the mediaeval approach)

Test and make it work first (the scientific approach)
Below: cure with leaches (untested for 3000 years)

TEST first! Clever ICT investments for donors
as advised in Esther Duflo's TED talk (see post May 29)
After 30 years this is clear for classrooms: before advising any unproven technology - InfoDev/World Bank, UNESCO, ICT4D and the others better invest and experiment with promising IT tools in two or three settings until these really work in poor environments. Implementation procedures have to be developed to make it all sustainable, also money-wise. Until then investments can safely be concentrated on computer labs and building up the infrastructure needed.

In the mean time for in classrooms: teachers used to 'chalk and talk' need robust and reliable tools which give them full control and immediate support. To improve learning achievements there is innovate 'achievable ICT': click for possibly the best way to modernise teaching.

Read full articles:

'PS Public Service', 22 July 2010

'Computerworld. The Voice of Management', 23 July 2010
'Financial Times', 28 July 2010

Larry Cuban about: Nicholas Carr, The Shallows 2010 (23 August 2010)

Wayan Vota 'Edutech-debate' 16 July 2010
OECD 'Country case studies on digital learning resources as systematic innovation' 2008-2009

for more, see earlier blog posts and
see: 20 yrs IT - a reality check
see: Sound pedagogy
see: ICT-IT harmonised

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In the mean time:

How to explain 'infrastructure'? Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off" - and ask:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.

The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.

Worlds of opportunities to improve education

2010-07-14T13:50:00.007+02:00

Graph: High income countries can afford to experiment

with expensive computer technology to develop a pedagogy that works effectively

Paving the way for computers to become fully effective in the classroom
after having already invested billions of dollars
UK (GNI p/c US$40,560) USA (44,710) Netherlands (43,050)
Singapore (28,730) Korea (17,690) Hong Kong (29,040)

Hong Kong: 'Quantum leap' necessary for digital teaching. On the FutureForum in Singapore May 2010, Hong Kong announced that, although more than US$1 billion has been invested in IT for education over the past decade they are not there yet: a 'quantum leap' is now needed to ensure that pedagogy changes in time with the pace of technological advance.

A quantum leap, to finally go from trial and error to a robust pedagogy for laptops, PCs, eBooks, mobil phones and IWB use to help teachers. It might take another 10 to 20 years or more to develop a reliable pedagogy to become effective to the point that teaching in the classroom can safely be based on it: manageable by the average teacher and improving learning outcomes substantially.
This raises an important question: how can digital education as it is today ever improve teaching and learning in poor environments which lack the infrastructure, skilled workforce and appropriate financial resources?
Tap "Sound pedagogy" in the menu bar above for more.

Middle and low income countries can now concentrate on getting well functioning computer labs on all schools and safely wait and postpone the introduction of computer technology into the classroom for the next generation. Independent research suggest that until now, the use of digital equipment in the classroom has rarely lead to improved learning outcomes - at least, not in the traditional school subjects (Tab also "20 years IT reality check" and see the reports posted on this blog) When budgets are limited, there is no need to feel that you are missing out on better learning when you don't put computers in your classrooms. Invest wisely and wait for the quantum leap in pedagogy.

Teacher capacity-building is key to future success. In fact, that digital teaching is not ready yet for in the classrooms, provides an excellent opportunity to prepare national and local partners in a step-by-step plan to install an Internet system with matured websites and a reliable infrastructure for computer labs. Meanwhile teacher training and new curriculum materials can be based around excellent student-focused visualisation and interactivity. All this will prepare you and your students for a successful introduction of appropriate computer technology, using a pedagogy that works. Future technology must become affordable and robust. Digital teaching in classrooms will only work effectively when teachers have the chance and skills to remain in charge of their teaching, without the technology taking over. Capacity-building now is the most important key to future success.

Rarely successful Some middle-income countries are already trying to base their education system on the widespread use of computer technology, taking risks at a very early stage: Malaysia (GNI p/c US$5620), Macedonia (3070), Kosovo, Barbados - just like Kuwait (30,630) and United Arab Emirates (26,210). As posts on this blog illustrate: early adoption of new ICTs as a solution for problems of low or static achievement in education rarely prove to be successful.

Atanu Dey concluded at the recent Delhi World Bank debate
'Most Investments in Educational Technology are Wasted':
"There are better and cheaper ways to improve education"

Low and middle income countries can concentrate on the giant task of installing computer labs in their public sector schools to teach computer skills and as digital library. This is, by the way, equal to the situation on most schools in many high-income countries. These investments cannot wait because many jobs and careers that students take up after leaving school rely heavily on ICT skills.

One better and cheaper way to improve education .....

"Achievable ICT": click for possibly the best way to modernise teaching in the classroom

For more
see: ICT-IT harmonised
see: 20 yrs IT - a reality check
see: Sound pedagogy

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In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.

The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.

How to explain how a cell divides? Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off"

Step up question: "What is the subject?"

How to save US$120,000,000 on ICT

2010-06-17T13:29:00.012+02:00

ICT policies in high-income countries are diverse. Finland has the best educational system in the world which, interestingly enough, is not due to the use of ICT: according to an OECD study on ICT implementation (December 2008), the use of computers in classrooms systematically declined after 1999. France sticks to traditional teaching methods and holds back from installing expensive computer technology - waiting until it becomes affordable and is shown to make significant improvements in learning. As in Finland, computers are installed in labs to develop computer literacy; teachers mainly use computers for lesson preparation and students for certain homework tasks. The UK however, committed to computer assisted teaching from the start, has spent an estimated equivalent of 80 billion dollars over the last twenty years. So far, according to Pisa reports and independent research, this investment has not raised the level of learning outcomes. Recently, Becta advised the UK government to increase ICT budgets by 30% to ensure that previous investments become more effective. A kill or cure effort anticipating worse to come?

From: eSchoolNews June 10 by Meris Stansbury
ICT institute BECTA shut down - too costly

(photos © eSchoolNews)

As a cost-cutting measure, the new Tory Minister Nick Gibs (photo) announced on June 9 that Becta will be shut down in November 2010. He explained that "the savings in subsequent years will be £65m (US$120m)". Becta was set up in 1988 to promote the effective use of ICT in education. Through Becta’s work, UK schools have received expert advice on ICT purchases and classroom applications. According to its website, £1.5bn has been spent on computer technology for UK schools through Becta’s procurement agreements since 2002, saving the nation’s educational system £223m. Becta also says it has achieved cost savings of £55m for educational institutions and providers in the past year alone.

According to The Guardian newspaper, few were prepared for the 12-year agency’s closure, the loss of 240 jobs and the loss of what Becta chairman Graham Badman said about valuable ICT services provided for schools and their students. The UK government says Becta's closure will mean that individual schools will be able to decide for themselves how to use technology.
Read the full article here

Governments in middle and low income countries facing the enormous task of integrating computer technology into their educational system might want to take a close look at the role of Becta in the UK in order to imitate parts of it. If such an agency is set up to implement technology, it might be best to prevent it becoming self-reinforcing - a lobby for evermore, everywhere. "Becta “research” was subjective and far closer to marketing than anything I would describe as serious, academic research"*. Our advice is to select from the UK experience what has proved to work according to independent research and to adjust this to what is appropriate for your circumstances and calculate future costs of ownership by schools in relation to available budgets. See point 3 in 'Bridging the digital divide systematically', click: IT-ICT policy harmonised

* Qouted from John Donne: Becta Bites the Dust.

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In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.
The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.
How to discuss remains of the earliest modern human found (Ethiopia -160,000 years)?
Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

Just ask: "Who can explain what we see here?"

Too costly - Kenya shuts down computer labs

2010-06-12T17:25:00.016+02:00

Kenya is probably the richest nation in East Africa with an annual Gross National Income GNI per capita of $550 (Ethiopia $170, Uganda $300, Rwanda $220, Tanzania $350, compare also: Ghana $510, Guyana $1150, Serbia $4010, Hong Kong $29,404, UK $40,500). Kenya has to plan her ICT investments in education carefully so that they are sustainable. Yearly costs of ownership tend to be overlooked.

from: The Nation News by JACOB NGETICH June 2010
Why MPs shot down computer labs

In his 2009-2010 Budget speech in Parliament, Deputy Prime Minister and minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta allocated Sh1.3 billion (US $16 million) for the Mobile Computer Laboratories Project for use by high schools students.
However, months later, a member of the Finance Committee and MP Shakeel Shabbir rubbished it, terming it a deliberate attempt to make money and cheat the taxpayer with an unsustainable project. ... Mr Shabbir claimed then that sub-standard buses had already been bought from India for the project. The Ministry of Information would provide broadband or satellite connection, while the Ministry of Education was to scout for teachers and meet the operational cost. ...
The amount allocated for the project by the Treasury was only meant for capital expenditure, with operational expenditure derived from CDF. “Under the initiative, the CDF was to buy and fuel the bus that would go round and also cater for the two teachers,” explains Bitange Ndemo, Permanent Secretary ICT - photo.

Read the full story here

To close the digital divide systematically,
see: ICT-IT harmonised
see: Nationwide Visualisation Project

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In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.
The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.
How to explain 'radar'? Below, the use of radar, one off the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

Step up: "In which three ways radar is used in this visual?"

Evidence Please!

2010-06-07T14:12:00.021+02:00

We tend to take positive results and the real progress of computer-assisted teaching for granted. However, there are very good reasons to exercise care in this area. To date, independent large-scale research carried out in rich countries reports hardly any positive effects on learning standards - at least not in the long-established school subjects - see our posts. Where is the evidence for the claim by the IT community that computers really promote rapid improvements in teaching or learning in middle and low income countries? Here Allen, a regular contributor to the debate, raises a valid question:

Allen's question in the Debate led by Mark Warschauer:

"You've investigated successful programs?"

"You've investigated successful programs? Even highly successful programs? Could you, perhaps, identify one or two of these programs?

Without your resources I haven't found any successful programs, at least by the metric of improving educational outcomes, so I'm interested in successful - highly successful - programs. In fact all the programs I've had access to have been dismal failures both financially and educationally so you can understand that highly successful programs, and how they achieved their success, would be of interest to me".

Find the Debate here
EduTech Debate by InfoDev World Bank

for Research Reports see this blog and
see: 20 yrs IT - a reality check
see: Sound pedagogy
see: ICT-IT harmonised

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In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.
The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.
How to explain static electricity? Below one off the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

Step up question: "Why is her hair standing strait up?"

To modernise teaching today, see: Nationwide Visualisation Project

Welcome to our no-nonsense blog

2010-06-04T14:13:00.001+02:00

Welcome! After months of preparation we now happily invite you to have a look around on our new blog.

Good ideas are worth spreading. Tab on the subjects in the menu bar above: you will find here all information about the 'Nationwide Visualisation Project' and its rationale.

Why we started this blog? See the sidebar - to contribute to effective investments in ICT.

Wisdom on ICT comes at a high price already paid for. Implementation of ICT to make pupils computer-literate has to be a priority, but is a risky business. Even more so if computer technology gets introduced as attempt to modernise teaching in the classroom, especially in middle and low income countries where resources are limited. How to be most effective? We select news-reports that will make you think and re-think. This might help you to consider investment schemes which will really make a difference for the future of your schools.

The reports in our archives are varied. These weeks we highlight the InfoDev/World Bank debate now held in Delhi: "Most Investments in Educational Technology are Wasted". Hopefully you appreciate our summaries which you find among related subjects below.

Avoid only "worst practice ICT use in education"?

2010-05-29T11:36:00.005+02:00

Highlighting the Delhi debate in April/May 2010 organised by InfoDev/World Bank:

"Most Investments in Educational Technology are Wasted"

Three guest speakers defend the way computer technology has been introduced in middle and low income countries so far, and three opponents argue that much of the money could have been better used. Here is a response to that last position.

Michael Trucano, Senior ICT and Educational Policy Specialist at InfoDev/World Bank has seen it happening around the world, over and over again:

"Given that many initiatives seem immune to learning from either 'best' or even 'good' practice in other places or contexts, it may be most practical to recommend 'lots of practice', as there appears to be a natural learning curve that accompanies large scale adoption of ICTs in the education sector in many countries - even if this means 'repeating the mistakes' of others".

from:Michael Trucano on Fri, 04/30/2010
Worst practice ICT use in education

Next Trucano raises the question: "But do we really need to repeat the mistakes of others?" and concludes that maybe only "worst practice in ICT use in education" should be avoided. A statement like this from a top researcher at the World Bank reveals a lot about the common acceptance of the waste of investment in educational technologies. And "we" refers directly and correctly to the role of the IT community itself.

On a regular basis I talk to top management at government ministries in middle and low income countries and meet their influential IT advisers - mostly from abroad and paid by donor facilitating organisations. Ministers listen carefully to them. To me, it appears like these advisers are responsible for many of the policies subsequently adopted: it is at their level - and not the lower levels in the educational hierarchies - that decisions about the amount and destination of investments in educational technology are made. Outcomes have not been good and so for IT advisers and aid facilitating agencies a fundamental re-think is urgently needed.

Here Trucano's list of nine 'worst practices in ICT' photo Trucano © World Bank

(mostly directed by enthusiastic IT specialists and the computer lobby) -

1. Dump hardware in schools, hope for magic to happen

2. Design for OECD learning environments, implement elsewhere

3. Think about educational content only after you have rolled out your hardware

4. Assume you can just import content from somewhere else

5. Don't monitor, don't evaluate

6. Make a big bet on an unproven technology

7. Don't acknowledge total cost of ownership/operation calculations

8. Assume away equity (fairness; justice) issues but which need careful proactive attention

9. Don't train your teachers (nor your school headmasters, for that matter)

I'd like to add:

10: ignore the benefits of achievable ICT to modernise teaching at low cost and no risk (click)

There is a false dichotomy in the "Delhi - Waste debate". Are those who think too much money is wasted really against computers? I don't think so. There is a common understanding that computers have to be integrated in developing economies as fast as possible, wherever it makes sense and especially in education. That is why donor facilitators have established IT-task forces to promote and assist this strategy. But there is an enthusiasm within the IT community which makes them regularly overlook (for instantce) points 5 to 8 in Trucano's list. This oversight leads to unrealistic policies for middle and low income countries. The IT advisers reject 'waste' as an appropriate description of what is going on, as if they don't have to be cautious regarding the financial consequences of the implementation strategies they advise be taken.

Implementation strategies which advisers promote should become longer term, spending 3 to 7 years creating a stable infrastructure before teachers start using IT in their classrooms.
Analysis followed by evaluation based on research elsewhere is simply not being effective in most places, partly because researchers and opinion-makers who report to the IT community are too eager to get computers into classrooms as a first priority as the key measure of success. Conclusions are reported to 'the home front' in optimistic terms and tend to obscure the shortcomings or failure of programs - holding up the cheap promise of 'computers enriching education' as a cover, instead of concluding that a firm step-by-step approach dealing first with critical barriers is far preferable.
Being pragmatic is essential. Instead of implicitly allowing similar mistakes to be repeated, annalists, government consultants and education leaders should note carefully Trucano's observations and the Delhi debate outcomes and question themselves about the value and appropriateness of their future implementation advice.

Role of ICT conferences

5th African e-Learning Conference
Zambia May 2010

Photos by Inzy Studios Lusaka, © ICWE GmbH

ICT conferences are important places to promote and present sensible implementation plans, concentrating first on preparation (and to raise voices against investment schemes doomed to failure). But ICT conferences, like the one recently held in Zambia, traditionally celebrate the arrival of computers in education as if this will bring immediate blessings - no matter where and even when failure is highly predictable. Also and especially, the 'professional advisers' at such events ignore the downsides of computer technology in the classroom and set out false expectations for visiting educationalists and policy makers who want rapid progress in their schools and who are in positions to get money flowing quickly. Instead of being warned about doubtful investments (as listed by Trucano), they go home with unrealistic IT policies in their minds - a side effect of these over-optimistic gatherings which the organisers and guest speakers should plan to prevent.

How to come up with blueprints for success? How to replace misleading over-optimism with common sense? You do not have to be Einstein to understand that the highest priority is to promote solutions to critical barriers first - like developing a solid infrastructure, preparing the teachers and only introducing educational technology which has already proved its worth in low or middle income countries. With smaller spending limits, much more can be achieved when wastage is minimised. Researchers, opinion-makers and computer-industry promoters have much responsibility to exercise in this process. Consider Trucano's Point 8, the equity issue: developing economies have no money for experiments. Loans, taxes or donor money gets wasted and is lost for basic needs such as salaries, furniture to sit on, school lunches or schoolbooks. Here realism in setting goals is imperative to foster progress.

A new, scientific approach is required from infoDev, US-Aid, UNESCO ICT4D, GeSCI and others who promote implementing expensive IT in education. Novelties which seem promising, like Negroponte's new eBook Being Digital, can be experimented with in a few regions or small countries until a complete working model is capable of implementation at manageable and accountable cost. In the 21st century the approach of 'trial and error' should be left behind, especially by the IT community. If they really want to close the digital divide they by now have to come up with blueprints for success. Here's an eye-opener on this subject, courtesy of Chris Blattman who did put this speech on his blog a few days earlier:

Esther Duflo's TED talk

Prof. Duflo is development economist at M.I.T. and has been awarded the John
Bates Clark Medal for "the most significant contribution to economic thought
and knowledge.” This award is regarded as a step up for the Noble Prize.

To close the digital divide systematically,
see: ICT-IT harmonised
see: Beyond chalk and talk
see: Nationwide Visualisation Project

original post Trucano

..................

In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.
The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.
How relate rain, static electricity and lightning? Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

..................

Step up: "What is happening to the ice-cubs in the circle?

E-learning is not the point here!

2010-05-28T15:07:00.002+02:00

Nigeria has decided to adopt e-learning across the public school system and to include the curriculum. This happened in the weeks of the World Bank debate: "Most Investments in Educational Technology are Wasted". Hopefully Nigeria will take lessons learned elsewhere at heart. First and for all it has to prepare the infrastructure and invest in capacity building before expecting teachers to achieve curriculum goals digitally - according to reader comments.

From: Ngozi Sams, April 20, 2010 02:53AM
Nigeria chooses digital education
Some reader comments:

"First we need electricity"
Posted by KissTeeth on Apr 20 2010:
E-learning (LOL). First we need electricity then broadband and computer industries then computer literate teachers and finally e-learning. In Nigeria, we always want to run before we even learn to crawl. And please I don't want some posters giving me a list of “text-book advantages” of e-learning -- as so often happens with crammers at school. That is not the point here.

"How many of these teachers can even teach?"
Posted by Seasonal on Apr 20 2010
This should be a future oriented project. We do not even have stable electricity. Standards of learning in schools have fallen so low -and we think e-learning will make people smarter? Please... How many of these teachers can even use computers, also how many of these teachers can even teach? I remember when I was in secondary school, one or two of my English teachers couldn't even speak English well - imagine! Abegi. Although it's a good idea, it's not what Nigeria needs at the moment.

High-school classrooms like many South of the Sahara - click on image to enlarge

These readers comments are fully understandable and lead to only one conclusion: Nigeria has to start preparing for the introduction of computer technology in education now now now. Considering the state of public schools in Nigeria, this has to be done with a long term vision. In a systematic step by step approach the critical barriers have to be solved first. Only relative small budgets are available for this - not the trillions of dollars as any OECD country of Nigeria's size spends on IT.
Fortunately the Delhi debate produces clear advices. With proactive attention Nigeria might be able to avoid the wrong policies which elsewhere have led to wastage or failure.

Read the full article in Next and more comments here

To close the digital divide systematically
see: ICT-IT harmonised
see: Beyond chalk and talk

..................

In the mean time:

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.

The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.

How to learn about ways to struggle for independence?
Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

Step up question: "When did most African nations become independant?"

To modernise teaching today, see: Nationwide Visualisation Project

eLearning conferences: marketing vs realism

2010-05-27T22:30:00.006+02:00

An open answer to the eLearning Team Africa

Photo impressions eLearning Conference Zambia
May 2010 © ICWE GmbH German organisers

Thank you for letting us know about your appreciation of our blog and for the invitation to Tanzania in 2011.

Let me ask, after following your conferences for several years: is the first priority for the organizers of the e-Conference Africa to focus on how to use ICT to the max to improve education in Africa? Or is it to serve the IT community, whose obvious aim is to get hardware and software installed everywhere?

Let us set things out clearly for the better.
To me, it seems the main problem with the eLearning Conference Africa is that, as organizers, you are not yet separating the aim of integrating computer technology at best in education from the aim of improving teaching.
There is hardly any serious attention given to the short-comings, complexities and extremely high costs of setting up and maintaining digital learning as evidenced by rich countries’ experience. Such experience should send a clear warning to less affluent countries about the over-optimism and problems associated with introducing computer technology into their educational systems. On top of this there is the issue of developing a new and effective pedagogy which teachers can use to maximize the benefits of e-learning approaches.

Experts selected to make presentations and contributions at your conferences should be noted for their realistic assessments and advice about what is really achievable and what the first priorities should be if value for money is to be achieved. Such experts should be able to elaborate on strategies to overcome the most critical barriers first, instead of - excusez le mot - marketing the launch of unproven technologies and new gadgets as if these will achieve miracles on their own.

It appears that your conference events are set up to demonstrate that success with digital technologies will be immediate. And your reports afterwards confirm this feeling. When I meet with policy-makers in Africa, or with educationalists who have visited your conference and refer to what they encountered, I am baffled by their unrealistic expectations – as if they have been lifted out of reality. Often the notion is lacking that a step by step approach is paramount. Your e-conferences so far have promoted that naive and potentially damaging optimism displayed by many in the international IT community and industry.

Let us get a taste of your 2009 report, written under the glowing title: "eLearning Africa Conference Shows How ICTs Empower Education for All in Africa": ... after three days of “sessions with world-class experts” ... “about the use of the vast potential of ICT to empower future generations of African children” ... “A Brilliant Mix of People, Opinions and Solutions" ... “Highlighting eLearning: Africa's innovative approach and setting the tone for future conferences” ... "Birthplace of numerous fruitful collaborations.”

The message is breath-taking: everything will change soon - just sign up for technology.

No lessons seem to be learned from the past or anywhere outside Africa. The denial reaches a level where one starts to wonder if the opposite is true. Is it really your aim to battle against the bitter realism found among your visitors one year earlier - in 2008? On your eLearning Conference in Ghana, 66% of participants agreed with the statement: 'Over the past decade the eLearning situation in Africa has hardly changed for the better' (eLearning 2020. 32 issues checked by M. Trucano, InfoDev World Bank and H. Fraeters, GDLN).

Optimism rules again in your announcements for the eConference 2010 in Zambia (no report yet, just photographs). I hope that your 2010 conference evaluation this time will emphasize realistic views on what is needed prior to succes. There must have been at least some attention to the debatable impact todays' computer-learning has on students’ learning and to the debate on what steps in the African context urgently have to be taken one after the other to achieve computer literacy (and digital learning) and other benefitis of computers to schools. Unrealistic yet costly ambitions result from unreal expectations about the potential of today's digital technology for improving teaching and learning of almost all school subjects.

You invite me to the 2011 eConference. For me it would be interesting to come - as for most visitors - when you have swapped your priorities from "ICT because of ICT" to: getting ICT to work on African schools effectively.

Please address the bitter realism that visitors report and the disappointing results from eLearning over the last decade. I am sure that the audience will appreciate it when your 2011 Conference in Tanzania gives centre stage to - what so far was second on your conferences: “the challenges and obstacles that technology brings to daily routines in education”.
Start with the educational management on the ministry and service institutes as for curriculum development, examunation and inspection: arrange speakers who can give direction for change and who have practical solutions for the vast preparations that are needed to effect change by this means. Be down to earth about what is needed and what is achievable now on ministries of education where e-mail and network problems are persistent and where toilets rarely flush. Have specialists elaborate “comprehensively” about the minimum requirements needed for the infrastructure needed for Internet access at the national level and then as a reliable element in teacher training and school and classroom practice. And deal head-on with the financial limitations of African countries and how they can overcome these as you “reflect the great potential of learning with technology”.

This will not cut investment in ICT but put it where it is needed first.

I can advise you about some key-note speakers who really have a message to share.
Success with your work - make your eConference really exciting for real progress!

Jan Krol - Visual Teach achievable ICT.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teachers in developing economies need in their classrooms robust and reliable tools.

The Nationwide Visualisation Project introduces on highschools simple to use teaching aids.

What water erosion and silt? Below one of the 2500 visuals: "Put on - take off".

No surprises in our research reports

2010-05-19T02:25:00.002+02:00

Teachers are important - they compensate for static or negative results from computer assisted learning: a reaction from John Branfield, former Principal Inspector with Essex Education Authority (UK) and senior member of staff at a Specialist College for Mathematics and Computing.

From: John Branfield, by e-mail May 2010

Nothing beats a well qualified teacher

On the subject of the research reports you identified recently, none of this surprises me. Having taught IT for over 10 years it's clear that the follow-up use of computer-based material for drill and practice or open-ended research followed up by teacher intervention is far better than using IT as some sort of teacher substitute. My experience of observing many secondary school lessons is that nothing beats a well qualified teacher (subject expert) with a clear lesson plan and the ability to engage with his or her students directly, understanding their prior learning achievements and being clear about the next steps needed. Learning through the medium of computer screen is a very poor second; high level classroom interaction beats a Google search every time.

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

Investment research concludes: First Debug the Child

2010-05-18T01:45:00.004+02:00

Computers on schools can and will 'electrify education' (as Negroponte evaluated his OLPC projects) but only when implemented in a sensible way. When brought into the classroom too fast, they might not enrich but damage education. This happens in rich countries as well as in middle and low-income countries. Some recent reports:

Research in Romania, comparing families having computers with those families without found that computers had a negative effect on students’ grades and educational goals.

Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital

In Colombia: with increased numbers of computers in schools, and curriculum support provided plus training for teachers, no positive impact on student outcomes was found.

The use and misuse of computers in education

In India: using computers during school hours - essentially substituting computers for teachers - actually damaged learning.

Some annotated observations, including the research findings above, from:
Atanu Dey, a contributer of the April 2010 Delhi debate
"Most of Technology Investments in Education is Wasted"

First Debug the Child
My interest in the use — and misuse — of technology in education is a natural extension of that basic interest in development and growth. The One Laptop Per Child comes in for special scrutiny because the implications of such a program are phenomenal for a poor country like India. I have long argued that there are simpler, more affordable and more urgently needed interventions that is needed than is provided by the OLPC program. Here’s one that I recently became aware of. Timothy Ogden writes about "the glitzy One Laptop per Child program.” It’s clearly a well-written and well-researched article and is a must read. Here’s a bit:

Despite the instinctive appeal of distributing laptops to schoolchildren, there is precious little evidence that making computers available to children improves educational outcomes. The circumstantial evidence that exists certainly doesn’t buttress the one-laptop-per-child approach.
. . .
Two other recent studies (2010 and 2009) conducted in the developing world are even more telling. Economists Ofer Malamud and Cristian Pop-Eleches studied a program in Romania that distributed discount vouchers for the purchase of home computers to low-income families. When they compared the families that used the vouchers to acquire computers with families that were just above the income cut-off to receive the vouchers, they found that computers had a negative effect on students’ grades and educational goals. Leigh Linden, an economist at Columbia University, and Felipe Barrera-Osorio of The World Bank studied a program in Colombia that increased the number of computers in schools and provided curriculum support and training for teachers — and found no impact on student outcomes. “In this case, despite the curriculum support, it was clear that the teachers simply weren’t using the computers,” Linden says.

Linden also led one of the few experimental studies to show a positive impact from the use of computers — a project in India that provided computers and education software to schools and randomly assigned some schools to use the software during school hours and others to encourage computer use after hours. This study found that using computers during school hours —essentially substituting computers for teachers — actually hurt learning, while using them after hours as a supplement to traditional classroom teaching had dramatic positive effects on the weakest students. Even this outcome doesn’t really support the OLPC mission, though; the software evaluated is very much in the “drill and practice” model that Negroponte has explicitly derided.

Ogden further on in the article mentions a few more effective means of improving educational outcomes. There are a number of simple, cheap programs that have been proven successful at getting children in developing countries into school and helping them learn more while they are there.

Deworming
The simplest and least costly of these programs is deworming. Nearly 2 billion people around the world are affected by parasitic worm infections, with children disproportionately affected. While each variety of parasitic worm affects a person differently, they all take a substantial toll on growth, energy and attention, with entirely predictable impacts on school attendance and learning. Harvard economist Michael Kremer has studied the impact of mass deworming in Kenya and India. Delivering deworming medication costs 50 cents per child per year in Kenya but yielded a 25 percent increase in school attendance; a similar program in India cost $4 per student per year and yielded a 20 percent attendance gain. “This is a simple, cost-effective and yet tragically not-done program. It’s a scandal that [deworming] hasn’t been addressed,” Kremer says. There are spillover effects as well. “The most surprising thing about the study in Kenya was the widespread impact,” Kremer says. The program drove down infection rates for several kilometers around the schools, he says, and there were significant improvements in attendance for untreated students, in the treatment schools as well as in nearby schools not in the program.

Go read it all here

To close the digital divide systematically,
see: Beyond chalk and talk
see: 20 yrs IT in reality
see: Sound pedagogy

OLPC: a "Computer Error"?

2010-05-13T01:43:00.002+02:00

"There appear to be cheaper, more effective ways to improve education

in developing nations than the glitzy One Laptop per Child program…"

From

By Timothy Ogden (editor-in-chief of Philanthropy Action), August 20, 2009

Computer Error?
... In the last year, though, the news on OLPC has sharply soured. Technical difficulties slowed the development of the second generation of the laptop. The second year of the “Give One, Get One” promotion — which offered the people a chance to pay $399 for two laptops, one that they would keep, with the other sent to a developing nation — dramatically underperformed. Then in early January, the nonprofit OLPC announced that 50 percent of staff were being laid off and a major restructuring was under way. To even its most ardent supporters, the project seems nearly dead in the water.

And that may be great news for children in the developing world.

Read full story here

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

Does IT Improve Academic Achievement?

2010-05-11T01:40:00.000+02:00

A point made by these researchers: recent large-scale efforts to increase computer access for disadvantaged children around the world happens without paying sufficient attention to how parental oversight affects a child's computer use.

Home Computer Use and the Development of Human Capital
By: O. Malamud, Univ. of Chicago / C. Pop-Eleches, Colombia Univ.

Key findings from the 2009 report include the following:
Computer use was mostly focused on games displacing the time for home work and reading:
- significantly lower schoolgrades in `Maths, English and Romanian
- significantly higher scores in computer skills and fluency

Find a downloadable pdf here
And a review in Slate web magazine here

Alex Tabarrok posted on the website Marginal Revolution, September 11, 2009, on the issue First debug the child, then the computer. We quote from the comments:

High schools in South Dakota have had access to a state-aided program to provide kids with laptops for school use (they don't get to keep them). The school here tried to put as much of the curriculum as possible on them. They've found out that (surprise) kids may not take proper care of them or use them approriately; in fact the first year of the program at our school saw a huge increase in kids failing classes because they were using the computers for everything but homework. Maintenance costs have also proven to be a budget buster; replacing a broken computer is a lot more expensive than replacing a damaged book, and some parents have said "you're making them use it; you pay for it".

Posted by: mikesdak at Sep 11, 2009 3:16:51 PM

Read it here

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

Impression: Are ICT Investments in Schools Wasted?

2010-05-06T01:26:00.009+02:00

The debate left Yama Ploskonka duly confused - an appropriate state of mind for anyone considering honest investment in ICT for education... since FOR was “against” investment, seeing it as a waste, and vice versa, sometimes adding multiple negatives…

Live Debate Impression New Dehli, 21 April, 2010
Allen brings the negative together as follows:

What struck me about the affirmative was the lack of any reference to history. It's not as if computers in education are a new idea although the advent of the Internet seems to have resulted in a case of amnesia regarding that historical fact. The first computer system explicitly designed for use in education was the Plato system designed by the University of Illinois in...wait for it...1960.

Since then there have been an endless parade of projects to use computers in education and to be blunt, they've all failed. Some have failed spectacularly, others have simply not lived up to the promises made and implied at their start and in a few cases the measure of success has been sufficiently vague as to defy attempts to apply the success or failure label. But in terms of demonstrating lower costs or greater educational attainment I don't believe there's any reason to equivocate. Failure from start to finish.

It would seem to me that this historical reality would be a well-nigh insurmountable obstacle to those advancing projects which propose to improve education via the use of computers and yet it does not seem to be so. Despite a uniform, and very expensive, history of failure new projects are continuously launched as if each is the first to attempt to improve education via the use of computers. Were I on the affirmative I would simply have reprised that history and challenged the opposition to offer some reason to believe that the new projects, indistinguishable except in detail from any that preceded, will succeed where all its predecessors have failed.

You post a false choice Yama
The false dilemma results from assuming that there's no down side to funding the use of computers in education so might as well. It's a choice between funding the use of computers and *not* building some bridge or road or some other project.

Exactly! This blog presents arguments and reports experiences and research to point out the danger of e-learning in poorly prepared settings. Computer technology has to be introduced, which goes without saying, but only through use of tested procedures, proven to work. Like this, money can be saved to build roads to the future, removing critical barriers at the start.
-----------------------------

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

Key constraints & waste in educational technology

2010-04-15T12:56:00.031+02:00

Please check the Key constraints on pages 10 to 18, see below some key constraints. Will they be prominent in the debate and final policy advice, or just be ignored? Should these constraints be targeted first in every systematic strategy to bridge the digital divide?

from:
Survey of ICT in Education in India and South Asia
Price Waterhouse Coopers India - commissioned by InfoDev, 2010

Launched in New Dehli with the debate: 'Most investment in technology in schools is wasted.' A live debate web-casted around the world 20-21 April. A InfoDef - UNESCO event
Curriculum & Content Development

e.g. page 10
Key constraints in developing relevant content:
• lack of IT professionals in the country
• lack of funding, infrastructure and resources
• lack of local content development initiatives
• no clear defined standards for digital educational contentno focus on digital content • in traditional curriculum areas

e.g. page 12
Key constraints in effective use of ICT for professional development:
• teacher attitudes towards ICT
• lack of relevant content
• lack of access to computers and the Internet after school
• lack of adequate funding and resources
• lack of training focusing on pedagogical innovation and learner-centered strategies

Here preliminary results Survey ICTs for Education
in India and South Asia

To close the digital divide systematically, see:

Bleak impact of IT on learning

2010-04-14T13:53:00.038+02:00

infoDev is a global development financing programme co-ordinated and serviced by the Global ICT Department (GICT) of the World Bank. InfovDev rarely consider low-tech ICT applications such as school radio, TV or the overhead projector as serious options, even when the implementation of new technologies are likely, or better: doomed to fail. In a Briefing Paper five years ago infoDev summed up what is debatable about much classroom use of ICT to support learning and is soon to host a debate in Delhi on the theme of 'Most investment in technology in schools is wasted.'

Briefing Paper
Impact of ICT on Learning and Achievement

A Knowledge Map of Information & Communication Technologies in Education

It is generally believed that ICT can empower teachers and learners, promote change and foster the development of ‘21st century skills' but data to support these beliefs is still limited.

Download the full text here

Read also 20 years of IT in education and Silver bullets

A white elephant in Uganda

2010-04-08T15:28:00.021+02:00

Get your country, schools and teachers ready before introducing computer assisted teaching and learning in the classroom - see our 'IT and ICT harmonised'. Too many things can go wrong!
From:

Uganda lays wrong ICT cable
By Vision Reporter, Sunday, 4th April, 2010

UGANDA is laying the wrong fibre optic cable for the national backbone infrastructure - local and international experts have said.   
Uganda is using the G652 type whereas it should be using G655 for the kind of data Uganda will need to transmit.   
But despite instructions from the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Parliament to halt the second phase until the technical issues have been resolved, the Chinese company, Huawei Technologies, has refused to stop.   
Every day the works continue, the company is using up more of the $106m (sh212b) for what experts say will prove to be a 'white elephant'.   

Read the full story here

Read more on policy advices to introduce IT and ICT harmonised, at manageble cost

Educational Technology Debate - India

2010-04-07T16:06:00.016+02:00

About the need for a fundamental rethink
organised by InfoDev (World Bank) and UNESCO.

From: InfoDev April 2010

'Most investment in technology in schools is wasted.' Discuss.
On 21 April, 2010 Infodev launched its Survey of Information and Communication Technology for Education in India & South Asia. The launch in Delhi (India) was marked with a Oxford Union style debate on the motion: 'Most investment in technology in schools is wasted.'

The goal of the contributors will be to persuade the audience to reach one of two conclusions:
1. Most current investment is being wasted and needs a fundamental rethink (FOR the motion)
2. Existing schemes are already bearing fruit and need only ongoing support (AGAINST the motion).

More information here

Are IT budgets always too small?

2010-03-29T13:38:00.014+02:00

Will even larger IT budgets for schools solve even the most common problems they encounter? Will even more investment in equipment and networks that quickly become outdated help students and teachers improve standards? The UK is Europe's leading nation in equipping classrooms with digital equipment and doubled the budget for education over the last decade. But according to the OECD Report 2010, few improvements in learning outcomes can be directly linked to this investment. Yet, more ICT (read IT) is recommended. Who is driving this on-going IT saga? Are today's education professionals IT addicts rather than more skillful educators? Or are they right to push for even more investment, as there is no way back?

From: Education Executive
business management magazine written exclusively for school business managers and bursars

ICT budgets too small
Survey shows education professionals want more investment
Released 24/03/201

This is according to research conducted by NETGEAR at BETT 2010, the world's largest educational technology event. Over a third of respondents attribute the lack of investment to the restricted budgets allocated by LEAs and the Government, with 22 percent stating that the high cost of networking technologies is preventing educational institutions from sufficiently investing in these areas.
…
Remote access (17 per cent), training (17 per cent) and purchasing up-to-date equipment (13 per cent) are currently seen as the top priorities for investment; however these are just pieces of a puzzle when installing a successful IT infrastructure.
…
Over half of respondents stated that, once an education establishment has implemented these technologies, insufficient resource is allocated to maintaining their networks. Schools, colleges and universities are therefore looking to identify the right solution to suit their specific needs; at the lowest possible cost. 11 percent believe the confusing choice of networking technologies available is a key hurdle that must be overcome to achieve this.

read the full story here

E-learning like e-gov?

2010-03-29T13:25:00.011+02:00

Is the promise of e-governance in developing economies comparable with the use of e-learning? From rich countries we know that in time most problems with e-governance get solved and leads to more efficiency. This is not always true for teaching. This article shows some interesting similarities in the stages of implementation.

Is e-government a bad idea?
Mar 28th, 2010

From:

Bahrain’s e-gov services are the most advanced in the region. But as other Arab states play catch up, some say this digital revolution makes life harder for the public, and that millions of dollars are wasted on expensive IT systems

For about a decade, the business of selling technology to government has come increasingly into the public awareness. According to analysis by the Economist last year, a lot of money is spent on e-government infrastructure, with questionable returns.
“So far… the story of e-government has been one of quantity, not quality. It has provided plenty of reason for skepticism and not much cause for enthusiasm,” said the Economist.
“Whereas e-commerce has been a spectacular success… e-government has yet to transform public administration. Indeed, its most conspicuous feature has been a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money on big computer systems, poorly thought out and overpriced,” the report added.

read the full story here

Near death of costly African Virtual University

2010-03-19T12:26:00.007+01:00

Use of ICT and computer assisted teaching and learning is not always proving to be a shortcut to success, especially in settings which are not properly prepared. Below is a recipe for disaster, a list to be noted - ending with a call to adopt use of proven technologies like school TV and radio as important and cost-effective means of fostering development.

From: The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, Vol 10, No 4 (2009), ISSN: 1492-3831

Teaching and Learning Against all Odds: A Video-Based Study of Learner-to-Instructor Interaction in International Distance Education
September 2009, By Jean-Marie Muhirwa Education Specialist,  Equitas--International Centre for Human Rights Education

Abstract
Distance education and information and communication technologies (ICTs) have been marketed as cost-effective ways to rescue struggling educational institutions in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study uses classroom video analysis and follow-up interviews with teachers, students, and local tutors to analyse the interaction at a distance between learners in Mali and Burkina Faso and their French and Canadian instructors.
Findings reveal multiple obstacles to quality interaction:
• frequent Internet disconnections
• limited student access to computers
• lack of instructor presence
• ill-prepared local tutors
• student unfamiliarity with typing and computer technology
• ineffective technical support
• poor social dynamics
• learner-learner conflict
• learner-instructor conflict
• and student withdrawal and resignation.
In light of the near death of the costly World Bank-initiated African Virtual University (AVU), this paper concludes by re-visiting the educational potential of traditional technologies, such as radio and video, to foster development in poor countries.

Full article here

IT in education in Singapore

2010-03-19T12:15:00.010+01:00

In Singapore e-learning is now in decline after years of implementation because teachers prefer traditional ways of teaching.
Short interview with a publisher recorded at the Frankfurt Bookfair 2008

Pupils prefer overhead projector 2

2010-03-19T11:27:00.004+01:00

Overhead projectors are better for both teachers and students

Mona explains that in her school, Gymnasium Tito, computers did not benefit students as much as expected because of the technical breakdowns which started within a few months of installation. But four teachers had started to use the OH-projector - a great support for learning confirmed by other students.

Most students are critical about IT and computer-based teaching and learning
We are no longer in the 90s, when faith in computer-based teaching and learning was unlimited. In every one of the ten Balkan countries visited in mid-2009 and early 2010, this is an obvious reaction of the young people I talked to about their classroom experiences. All are trained and knowledgable in using computers and the Internet, either at school or at home. Typically, when asked about computer reliuability, their eyes started to twinkle and they grin (“Are you joking, they result in entertainment, not learning”) and then explain, that computer use often results in having fun and wasting time. They prefer an approach in which they can learn more effectively. To them the overhead projector makes much more sense.

Internet addiction: a new epidemic threat?

2010-03-18T13:00:00.017+01:00

South Korea is a highly wired nation, with IT established in all its schools. Now a quarter of Korea's youth appear to be Internet-addicted. Many need medical treatment. A new epidemic threat for other countries where the Internet takes centre stage? From:

Seoul to Combat Internet Addiction
03-15-2010 17:46 , By Kang Hyun-kyung Staff Reporter

From next year, gamers and other Internet addicts will be able to install free software programs into their laptops to limit their access time to the Internet, the Office of the Prime Minister said Monday.
The plan was unveiled following the increase in addicts here, which, according to the government, has reached approximately 2 million. However, industry experts say the real figure is much higher.

read the full story here

Pupils prefer overhead projector 1

2010-03-16T11:31:00.018+01:00

At the grassroots: pupils prefer the overhead projector

In the Balkans: Macedonia is pursuing a policy to become the regional IT hub, betting heavily on the benefits computer-based education. Meet Veronica and Maria, both 15 years old, as in I did in the Summer of 2009: they were happy to have received a computer from the government, like all students did last year (in a kind of 'One Laptop Per Child' approach) and they had ‘NET’ and MSN - all good fun! “But in the classroom the system is very bad. Most teachers were unable to use it and the computers did not help learning at all."

To my surprise they continued explaining that what really works is the overhead projector. Their biology teacher started using it last year and said it would be ideal for ALL teachers and students. I filmed their experiences at grass roots level and promised to show them to the Minister.
Veronica's and Maria's opinions were shared by all the students I investigated in three schools I visited in Macedonia.

Overhead projector vs PowerPoint

2010-03-10T14:30:00.012+01:00

The reliable overhead projector was in use in business before in schools. From Zachman International Enterprise Architecture:

Why I still use an overhead projector: because PowerPoint makes you look stupid
Wednesday, 10 March 2010, By ©2009 John A. Zachman, Zachman International

.... In all actuality, I really do like the visual stimulation of PowerPoint, it's just that I find it very confining as a teacher. I like to be able to hold several foils between my fingers and arbitrarily show any one of them, which PowerPoint limits. I like to be able to cover up different areas of The Framework up with my hands to illustrate various points. Also, I fill out most of my foils with complete sentences- not bullets. I want people to be able to go back and read my complete thought, not piece together the idea from memory. I work with the projector - it's my friend.

read the full story here

Connection and distraction

2010-03-10T14:17:00.006+01:00

An interesting discussion going on at American universities since Professor David Cole banned laptops for taking notes because students were distracted by many other things.

From:

Wide Web of diversions gets laptops evicted from lecture halls
Tuesday, March 9, 2010, By Daniel de Vise, Washington Post Staff Writer

A generation ago, academia embraced the laptop as the most welcome classroom innovation since the ballpoint pen. But during the past decade, it has evolved into a powerful distraction. Wireless Internet connections tempt students away from note-typing to e-mail, blogs, YouTube videos, sports scores, even online gaming -- all the diversions of a home computer beamed into the classroom to compete with the professor for the student's attention.

Cole surveyed one of his Georgetown classes anonymously after six weeks of laptop-free lectures. Four-fifths said they were more engaged in class discussion. Ninety-five percent admitted that they had used their laptops for "purposes other than taking notes."

"The breaking point for me was when I asked a student to comment on an issue, and he said, 'Wait a minute, I want to open my computer,' " said David Goldfrank, a Georgetown history professor. "And I told him, 'I don't want to know what's in your computer. I want to know what's in your head.' "

read the full story here

The future of Becta

2010-03-08T13:41:00.006+01:00

Becta, the British institution for promoting and integrating IT in education, points out that budgets are likely to become tight, especially for IT in most schools. John Spencer evaluates the achievements of Becta. Please note that the phrase "ICT" is commonly used where-as only IT, computer driven appliences, are targeted in efforts to replace the traditional ICTs.

From:

Becta and school ICT: end of the line for the gravy train?
March 05, 2010, Posted by: John Spencer

… But here is the rub… there is an election coming and our lost tribes are getting more than a little nervous as they survey the national debt, public sector cuts and party manifestos.

The Conservative party, who may well win the election have already pledged to shut Becta so maybe this is a good time to reflect on the doings of our old friends.

Long before the 2008 crash, trouble was brewing. Those naughty appointed vendors may have taken a few liberties with their market dominance and educationally discounted software.Schools were now virtually all locked into Microsoft's Operating Systems and Office upgrade cycle...things were getting expensive.

read the full story here

Edu-tainment or progress in learning?

2010-03-08T12:49:00.013+01:00

"Personal and real" How far should we bring down the role of the teacher and our own human senses? Can we be cynical and smirk after reading news like this?
From Singapore:

20 per cent of school curriculum to use IT by 2015
Fri, Mar 05, 2010 my paper BY PAMELA CHOW

STUDENTS of Yusof Ishak Secondary School are learning how to cook simple dishes during their home-economics lessons in virtual reality, thanks to a cooking game on the popular video- game console Nintendo Wii.
Madam Tay Pei Yun, a home-economics teacher at the school, said: "Students are more engaged and they look forward to the lessons... They've developed interest in the subject."

At Tao Nan School, pupils go on excursions to the zoo or the Botanic Gardens during science lessons, armed with Global Positioning System (GPS)-enabled personal digital assistants that give them tasks related to nearby plants or animals.

For them, "the experience becomes personal and real", said Mr Kwek Teng Hui, the level head for science at the primary school.

read the full story here

2010-03-05T16:39:00.003+01:00

Just a fun news item to start of the weekend.
From SmartPlanet:

A great breakthrough written on a blackboard
Mar 2, 2010, By Dana Blankenhorn

We have grown used to science being done using computers.
Especially computer science.
The idea that a computer science breakthrough might take place on a blackboard boggles the mind.

Read the story here

Spending, benefits and reality hitting home

2010-03-03T12:41:00.012+01:00

Well, it seems that IT in education will be high on the political agenda in the UK. After blowing budgets on all kinds of splendour of promising new technologies in the classroom, questions are being asked about what we actually invested in. Do you know? From BBC News Blog dot.Rory:

Are we building schools for the future?
Wednesday, 3 March 2010, Rory Cellan-Jones

In the last decade there's been a technology revolution in schools. Billions have been spent on computers for teachers and pupils, on installing wireless networks, on putting electronic whiteboards in just about every classroom - and on the IT suppliers who run school systems. But now there's mounting disquiet about this huge investment programme - and questions are being asked not just by politicians but by teachers about whether it's delivering what children need.

"But when you throw in projectors, electronic whiteboards, a wireless network and a swipecard electronic registration system it all adds up to a lot of money - £1.5m for the initial fitting-out, and then big running costs every year."

"A common theme was of over-ambitious new building schemes that were so inflexible that the technology was out of date or not fit for purpose by the time schools opened. I heard of huge frustrations about contracts with IT suppliers which head teachers felt did not deliver what their schools needed."

"Nobody I spoke to wanted to go back to chalk and talk, dump the computers, and leave children to make their own way in the digital age. But there was a growing recognition that spending big sums on kit did not necessarily deliver better education.

The symbol of the school IT spending spree is the electronic whiteboard. But I met plenty of teachers who were not convinced that an interactive board costing several thousand pounds was essential, especially in an education system where a teacher standing at the front lecturing silent rows of rapt children is now seen as old hat."

Read and listen here

related to this previous post

Summit on IT in eduction

2010-03-02T11:40:00.008+01:00

In June 2009 an international summit on ICT (read IT) in education, EDUsummIT, was held in The Hague, Netherlands.

The summit gathered professionals, policy makers and researchers in the field of information technology and education to jointly discuss the implications of research findings for practice, policy and further research.

It's really worth browsing around the summit's website, watching interviews and contemplating the calls for actions. It's a delight to find views on ICT in education that are realistic - especially about its complexity. Even ways of researching the impact of ICT in education are intricate.

We enjoyed listening in to
Prof. Margaret Cox, King's College London – United Kingdom
Questions:
- What do we know from research, and what research do you think is still needed for ICT in education?
- How do you propose this research should look like? Should these be case-studies, should these be experimental designs?

As always, we remain anxious to learn about the actual pedagogic and didactic strategies and benefits of ICT in education.

Visit the website for extensive information

Hype cycle

2010-03-01T12:59:00.010+01:00

It's not news but is very interesting. From the Times Higher Edcation Supplement:

Second Life out as techies embrace cloud email
20 August 2009, By Zoë Corbyn

Virtual worlds are about to plunge into a "trough of disillusionment", lecture podcasts are fast becoming obsolete, but cloud computing will soon be on the "slope of enlightenment".
These are the findings of an analysis of the "hype cycle" of technology in education, published by Gartner, an IT advisory firm.
The annual study looks at the popularity of emerging technologies, from internet TV and e-books to microblogging sites such as Twitter, across a range of sectors. It tracks their progression as a function of expectations.
The cycle ranges from over-enthusiasm as technology is hyped, through a period of disillusionment when it fails to deliver, via a slope of enlightenment to a "plateau of productivity", as users learn how best to employ it.
The results for the education sector provide some interesting insights.

And an even interesting input can be found in he comments on the actual report. Some quotes:

"What is both unbelievable and incredible frustrating, is higher education's lack of focus and research towards developing suitable means for digital learning. One could expect these institutions to have enough integrity and knowledge not to just jump on any wave of hype: LMS, Blogs, Wikis, Podcast etc, and after a while find themselves surrounded by more or less useless digital means for teaching and learning. Why are these institutions not developing proper applications for specific learning goals? Why do they, again and again, think that what we have, or can find on the web, is what should be used? Development and design of applications for learning and teaching is an art in it self, and the matter needs to be addressed as such. …"
WebDeveloper

"I find this article and the comments on it quite remarkable. Not one of the contributors considers whether educational technology is based on anything we know about learning; and not one considers what kind of learning might ensue. There is a underlying suggestion that knowledge is the same as understanding; and not even a hint of the simple fact that the makers of IT are in it for the same reason as the makers of corflakes. …"

"…But then, it is unfortunately common to this day to think that learning and teaching are almost self-evident activities, and it is rare to come across accounts of the use of technology in an educational setting, written by people who are conversant with the literature on learning, and who have a reasonably viable theory of it. What therefore prompts the introduction of technology into educational settings is, usually, not how it might dovetail with what has been established about the nature of learning, but a general belief that, as technology can be used for washing laundry and mixing cement, and in that way ease our lives, so technology can also be used to ease learning. A very great deal of money is used in this illusionary way, but then, this is only one among the many illusions we all live by."
Eric Sotto

"The last two posters get to the heart of the problem. The best lectures and practicals are ones that capture the students imagination and encourage them to take part and "do" things. Information delivery is important but subsidiary. I kid you not but I have seen a good educator captivate a group of sixty students using nothing but a whiteboard. I have also seen good and novel use of IT but IT is just a tool."
academic

"I think that the use of virtual worlds have yet to be integrated into a pedagogy and design that is integrated in a mixed reality form of education. I think that alone they are only a piece. One of the critical pieces for virtual worlds adoption is intuitive input devices which will enable an ease of use. I think disillusionment is with the current generation, cost, options, and maturity of technology. What has not kept up with the technology is instructional models and designs that do not set the use of technology apart but integrates it into instructional spaces where it is appropriate. :"
Paulette Robinson

read the full story here

Teacher scare

2010-02-25T11:57:00.019+01:00

Don't forget the teacher, a blogpost from

Why teachers should boycott ICT (except Linux)
February 17, 2010, Posted by: John Spencer

ICT in schools is a good thing... or maybe not if you are a teacher.
Like all powerful tools ICT can be used for good or ill. In my opinion the last decade has seen the bad side come to the fore.
This really was highlighted for me recently by an article carried in the national press which raised concerns about teachers becoming victims of the dreaded key-stroke analysers now used very widely in schools in the UK.

If we want to extend learning using modern technology, as most politicians seemto wish to do, then we need to sort out how it should be used.

read the full story here

Are IT budgets ever enough?

2010-02-24T12:16:00.019+01:00

The IT dream often hits reality somewhere. Lessons to be learnt... again. From

Head of Bristol Brunel Academy says much school IT spending is wasted
February 9, 2010 by Nicola Woolcock, Education Correspondent

An academy designed to be the first fully wireless school has been blighted by computer problems since being opened by Gordon Brown more than two years ago.
The head of the £24 million Bristol Brunel Academy — a beacon of Labour’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme — said that its wireless system had yet to work properly and teachers still did the register on paper because of problems with swipe cards. Other heads had told him fingerprint recognition systems were unreliable.

Mr Di-Finizio criticised the millions of pounds being spent on technology in schools, and suggested that there was a fixation with constantly updating classrooms with the latest gadgets.

Mr Di-Finizio said that there were pressures on schools to buy expensive equipment. “One could be led up the wrong path by IT experts. Is it worth having card-swiping and fingerprint detection systems in place, if the teacher still has to do the register?

read the full story here

How to spend a budget

2010-02-24T11:40:00.018+01:00

The Australian government gives IT education $40m boost.

Computerworld Australia points out a characteristic feature concerning a grandscale introduction of a promising ICT (read IT)-project. Somehow it's hard to find any details on how it is supposed to work for schools, teachers and students.

$40m fund set up to teach teachers ICT
19 February, 2010 by Trevor Clarke (Computer World)

The Federal Government will spend up to $40 million to give teachers training in ICT.
As part of the so-called Digital Education Revolution the government will conduct a consultation process with the education sector and develop an ICT self-assessment tool that will be trailled from February 2011.

However, no details were provided as to what skills within the broad ICT category would be targeted by either of the new funds.

read the full story here

The importance of libraries

2010-02-24T11:15:00.016+01:00

An interesting article on the importance of "old fashioned books" from

Book smart: Why every primary pupil needs a library
Thursday, 18 February 2010 by Geraldine Brennan

Children who read do better in school yet, amazingly, many primaries have closed their libraries and replaced them with ICT suites

"We are teaching the value of new technology alongside old," says Bakewell. "Of course, we need both, but children need to know what questions to ask about the information put in front of them."

read the full story here

Malaysian Smart schools

2010-02-15T16:56:00.013+01:00

From the New Strait Times

In name only
2010/01/23 by SUZIEANA UDA NAGU

By the end of the year, all Malaysian schools will qualify as Smart Schools. However, local academicians say they have yet to capture the essence of being “smart”, writes SUZIEANA UDA NAGU Up to last month, Universiti Utara Malaysia College of Art and Sciences lecturer Dr Abdul Halim Mohamed would drive 25 minutes from Sintok or Changlun, Kedah to Arau, Perlis once or twice a month to spend five hours at a primary school where he was coaching.

While schools may seem ready to be Smart Schools, Abdul Halim thinks it will be years before they can truly capture the essence of being “smart”.

read the full story here

IT in education is expensive

2010-02-12T13:25:00.018+01:00

An interesting article with some facts on the real costs of introducing computers into schools. From

How to stretch that budget. One computer per child in schools has long been an unattainable ideal: schools cannot afford it. Could the answer lie in thin-client technology? Sean Dodson reports

find it here

A blog? Een blog?

2010-02-12T12:56:00.006+01:00

Yes, ofcourse Visual Teach is blogging. This makes it possible to give you an update on the developments of Visual Teach quickly and from anywhere in the world.
And it gives us the opportunity to inform you of news about educational topics.

Ja, ook Visual Teach gaat bloggen. Dit om sneller en vanaf elke plek te reageren over de ontwikkelingen van Visual Teach en gerelateerde onderwerpen.