One Laptop Per Child

“Learning is the basis for full human, social, economic and democratic development.” -OLPC Website

The One Laptop Per Child initiative began in 2005 as a way to bridge the digital divide in developing countries.  The laptops were designed withstand the elements, be readable in bright sunlight, use very little power to charge, and to connect with one another and the internet.  The laptops are distributed to children in the developing world via the ministries of Education in various participating countries.  While charitable organizations and giving account for some of the purchasing, the bulk is done by governments themselves.  According to OLPC, over two million XO-1 laptops have been shipped across the world (“Map”, n.d.).  Additionally, they have begun development on the XO-3 tablet computer.

Following the same principles and research as Sugata Mitra and his “Hole in the Wall” project, the OLPC organization focuses mainly on getting the laptops in the hands of children and less on teacher training and support.  While there has been a lot of criticism of this approach, research by both Mitra and the OLPC organization has shown that children are able to self-start and self-propel their learning.  The idea behind this theory is that, “the best preparation for children is to develop the passion for learning and the ability to learn how to learn,” (Education, para. 1).  Ed McNierney, the Chief Technology Officer for OLPC, defended this idea in an interview with New Hampshire Public Radio.  His thesis was that the needs of children in developing countries are very different from the needs of those in the developed world.  In countries and communities where there are no schools or no teachers, having technology that can be figured out and manipulated without instruction is necessary (Prescott, 2012).  Critics would assert that helping those countries build schools and train teachers is a more effective use of money and costs less per child (One Laptop Per Child, 2013).

“What children lack is not capability, it is opportunity and resources,” (“Education, n.d., para. 3).

Despite the criticism, the aim of OLPC to put mobile technology into the hands of students is helping students in developing communities.  By giving students access to technology that is able to be connected to other devices and the internet, OLPC is allowing these children to participate in the 4 C’s of 21^st century learning – communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity.

References

Education. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://one.laptop.org/about/education

Map. (n.d.) Retrieved from: http://laptop.org/map

OLPC mission, part 1: Principles and child empowerment. (2008, November 15). Retrieved from:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=c-M77C2ejTw

One laptop per child. (2013). Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_laptop_per_child#cite_ref-warschauer_79-0

Prescott, V. (2012). Exploring one laptop per child in Ethiopia. Retrieved from: http://nhpr.org/post/exploring-one-laptop-child-ethiopia

Is Access Enough?

How has the internet changed the way we view and access information?

The short answer to this question is the Internet has changed everything.  It has completed upended the way we organize, search, read, and interact with information, both formally and informally.  The logical follow-up question is: Is that a good thing? Anytime you increase the access to information, it can be a good thing. Giving people access and control of information leads to a more informed and potentially more capable populace.

To me, the real question is what are we doing with this access?  Just because information is there doesn’t mean we are using it or using it well.  There are plenty of warnings and blog entries already written about how to do a Google search and to be wary of ad-sponsored sites and unreliable information (including projects and reflections from this semester).  I am more concerned with how this new access is affecting education, both inside and outside the classroom.

Creation vs. Consumption

Anyone who pays attention to politics knows that education has been front and center in many debates at both the state and federal level over the past 10 years.  Much of the rhetoric has produced an accepted narrative that our schools are broken.  While I don’t agree with this narrative, much of the hype around the use of technology operates from this paradigm.  From Khan Academy to the flipped classroom there is a plethora of solutions to fix what is wrong.  Many of these answers offer quick solutions to really complex problems.  Herein lies the problem.  Learning is messy and complex.  It is troublesome that there are those with little to no understanding of learning theory or education who are offering solutions to such a complex problem.  Essentially they are creating more engaging ways of consuming information, but not spending much time on content creation.

One area where commercial interests are at the heart of reform is in textbook adoption.  Publishers and politicians recognize that to ignore the Internet would only spell doom for their future.  Several states, including California and Florida have already passed legislation to allow, and in some cases require, textbook money to be spent on electronic media.  As the shift progresses, textbook publishers are looking for ways to harness the power of e-books while simultaneously protecting their copyrights and offering services beyond simply providing text on an e-device.  McGraw-Hill is even offering to pepper their e-books with short quizzes and homework assignments that the platform will grade so the teacher doesn’t have to (Young, 2009).  According to the publisher, this is not designed to replace the teacher, going so far as to say, “the professor will always be a core part of the learning process,” (para. 14)  Despite this assertion by McGraw-Hill, websites such as education-portal.com completely replace the professor with 10-minute videos and five-question quizzes. 

According to their website, taking their free courses will help you earn college credit.  They are careful to say that the college credit isn’t free as it requires payment to take a CLEP test or similar to earn the credit.  But the purpose of the website is to increase access to college by doing exactly what McGraw-Hill says won't happen: remove the professor from the learning process.  Not only does it remove the teacher, it also reduces the course to passing a simple multiple-choice CLEP test with no requirement for problem-solving, collaboration, or communication (either written or oral); all of which are recognized as critical to success in our increasingly global society (Wagner, 2008).  If we are willing to say that videos and short quizzes are enough to show competency, how long before we are willing to say that teachers are simply a commodity we don’t need any longer?

Another big push is 1:1 computers and iPads in the classroom.  While there are thousands of apps for iPads and many tremendous uses, much of the press is given to situations where they are using these devices to simply do something electronically that we are already doing on paper.  For example, here is a video of a teacher using iPads in an elementary school classroom:

While this teacher has a comfortable classroom with extensive use of alternative seating and spaces, well over 90% of the apps shown are kids either consuming information or producing low-level responses (such as writing spelling words along with the teacher).  While “going green” in this way is admirable, there is nothing happening here that couldn’t happen without the iPad.

To truly progress in education we have to fight back against these forces that are making the job simply about better and more engaging consumption.  To be truly literate in a digital world requires more than mere access, it requires learning how to truly re-imagine, re-form, and re-create content.

References

Crouch, E. (2013, January 31). iPads in the classroom. Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IzSNdxsfk0Q

Rethinking learning: The 21^st century learner. (2010). Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0xa98cy-Rw

Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need – and what we can do about it. New York, NY: Basic Books.

What is Education Portal? (2013, February 5). Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em7zFZKhwvo

Young, J. R. (2009, September 8). New e-textbooks do more than inform: they’ll even grade you. Retrieved from: http://chronicle.com/article/New-E-Textbooks-Do-More-Than/48324/?sid=wc&utm_source=wc&utm_medium=en

Gateway to Learning? A review of Education-Portal.com

Online Learning

            As the Internet becomes more ubiquitous, it seems only natural that online learning would grow as well.  Distance education is nothing new, but with the continuous advancement of web-based resources and high-speed connections, it is becoming much easier and more interactive.  With companies like Google and Facebook providing their services to users for “free,” people have become accustomed to having access to information without having to pay.  It is natural that the idea of “learning online for free” (or at least learning online for cheap) has made its way into education.  One website that has endeavored to provide this service is education-portal.com.

            Education Portal (EP) is part of Remilon, “a Web media company on a mission to make education accessible,” (“Making Education Accessible,” 2013).  The mission of the company is to bring content to as many people as possible at no cost.  In order for their work to have meaning in the broader world, they use their content to prepare students for a variety of tests given by outside vendors for college credit.  There are three ways EP’s courses help students prepare for college credit.  After completed an online course, students can 1) take a CLEP exam, 2) take a Credit-by-exam test administered through Excelsior College, or 3) take a DSST (DANTES) exam.  While the exams are not free, all of the preparatory material from Education Portal is.

            Like any free resource, it makes sense to evaluate the process and product that Education Portal is providing.  Below is a rubric with explanations of how Education Portal rates in each category.

Accessibility and Ease of Use – Grade = A

            The whole point of a free online resource is for it to be accessible to as many people as possible.  Education Portal is very easy to navigate and clearly lays out the different parts and pieces of the site and its services.  Not only are the courses easy to find, but the website does an excellent job of leading the consumer through how and where to go to earn college credit for the course/exam if that is one’s purpose. The use of videos is also helpful for students who are more visual learners, though the website’s contention that they are providing, “a visually stimulating, engaging, multi-media experience made specifically for the web user,” (“Our Mission,” 2013) might be a stretch.  

Mostly their videos are a mix of teachers talking to the camera, still photographs, and crude cartoon characters “acting out” the descriptions by the teacher.  Essentially, they are amplified 10-min lectures accompanied by a transcript and a five-question quiz.

Depth of content – Grade = B-

            Education Portal has done a good job in researching and presenting a lot of content for each of the modules they offer.  However, it is clear that they are basing their presentations on what the various exams will cover.  You can proceed through the entire English 102: American Literature class and not actually read any American Literature.  Essentially the course is providing a summary of the various movements and time periods in American Literature but not providing exposure to the material itself.  Presumably major works are discussed to the extent necessary to pass the CLEP or other exams.  However, it seems wrong to me that you can pass an American Literature class without actually reading any literature.

Quality of online formative assessments – Grade = B-

            It is clear that the developers realize that assessment is a key component in any educational endeavor.  They are smart to offload the actual summative assessment to other companies, but they do attempt to provide some formative assessment along the way for the student.  

Each module comes with a five-question quiz that can be taken at any time during the module.  This allows the student to decide whether they need to complete the module (pre-assessment) or whether they need to repeat or review pieces (post-assessment).  The problem with these assessments is that they are only five questions and they are all multiple choice.  While this may be enough to determine whether one understands the main idea of a chapter, it is not enough to know whether true depth of understanding is achieved.

Critical Thinking and Communication – Grade = F

            Part of competing in the global economy of the 21^st century is the ability to communicate.  In his book The Global Achievement Gap (2008), Wagner positions critical thinking, problem solving, and oral and written communication as part of the seven survival skills needed to succeed in the 21^st century.  While these play a major role in success in most high school and college classes, both traditional and online, they are virtually non-existent in the Education Portal courses.  Instead the courses merely ask the student to listen and memorize in order to be able to regurgitate the information on an exam in the future. 

Overall Impression – Grade = C

Education Portal is serving a much needed function in the world they way it has been established.  It has done a decent job setting up short lectures with animations and visual presentation of text-based information.  However, it total is mostly a vehicle to help students learn basic, rote information.  While this may help one pass a test and get college credit, it is not a true education.

References

“Making education accessible,” (2013). Retrieved from: http://remilon.com/#high-quality

“Our mission,” (2013). Retrieved from: http://education-portal.com/academy/how-it-works.html

Wagner, T. (2008). The global achievement gap: Why even our best schools don’t teach the new survival skills our children need – and what we can do about it. New York, NY: Basic Books.

Mobile Exploration

• How indispensable are mobile computing devices in your life? Are they an "extension" of who you are?

Indispensable is such a strong word.  I don’t know that anything is completely indispensible, but I certainly use my cell phone a lot.  In the video that I posted from Simon Fraser University in Canada, students discuss the various ways they use their cell phones.  Contrary to the research we learned about in the video, “Digital Natives,” by Frontline, some of these students believe that they can truly multi-task; that they need multiple inputs happening at once to keep from zoning out.  Research shows that this isn’t true, but it doesn’t mean that these devices can’t be used for educational purposes.  As Ms. Roberts, the SFU Communications Director, states in the video, “these devices don’t come with rulebooks.”  We decide how we are going to use them and we decide whether they are merely distractions or whether they are something more.

Personally, my phone is an extension of who I am in many ways.  While none of these are permanent ways that would totally change who I am if I woke up tomorrow with no phone, my links to others in my life are expedited by my phone, if not determined by it.  I have not had a landline telephone in almost seven years.  Without my phone, I would lose a big part of my contact with other people – both from texting and from telephone calls.  But I also use my phone to track my runs, listen to music, find my way in the world (GPS), and various and sundry other tasks.

As an educational tool, I think we have not even begun to explore the enormous opportunities that phones present.  Many, if not most, educators feel more like the cryptically presented “Doctor Pavsek” in the video – that there is no real reason to change what they’ve been doing successfully and that technology is more to be feared that to be used.  While the students who made the video imply that Dr. Pavsek is in the minority or at least in the dark ages, I would argue that most teachers in classrooms today live by his philosophy by default even if they don’t subscribe to it consciously.  

As the two teachers discuss in the second video I posted, someone from the 1950s would probably only recognized the schoolroom as something familiar from his own time.  My hope is that within the next decade we can change the trajectory of American education to embrace the direction that the rest of the world is going.

References

Epic school project: Cellphones and education. (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PJ7sG5FN5BA.

Using cell phones to engage students in the classroom. (2011). Retrieved from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mec1d1gMuTw.