ICTworks by Inveneo

Over the course of the past semester, I teamed up with fellow RPI IT student, Lorena Nicotra, to develop a project that would promote curriculum-driven technology use in primary schools in Tanzania. In response to the problem of neglected computer donations in Tanzanian schools, we wanted to come up with an idea that would help schools make effective, intuitive use of technology in a way that would supplement the existing curriculum.

Our Solution

The basic premise of our project was to develop a web interface that lists Tanzanian curriculum objectives for standards one through four in Mathematics, English, and Science. Under each of these objectives, the interface offers several links to external online resources that have been screened for relevance to Tanzanian education. Games, videos, simulations, and audio are provided to offer a wide range of resources that can augment an instructor’s daily lesson plans.

While the project is still in early phases, the progress so far can be viewed at http://www.lpoirier.myrpi.org/ks.

Challenges

While math curriculum is very transferable among cultures, other subjects vary a great deal. For example, in Tanzania, a focus is placed on teaching sanitation, hygiene, first aid, and disease prevention in science classes. The way that these topics are taught in Tanzania is very different from the way that they are taught in other, Western cultures, making it difficult to find online content that can be used in this area. Luckily, we were able to find some resources developed by USAID and its partners that addressed these objectives particularly well.

Finding ESL resources was also difficult because most online content is developed for teaching English to a demographic with existing knowledge of Spanish or French. In this instance, it would have been helpful to have a native Swahili speaker working with us. We did end up finding several resources that were intended to support teaching ESL to any demographic.

Successes

With an overwhelming amount of content and information available on the Internet, it can be intimidating to mine through and find relevant educational material. This bottleneck prevents teachers and administrators from taking advantage of the wealth of online educational resources. Our solution eliminates this concern by plopping relevant learning content in a central location that is extremely easy to navigate.

A second, and more important, value lies in its ability to provide relevant content. As I highlighted in my Challenges spiel, it is difficult to find relevant resources in Science and English. All of the resources on our interface will directly address points within the Tanzanian curriculum standards, however, so it can be verified that all of the site’s content is extremely applicable to Tanzanian education.

With easy navigation and applicable content, teachers are able to direct their students to the site and immediately locate resources that will address the day’s lessons. In this way the technology is able to support the role of the teacher and reinforce a student’s understanding of educational concepts.

I will be spending my winter break in Arusha, Tanzania, and I will have the opportunity to introduce this solution to teachers and students in a local primary school. The introduction is expected to highlight areas of success and needs for improvement. Development will continue as more resources are discovered and issues are identified.

If you have any suggestions for ways that we can boost this project or comments on our progress, please feel free to contact me at poiril@rpi.edu.

Recently, Tim Unwin was featured in the lengthy article, "Are mobiles failing the world of education?" The reporter noted that specialists are having second thoughts about the efficacy mobiles have in the world of education, despite the initial hype.

Deaf students learning by SMS

I have few thoughts on this piece, which has interesting points and says so much about the state of mobile learning right now:

Trough of Disillusionment

Tim Unwin could be in what Gartner calls the "Trough of Disillusionment," the third phase out of Gartner's five-phase technology hype cycle:

Technologies enter the "trough of disillusionment" because they fail to meet expectations and quickly become unfashionable. Consequently, the press usually abandons the topic and the technology.

Mobile phones are still too new

Is mobile the god that failed educationists? Only years after seeing a lot of potential in using the tiny hand-held devices to promote learning, specialists are having second thoughts about their efficacy in teaching the millions

To be fair, mobile learning hasn't really had enough exposure within the education system to draw any conclusions. Of course there have been many pilots, and some mainstream projects that are way beyond pilot phase, but if we compare mobiles to PCs, then we need at least another 10 years of implementation within schools - and informal learning contexts - before we an know whether mobiles have failed educationists.

Lastly, on this point, I recently surveyed 76 teachers from schools in Cape Town about whether mobiles phones were allowed at their schools or not. 30% said that phones were totally banned at school. It is fair to say that not one of those educationists has ever tried mobile learning.

Don’t be fooled by simplicity

Many, many poor people have a (simple) phone. And what can you do with a phone like this?" [Tim Unwin] asked, pointing to the inexpensive phone he was carrying.

This is a question that could be asked to someone who found their job via SMS, or an election that was monitored with the help of Frontline:SMS, or people who are learning English through BBC's Janala service using only voice and SMS.

Simple phones can be very powerful when used in conjunction with other media. Of course one day when most people have a smartphone and mobile broadband connectivity is widespread, then the capability of phones to deliver rich media content will be fully realised.

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the Australian Agency for International Development (AusAID), and World Vision (collectively referred to as the “Founding Partners”) are seeking game-changing innovations with the potential to dramatically improve reading skills and low literacy rates among primary grade children.

Through a multi-year initiative called All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR), the Founding Partners will collaborate to achieve the goal of global action to improve child literacy.

While recognizing that there are many factors required to improve student learning outcomes in primary grade reading, the Founding Partners have established the All Children Reading Competition to focus on two needs that are both important and largely unmet in low- and lower- middle income countries: teaching and learning materials and education data.

The All Children Reading Competition will support innovative approaches that draw on current research findings related to effective instruction in primary grade reading as well as technology, information, and communication advances that may lead to substantial impact on student learning outcomes at scale. In this context, “innovation” refers to novel business or organizational models, operational or production processes, or products or services that lead to substantial and sustainable improvements in student reading in primary grades.

We seek innovations that produce development outcomes more effectively, cost efficiently, and that reach more beneficiaries. Innovative and potentially transformative solutions may be funded through grants to support new ideas as well as emergent practices, products, or programs.

The Founding Partners are calling on for-profit companies, non-governmental organizations and associations, academic/educational research institutions, faith-based organizations, civil society and foundations—together or in partnership—to take up this challenge. Applicants are encouraged to “think outside of the box,” using creative practices and methodologies to develop innovations clearly linked to improving student learning outcomes in primary grade reading.

Background

Over the past decade, governments in many countries and the international community have rallied around Millennium Development Goal 2: ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling.2 As a result, there have been significant increases in primary enrollment worldwide, particularly in low income countries.3 However, learning levels are very low. In Mali, Pakistan and Peru, for example, more than 70% of children in the primary grades could not read at grade level and many could not read a single word after two or more years of schooling.4 One major international assessment, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), found that the average student in low-income countries is performing at the fifth percentile of the OECD distribution worldwide an estimated 35 million girls remain out of school compared to 31 million boys.

USAID has been working to close the gap between boys and girls by assessing the degree of educational disadvantage that girls face, identifying gender-related obstacles, and implementing remedies to remove and overcome these obstacles.

Learning levels of a country’s population are directly correlated with rates of economic growth. A 10% increase in the proportion of the population with basic literacy skills translates into a 0.3 percentage point higher annual growth rate for that country. Other research has shown that early grade reading competency is critical for continued retention and success in future grades. Though it is clear that children’s futures are not solely dependent on reading instruction, reading is a critical and necessary precondition for skill development. Children who do not develop reading skills during the primary grades are on a lifetime trajectory of limited educational progress and therefore limited economic opportunities.

In recognition of the importance of basic literacy for individual and national development, the first goal of the new USAID Education Strategy: Opportunity Through Learning (2011-2015) is focused on improving the reading skills for 100 million children in primary grades by 2015 (See Appendix 1). USAID will measure the performance of its programs primarily through the improvement of reading skills for primary grade students after two years of schooling, consistent with international measures adopted by the Global Partnership for Education (GPE, formerly the Education for All-Fast Track Initiative).

The new Education Strategy also specifically states that USAID education programs will take measures to increase gender parity and improve gender equity at all levels of education, with gender-sensitive interventions tailored to the specific gender issues present in a country’s educational system. The importance of this for gender equality extends beyond any single project in that it sets a clear strategic directive: USAID education interventions that target girls or boys should be based on sound gender analysis, meet an identified need or demand, promote learning outcomes, bring about systemic change, and work to transform the power dynamics between the sexes.

World Vision invests more than US $250 million per year in education and focuses on impact for children and youth ages 3-18 through four strategic objectives that foster the development of functional literacy, math and essential life skills as key outcomes of education: 1) increase children’s access to equitable, quality and sustainable early childhood education and primary education, with special attention to the most vulnerable groups; 2) strengthen community involvement in the education for all children; 3) increase youth’s access to quality educational opportunities, with focus on out-of-school youth; and 4) foster enabling environment for learning through partnership and advocacy with communities, governments, private sector, universities, donors and civil society organizations.

Education is the flagship sector of the Australian aid program. Australia’s commitment to education access and quality includes a clear focus on improving the quality of learning. Australia has three pillars for its investments in education:

1. improving access to basic education opportunities for all so that children and youth complete a basic education;
2. improving learning outcomes so that children and youth achieve the basic skills necessary for productive lives; and
3. driving development through better governance and service delivery so that partner governments support quality education for all.

Objectives

The All Children Reading Competition will encourage innovative thinking and design to bring new knowledge to the challenge of improving primary grade reading rapidly and at scale in certain countries (see Appendix 2 for a list of Eligible Countries). Applications from and relating to low- and lower-middle income countries are particularly encouraged. While recognizing that there are many factors required to improve student learning outcomes in primary grade reading, the All Children Reading Competition seeks innovations in two areas that are both important and largely unmet in certain low- and lower middle income countries.

Innovations in Teaching and Learning Materials to Improve Student Reading

Teachers and children must have access to appropriate teaching and learning materials, respectively, for classroom instruction and reading practice. Children who report having textbooks score higher on reading tests and those who report having other books at home score even higher.8 Recently developed programs supporting the development of materials to schools, communities and homes are beginning to report impact on student learning.9 However, textbook provision in developing countries continues to be inadequate, let alone provision of supplemental reading materials.

Innovative and affordable approaches are needed to overcome barriers to the design, production, distribution/delivery, and use of high-quality durable and consumable materials (narrative, expository, and instructional) in appropriate languages for the primary grades in developing countries.

Innovations in Education Data to Improve Student Reading

Education data is necessary to support decision-making, incentives, transparency, and accountability needed to improve reading. A lack of quality data on student learning and related issues (e.g., teaching methods, student and teacher performance, absenteeism, and school-level financing) hinders the development and implementation of effective educational policies and supportive classroom/school-level/community action. The potential impact of data on student learning has been very visible over the past few years, with the development of Pratham’s Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) approach to data collection by civil society, now used in India, Kenya, Mali, Pakistan, Uganda and Tanzania as well as USAID-supported Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) which has now been used by governments, civil society and donors in more than 40 countries.

These assessments have created widespread awareness of student learning levels and some efforts to improve learning in the countries where they have been implemented. But much remains to be done to prioritize and collect performance data, disseminate the data to varied audiences and make it easier to identify and use key data for decision-making.

Innovative and affordable approaches are needed to improve efficiency and effectiveness in the collection and use of education data. A particular need is cost-effective and streamlined approaches for the measurement and reporting of student learning data (classroom-based and system-level testing) to inform instruction, policy development, and resource allocations in developing countries.

Illustrative Areas of Interest

We are interested in funding innovations that will result in (1) widespread access to improved teaching and learning materials and (2) better education data to support decision-making, transparency, incentives and accountability; both of which are essential to advance the goal of All Children Reading in the primary grades. In this context, “innovation” refers to novel business or organizational models, operational or production processes, or products or services that lead to substantial and sustainable improvements in student reading in primary grades.

The illustrative areas of interest listed below are not meant to be exhaustive or limiting in any way.

Innovations in Teaching and Learning Materials to Improve Student Learning

• Support the production of and/or access to language and level-appropriate narrative, expository and instructional materials for emerging and beginning readers and their teachers;
• Support the development/editing/printing of texts of similar difficulty in two or more languages/scripts;
• Address the challenges of materials distribution in developing country contexts;
• Benefit children with special needs and/or learning disabilities;
• Foster parent and community involvement in children reading;
• Support large numbers of teachers in remote locations in their effective and continuing use of new materials;
• Help students, teachers and communities develop high quality materials locally;
• Bridge gaps between school and home and support a community reading culture in contexts where family literacy and school involvement levels are low;
• Leverage existing learning resources such as community libraries, digital libraries and
  other learning platforms; and
• Create differentiated learning experiences and support individual student practice in low-resource classroom settings with high student : teacher ratios.

Innovations in Education Data to Improve Student Reading

• Develop simple approaches to allow school and local level managers to prioritize, collect, analyze and use key education-related data at the school level to improve instruction and learning outcomes;
• Improve school, regional and national level resource planning to improve learning outcomes;
• Consolidate and analyze disparate sources of education data at the local, regional, national and international level;
• Widely disseminate education-related data in easy-to-understand ways to a variety of audiences;
• Deliver data and information to improve teacher preparation and professional development;
• Assist teachers and education officials with rapid and efficient student assessments and teacher evaluations; and
• Provide data to support the development of appropriate incentive systems for teachers and officials based on teacher performance and student results.

What We Will Not Fund

• Applications that are not focused on improving student reading in the primary grades;
• Applications that do not present a coherent plan showing links between the proposed
  innovation and the education system context
• Applications that do not propose program in eligible countries (see Appendix 2 - Eligible Country List for the full list of eligible countries); and
• Solutions that are not applicable, affordable, sustainable, and scalable in eligible countries.

This week, India's Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) announced the Aakash, a "$35" Android tablet computer they are boastfully claiming is the world's cheapest tablet for education. This claim is an ICT4Edu red herring - a deliberate attempt to divert attention from what really matters in ICT interventions in education.

The $35 price point claim

First, a cheap Android tablet is no great feat. Last year, Indian companies were showing off $35 tablet prototypes and the joke in the computer hardware industry is that with an order for 100,000 units anyone walking off a plane in China can get a cheap Android tablet.

Yet, this Indian tablet isn't actually $35. The Washington Post reports its actually about $45 each, and Engadget says its actually a $60 Ubislate 7 from Datawind. Regardless of cost, government subsidies are required to get to a $35 price point for students and teachers.

But how long will the government be able to subsidize this tablet? According to The Economic Times coverage of the Aakash, HCL Infosystems first won the tender to make the tablets, but then walked away from the deal after the company realized that it could not meet the price expectations of the government - and HCL Infosystems is India's premier hardware and ICT systems integration company.

Stop with the hardware focus

If OLPC taught us anything it was that the price of hardware is but a small percentage (5-15%) of the overall cost of a real ICT in education intervention. In their TCO study, Vital Wave Consulting found that:

Support and training are recurrent costs that constitute two of the three largest costs in the total cost of ownership model. They are greater than hardware costs and much higher than software fees.

So just on the technology side, we should not focus on the hardware or its price point, but the support that should come with any technology intervention and the training and change management that will make it a success.

Concentrate on the real success factors

Let us step back and acknowledge that we really need a three-legged stool of content, technology and people for ICT success in education. There should be equal (if not greater) focus on comprehensive teacher training and quality digital content versus the hardware and its support ecosystem.

If we look at Plan Ceibal arguably the largest and most successful ICT in education activity to date, there is an obvious concerted effort to engage the entire educational ecosystem - from teachers, to students, to parents, to administrators, to the community, and private sector, in a coordinated national program. The actual hardware played a catalytic, yet still small role.

So thanks for pushing the hardware price point envelope in India. That should be good for a few press headlines. But I'll join Michel Trucano in criticizing the often single minded focus, even obsession, on the retail price of ICT devices alone. This is a great distraction, a red herring, from more important issues.

While ICT continues to advance in western and Asian countries, African countries still experience a lag in its implementation, and that continues to widen the digital and knowledge divides. In a recent study by Kiptalam et.al (2010), observed that access to ICT facilities is a major challenge facing most African countries, with a ratio of one computer to 150 students against the ratio of 1:15 students in the developed countries.

Whereas results indicate that ICT has penetrated many sectors including banking, transportation, communications, and medical services, the Kenyan educational system seems to lag behind. Further, recent report by the National Council for Science and Technology (2010) indicated that computer use in Kenyan classrooms is still in its early phases, and concluded that the perceptions and experiences of teachers and administrators do play an important role in the use of computers in Kenyan classrooms.

I am Martin Mungai, a secondary school teacher in Kenya, but currently on study leave at Hokkaido University of Education in Japan. I see a dozen challenges facing implementation of computer education in Kenya. They are:

1. Lack of qualified teachers to teach ICT in schools; The demand for ICT learning has been tremendous and the number of teachers who are trained to teach ICT cannot meet the demand. There are more students willing to be taught computing skills than there are teaches to transfer the skills.




2. Lack of computers; Computers are still very expensive and despite spirited efforts by the government agencies, NGO, corporate organizations and individuals to donate computers to as many schools as possible, there still remains a big percentage of the schools unable to purchase computers for use by their pupils.




3. Lack of electricity; Many schools are still not yet connected to electricity; Kenya being a developing country, the government has not been able to connect all parts of the country to the national electricity grid. Consequently those schools that fall under such areas are left handicapped and may not be able to offer computer studies.




4. Computers are still expensive in Kenya, in a country with a GDP of $1600, majority of the individuals and schools cannot afford to buy a computer and consider it as a luxury item, more expensive than a TV. While 2nd hand computers cost as little as $150 and branded new computers being sold at $500 or higher.




5. Broken down computers; while a good number of schools have benefited from donated used computers, they have not been adequately equipped with the same on maintenance and repair, hence its very common to see a schools computer lab full of broken down computers, some repairable and some not. This has actually been a major problem, and the government has now put strict measures on any person, NGO or corporate bodies willing to donate 2nd hand computers. (It is seen as a dumping ground); e-waste management.




6. Burglary; the fact that computers are still very expensive in Kenya, makes them a target for thieves who usually have ready markets to another party at a much less figure. This has made many schools to incur extra expenses trying to burglar proof the computer rooms. This extra expense makes some schools shy away from purchasing computers for their students.




7. Fear by the administration; there is still a strong perception especially by the older generation that computers require highly skilled personnel to operate them, while this may not be the case, some school administrators also fear that their students will be exposed to adult sites and other undesired sites, through the use of the internet. Some also fear the infection of viruses to their computers leading to data loss, while this may be true to some extent, proper education on the safe use of computers and help alleviate some of this fears.




8. Fear by the teacher, the teacher may fear being rendered irrelevant by the introduction of computers in his/her class. The ‘feel’ that the teacher still remains an authority and a ‘know it all’ in class is something that most teachers cherish, and anything that makes them otherwise is deemed an enemy of the classroom.




9. Lack of internet or slow connectivity; most schools are not able to connect to the world wide web, due to the high costs involved in the connectivity. On average, it may cost approximately $120 per month to connect to about 15 computers on a bandwidth of 128/64kbps. This is considered as very expensive for a very slow speed.




10. Lack of initiative by the community leaders; the community leaders who are charged with looking at the interests of a given community do not see the need to purchase and subsequent installations of computers to their schools as a priority. They consider health care, provision of water and other amenities as more important than buying computers for their schools.




11. Obsolete computers lower the morale of both the teacher and the student; it is very common to find some schools using very old computers running on win98 or win 95.




12. Increased moral degradation – internet pornography, cyber bullying and other anti-social behaviors is a worrying emerging problem.

The dilemma which arises in providing educational technology stems from a lack of financial resources and a limited distributive capacity. In addition, many African countries have not been able to employ teachers, and provide resources to keep up with this demand. This brings about compromised quality of education. Further, many African governments face the predicament of educational expansion that corresponds with economic development. Despite the setbacks, access to education is a strong focus of most governments.

Kenya as has put in place an ICT policy that aims to improve the livelihoods of Kenyans by ensuring the availability of accessible, efficient, reliable and affordable ICT services. The national policy addresses several sections, among them includes; Information technology, Broadcasting, Telecommunications and Postal services. However, it is the section on information technology that sets out the objectives and strategies pertaining to ICT and education.

The relevant objective in this section states that government will encourage:

“…the use of ICT in schools, colleges, universities and other educational institutions in the country so as to improve the quality of teaching and learning.”

ICT can play a significant role in equalizing opportunities for marginalized groups and communities. But the paradox is that for those groups that are unable to cross the technology divide, ICT is yet another means to further marginalize them. Education has a major role to play in resolving this problem. Thus, unless ICT becomes part of both the delivery and content of education, the disadvantage will deepen and development will suffer.

But the failure to use ICT is itself a result of the digital and knowledge divides that exist, and their causes are deeply embedded in the complex historical and socio-cultural context of the country. Fortunately, with the Vision 2030 goals, the Kenyan government has begun to implement strategies that will address these paradoxes.