Global+Education

** Learn It! ** media type="custom" key="24564670"  Note: to see all the videos in this playlist, click the in the upper left corner. There are THREE videos in this playlist.

  Mobile learning, or m-learning, is a personal, unobtrusive, spontaneous, “anytime, anywhere” way to learn and to access educational tools and material that enlarges access to education for all. It reinforces learners’ sense of ownership of the learning experience, offering them flexibility in how, when and where they learn. In developing countries, mobile technologies potentially deliver education without dependence on an extensive traditional communications infra-structure, leapfrogging some of the intervening development phases encountered in developed countries such as installing extensive electricity power grids, and building multiple computer rooms in educational institutions. Although m-learning experience remains limited, it is becoming a credible, cost-effective component of blended open and distance learning (ODL) provisions, adaptable to an institution’s needs and situation.   M-learning devices are lightweight and handheld, including:  • Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), and palmtop or handheld computers   • Mobile phones, also called cell phones or handphones.   Consider mobile phones, which are cheap and widely available, alongside other wireless communication devices; and handhelds, which are more expensive and scarce, alongside desktop and laptop computers. Mobile devices are educationally interesting because they offer:   • Several communications channels on one device, for example, email, voice, and text messaging  • Cheaper, comparable functionality with desktops or laptops   • Wireless access to educational materials, other students and Internet resources.  <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Handhelds are currently the dominant mobile devices, apart from basic mobile phones. These technologies are converging, creating powerful all-in-one tools such as “smartphones,” mobile phones with the functionality of a handheld; and handhelds with mobile phone capability. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Dominant, but not exclusive. Thanks to the genius of some out-of-the-box philanthropists, there is also an active movement to put computers into the hands of children. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> One of the most successful programs is the One Laptop Per Child. You heard the founder of the program give a TED talk (and then update the success of the program). With over 2.5 million XOs (their laptops) in the field as of January 2012, they have arrived in Uruguay, Peru, Mexico, Mongolia, Australia, Nigeria, Oceania, Canada, Nepal, Colombia, Paraguay, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Palestine, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Ghana, South Africa, Greece, Lebanon, and Madagascar. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> At the whole-country level, Thailand has initiated its OTPC--one tablet per child--program. They are planning to distribute over 800,000 7-inch Android tablets to 1st graders and another 800,000 to 7th graders. And, they say that they WILL BE developing curriculum--but they are distributing the tablets without curriculum now, just to get them out into the hands of teachers and children. Who will be the first to add a comment to predict what is likely to happen with the majority of the tablets--given that Thailand didn't provide curriculum to the teachers when the tablets were distributed? <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> And, there were many, many, interesting local projects:
 * Think About It! **
 * In Brazil, Martin Restrepo is leading a Qualcomm-sponsored project in a village of fishermen where the children use their feature phones to tell the stories of their parents. The children use still images, video, and recorded interviews with their parents as well as text in those stories.
 * In Nigeria where 80 percent of the food production is provided by small, single-family, subsistence-level farms, developers are creating SMS apps--for feature phones!--in the five major local languages: English, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, and Nigerian Pidgin to help the farmers get information on farming from the government. No surprise: one can better understand what one reads when it is in your primary language; but coding for five languages provides a real challenge to developers!
 * In Malawi, the German government is developing an app to help in the training of midwives since infant mortality is high and hasn't budged in five years--even though money has been spent on the problem. The app will provide the midwives with just-in-time information.


 * Plan It! **

This project is designed to get you to think about connecting with another group of people in the world--people who share a different culture, a different mindset, different ideas. Your task will include these two sites: Epals <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> Teachers use the free ePals Global Classroom to create real world, culturally- enriching learning experiences for their students. With ePals classroom matching, a high school class studying Chinese can connect with a class studying English in China, or the classes can work on a special project together. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> iEarn <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> iEARN is a non-profit organization made up of over 30,000 schools and youth organizations in more than 140 countries. iEARN empowers teachers and young people to work together online using the Internet and other new communications technologies.


 * Do It! **

You did it! So, once again, here are your assignments for this week (due next Sunday): <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> 1) Visit several links to various classrooms around the world where you **might** be interested in working with a group of students on a collaborative project. <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> 2) Design a webpage (or you can do this in a Google Doc or using Canva)* designing a collaborative project (complete with overview explanation, explanation of the final project, and **complete** student instructions). <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> When you are done, share it with me (drmcgregorKSU@gmail.com) and send me an email to let me know it's done! <span style="background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; display: block; text-align: left; text-decoration: none;"> *I'm a frequent user of Canva. May I share a few things? (1) You will need to create an account (you can do this with your Google account if you like) and (2) BE CAREFUL if you are going to select any of their images. Many (I would wager to say, most) are NOT free. Most of them cost $.99 but honestly, please find your own images (that you can upload for free). Also, PLEASE KNOW--if you click on an image that costs money and then delete it, sometimes (actually often), I can't get that image out of my project. Oh, I can click on it and "delete" but when I go to download the project, it says it is still there.

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