Information Policy

Online Degree Programmes in Uganda

Faced with insufficient infrastructure and the ever-growing student population, Makerere University is to start online and tele-education degree facilities to ease congestion. The move comes after the varsity's Faculty of Computing and Information Technology (ICT) and the University of Hertfordshire School of Computer Science entered into a partnership to introduce online and tele-education degree programmes at Makerere. The Dean Faculty of ICT, Prof. Venansius Baryamureeba, said the programmes will help to reduce on the number of students who trek long distances to get lectures at the university and also reduce the burden of accommodation fees.

Courses earmarked include: BSc in Computer Science, BSc in Information systems, MSc Computer Science, MSc in Distributed Data Management, MSc in Distributed Systems and Networks, MSc in e-Learning Technology, MSc in Mobile Computing. Others are MSc in e-Learning Technology, MSc in Human Computer Interaction, MSc Multimedia Technology and MSc in Software Engineering.

http://www.digitallearning.in/news/news-details.asp?Title=Online-Degree-Programmes-in-Uganda&newsid=16652

Microsoft brings Live@edu to Moodle

Microsoft is bringing its widely adopted Live@edu collaboration suite to Moodle, the open source learning management system (LMS) that's installed at more than 35,000 registered, validated sites worldwide. Microsoft also unveiled today its new Education Labs site, which will serve as a repository for education software developed on an accelerated cycle. Through a new plugin developed by Microsoft and released today, Moodle users will be able to take direct advantage of Live@edu features, including calendaring, search, e-mail, shared workspaces, storage, and instant messaging.

Live@edu is Microsoft's free portal, communications, and collaboration suite for education. The cross-platform service provides a range of hosted solutions for education institutions, including mail (with 10 GB per user), Windows Live SkyDrive storage (25 GB), and Office Live Workspace collaboration and document sharing, among others. According to Microsoft, it's now in use by more than 9 million students worldwide. With more than 24 million users participating in more than 2.2 million courses, Moodle is generally recognized as the most popular learning management system on the market, open source or otherwise. It supports both small and large deployments (with several sites well beyond 100,000 users) and includes course management tools, various Web 2.0 technologies, online assessments, and other features common to learning management systems.

http://www.digitallearning.in/news/news-details.asp?Title=Microsoft-brings-Live@edu-to-Moodle&newsid=16653

A New ICT4E Model: Multiple Platforms + Single Learning Environment = More Beneficiaries

Wayan Vota

I started this discussion with the suggestion that the two dominant models, of computer usage in education were growing stale. 1:1 computer to student saturations push both students and teachers to think critically and creatively, yet computer labs are a fraction the cost to implement and maintain. I was hoping that we could fuse these key benefits into a model that can be deployed in the many educational environments of the developing world.

Reading the resulting commentary, I’d like to declare success. I feel we have found a new model, that is an child of these two parents, mixing genes of both to create a new, better ICT4E model where multiple platforms plus a single learning environment equals more educational beneficiaries.

Multiple Platforms

From the beginning, this discussion recognized that different communities allocate their limited resources differently. Some will have the resources for high saturation of computing tools, while others will not. In fact a single community may have multiple computing models within its own educational system, based on age, maturity, and progress of its students. Mark Beckford gave us a great example:

In Macedonia, NComputing deployed over 100,000 virtual desktops which made Macedonia the country with the greatest density of computers to students. But Macedonia also issued a tender to deploy a smaller quantity of netbooks. They cannot afford mobility for all students, and yet even at 1:1 desktop computing they see the advantages of mobility.

So educators need not feel that its a either-or decision. Communities can have both personal and shared computing environments in the same school. And as Alex Van de Sande points out, its not the technology that matters, but the way educators use it:

The most important is that in either case, the experience must be saturated, shared and free. The shared PC lab experience, where there are many peers around you who can quickly teach you is invaluable. But all that is nullified by models with restrict hours and usage rules. The 1:1 laptops are great on the fact that the freedom from “this is how you are supposed to use this” rules make you experiment more. But doing it alone may lead to the laptops being used for more private entertainment – like gaming.

In that context, a mixed environment may be the best choice. One where students use computer labs in the school setting, where usage can be monitored and directed, and on a more personal basis when outside the school.

Single Learning Environment

With all these platforms, there quickly becomes the need to maintain a homogeneous learning environment. One familiar look and feel that follows the child as they access different platforms during the day and their education. Walter Bender is working on such an environment with Sugar on a Stick.

This USB memory stick-based educational software platform is based on the principles of cognitive and social constructivism, and contains its own operating system (Fedora 11) so it can be run from just the memory device itself – no hard drive or specific operating system needed.

Caroline gives us her thoughts on the advantages of such an approach:

Sugar on a Stick should make mobility cheaper. If kids take their sticks with them they can use them on clusters of computers in day care centers, community centers and at home if the parent has a computer. Thus by using computers in different places in their environment they can get quite a bit more hours of computing time per week and their desktop and all their work is mobile. I wonder if we can run numbers on that type of solution, and maybe instead of running them per machine, run the numbers to compare $ per hour the child uses a computer.

And Walter Bender confirms that the Sugar on a Stick approach can be complimentary to current and new platform investments:

It is great that there are many different such platforms being developed: a diversity of hardware configurations is necessary to meet the demands of schools, budgets, and cultures. But one can remain agnostic about hardware platforms and configurations, while providing a great learning experience, better utilizing the installed base of computers while tapping the potential to engage every child in critical thinking, arming them with the complementary tools of science and the arts.

More Beneficiaries

So with a single learning environment on multiple platforms, let’s start talking about the real numbers of beneficiaries. Either in school or at home, let’s move away from the assumption that only the child assigned to the computer is using it. At any given point in time, children are usually in groups, learning from each other. In fact, it seems children learn best when learning with others. Alexa Joyce notes that:

Sugata Mitra’s research suggests that groups of 3-4 children per computer can be more fruitful than 1:1. In groups of such a size, children readily exchange ideas and knowledge about the topic they are investigating, as well as the computer itself.

Let’s not stop at children. When they are home, they are not necessarily alone. Siblings, parents, and others are nearby and they too hear the call of a glowing screen as Walter Bender tells us:

A study done by Claudia Urrea in Costa Rica found that the majority of parents use the computer at home for their own learning – a further leveraging of the investment. Other programs, where it is infeasible to let the children travel between school and home with a computer, have instituted “technology goes home” programs – a subsidy to parents to purchase new or used equipment to have in the home. The goals of such programs have been to bridge learning from school into the home and to engage parents and siblings in the school community and in their own learning.

This new usage model, where a single learning environment over multiple technology platforms, is used by more than just students, may change the way in which we think about costs, which is one of the largest barriers to adoption, just after plain inertia & fear of change.

Costs are often calculated on a per-student basis. Yet, with siblings and parents as co-learners with their children, education leaders may change their mindset around platform costs. Instead, divide platform costs by student + 1 parent & 1 sibling. Yet also reduce costs, as there is only one software system to maintain.

And so I say we have a whole new ICT4E model with multiple platforms, a single learning environment, that empowers more beneficiaries to learn at a lower cost. A success, eh?

http://edutechdebate.org/individal-and-communal-computer-usage/a-new-ict4e-model/

Teaching Twitter in Ukraine

By Ben Colmery

EJC trainer on-site in Ukraine, Ben Colmery shares his latest experiences training regional journalists on cutting-edge online journalism techniques, part of EJC and Internews Ukraine’s Matra funded project: New Media Initiative for Ukraine.

Twitter was the tool I was most excited and nervous about teaching in Ukraine. On the one hand, I think Twitter has a number of uses that make it a powerful tool for research, communication, and broadcast that are rather distinct in the Web world. On the other hand, it’s not something widely used in Ukraine, nor are these powerful uses immediately apparent from Twitter’s front page—the result is that Twitter may seem too simple to provide many complex uses. In other words, it can appear to the beginner to be a gimmick, something fun at first, but ephemeral. I was excited to teach Twitter precisely because I think it is powerful, and that few in Ukraine were using it at all, let alone to its potential. But that is also why I was nervous—the hardest thing about Web 2.0 technology is behavior change.

There were some things about Twitter in the Ukrainian context that I was particularly concerned would stand in the way. First and foremost, united among all of the Web 2.0 tools we were teaching, was this idea of freely spreading information to the world, letting go of control over it, thinking “What will be useful to someone else?” In my past experience in Ukraine, I have found that information is not something you just give away for free. In the Soviet Union, information was the real currency. It didn’t matter how much money you had, because there was little on the shelves to buy. You had to know someone with the goods on the black market. That information was the real commodity in the Soviet Union.

Now, fast forward to the generation following the Soviet Union, a generation upon which we are still on the cusp. There are still feelings that information is not something you just throw around for all to benefit from at no direct cost. Not everyone feels this way, but it’s still an issue. How weird the idea must be to suddenly be told you should regularly send Tweets with your daily pearls of wisdom, useful online articles you found, your feelings and reactions to a public event. This last one is especially pertinent—for many in Ukraine, what you think about things are still very much reserved for private spheres. Imagine how vulnerable one might feel at the thought of saying to him or herself, “I’m going to Tweet this information so ANYONE can see it, and not just the people in my immediate circle of trust”.

This approach to information, in my travels in Ukraine, has often presented a real challenge to NGOs there. Those I have encountered tend to see information as theirs, and not something that should be available for all who can benefit from it, especially competing NGOs. NGOs in Ukraine can be VERY competitive for funding and resources. It was not rare, in the past, for me to encounter NGOs that would rather keep information that, if free, could have been very helpful to the public, in the name of maintaining their comparative advantage. It’s the mindset that if you have something that others don’t, but that others want, they will need you. Once they have what you have, it can threaten your existence as an organization. Never mind that your whole purpose as an organization is to help the public as much as possible, and to build your programs around the idea that, hopefully, you will one day no longer be needed. This is very complicated in Ukraine. And an American that comes in slinging around Twitter and encouragement for you to be free with all of your best information can easily be met with skepticism and suspicion.

Add to this basic issue that I was instructing them to put as much specific information about themselves as they could fit into their profiles. Put a link to a website where people can learn more about you, like your blog, or better yet, Facebook. Use your actual name in your username, so people can easily identify you, and you can brand yourself. Describe yourself so people can be certain you are the person they are looking for, and know immediately what you do for a living.

Not just that, but as you do all of this, you probably aren’t going to make any money out of it, directly. There’s no income for you for every Tweet you send, thus there’s no immediate incentive to start machinegunning Tweets, or really, send any at all. So why send them regularly?

What I tried to say to them was that Twitter is the sort of tool that, the more you give, the more you get. If you get all of the people you know to follow you, and start sending a lot of Tweets in the beginning, the people following your circle will start following you. Then, if you do a little searching for the big “connectors” (people with a lot of followers), and you can get them to follow you (often simply by following them first), you can tap into their followers. Send a bunch more Tweets, and blammo, your followers begin to lift off. The key is to Tweet frequently, if you can. A few times a day, at least. It will only take five minutes to do this.

Still, what is the benefit here? First, something I tried to drive home with each tool I taught was this idea of measurability. As a journalist, it can be very hard for you to know how many people are seeing your content. And eyeballs tend to equal advertising revenues, right? So, as a journalist, you want as many people as possible to see your content, to increase your advertising value, which in turn increases your value to your media boss. With Twitter, if you can amass, say, 10,000 followers, you can go back to your boss and say, “Hey, boss, look at how many eyeballs have CHOSEN to view MY content”. Numbers are powerful to bosses. At least, to bosses with good market economics and business sense (which is a whole separate issue we can get into in Ukraine, and I will probably write about in another post). Twitter is a great tool for amassing a large number of followers relatively easily.

Assuming you have content people want, of course. But then, if you don’t have content people want, you probably aren’t much of a journalist.

A second, and less obvious, benefit to Twitter, for journalists, is that it can be a POWERFUL research tool. If they choose whom they follow selectively, the updates they receive can have a higher concentration of useful information. I use this, in particular, to follow people who Tweet regularly with links to articles providing tips for everything from SEO for blogging, using Twitter for marketing campaigns, RSS for publishing in many places at once, and Facebook for building large networks of people for communication and mobilization. I just sit back and let my followers do my research for me.

Imagine you are a journalist. Whom would you want to follow? Probably people who Tweet often about your beat. Also, probably people who Tweet about tips for being a more effective journalist, especially in regard to New Media. You definitely want to follow any bloggers and citizen journalists who are prolific and tend to Tweet about topics in your beat. And, most certainly you should follow major media outlets Tweeting, both domestic and international, since news media tend to get many of their stories from other news media.

Wouldn’t you know, as I was training Twitter in Ukraine, that the perfect case study would come along in the form of the Iran election debacle. People all over the world were suddenly Tweeting reports of beatings and deaths, links of videos and articles, and generally sharing their reactions, among other things. For those out there covering this Iran situation, Twitter was a windfall of information, angles, sources, you name it. It was unfortunate that it was mostly in English. Yet, it still gave me something to talk about. Especially when I could point out that this information was moving faster than the traditional media covering it, bringing more and more people to it as a source of news.

That Twitter happens in real time is, for news media, absolutely crucial to its value. Of course, we haven’t seen mass violence or acts of terrorism in Ukraine in a long time. So, to convince Ukrainian journalists that real time reporting through Twitter is valuable requires something closer to home. I present to you my examples. 1. Coal mining accidents—out east, mines are collapsing all the time. 2. Ammunition storage facilities periodically catch fire, firing rockets and artillery in all directions, endangering locals. 3. Or, maybe a train carrying yellow phosphorus derails, releasing a toxic poisonous cloud that hangs over miles of villages and small towns. Yeah, good times.

Twitter has its place in Ukraine, too. With Twitter, it becomes possible for real time reporting from citizens, coal miners, news media, public safety officials, and so on. And seconds can mean the difference between life and death.

A third benefit is tapping into a swiftly growing population of people all over the world, including Ukraine. In March alone, Twitter’s number of visitors grew 95% to 19.1 million. This technology, too, is exploding. The only way anyone’s going to tap into that audience is to start using it. Perhaps it isn’t as big in Ukraine as elsewhere. But I am of the firm belief that A. there is a very good reason why this is happening everywhere else, including Moldova; and B. all it takes is someone to properly introduce Ukrainians to it, and that will change. Especially if journalists start writing about it. And they aren’t going to write about it if they don’t know a lot about it.

Most people at our trainings weren’t already using Twitter. And among those that were, only a handful were truly using it in the ways I am talking about. With any luck, and if I have done my job right, that will continue to change.

Not to be a Twitter evangelist. I just think this is an amazing tool that a lot of people don’t really understand, which I think is why some of the numbers make Twitter seem like it’s just a bunch of hype. It’s the easiest tool to use for a beginner, but in my opinion, the hardest to understand. It doesn’t help that the front page of Twitter reveals little more than updates, trending topics, and search. You have to go to other websites to tap into the more complex, more powerful uses.

But, where others see this as a problem, I see it as an opportunity. To train Twitter, reveal its power, change some minds.

http://www.ejc.net/magazine/article/teaching_twitter_in_ukraine/

Students From Around The World Learn Through SMS

Students from around the world will be able to learn together by using SMS in the new school year 2009-2010. The IICD supported Global Teenager Project will experiment with using SMS to ensure that schools without internet access can also participate in one of the world’s largest online learning programmes.

Students From Around The World Learn Through SMS

By writing short text messages, students from around the world learn about each others cultures

Although the Global Teenager Project was already widely spread throughout the world, the programme was only accessible for schools with access to the internet. Through the internet, classes around the world ask each other questions about a certain theme (such as ‘politics in my country’, ‘teen life’ and ‘how HIV/AIDS affects the world’) that they also talked about in class. This way they earn from each others cultures. With the new SMS component, it is now also possible for schools in rural areas with very limited or no access to the internet at all to participate in the project.

Participating schools work together in learning circles. These circles consist of groups of 8 to 12 classes throughout the world that work together on one theme by asking each other questions. “This asks for a slightly different approach,” says Bob Hofman, coordinator of the Global Teenager Project. “Students have to write shorter sentences when they ask questions and introduce themselves. And yes, even for students in schools where there is internet, this way of mobile learning could be useful, because they can now speak to their peers from remote areas they would otherwise not be able to speak to.”

Goal for the school season 2009-1010 is to have two learning circles that run completely or partially on SMS. The first countries that will use SMS for learning in the Global Teenager Project are most likely Zambia, Ghana, South-Africa, Zimbabwe, Canada, Romania and the Netherlands.

http://www.iicd.org/articles/students-from-around-the-world-learn-through-sms

Distance education Universities to get accredited

The Distance Education Council (DEC), New Delhi has set up the National Accreditation Committee for Open and Distance Learning (NACODL) to accreditate institutions offering education through distance mode on the lines of conventional universities. DEC is the statutory body responsible for the promotion and coordination of the Open University and distance education system. V. N. Rajasekharan Pillai, chairman of DEC, said, 'Like conventional universities are accredited by NAAC, a statutory body of UGC, institutes of distance education will be accredited by NACODL.'

DEC's call for accreditation is also an attempt to restore the parity between distance and conventional degrees. Distance learning is considered as inferior to class room learning by various students, academicians and employers. Infrastructure and human resources, student support system, relevance of programmes, employment opportunities, research and consultancy and governance will be assessed during the accreditation by NACODL. NACODL has academicians and administrators from various distance and open learning institutes and government officials as their members. Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) of Mumbai University is in the process to get accreditation.

http://www.digitallearning.in/news/news-details.asp?Title=Distance-education-Universities-to-get-accredited&newsid=16625

Microsoft Commits up to $50 Million: ICT & Higher Education

Microsoft Corp. has committed up to $50 million in higher education resources, training and certifications through the Microsoft Education Alliance Program. The UNESCO-Microsoft Task Force on Higher Education and ICT will develop a strategic plan of action to identify how ICT can be used by governments as a catalyst for change. Microsoft's $50 million commitment is supporting the mission of the new task force and enabling the implementation of critical UNESCO and Microsoft educational resources.

http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-09-2009/0005057006&EDATE=

UNESCO releases new publication on open educational resources

UNESCO has released its first openly licensed publication. Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace brings together the background papers and reports from the first three years of activities in the UNESCO OER Community. Access the online edition

Education systems today face two major challenges: expanding the reach of education and improving its quality. Traditional solutions will not suffice, especially in the context of today's knowledge-intensive societies.

Open Educational Resources (OER) offer one solution for extending learning opportunities. The goal of the OER movement is to equalize access to knowledge worldwide through sharing online high quality content. Open Educational Resources are digitalized materials offered freely and openly for use and reuse in teaching, learning and research.

Since 2005, UNESCO has been at the forefront of building awareness about this movement by facilitating an extended conversation in cyberspace. A large and diverse international community has come together to discuss the concept and potential of OER in a series of online forums.

The background papers and reports from the first three years of discussions are now available in print. Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace provides an overview of the first steps of this exciting new development: it captures the conversations between leaders of some of the first OER projects,and documents early debates on the issues that continue to challenge the movement. The publication will provide food for thought for all those intrigued by OER – its promise and its progress.

Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace is UNESCO's first openly licensed publication – an indication of the commitment of the Organization to the sharing of knowledge and the free flow of ideas.

http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=28899&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html

Distance Learning Support 2Tor Raises $10M

by Dana Oshiro

A decade ago distance learning was experimental at best. Only a few courses were offered online, instructors were often slow to respond, and at the end of it, there was always the chance that employers would scoff at your credentials. With faster internet connections and accredited institutions embracing online education, a lot has changed since then. Distance learning service provider 2tor hopes to shift the paradigm even further. Judging by the $10 million dollar Series A round they've just closed with RedPoint Ventures, Novak Biddle and City Light Capital, they're poised to build something substantial.

2tor aims to provide universities with tools, recruiting and resources to offer quality online education to top-tier universities. The company is an outsourced operations, HR, admissions and student support team for distance learning environments. Some unique services include online applications support, web-based curriculum development, student counseling, candidate placement and of course, the technical support to provide a web classroom. Essentially, the company is offering universities a chance to concentrate on teaching, rather than the operational and administrative tasks that accompany synchronous technology. And if you've ever done a distance learning course, you'll understand that many institutions of higher learning just aren't great at lesson delivery outside of their hallowed halls.

2tor's first partnership is educating educators with the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education Masters of Arts in Teaching program. The company will provide an interactive learning experience with USC's curriculum in an accelerated 12-month program.

Students gain access to forums and a virtual classroom complete with audio, video and blog content. Additional features include video chat with peers and professors, unlimited access to lecture materials and office hours via video and whiteboard. Student's record field work experiences as video files and are critiqued on these efforts as well as online surveys. The program will also offer teachers a Certification Map resource to help them better prepare for state-specific teaching certifications. In the future, 2Tor plans to use its additional funding to continue to build partnerships and create additional programs.

http://www.readwriteweb.com/readwritestart/2009/06/distance-learning-support-2tor.php

International Observatory on University Rankings and Excellence

This portal provides information on university rankings and quality. It is under the guidance of a panel of experts.

http://www.ireg-observatory.org/