eLearning across the globe

My publications

2011-05-04T20:04:00.001+02:00

The e-Skills Manifesto (2010)
Author: McCormack, A.; Editor: Joyce, A.
http://files.eun.org/eskillsweek/manifesto/e-skills_manifesto.pdf
European Commission DG ENTR, European e-Skills Association
Inspire: challenging the lack of interest in physics among students
A. Gras-Velazquez, A. Joyce, J. Snellman, M. Kirsch, Y. Beernaert, M. Hofer, E. Zistler, M. Obermuller, E. Kulnigg, E Kurilovas, S. Serikoviene, M. Muller & R. Ploger (2010)
Il Nuovo Cimento C - Colloquia on physics, Italian Society of Physics
DOI 10/1393/ncc/i2010-10617-x
Gras-Velazquez, A. & Joyce, A. (2008) Inspire Deliverable D 2.3 Quality criteria and analysis of Learning Obejcts in Maths, Science and Tehcnology (Confidential)
European Schoolnet: enabling school networking (2009)
European Journal of Education
Scimeca, S., Dumitru, P., Durando, M., Gilleran, A., Joyce, A. & Vuorikarii, R.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1465-3435.2009.01407.x/abstract
Inspire: motivating students for maths, science and technology; Insight report (2009) available at http://inspire.eun.org/images/2/22/Inspire_Report_final-insight.report.pdf
A. Gras-Velazquez, A. Joyce, J. Snellman, M. Kirsch, Y. Beernaert, M. Hofer, E. Zistler, M. Obermuller, E. Kulnigg, E Kurilovas, S. Serikoviene, M. Muller & R. Ploger
Kearney, C. Gras-Velazquez, A. & Joyce, A. (2009) Stimulating teachers' and students' engagement in science education through the use of ICT-based tools and involvement in inquiry-based European projects. Stella handbook on innovative practices, available from http://stella-science.eu
"Experiencias de enseñanza de la química con el apoyo de las TIC" (Experiences in the teaching of Chemistry with the aid of ICT)
Erika P. Daza Pérez, Albert Gras-Marti, Àgueda Gras-Velázquez, Nathaly Guerrero Guevara, Ana Gurrola Togasi, Alexa Joyce, Elizabeth Mora-Torres, Yamile Pedraza, Enric Ripoll, Julio Santos
Revista Educación Química en Línea, ISSN 1870-8404, Vol XX, N 3, 320-329, 2009
http://educacionquimica.info/
“Women and ICT. Why are girls still not attracted to ICT studies and careers?” by Agueda Gras-Velazquez, Alexa Joyce and Maïté Debry:
http://blog.eun.org/insightblog/upload/Women_and_ICT_FINAL.pdf
Cisco and European Schoolnet white paper
“Women in IT. The European situation and the role of public-private partnerships in promoting greater participation of young women in technology” by M. Durando, P. Wastiau and A. Joyce:
http://resources.eun.org/insight/Science%20girls5.pdf
Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources (2007 OECD)
Edited several chapters (non credited as external consultant)
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?K=5L4S6TNG3F9X&lang=EN&sort=sort_date%2Fd&stem=true&sf1=Title&st1=open+educational+resources&sf3=SubjectCode&st4=not+E4+or+E5+or+P5&sf4=SubVersionCode&ds=open+educational+resources%3B+All+Subjects%3B+&m=3&dc=3&plang=en
Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace (UNESCO 20The e-Skills Manifesto (2010)
Author: McCormack, A.; Editor: Joyce, A.
http://files.eun.org/eskillsweek/manifesto/e-skills_manifesto.pdf
European Commission DG ENTR, European e-Skills Association
Inspire: challenging the lack of interest in physics among students
A. Gras-Velazquez, A. Joyce, J. Snellman, M. Kirsch, Y. Beernaert, M. Hofer, E. Zistler, M. Obermuller, E. Kulnigg, E Kurilovas, S. Serikoviene, M. Muller & R. Ploger (2010)
Il Nuovo Cimento C - Colloquia on physics, Italian Society of Physics
DOI 10/1393/ncc/i2010-10617-x
Gras-Velazquez, A. & Joyce, A. (2008) Inspire Deliverable D 2.3 Quality criteria and analysis of Learning Obejcts in Maths, Science and Tehcnology (Confidential)
Inspire: motivating students for maths, science and technology; Insight report (2009) available at http://inspire.eun.org/images/2/22/Inspire_Report_final-insight.report.pdf
A. Gras-Velazquez, A. Joyce, J. Snellman, M. Kirsch, Y. Beernaert, M. Hofer, E. Zistler, M. Obermuller, E. Kulnigg, E Kurilovas, S. Serikoviene, M. Muller & R. Ploger
Kearney, C. Gras-Velazquez, A. & Joyce, A. (2009) Stimulating teachers' and students' engagement in science education through the use of ICT-based tools and involvement in inquiry-based European projects. Stella handbook on innovative practices, available from http://stella-science.eu
"Experiencias de enseñanza de la química con el apoyo de las TIC" (Experiences in the teaching of Chemistry with the aid of ICT)
Erika P. Daza Pérez, Albert Gras-Marti, Àgueda Gras-Velázquez, Nathaly Guerrero Guevara, Ana Gurrola Togasi, Alexa Joyce, Elizabeth Mora-Torres, Yamile Pedraza, Enric Ripoll, Julio Santos
Revista Educación Química en Línea, ISSN 1870-8404, Vol XX, N 3, 320-329, 2009
http://educacionquimica.info/
“Women and ICT. Why are girls still not attracted to ICT studies and careers?” by Agueda Gras-Velazquez, Alexa Joyce and Maïté Debry:
http://blog.eun.org/insightblog/upload/Women_and_ICT_FINAL.pdf
Cisco and European Schoolnet white paper
“Women in IT. The European situation and the role of public-private partnerships in promoting greater participation of young women in technology” by M. Durando, P. Wastiau and A. Joyce:
http://resources.eun.org/insight/Science%20girls5.pdf
Giving Knowledge for Free: The Emergence of Open Educational Resources (2007 OECD)
Edited several chapters (non credited as external consultant)
http://www.oecdbookshop.org/oecd/display.asp?K=5L4S6TNG3F9X&lang=EN&sort=sort_date%2Fd&stem=true&sf1=Title&st1=open+educational+resources&sf3=SubjectCode&st4=not+E4+or+E5+or+P5&sf4=SubVersionCode&ds=open+educational+resources%3B+All+Subjects%3B+&m=3&dc=3&plang=en
Open Educational Resources: Conversations in Cyberspace (UNESCO 2007)
Section 3: Hylen, J. & Joyce, A.
http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/index.php/Open_Educational_Resources:_Conversations_in_Cyberspace
OECD study of OER: forum report (UNESCO 2006)
Joyce, A.
http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/images/e/ea/Oer_forum_report.pdf
"Initiating and managing Schoolnets: lessons learned" UNESCO (2006)
- Coordinated publication and re-wrote texts
http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/e-library/elibrary-themes/teaching-and-learning/initiating-and-managing-schoolnets-lessons-learned-vol-3/07)
Section 3: Hylen, J. & Joyce, A.
http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/index.php/Open_Educational_Resources:_Conversations_in_Cyberspace
OECD study of OER: forum report (UNESCO 2006)
Joyce, A.
http://oerwiki.iiep.unesco.org/images/e/ea/Oer_forum_report.pdf
"Initiating and managing Schoolnets: lessons learned" UNESCO (2006)
- Coordinated publication and re-wrote texts
http://www.unescobkk.org/education/ict/online-resources/e-library/elibrary-themes/teaching-and-learning/initiating-and-managing-schoolnets-lessons-learned-vol-3/

Ada Lovelace Day back for 2010

2010-03-22T18:12:00.000+01:00

"Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science," writes Suw Charman Anderson, founder of Ada Lovelace Day. I joined in last year.

It's the perfect day to tell a story about an innovative woman in science or tech, whether a famous person or someone you know! As Suw wrote:

"Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited."

So join in!

Deep ecology and monitoring tropical forests with technology

2010-03-20T13:40:00.000+01:00

Jane Goodall is an amazing primatologist, and also UN Messenger for Peace. Here is an interview by OneWorldTV, spanning a range of inspiring topics. She talks about how local people can monitor forests with mobile phones combined with Google Earth through to her educational programmes, and the spiritual importance of experiencing forests.

French reform to science and tech curricula

2010-03-17T12:31:00.002+01:00

Like most EU countries, France is suffering from falling interest in science and tech studies and careers. In addition, the curriculum had not been revised in these topics for some years. The French Ministry of Education and Research has just published information on a reformed approach to science and tech teaching and learning. Most documents available are in French only, but here are some of the highlights:

Science and technology subjects will be easier to combine with languages. In the past, only one language could be studied together with science. Now students can choose two - exactly what I wanted to do back when I was at secondary school...
Science and tech will be organised in several sub-topics according to whether you go for 'science and industrial technology' (comprising technology innovation and eco-design; digital information systems; energy and sustainable development; building and architecture) or 'laboratory science and technology' (including biotechnology and applied physics and chemistry).

The curriculum looks really interesting and modern - however, where is biological and life science in this framework? It seems that it has been totally separated from the other sciences, which seems to be a mistake when sustainable development and eco-design relies on a fundamental understanding of these topics.

More information (in French)

Web roundup: my top picks

2010-03-12T10:17:00.001+01:00

With e-Skills Week only just out of the way, I have little time to scan the blogosphere - but these caught my eye:

New research on 1:1 computing indicates that students in such programmes outperform their peers. My colleague Riina Vuorikarii has just launched a new project with ACER to look at 1:1 computing in EU schools too, and has a great new website with technical support, learning resources and more.
Skeptical video from Australian TV show 'Hungry Beast' about Google's expansion and involvement in many industries. I'm dependent on Google services online so it's an interesting reminder.
Interview with researcher Ying-Ta Wu on how grid computing can fight dengue fever and enable international data sharing
The annual Reporters without Borders report on web freedom highlights that even democratic countries like Australia and South Korea are now cracking down on online expression.

e-Skills Week: podcast interview

2010-03-01T16:19:00.001+01:00

Interested to hear me waffle on about e-Skills, geekery and why tech is cool? You can download an interview I did for e-Skills Week, as part of the e-Skills Week podcast series.

Listen to the interview
Get the full list of podcasts and videocasts

Socialnomics: the impact of social networks

2010-02-26T12:06:00.000+01:00

As we get ready for e-Skills Week, Martha Lane Fox tweeted a link to this great video from Erik Qualman, the author of Socialnomics - an excellent book and blog on social media. It's from last year, but it summarises really well some of the key facts about social networks - not to mention it has a nice Fatboy Slim track to keep you interested while you watch! Not strictly education, but social media is totally pervasive in Europe nowadays so important for all of us.

What is nanotech? Stephen Fry explains!

2010-02-19T09:30:00.001+01:00

For the Nanoyou project, our partners at the University of Cambridge Cavendish Lab have produced this fabulous video, narrated by Stephen Fry. Not only does it explain succintly what nanotech is, but it's all rounded off with a great soundtrack...

NANOYOU - Narrated by Stephen Fry from NANOYOU on Vimeo.

eTwinning: explaining teacher cooperation in animation

2010-02-18T11:58:00.000+01:00

We've been releasing a lot of clips recently at European Schoolnet, and one I'm especially pleased with is this one for eTwinning, done together with Dog Studio. The idea was to make a short clip that explained, with no words, what eTwinning is about. The team did a really great job.

Watch the clip, and see if you think it explains the project!

Visit the eTwinning website to know more and get involved in school cooperation projects

e-Skills Week video clip: IT's your future!

2010-02-18T11:50:00.001+01:00

The whole team is working really hard on the e-Skills Week campaign to raise awareness of IT careers, and have just released a promotional video clip to share around.

Visit the e-Skills website!

Best of the rest: fortnightly roundup

2010-01-20T13:37:00.001+01:00

There are so many terrific bloggers out there now, just keeping up with them is really tough. Here are some of my favourite posts from this last fortnight:

Erik Duval on 'Future of interoperability: food for thought' - talking about standardisation of learning content
Suw Charman Anderson on 'Social media and productivity' - what's the link between the two?
'The most ugly and useless infographic competition winners' from Information Aesthetics
'Life on the net is too short' by Harold Jarche
Ina Fried on 'Marko, the 9-year-old systems engineer'

Addressing gender issues in technology

2010-01-20T12:52:00.001+01:00

Recent research from IDC (PDF) indicates that within the next five years, 90% of jobs in Europe will require IT skills and there are not enough skilled people on the job market. At the same time, there are few women participating in IT-based careers - more involvement from them could improve the situation (see my previous post on the European Schoolnet/Cisco research on this topic).

I've recently joined the executive committee of the European Centre for Women and Technology, a Norway-based non-profit aiming to improve women's participation in the knowledge economy and the IT industry. ECWT organises numerous activities through its member companies and organisations across the EU, including:

The European Directory for Women in Technology, a platform for women to network, find out more about training opportunities, and for organisations looking for e-Skilled women to find appropriate candidates.
The gender component of e-Skills Week, as well as providing the national contact points for Portugal and France
The Code of best practices, a voluntary agreement from IT companies such as Microsoft, Google, etc. The agreement commits them to implement a range of diversity practices, including the encouragment of girls and women in education and training, implement gender neutral recruitment policies and encourage work/life balance as well as family-friendly approaches.

INSPIRE report on motivating students to learn maths, science and technology using learning resources

2010-01-18T17:51:00.005+01:00

Inspire (Innovative Science Pedagogy in Research and Education) aimed to develop and experiment new teaching methods in the field of maths, science and technology (MST).

The purpose was to challenge the lack of interest among students to start scientific studies and to extend the supply of scientific specialists and to develop a scientific culture in European countries.

During a period of ten months Inspire:
* Observed the impact of new teaching methods on pupils and on their motivation.
* Analysed the pre-requisites to be defined for enabling teachers to integrate these new techniques in their pedagogy.
* Identified the critical success factors to be mastered at the level of the teacher and the school for the generalization of such practices.

This report describes the final results of the research project, examining the impact of various digital learning resources on science teaching and learning.

Download the full report (PDF) or take a look online below.

Data Protection Day 2010

2010-01-09T20:04:00.001+01:00

Young people aged between 15 and 19 years olds are invited to take part in the Data Protection competition organised to celebrate Data Protection Day on 28 January 2010. The competition will run from 1 October 2009 to 5 January 2010. This is one of the promo clips for the event! Visit the website at http://dpd.eun.org.

Great ideas for science education: free eBook

2010-01-04T21:13:00.003+01:00

Want some new ideas for science teaching and learning? Take a look at this selection of practices, specially picked by the STELLA science education research team. They've scoured the EU to identify some of the most successful approaches to science teaching, and presented them in a lively way. Some of the notable ones are teaching physics through karate, and using collaborative approaches such as eTwinning to liven up teaching with international experiences. The practices are selected on the basis of being easily transferable and replicable in different circumstances and cultures. The practices cover both primary and secondary education.

My colleagues Agueda Gras Valezquez, Caroline Kearney and I also co-wrote a paper to close the eBook looking at how ICT-based tools can improve students' motivation to learn science.

Download the full PDF version

Download the executive summary

e-Skills Week

2009-12-30T17:40:00.004+01:00

I'm running this campaign, taking place in March 2010.

"The e-Skills Week campaign aims to raise awareness of the growing demand of highly skilled ICT practitioners and users within the industry. DIGITALEUROPE and European Schoolnet have come together with 20 national partners to promote e-skills whilst building bridges between the different stakeholders. The culmination of the campaign will be the European e-Skills Week taking place in the first week of March 2010."

One of the highlights will be an event in Brussels where we'll invite young people and teachers to tinker with technology, in a creative and stimulating location - the brand new Square venue. Prizes are on offer for students and businesses doing uber-creative things with tech. We're aiming for a kind of SXSW for kids, with a big party closing the event.

More info...

European Journal of Education: special volume on networks in education

2009-11-19T13:08:00.002+01:00

'Networks in Education: benefits and issues in Europe' is the theme of this quarter's issue of the European Journal of Education. My colleagues and I at European Schoolnet have published a paper available in this issue.

Here's the full reference:

European Schoolnet: enabling school networking
Abstract
SANTI SCIMECA, PETRU DUMITRU, MARC DURANDO, ANNE GILLERAN, ALEXA JOYCE, RIINA VUORIKARI
Published Online: Nov 6 2009 6:53AM
DOI: 10.1111/j.1465-3435.2009.01407.x

How Can ICT in Education Excite Girls and Boys?

2009-09-11T12:22:00.004+02:00

"Look at any ICT-enabled school classroom, and there is often a greater excitement for the technology with boys than girls, which by middle or secondary school, can translate into ICT tools being an exclusive domain of boys, excluding half the learning population from their benefit. How can technologists and educators design more gender neutral, or pro-female ICT-enabled learning experiences?"

This is the opening statement of the latest discussion on the UNESCO/InfoDev Education Technology Debate. Brooke Partridge (CEO of Vital Wave Consulting) and myself are the opinion contributors in this debate. Join in and contribute your thoughts!

Photo by Starbooze

eLearning Awards - win prizes for technology

2009-09-11T12:18:00.003+02:00

For the ninth consecutive year, European Schoolnet is organising the eLearning Awards, Europe's leading competition to reward excellence and best use of technology in education. Schools and teacher training institutions are invited to take part and register at http://elearningawards.eun.org to present their best projects making use of ICT for teaching and learning.

Creative approaches to chemistry education

2009-08-04T11:59:00.004+02:00

Today I'm at the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry's General Assembly in Glasgow, where we are planning the 2011 International Year of Chemistry. A lot of exciting ideas are being discussed and you can already see some of the projects and events planned, together with UNESCO.

Here, we've been talking about various chemistry outreach programmes, based on cutting edge topics and creative approaches, which hope to contribute to the year. There are too many to mention in detail, but they include:

Children challenging industry is a UK-based project run by the University of York's Chemical Industry Education Centre. Primary school children visit local companies and take part in hands-on chemistry experiments, while their teachers can get constant support from a CCI coordinator.

Xperimania - a project I run at European Schoolnet in cooperation with CEFIC. Children are challenged to create their own experiments to investigate the properties of materials. The competition is now closed but all the teaching guides and tools are still available.

The British Royal Society of Chemistry has an excellent set of resources for students and teachers. They provide homework help, games, teacher training and much more.

Educational Technology Debate: low cost devices for developing countries

2009-07-20T10:35:00.005+02:00

Educational Technology Debate (ETD) "exploring ICT and learning in developing countries" has been launched by UNESCO and InfoDev following the World Summit for the Information Society stakeholder meeting in Geneva last year.

The current topic is computer ratios: will 1:1 generate new models of education? The key experts are Mark Beckford (Ncomputing) and Walter Bender (MIT/OLPC/Sugar Labs).

Over the next months, the ETD site will host debates on a range of key ICT in education issues such as:

Free and open source software vs. proprietary solutions

How can ICT excite girls and boys?

Unintended consequences of ICT in education

Experts are invited to send in articles or to share views with others via the commenting features. The editors include Mike Trucano (World Bank) and Wayan Vota (OLPC/Inveneo) so the debate is sure to be engaging and high quality.

ICT gender gap: stereotyped thinking continues to impact females’ choice of tech careers

2009-06-30T10:09:00.002+02:00

My team at European Schoolnet just completed our white paper financed by Cisco.

From the press release:

"A high number of female students are not pursuing further studies or careers in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, despite having good basic computing skills, according to a study and white paper by European Schoolnet, commissioned by Cisco. The study can be downloaded from www.eun.org/whitepaper."

Some key recommendations from the report to address the problem:

Public-private partnership could play a role in changing perceptions about industry, by giving access to more realistic and authentic information about ICT and ICT careers.

Need to ensure accurate information about ICT is available to teachers, pupils and their parents.

Numerous initiatives launched, but mainstreaming is required to have a systemic impact.

Data privacy on social networks

2009-06-29T11:50:00.006+02:00

EU privacy regulators are trying to improve data privacy but suggest a rather impractical approach in my view. Data privacy law like this already applies to published photos in news outlets, but even those are nigh impossible to regulate and enforce.

What would you do if you have a photo of yourself with a crowd in the background - get permission from every one of the 100 people in the photo before uploading? Not really thought out. What about people who are not using the platform, how could you get the permission verified? No obvious system to deal with that.

The old but very useful recommendation of having profiles default on private would do much more to solve the problem, as well as being able to categorise types of freinds: then people would be sharing photos with friends only, or subsets of friends, rather than the whole world/Google crawlers. And of course, educate people about privacy through initiatives like Data Privacy/Protection Day - the 2010 initiative is being supported by Microsoft and European Schoolnet (see European Schoolnet's site for last year.

Cory Doctorow on open education

2009-06-17T10:11:00.003+02:00

I recently wrote a few questions for Cory Doctorow, for a video message for the European Schoolnet International Symposium for ICT in Education Networks. Take a look!

Games in Schools conference and research results

2009-05-06T14:17:00.001+02:00

Last week, my colleagues Paul, Benedicte and I liveblogged the Games in Schools conference that we organised at the Council of Europe. The conference was to present and debate the results of an eighteen month study on the use of (mostly) commercial computer games in educational environments.

The blog turned out pretty well, so go and check out the presentations and reports.

You can also find out more about the research results, and download the full reports.

Nanotechnology in the classroom

2009-04-28T19:12:00.002+02:00

Students in Europe often complain that they are learning about the science and technology of yesterday, rather than cutting edge issues, which they find more exciting.
I’m working on a new, major EU project, Nanoyou, which aims to help teachers get support in bringing the latest nanotechnology R&D in energy, environment and medicine as well the surrounding ethical and social issues to their students. It’s a huge project involving Spanish, French, Belgian, Austrian and British partners, led by ORT Israel.

Nanoyou kicked off on Monday 27 April in Tel Aviv, Israel, and over the next 27 months, the project will create and test new toolkits for teachers at lower and upper secondary level, an online game on the topic, exhibitions in science centres and much more.
Teachers who are interested to get involved, should contact me at European Schoolnet at alexa.joyce@eun.org.

Image credit: TheAlieness GiselaGiardino²³

Open education: the US got there first!

2009-04-05T14:57:00.001+02:00

Publicly-funded institutions "that expend more than $10,000,000 in a fiscal year on scientific education and outreach shall use at least 2 percent of such funds for the collaboration on the development and implementation of open source materials as an educational outreach effort" reports David Wiley (via Stephen Downes).

This is really fantastic news: in fact, it was one of the recommendations resulting from the run of the UNESCO/OECD Open Educational Resources discussion that I moderated some time ago.

So why doesn't the EU do the same? It would be so easy to make that part of the 7th Framework Programme research funding or the Lifelong Learning Programme, by including it in the contractual requirements, or at the very least in the award criteria for selecting projects for funding. It's unfortunate that the EU research programme - although funding research in this area - doesn't grab the issue by the horns.

On the other hand, they have recognised that the web is an equivalent 'right' to schooling, which is quite a victory.

Image credit: mag3737

Censorship begets creativity: Aqua teen hunger force and communist China

2009-04-04T13:54:00.008+02:00

Does censorship stimulate creativity? A few recent examples suggest a strong link. Whether in China or in the classroom, web filters are stimulating some entertaining, yet thought-provoking trends to occur.

1) In China, a very funny video has been circulating (thanks to my friend Zhuohua for sending me the link), and even remade in an animated hiphop version. On one hand, it's a protest against censorship (the grass mud horses are fighting against the repressive river crabs), it's also a funny demonstration of how futile censorship for 'moral behaviour' can be. Grass mud horse, translated into Chinese, sounds almost exactly like obscene words which are vilified by the censors. More on the phenomenon via the NY times. It's spawned lots of spin offs including stuffed animals and T-shirts.

2) School kids are also finding funny ways to swear. Many filters ban specific swear words, resulting in massive growth of the phrase 'Sofa King' (say it fast, out loud..), originally used in Aqua Teen Hunger Force. Coincidentally, it has also made the leap into hiphop... Perhaps less politically engaged than the Grass-Mud Horse, it just illustrates how we cannot stop kids from using language in ways they want, and that they'll just find creative ways to bend the rules.

It reminds me of the days of the Criminal Justice Bill in the UK, which banned the public playing of "sounds wholly or predominantly characterised by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats," to prevent the organisation of raves. Warp records' Autechre then released the "Anti EP" including a track called 'Flutter',"programmed in such a way that no bars contain identical beats and can therefore be played under the proposed new law." Ironically, it was arguably one of the most creative times for UK electronic music, stimulated by the sense of rebellion.

While writing this post, I also came across an old, but interesting post comparing access to the web in China vs. a school in Oklahoma, US by Wesley Fryer, which is really revealing!

Is China really more repressed than Western counterparts? And are we inadvertently stimulating the development of more creativity by censorship?

Join the Games in Schools community of practice

2009-03-24T11:22:00.004+01:00

I'm working on the Games in Schools research project looking at how games are used in schools in the EU. We just launched a community of practice, being led by Derek Robertson from Learning and Teaching Scotland. Here's the invitation to join us:

"As a follow-up to the online teachers' survey that some of you may have participated in, on the use of electronic games in school across Europe, we are delighted to announce the launch of our online community of practice which we warmly invite you to take part in. This community of practice will provide you with a unique opportunity to voice your concerns, ask questions, share positive experiences and generally become more knowledgeable and confident about the next steps you should take to successfully integrate the use of games in your classroom. The community is available at http://gamesinschools.ning.com/."

Ada Lovelace Day: Female IT engineer

2009-03-23T16:48:00.003+01:00

On the occasion of Ada Lovelace Day, we've published an interview with Sally Buberman, a 26 year-old female IT engineer and entrepreneur from Argentina, on the European eSkills portal. It will also be covered in European Schoolnet's March newsletter.

Ada Lovelace day on Twitter and Facebook.

It's also a good occasion to tell you that there's a new organisation in Europe active in this area: the European Centre for Women in Technology.

Getting girls interested in IT

2009-03-02T18:48:00.005+01:00

I’m at the Microsoft Executive Briefing Center for an event on how technology can support innovation in education in Europe. We’ve had a morning of speeches, presentations and videos including meeting a team of Digigirlz from the European School in Brussels.

During the event I gave a short presentation (scroll down) but it inspired me to summarise and pick out the main issues:

• Make technology accessible / access personal technology: help girls to get preferential access to PCs and equipment e.g. through girls IT clubs. Another idea is to look at their personal gadgets (e.g. mobile phones, iPods) and explore with them how they can use them in a more sophisticated way.

• Increase their confidence: a lot of girls have good grades in maths and science subjects, so are well prepared for IT and programming subjects. But female teenagers in particular lack confidence, and even with good grades will think they are not up to scratch. Help them understand you don’t have to be perfect!

• Show how leisure IT use can be helpful for education / careers – encourage students who have their own blog, or are digital photo enthusiasts, to understand that this is can be adapted for education and career purposes. Help them to know that this is a skill that others may not share.

• Help them meet realistic role models: IT is notoriously stereotyped in the media, so it’s a good idea to help them meet people who can inspire them in career choice. Why not take them to a local IT company to have an afternoon Q&A with a young, female IT professional? If you can’t physically go, try doing an online chat!

Microsoft2march

View more presentations from europeanschoolnet.

Playschool: games as learning environments

2009-02-26T10:38:00.002+01:00

I recently read (on Constance Steinkuehler's blog about a new school programme being launched in the US, Quest 2 Learn.

"Quest supports a dynamic curriculum that uses the underlying design principles of games to create highly immersive, game-like learning experiences for students. Games and other forms of digital media also model the complexity and promise of “systems.” Understanding and accounting for this complexity is a fundamental literacy of the 21st century."

It's being setup by the Institute of Play, an organisation to "promote gaming literacy: the play, analysis, and creation of games, as a foundation for learning, innovation, and and change in the 21st century."

I think we need an EU equivalent!

Creativity and innovation at the eTwinning conference

2009-02-25T13:46:00.004+01:00

The eTwinning conference took place over 13-15 February in Prague, Czech Republic. Here are a few video messages from teachers and students taking part in eTwinning. You can also take a look at the team blog that we put together with volunteer teachers.

Celebrate Ada Lovelace day by blogging

2009-01-08T12:47:00.004+01:00

"Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Women's contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised."

I'll be posting myself on the day - 24 March 2009 - and hope you will too!

In case you've never heard of Ada Lovelace, here's a quick bio from Wikipedia:
"She is mainly known for having written a description of Charles Babbage's early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. She is today appreciated as the "first programmer" since she was writing programs — that is, manipulating symbols according to rules — for a machine that Babbage had not yet built."
She was also the daughter of Lord Byron, a very well-known English romantic poet.

Find out more and make your own pledge.

Via Brussels Geek Girl Dinners

The Right to Education

2008-12-13T16:10:00.003+01:00

In Western Europe, we have the luxury of having an almost universal right to education. In the rest of the world, it's not necessarily the same. Peter Hyll Larsen has just launched a new website for the Right to Education Project.

As the website says, "the Right to Education Project aims to promote social mobilisation and legal accountability, looking to focus on the legal challenges to the right to education."

Take a look...

AEC-NET conference presentation and paper

2008-12-13T00:01:00.002+01:00

I'm presenting today at the Asia-Europe Classroom conference. It's going to be a really interesting and fun event! The projects up for awards look very promising too. Download my conference background paper and the Powerpoint (2.3 MB zip archive, includes videos).

Enlarging AEC-NET’s scope:partnership and school networks in Europe

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: education ict)

I showed these two videos as part of the presentation:

EMINENT conference on ICT in education

2008-12-12T04:41:00.004+01:00

EMINENT, European Schoolnet's annual conference for ICT in education policy makers just ended successfully last week. The two-day event brought together around 200 experts from European member states and beyond.

Particular highlights for me were:

Mike Trucano from World Bank giving a great keynote speech

Turkish teacher, Elif Kara, winning an eLearning award in only her second year on the job.

It's especially good news for Turkey, as they only became a member of European Schoolnet this year and are already winning prizes!

For more about EMINENT, check out the blog and the podcast.

Glance at a country: Malaysia

2008-12-08T11:01:00.008+01:00

I'm about to leave for Kota Kinabulu in Malaysia for the Asia-Europe Classroom Connect conference, so I thought I'd take this chance to make another country focus, this time looking at Malaysia.

First of all, an example of classroom practice in a Malaysian school, as part of the Asia-Europe Classroom project. The project links schools in Asia to their counterparts in Europe using ICT.

Schools using ICT in Malaysia are part of the Smart Schools programme. Take a look to learn more about the status in 2007 and plans for 2008. Also, this article from Digital Learning India gives a great overview of ICT in education in the country.

I also came across this Smart Schools promotional video - including possibly the world's first song about ICT in education!

Other developments are ongoing in Malaysia, and the
Asia Open Source Software project just held it's latest workshop in Kuala Lumpur. THe AsiaOSS project also provides the Asia OSS wiki including all kinds information about the project, including learning materials and details on the working groups.

Finally, take a look at One School, a portal of learning resources, including flash cards, revision notes, homework help and free reference books tailored for the Malaysian school system. It's all available in English.

The Great Plant Hunt

2008-12-02T16:11:00.010+01:00

Another really cool science project from the BBC!

"The Great Plant Hunt invites school children aged 5-11 to explore the natural world around them in a series of activities, all clearly linked to the primary science curriculum." It encourages students and teachers to get out of the classroom, and take a walk around local green spaces to learn more about the plants that grow there. Learning activities are provided for all ages of primary school children.

Stimulating interest in IT among young people in Europe

2008-12-02T10:19:00.003+01:00

Many young people in Europe think that IT careers are dull and boring - but at the same time they are avid users of IT tools, whether on the web (like Facebook, Flickr, etc.) or via games consoles (e.g. Playstation 3, Nintendo DS Lite). I presented about this topic in Thessaloniki, Greece at the e-Skills conference.

Stimulating interest in IT among young people in Europe

View SlideShare presentation or Upload your own. (tags: e-skills technology)

Inspiring girls to join the IT industry

2008-11-18T17:14:00.003+01:00

The IT industry suffers from a gender imbalance, with a lot of women shunning the sector. It's frustrating to see so many talented girls avoid this sector due to prejudice and lack of knowledge of the reality of IT.

I recently met Sally Buberman at the Microsoft Women in IT day, and at SciTech Girls day organised by the Women's Forum. She is taking the time to talk to girls, explain her job and inspire them to follow in her footsteps. She's set up her own company, Wormhole IT.

She also posts about her experiences on her blog, Sally into the Wormhole.

Directory of ICT Resources for Teaching and Learning of Science, Mathematics and Language

2008-11-18T15:23:00.006+01:00

The UNESCO Schoolnet project produced a directory of resources for science, maths and language teaching, accompanied by a CD-ROM. The publication was extremely popular and so a second edition has been produced.

Download the directory from the UNESCO Bangkok ICT in education e-Library

Data protection day: event and competition

2008-11-18T11:17:00.004+01:00

Young Europeans between the ages of 15 and 19 years are invited to take part in the“Surf the internet – think Privacy” competition which was launched this week at www.dataprotectionday.eu. The challenge is to create a 30 to 90 second video to illustrate the theme of data privacy and data protection. As entries start coming in, you can visit the online competition gallery to rate the uploaded entries. The most popular videos will then be judged by a panel of experts.

Podcast on the eLearning Awards

2008-11-18T10:31:00.003+01:00

A new podcast has been launched for the eLearning Awards 2008. So far two episodes have been made available. The first one focuses on the awards themselves, and includes interviews with the team behind the scenes.
The second episode looks at issues around internet safety by interviewing Janice Richardson, leader of the Insafe project, and interactive white boards, with Laurent Odic from Interwrite Learning.

For more info, visit the eLearning Awards website

eTwinning: adventures in language and culture

2008-10-17T13:00:00.004+02:00

eTwinning, the main programme for school cooperation in Europe, has recently published a new book for teachers. 'eTwinning: adventures in language and culture' (PDF download)

"Following the success of eTwinning’s first two handbooks for teachers in 2006 and 2007, this latest publication focuses more concretely on the value and use of language and culture in any cross-border collaborative project. In addition, the book brings together a wealth of successful, award-winning project examples from the past school year which have all used language and culture to create bonds and share knowledge."

What happens to the free rice?

2008-09-21T00:02:00.002+02:00

People all round the world have been playing Free Rice, a simple but strangely addictive game where you have to identify the correct definition of various English words. It's available from the Free Rice site, as well as via a Facebook app.

Did you ever wonder how they distribute all that Free Rice? Take a look at the video!

Try life in another langauge

2008-09-18T11:27:00.002+02:00

The UK's channel four has launched a campaign to promote interest in learning modern languages. Together with an ad agency, they produced this great video with the French hiphop MC, Disiz la Peste. It's cool enough to be intriguing for young people, while also having a great educational message!

More about the Channel 4 campaign

Innovative practices in ICT in education in Asia-Pacific

2008-09-15T00:09:00.000+02:00

It's always exciting when you see an idea move from thought to reality. The ICT in education team over at UNESCO Bangkok have done just that when they started this award project, to identify teachers and educational planners doing amazing work in ICT in education in the region. The Innovative ICT in Education Prizes These kinds of events are great for inspiring others, and stimulating colleagues to become more innovative themselves. Interestingly, India was far and away the most represented country, despite the quite patchy use of ICT in schools.

I particularly liked the winning example of 'E-tools for Teaching and Learning Geography', from Suryaveer Singh, S.D. Public School, New Delhi, India, which is comparable in standard to projects taking place in Europe that I've evaluated in the eTwinning prizes and eLearning awards. Mr. Singh set up a blog full of quizzes, animations and puzzles, plus kept his class up to date about key dates and events. He also opened a wiki where students could work on their projects together, upload their work, share videos and games, and ask each other questions. He structured their use of the wiki so that they used it as a useful tool in reaching their learning goals. See full details of his project here.

One of the participants in the award ceremony, Rogelio Colting, president of Benguet State University in the Philippines remarked: "We will set up an IT centre in the university to showcase all the innovative ideas applicable in our region. The IT centre will serve as a learning and training centre on ICT applications, particularly to improve teaching at all levels."

The full results are available on the UNESCO Bangkok website.

Food Force: a game about the World Food Program

2008-09-01T14:15:00.000+02:00

A great initiative from the UN World Food Programme, the Food Force game helps teach kids about how hunger can affect communities, and how food aid is handled by international agencies.

"Food Force is a free educational video game telling the story of a hunger crisis on the fictitious island of Sheylan. Comprised of 6 mini-games or “missions”, the game takes young players from an initial crisis assessment through to delivery and distribution of food aid, with each sequential mission addressing a particular aspect of this challenging process."

They've also added a special section explaining about food distribution in Myanmar following the typhoon, Nargis.

Play the game here.
Via UNESCO Bangkok.

Asia-Europe Classroom cooperation

2008-08-27T11:00:00.003+02:00

A while back I had the chance to meet Ramon Molina from the Asia-Europe Foundation (ASEF). He introduced me to an interesting initiative run by ASEF, the Asia-Europe Classroom. It's still relatively small scale, but shows just what can be done when students and teachers from two continents work together.

The latest new project is 'Citizens of the World', "an interdisciplinary project which encompasses Culture, Science, History, and Sports." Students from the schools involved are asked to pick the most important citizen from their own country, and present them to their partners in other countries. It's a wonderfully simple but effective way to help young people understand and value both their own heritage, as well as their partners' heritage.

A conference for teachers involved in the project is taking place in December, in Malaysia.

Glance at a country: Thailand

2008-08-26T14:18:00.003+02:00

Thailand has been active in ICT in education for many years now, and some schools are already very well equipped. One school I remember particularly well from my visit is Suankularb school in Nonthaburi, just outside Bangkok. They have a great deal of computers, and the students there have used them in a variety of contexts (language and science lessons), as well as developing their skills in computer graphics. They also take part in numerous UNESCO projects such as the Schoolnet project.

On an institutional level, the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (NECTEC) is responsible for all kinds of ICT development in Thailand (see the English version of the website, no longer updated)

Schoolnet Thailand (English version) is the national gateway for schools. It includes blogs, recent articles on different topics, a library of teaching resources and more. It's provided by the Thai Bureau of ICT, part of the Ministry of Education.

Intel's Thai Skoool site is an online classroom for maths and science. It provides study notes and services for maths, biology, chemistry, physics and earth science. It's a collaborative project with the Thai Ministry of Education and Microsoft.

Photo credit: Hartfried Schmidt

Edublogger 08: helping kids become researchers

2008-08-24T23:00:00.002+02:00

My post on science education has just been published over at the Supercoolschool blog. Here's an extract:

"Many kids find learning science dull and boring - but research (for example, the Rocard report) indicates that hands-on science, where kids "become" scientists in the classroom through inquiry-based techniques helps overcome this perception. By inquiry-based science education, we mean processes where children are investigating issues that they find interesting, and even designing their own experiments to help them verify hypotheses."

Check out the rest of the post and join the debate at:
http://supercoolschool.typepad.com/blog/edublogger_event08/

Education 3.0 at school: the case of eTwinning

2008-08-20T15:24:00.000+02:00

Derek Keats and Philipp J. Schmidt, both active on the UNESCO OER list, have just published a new paper in First Monday, 'The genesis and emergence of Education 3.0 in higher education and its potential for Africa.'

From their point of view, "Education 1.0 is mainly a one-way process, Education 2.0 uses the technologies of Web 2.0 to create more interactive education but largely within the constraints of Education 1.0. Education 2.0 is laying the groundwork for Education 3.0, which we believe will see a breakdown of most of the boundaries, imposed or otherwise within education, to create a much more free and open system focused on learning."

This gives me a lot of hope. In many ways, school education is already heading towards this state, and eTwinning is helping it to happen. Schools in Europe are cooperating informally, and have generated these 'peer to peer' partnerships, which aren't institutionalised or funded. They are sustained purely on the basis of the enthusiasm of students and teachers for the projects.

Let's take a look at how it measures up, against their typology:

a) Role of professor (teacher): Orchestrator of collaborative knowledge creation
This is already the case in eTwinning. Most of the projects I've seen in the eTwinning prizes are almost entirely built by students. Teachers provide the framework and schedule, while students develop all the results together. In some cases, the students even choose the topics to cover, and teachers decide on the pedagogical method and schedule.

b) Free/open educational resources created and reused by students across multiple institutions, disciplines, nations, supplemented by original materials created for them
Most of the work developed by students is based on free, easily accessible content that they have found online - although of course, some still rely on books (however I see this as a strength to combine old and new media). The results of their work - in a way new educational resources - are almost always made available online and for free.

c) Open, flexible learning activities that focus on creating room for student creativity; social networking outside traditional boundaries of discipline, institution, nation
This is definitely happening in eTwinning. Students often go beyond the required activities set by their teachers, and communicate readily with their partners via online tools such as MSN or Skype. However it might be extended in future to include other kinds of actors (e.g. museum staff) rather than only other pupils and teachers, but this isn't currently in the main plan of eTwinning unfortunately.

d)Loose institutional affiliations and relations; entry of new institutions that provide [higher] education services; regional and institutional boundaries breakdown
Again, schools are already affiliating in this way through eTwinning. However, the entry of new institutions isn't so evident. Most of the institutions active in eTwinning are those that you might expect (e.g. Ministries of Education, agencies like the British Council). Also, most schools will rely principally on their own national agency for support, rather than asking for support from another country. The exception to this rule is the Central Support Service - European Schoolnet - in Brussels, which offers services to teachers in any of the eTwinning countries.

e) Active, strong sense of ownership of own education, co-creation of resources and opportunities, active choice
Students are already co-creating resources and processes in eTwinning, and even choosing the topic of cooperative work. However, how far the ownership issue has progressed really depends on the teacher: if he/she is able to 'let go' and put students in the driving seat.

f) E-learning driven from the perspective of personal distributed learning environments; consisting of a portfolio of applications

Although the eTwinning portal offers a suite of tools and services to run the projects, teachers and students are free to add other tools to their portfolio. Many are using other platforms such as Ning, Blogger and Flickr, post videos to YouTube or distribute their own podcasts. The new eTwinning platform (scheduled for release in October this year) will place even more emphasis on the suite of web 2.0 tools that teachers are already using, and will be more based on standards such as Open ID and RSS, so that they can import/export content more easily across these different platforms.

Tell us about games at school!

2008-08-19T23:17:00.001+02:00

I'm working on the 'games in schools' project, and looking for teachers interested in the topic to tell more about their place at school.

Respondents can win X-box 360 Elites and a pack of child-friendly games by filling in the survey!

"Adventure games, role plays, arcade, strategy games, simulations, driving games, puzzles, brain gym … We hear more and more about computer games and they are getting more and more sophisticated, but what is their place in school? Are they useful or dangerous? Opinions among teachers seem to be divided with some enthusiastic teachers using them effectively, some sceptical and some hostile. What is your opinion?"

Online survey in English, French and German:
Games in school survey
Enquete sur les jeux video
Umfrage zu Spielen in Schulen

Downloadable survey as a Word file for return by email to gis@eun.org:
Danish
English
Estonian
Italian
Lithuanian
Spanish

Photo credit: dominic

Join the Edublogger event on 23 August!

2008-08-18T14:50:00.003+02:00

Max Senges of Supercoolschool kindly invited me to join the Edublogger event 08! Here's how he describes it:

"Edubloggerevent08 Building on the success of last years EduBlogger event, we are proud to organize "EduBlogging Event 08" next month on Saturday the 23rd of August!
12 bloggers involved in new education projects will publish a text or video post about their take of an aspect of education & new technologies on our blog and All of you are invited to engage in a vivid Q&A session and discussion afterwards."

400 eTwinning teachers meet in Romania

2008-03-25T10:18:00.003+01:00

The week before Easter the annual eTwinning conference took place. The whole event was really exciting, with lots of great presentations, and the keynote speaker, Sugata Mitra of 'hole in the wall computer' fame went down a storm with his message that children can learn anything if they really want to.

We set up a team blog to cover the event - the bloggers are shown discussing in the photo (by Cecile Gouzee, French-speaking Belgian NSS). On the blog you can find out more about the exhibitions, workshops and plenary sessions, including the powerpoints.

Mexican Student Builds Eco-Video Game

2008-02-20T14:35:00.004+01:00

via TreeHugger on 19/02/08

Photo credit: ITESO
José Carlos Rivera, a student studying computer science at the Western Institute of Technology and Higher Education in the city of Guadalajara, has designed a game entitled Ship Shop, offering players a kind of eco-justice perhaps unattainable in the real world, according to the Mexican daily Reforma. In the game, the hero tries to vanquish polluting criminals, and while he's completing the mission the player is edified by pop-up tips ...

Video clip for Safer Internet Day

2008-02-14T10:50:00.002+01:00

More info on Safer Internet: www.saferinternet.org

New guide for parents and children on Internet safety: http://www.webwise.ie/GenPDF.aspx?id=2339

LeMill - European community of learning resources growing

2008-02-13T11:39:00.005+01:00

Via FLOSSE Posse I heard that LeMill, the European community of learning resources has now reached 2,000 members.

Interestingly, Teemu states 'The growth is not created by the citizens of the wealthy "old Europe" (France, Germany, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, etc.) but by the new Europe: the Baltic countries and the Eastern European countries."

| View | Upload your own

Hans’ and Tarmo’s LeMill presentation for Czech teachers in Brno, Czech Republic on February 7th 2008.

Teemu's statement mirrors what I observe in educational projects run by European Schoolnet. Teachers from the new member states are keen to try new approaches and get involved in international learning communities. The 'old' member states seem much more limited to monolinguist online communities - i.e. communities of German-speaking, English-speaking or French-speaking educators.

Science Education in Europe: Critical Reflections

2008-01-29T11:57:00.000+01:00

ESERA recently alerted me to this new report: "The report highlights the major issues confronting formal secondary science education, identifies similarities and differences between countries, and makes a series of recommendations for improvement in key areas."

Download the report

The eMature school in Europe

2007-12-12T12:18:00.001+01:00

At the end of November I travelled to Seoul in South Korea, for the KERIS annual symposium where I got the wonderful opportunity to present about eMature schools in Europe. A paper on the topic will follow in the KERIS journal (both English and Korean versions) in December.

| View | Upload your own

SlideShare Link

Science education in Europe - EU and national developments

2007-12-12T12:14:00.001+01:00

I recently gave a presentation summarising key initiatives in science education in Europe, as part of the EMINENT conference. The presentation was part of an industry working group on how to increase young people's interest in science across the EU.

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SlideShare Link

Inquiry-based science education for Europe

2007-12-10T11:52:00.000+01:00

Eminent, European Schoolnet's annual conference for policy makers included a presentation by Johannes Klumpers from the European Commission's Directorate General for Research. He focused on the results of the Rocard report on science education in Europe and revealed some interesting plans for more inquiry-based science projects in 2008-9.

The report is pushing for more use of inquiry-based techniques in science education across the EU. Sadly it missed the opportunity to challenge the EU to open up its research databases publicly so that schools can get their hands on high quality data to use in science classes.

The full presentation by Johannes Klumpers is available for download.

EMINENT blog
http://blog.eun.org/eminent/

EMINENT del.icio.us repository
http://del.icio.us/tag/eminent2007

Glance at a country: S. Korea

2007-11-05T11:13:00.003+01:00

Over the years, thanks to the wonderful opportunities I've had for globetrotting, I've been able to get a view on many different countries' approaches to ICT in education and eLearning in general. So, I'm going to create a series of posts on specific countries, giving a few highlights of their activities and approaches.

I'm starting with South Korea, a country I will visit at the end of this month for the KERIS annual symposium. KERIS is the leading ICT in education agency in South Korea, and is arguably one of the world leaders in this field.

Here is a set of links and articles that give an idea of what is going on in S. Korea:

Korea Education and Research Information Service (KERIS)
Edunet - the national portal for education (mostly in Korean only)
UNESCO case study on ICT integration in education: S. Korea - a case study produced as part of the UNESCO SE Asian Schoolnet project
ICT use in education: National policies, strategies and programmes an overview of S. Korea from UNESCO's Meta-survey on ICT in education
Case study on the S. Korea Schoolnet - another case study produced as part of the UNESCO SE Asian Schoolnet project
National science education portal - a new portal launched by the S. Korean Science Foundation (mostly in Korean only)
Research information service system (RISS) - a national portal indexing research articles, journals and other scholarly publishing. Further details in English are available here (via KERIS).
OECD-KERIS International Expert Meeting on ICT and Education Performance - a set of papers and presentations made at the event held in S. Korea.

Update on 28/08/08: UNESCO Bangkok case study on pre-service teacher training in Korea

Intriguing links related to eLearning and development

2007-08-30T10:00:00.000+02:00

It's been far too long since I blogged, and to get myself back into the habit I'd first like to share with you a set of interesting links I've come across recently.

ICT in schools
Raising school standards: setting up computer labs with refurbished equipment - another interesting initiative coming from Schoolnet Namibia

Prizes for excellent projects
Les Trophées du Libre: prizes for free software for multimedia, education, eGovernment
The eLearning Awards: a competition for schools and teachers running good ICT in education projects

ICT and democracy
Citizens' guide to bypassing internet filters (PDF) - essential bearing in mind the situation in Burma (via dGCommunities)

Science and ICT
Catch a star competition - launched by the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere.
Xperimania - a competition for students to design experiments relating to chemistry and materials.

Science experiments via the web

2007-07-06T13:19:00.001+02:00

European Schoolnet's Xplora project, together with the University of Kaiserslautern, has developed and deployed an online experiment which schools can use in real time, obtaining real data. The project announced "With this technology, developed by Xplora and available on Xplora's website, a student can now contribute to Millikan's Nobel prize winning experiment." The physical experimental apparatus is based in Helsingin Yhteislyseo, a private high school in Helsinki, Finland, but is open to all schools to use for free. Schools have to register on the portal to access the tool, which is available in the members-only section of the site.

Visit Xplora at www.xplora.org

Photo: Karl Sarnow, Xplora manager celebrates the launch of the experiment with a Finnish teacher

Open Educational Resources: new eBook from OECD

2007-06-29T14:52:00.000+02:00

OECD has just published a new book, called "Giving Knowledge Away for Free", and has made it available as a free eBook. OECD wrote "Learning resources are often considered key intellectual property in a competitive higher education world. However, more and more institutions and individuals are sharing their digital learning resources over the Internet, openly and for free, as Open Educational Resources (OER). This study, building on previous OECD work on e-learning, asks why this is happening, who is involved and what the most important implications of this development are."

You can download the free PDF or buy the print version from the OECD bookshop.

Namibian Schoolnet: Open source for education

2007-06-29T13:38:00.000+02:00

Peter at OpenFree recently interviewed Uwe Thiem, from Schoolnet Namibia.

"Namibia's open source based SchoolNet project provides computer labs to schools all across the country. Some are in very remote locations that are not traditionally suitable for this type of technology. It has been quite successful and has won many international awards."

They are also distributing open content (a.k.a. open educational resources or OER) for schools via Project Gutenburg and Wikipedia.
Take a look.

Internet awareness campaign advert

2007-05-11T09:33:00.000+02:00

At the EU Media seminar, one of the speakers showed this amusing video to raise awareness of children's web-use among parents.

Protecting children vs. free speech

2007-05-10T12:05:00.000+02:00

Over the years I’ve attended a lot of EU events focusing on children’s use of and behaviour on the internet. One issue that is rarely raised in these EU events is the unfortunate tension between child protection and free speech. Many experts in the EU advise using filtering and blocking tools in particular with young children, who might be exposed to ‘harmful’ content on the web.

Although I understand their concerns, I worry about the EU funding development of such tools, mainly because research in this area is easily repurposed by governments to restrict freedom of speech and access. For instance, these technologies are used by China for it’s ‘Great Firewall’ (euphemistically termed the ‘Golden Shield’) and Burma to block access to controversial or critical websites. Indeed, Thailand recently blocked YouTube across the country, due to the posting of some rather silly but obviously critical videos about the King of Thailand.

At the same time, many free speech activists are constantly developing tools that allow users to subvert controls and filters; any smart kid could search for them on Google and thus subvert parental controls. Reminds me of the famous Star Wars quote: “the more you tighten your grip, […] the more […] will slip through your fingers.”

It’s a difficult issue, which I hope to raise today during the working group being chaired by Sonia Livingstone at the EU expert media seminar.

Google Earth: Crisis in Darfur

2007-05-04T12:33:00.000+02:00

I've been following the development of Google Earth with a lot of interest, as it's a great tool for supporting teaching and learning of Earth sciences, biology and geography. Recently Riina Vuorikari pointed out this impressive application, developed by the United States Holocaust Museum and Google. It mashes up data from Google Earth, personal testimonies and maps of settlements from the UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. It's unbelievably striking in conveying the impact of conflict, in a way that we can't grasp via TV news. Take a look.

Tim O'Reilly on Education 2.0

2007-05-03T17:14:00.000+02:00

"Tim O'Reilly is the founder of O'Reilly Media, and one of the originators of the phrase 'web 2.0" writes Steve Hargadon, to introduce his audio interview with Reilly himself.

He talks a great deal about exploratory learning, small class sizes and 'free data'.

Listen to the the Interview in MP3 format
Picture: from the O'Reilly website.

Setting up a new school in Cambodia

2007-05-03T16:15:00.000+02:00

A previous colleague and now friend John Denny is setting up a new school in Cambodia. I asked him a few questions about what he's up to.

What kind innovative uses of ICT are you putting in place?
"To be honest from my perspective none! But from a Cambodian perspective we are modern as I am pushing all aspects towards digital communications, such as a computer in each classroom. Instead of typical cassette tape listening methods we will use computers to play CD or MP3 versions. Students can then compile listening lessons in MP3 format to play back as they please or cut a CD for home use. I do hope to get some some basic recording equipment so we can upload digital lectures, yet at present stage Internet costliness is a major block in Cambodia as they tend to charge by the MB downloaded. Our school is one of the first to use an unlimited broadband line! We have a satellite connection beamed in from one of [Thaksin - ex-PM of Thailand] Shinawatra's floating beasts. Thus I will encourage massive downloading - something new for Cambodians."

What's been the biggest challenge in setting up the school?
"First I thought it was to create a unique identity as language schools are a dime a dozen here. Thus it has taken considerable thought coming up with a doable plan that will attract students while giving them the security they need. We intend to offer a quality program second to none."

"On second thought offering a quality program is a struggle. Getting highly motivated teachers, school staff and connected issue of creating a ""culture of quality" institution-wide is not an easy task. It is a major struggle dealing with my developed world sensibilities versus the reality that in a post-conflict country things simply do not and cannot work the way one knows they should."

What would be the dream 'killer app' for helping the school, whether pedagogical, admin or something else?

"That's an easy one. I am dying to get a web-based open source school management app installed and configured. My target is OpenAdmin, if that fails Focus/SIS or CLaSS. Whatever it is, I am desperate to consolidate all school management function in one web app. Yet the bigger struggle is to get largely non computer literate staff members to understand the importance and buy-in after it is installed."

What's the local reaction like?
"So far we have distributed about 10,000 brochures. I was instrumental in totally reconfiguring the marketing strategy set by our school director. Instead of paying media corporations to advertise our school I convinced the team to advertise for commission-based sales representatives. These sales reps are given brief training on school selling points then set afoot to broadcast the message. Any student enrollment generated by the sales rep then brings them a 10% sales commission. After bringing in 6 students a sales rep is awarded an extra bonus or the chance to enroll for free in any of our course offerings."

"As per several of the highly motivated sales reps the reception is excited and enthusiastic as they can see via our brochure that this school strives to be different, is going to be a value added experience -- the type of place where students come to develop a lifelong experience in learning and sharing ( i.e. 3 NGO's on premises; special workshops, lectures and seminars, free overseas study advise, free software distribution, etc...)"

The website is still under construction, but visit: http://www.princeacademy.org

Teaching the machine

2007-05-03T14:34:00.001+02:00

Short and sweet video on web 2.0, by Mike Wesch, a researcher who is currently working on an ethnography of YouTube.

Update (10 May 2007): I'm now at the EU Media Expert seminar in Leipzig, and the AOL speaker is showing this video in the plenary session!

Insafe: mobiles at school

2007-03-23T12:33:00.002+01:00

Right now I'm at the Insafe Training Meeting for the European network of Internet safety awareness nodes, being held in Vienna. It's been an interesting event, discussing around issues to do with children's media use. Annie Mullins, the "Internet hero" presented some interesting new and planned features for customising mobiles to the age of the child involved.

In a brief chat after her presentation, we agreed that the education system really needs to integrate mobile phones into teaching and learning. This will enable more media literacy activities around mobile use, and hopefully help to combat cyberbullying issues. The staff from children's helplines mentioned that cyberbullying is one of the major topics concerning kids now in their use of media. Maybe we don't spend enough time on 'netiquette' and mobile etiquette in schools, and parents often feel unable to deal with it.

Innovative Teachers Conference in Siam Reap

2007-03-02T12:15:00.000+01:00

UNESCO and Microsoft recently co-organised a conference for teachers in Angkor Wat, a beautiful World Heritage site in Siam Reap, Cambodia. The concept is really exciting, as it brought teachers to this amazing location, to work together in international teams to produce ICT-based teaching and learning materials, focusing on Angkor Wat as a theme for introducing other curricular areas such as arts, science and environment. More info on the UNESCO website and UNESCO Bangkok website.

Photo by TylerDurden.

Open educational resources: overcoming the obstacles

2007-02-28T14:30:00.000+01:00

I recently moderated a UNESCO online discussion, with Susan D'Antoni (UNESCO IIEP) and Jan Hylen (OECD) on open educational resources. The expert group looked in detail at an OECD study of OER, and made many suggestions and recommendations for enhancing and stimulating OER production. My finalised discussion report is now available for download.

Photo by Jek in the box.

Young people struggle to maintain their privacy online

2007-02-16T11:11:00.000+01:00

Latest results from a survey of young people I launched in December: "57% of young people make their online social network profiles public and disclose a great deal of personal information, according to a recent survey of 21,872 people across Europe organised by European Schoolnet, coordinator of European Insafe network. Almost a third of youngsters responding indicated that they didn't know what to do about making information public or private. However, in other areas, awareness of safe behaviour is increasing."

Read the full press release. A full report on the survey of young people will be released around the end of March.

Peacemaker: a game for peace

2007-02-15T17:25:00.001+01:00

Peacemaker is a computer game based on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It's aim is to "promote dialogue and understanding among Israelis, Palestinians and interested people around the world". The player has to find a route to peace, navigating through events such as suicide bombs, military attacks and diplomatic negotiations. Much of the game is based on real video footage, and has relied on university academics for their knowledge of the region and realism.

Watch the demo video

Open Access eLearning Papers

2007-01-23T12:24:00.000+01:00

eLearningEuropa.info, a European portal for ICT in education, has recently launched a new open-access, Creative Commons-licensed journal called eLearning Papers. The second volume (PDF) is now available for free download, while you can browse individual articles and papers on the site. Great to see an open approach being used by a publicly-funded project, and ties in nicely with the recommendations of the participants in the UNESCO-OECD forum on OER I led recently. Another archive of eLearning papers is available via TeLearn (see my previous post).

Safer Internet Day: global blogathon

2007-01-23T11:14:00.000+01:00

Safer Internet Day is taking place on 6 February 2007. More than 200 schools and 150 organisations are taking part in the event via a global ‘blogathon’ and competition for creating digital materials on ePrivacy, Netiquette, Innovation and the Power of Images.

Starting as an initiative in 2004, SID has become a major annual event crowning the awareness activities of Insafe, the European safer internet network coordinated by European Schoolnet.

Schools will showcase their creations in the 2007 Blogathon: a blog that opens every year on SID. On 6 February, 4 winners will be announced and receive prizes of ICT equipment for the schools worth a total of 3,000 euros. At the same time, the blog will be opened to participating organisations, who will each post messages on the topic of ‘crossing borders’ from all over the world.

Also on SID a press release will be issued including the first data from my survey of children's behaviour when using ICT tools such as mobile phones and social networking platforms.

Open archive of education technology research

2006-12-06T15:02:00.000+01:00

I4D recently wrote about TeLearn, an open archive of technology-enhanced learning research articles. TeLearn is offered by Kaleidoscope, a "European research network shaping the scientific evolution of technology enhanced learning", funded by the European Commission.

One laptop per child is unfeasible for developing countries

2006-12-01T13:44:00.000+01:00

I have been following with great interest the development of the MIT $100 laptop project, as it seems to have good potential for developing countries. Benjamin Vergel de Dios, UNESCO Bangkok, made a financial simulation of the costs of equipping every child in the Philippines with a $100 laptop. As you can see in his diagram, it implies increasing ICT budget by a 75%, which is unfeasible for most developing countries. Benjamin is coordinating on an excellent project, called ICT in Education Policy, which aims to "promote appropriate policy models and strategies for the integration of ICT into education in the Asia-Pacific region, with special emphasis on developing policies which utilize ICT to remove barriers to participation in education and enhance the quality of education".

Image: Benjamin Vergel de Dios

Augmented reality and mobile learning

2006-11-30T14:45:00.000+01:00

Leonard Low, who publishes the Mobile Learning blog recently posted an interesting concept for mobile learning interfaces. His idea is to have a flexible LCD screen which picks up location-based educational data via a mobile device. The student would then be able to access online resources and contacts according to his/her location, as an overlay of the view of the location itself.

As an aside, I think this is another illustration of the innovative nature of fiction - the overlay-style view he proposes looks rather similar to 'Terminator Vision' in James Cameron's 1984 Terminator movie.

Image by Leonard Low.

Passively Multiplayer Online Games for Schools?

2006-11-23T16:33:00.000+01:00

Howard Rheingold just blogged about Justin Hall's presentation at the University of South California's Annenenberg centre.

Howard wrote:
"Justin has fun online, works online, studies and loves and plays online -- and on his phone and his Playstation. Why can't the whole thing be a game -- a social game and a knowledge game? While he goes about his day's surfing, blogging, chatting, tagging, gaming, posting, uploading, downloading, Justin wants to experience the same visible sense of goal-oriented progress he gets in World of Warcraft when he looks at his screens and sees exactly what level his activities have earned him."

He also mocked up a screenshot using Jaiku, which I am using here to illustrate this post.

He also posted a link to a video (Quicktime) in which Justin explains the concept.

This kind of concept would also be great for learning environments, allowing users to understand how much progress they have made in different areas of their work. It's easy to see how it could be added to an LMS system such as Moodle for instance. Only problem is, it's inherently quantitative (i.e. will measure time and/or number of contacts, posts, etc) but would be unable to deal with qualitative aspects.

Social software and learning

2006-11-22T14:52:00.000+01:00

Futurelab, a great UK-based research organisation working on many exciting research projects in education technology. It's launched a series of useful publications on current hot topics, called Opening Education . They recently published 'Social Software and Learning (PDF)', an excellent overview of social software, implications of such software for education, plus a plan of action for moving towards community-based learning.

Games in education

2006-11-14T12:23:00.000+01:00

Computer games are becoming more and more popular in the educational world. UNICEF has just released Ayiti - The Cost of Life (via Water Cooler Games), a simplified 'Sims' style game where you assign tasks to family members living in Haiti. Even playing for just a few minutes communicates how difficult it is to balance health, education and finances when you are affected by poverty. Although I enjoy games, and see that they have some classroom uses, I think there's a lot of hype around them at the moment.

Obviously games have a lot of potential:

creating innovative interfaces for accessing educational content - mashing up Moodle with Second Life (SL) in Sloodle, so that content can be transferred and published on both platforms (more info on SL & education here)

increasing student motivation - using a new kind of interface can stimulate students' enthusiasm

improving hand eye coordination and reaction time - these are particularly crucial in fast-paced games.

I don't subscribe to the media hysteria of 'games are evil' (check out this interesting article on the topic from the Wilson Quarterly), I do see a number of issues in using games in education:

gender - navigation in virtual spaces has some gender issues; often boys find it easier to navigate due to more experience in game environments. Representation of gender roles in games can also be highly stereotypical, presumably because of the skewed gender representation in the technology industry

hampering creativity - some innovative games such as Sims and SL allow users to transform and create during the game. However, most still rely on users following one of a number of pre-determined paths, thus reducing creative opportunities.

difficulty and expense of game development - commercial games are now often more expensive to produce than Hollywood movies, and thus to produce an educational game of similar quality to the entertainment sector is prohibitively expensive.

More info about games in education:
Report from the Summit on Educational Games
University of British Columbia's virtual campus on SL
A collection of research papers on games in education on Citeulike
DoomEd - a first-person shooter game for science education.

Global nomads: video conferencing

2006-11-14T10:32:00.000+01:00

An article in Edutopia covered the Global Nomads project, which aims to get teenagers to get in touch with their peers across international borders. The school pupils get to meet via video conference, and discuss crucial topics such as HIV/AIDS, global warming and war. But it's not all school work: the students also get a chance to ask questions about family life and hobbies. The website includes a media library of short films from Vietnam, Brazil, Japan and many other countries, and a schedule of forthcoming video conferences.

Lessons from an unusual social network

2006-11-07T18:26:00.000+01:00

In the English speaking world, teenagers are all busy chatting to their friends on commercial social networking platforms, like MySpace (owned by News International) and Bebo. These platforms are full of advertising and offer little in terms of child protection or safety. Meanwhile many French speakers are using a rather unique platform, set up by a non-profit organisation, called Parano.be. Although it's based on rather basic technology (php), it has a huge number of users and survives on donations made by the biggest fans of the site. There is no advertising at all. Members join specific sectors based on their interests, which include sector-specific forums, bulletin boards and a number of other features. A virtual 'salary' is provided to users based on how long they stay online; the currency can be used to purchase virtual gifts or services for others, or even transferred directly to others' virtual accounts. The network is essentially organic: to invite a new member, you have to spend a relatively large sum of virtual currency to send the invite.

Here are some of the most intriguing features from an educational point of view:
- child safety is maintained. Under 18s can only join and view certain sectors of the site, which are monitored by older, verified individuals. Occasionally younger members will lie about their age, but the community usually swiftly responds. There is a high level of responsibility and self-policing. It shows that a school-based community could effectively be moderated by older children.
- role play (RP) is pervasive: although the interface is largely text based, RP is part of the life of most sectors on the discussion forums. The moderators organise an RP session on a regular basis, based on the suggestions of the members. These RP sessions are basically long stories generated by the contributions of each user, and can be highly imaginative. In education, such an approach would be great to encourage creativity and written expression.
- rank changes according to behaviour: the moderators assess the level of participation and other issues to understand what rank the members should have. Usually enthusiastic members will rapidly rise in rank, unlocking new features and 'missions' to complete. This is an interesting 'game style' approach which could encourage pupils to use a system.
- virtual currency is usually spent solidifying social links: buying virtual gifts such as champagne, flowers, teddy bears, etc. for others is really important in keeping good relationships with other members. Such a system could be used in a school-oriented scenario to help individuals understand money management and mathematics.
- games are common: individuals will organise games or competitions from their profiles. They could be treasure hunts, to find information hidden on others' profiles, or simple trivia questions. Prizes are usually virtual currency or gifts. This ludic atmosphere could easily be transferred into an educational 'quest'.

Football, global thinking and ICT in the holidays

2006-11-03T13:07:00.000+01:00

The Communication Initiative recently published an article which alerted me to Bring on the World, a pack of excellent ICT-based resources for informal education activities for school breaks. Using the World Cup as a basis for exploration, this pack of activities released by Oxfam helps children to think and learn about fair trade, globalisation, Millenium Development Goals and other huminatarian topics. At the same time, the activities are linked to the UK curriculum, as they involve PE, English (reading and writing), Geography, Citizenship and ICT.

Picture from Oxfam website.

Open source learning resources repository

2006-11-02T11:45:00.000+01:00

Not all schools or other educational institutions need or want to install a learning management system (LMS), but a learning resource repository is extremely useful for keeping track of digital learning resources and better enabling sharing between teachers and learners. European Schoolnet has recently released MINOR, an open source "repository to store, manage, and exchange the multimedia assets produced by teachers", as it says in the news article they recently published. The application and source code can be downloaded from Sourceforge.

eLearning for developing countries: what's needed?

2006-11-02T11:02:00.000+01:00

Despite many good intentions for developing countries to 'leapfrog' in technical terms, it is rarely yet the case. In many ways, this is because most technologies are designed and deployed in a developed country context, and thus have a number of limitations when trying to implement in a developing country. Additionally, many developing countries still don't have many specialists in ICT in education, and rely mainly on the precious few of enthusiastic, over-worked, pioneering teachers to drive change in their schools.

My work in SE Asia and Europe has prompted me to identify some issues which might help developing countries to deploy more cutting edge technologies in schools, despite the status quo of low bandwidth, poor infrastructure, low levels of training and support for teachers.

1. LAN-based Learning Management System (LMS) installation

many LMS have excellent features which would help schools in developing countries to make best use of their low levels of connectivity and relatively few ICT-based resources. Using an LMS with some learning content management features on a LAN is a good solution for enabling teachers to effectively share their 'homegrown' as well as externally acquired ICT resources. In addition, using LMS tools would enable students to get a 'feel' of using Internet-style applications without the need for broadband connectivity.

What are the barriers? Cost (especially in the case of commercial LMS), difficulty of installation (particularly in Open Source LMS), need for low cost LMS on appropriate platform (many low cost LMS run on Linux, which many teachers find hard to install).

2. Platforms based on mobile phone technologies

Many developing countries have very low numbers of PCs in schools, and low connectivity. However, many people are using mobile phones, and I have seen that many teachers have their own. In Thailand for instance, many people have mobile phones with quite advanced features. There is clearly potential for using mobile phones for teacher support and networking - e.g. sharing lesson plans, tips and advice. My previous post on mobile learning has other ideas.
What are the barriers? Lack of models for use of such platforms, lack of knowledge among teachers in installing/configuring such platforms.

3. Platforms with a range of content creation and synchronisation options
Due to low connectivity, schools in developing countries can benefit from platforms which can deal with offline content creation, which can synchronise/upload/download new resources and other content in a batch process. Surely RSS/XML technologies can handle this rather easily.
What are the barriers? Barriers are almost non-existent. Are there platforms out there already which have these capabilities?

4. Open content repositories with language agnostic approach Many educators in developing countries say that there is little content available in their languages. However, there are huge amounts of language-free content online in the form of pictures, maps, small sound files and other non-textual forms. But teachers and students cannot find such content due to the lack of index and search tools available in their own languages. It would be great to see more organisations taking a FOSS/OER approach to translating at least search interfaces in minority languages.
What are the barriers? Lack of capacity within developing countries to take the initiative on such issues, lack of awareness in developed countries to make such facilities available.

5. Training in dealing with low ICT infrastructure scenarios Many teachers in developing countries seem to think that they can only really use ICT if they have one or two pupils per computer in the computer lab. There are many strategies for using ICT without having a good level of infrastructure. For instance, I saw in one training session, Chris Smith using just one keyboard and mouse together with a projection screen to engage a whole group. Basically, one person controlled the mouse, and another the keyboard. Both were passed around the room so that everyone used the equipment during the session - the only additional investment needed was a very long (but cheap) cable! Other strategies such as using web applications on a LAN, backing up websites using tracker programes (like HTTracker) so they can be browsed offline when Internet connection is slow or disconnects often. There are many other strategies, but hardly any training or training content for teachers on this topic.
What are the barriers? Most training is planned still with an "ideal" situation in mind rather than a realistic view of the state of schools. Better needs analysis should be done when planning training.

What MySpace can teach education technologists

2006-10-24T12:40:00.000+02:00

MySpace, the site that most Western teenagers use every day, but also love to hate. It has so many problems and issues, but nonetheless continues to grow in popularity. Perhaps there are some lessons we can learn for education technology projects.

1) Users can tolerate bugs: Myspace is bug-ridden. This morning I had to log in 10 times to subscribe to a friend's blog. But people still go there every day..
2) All that matters is the people: Most users only stay on MySpace because their friends and useful contacts are there.
3) Safety is not assured: although still affecting a relatively small number, safety concerns are high (as anyone can register, and say they are any age). So adults can send unsuitable content to children.
4) Privacy worries: teens are posting unsuitable content, without thinking about the consequences. There's clearly need for more media literacy education here.
5) Usability isn't such a big deal: the MySpace interface is very inefficient and requires far too much clicking to do some simple tasks. But they still go back...
6) Corporate ownership doesn't worry them: teens are uploading creative work to the MySpace platform without any concerns about ownership.

US researcher Danah Boyd has written a great deal about MySpace and similar social networks. Also my previous post on digital teenagers has some discussion of similar issues, and a link to an audio file which includes teens talking about MySpace.

Digital teenagers

2006-10-20T14:52:00.000+02:00

A recent post on David Warlick's 2 Cents Worth blog pointed me in the direction of a recorded interview with a bunch of American teenagers about their Internet habits, which took place at the 2005 web 2.0 conference. I found it particularly interesting, as I realised that my own Internet habits were pretty similar to the teenagers. Here are some of the main points that struck me:
- teenagers spend a great deal of time on MySpace or similar social networks. I visit MySpace once daily, although don't spend as long on there as they do - but I'm using alternative spaces for similar activities.
- they are really into IM, via whatever interface is used by most of their friends. I only recently managed to get off IM (mainly to save myself time, as I often got into distracting conversations in the middle of the day), although in a previous job I used IM extensively to chat with web developers
- they don't want to pay for things, and use P2P networks on a regular basis. Me too!

My conclusion is that we need to look more into the following areas in education:
- Internet safety for teens: how to protect them through education and media literacy
- IM for education: there are obvious applications in language teaching (linking up pairs of students across borders to chat in second languages) but how else could it be used?
- P2P educational resources: in education, we often say that we want teachers to share resources, but still put up barriers to students doing this. Shouldn't we allow students to share/learn from each other in this way too?

Postcode plants database

2006-10-18T11:27:00.000+02:00

The UK's Natural History Museum offers this excellent resource for the UK. You simply fill in the first part of a UK postcode in the search box, and the database returns a list of native flora from that area. The species are listed under both common and scientific names, and clicking on the species gives a few additional details such as the family, form, provenance and in many cases, some photographs. The database could inspire many different educational activities, such as comparing and contrasting species found in two or more areas of the country, providing a "jumping off" point for outdoor investigations, where children could map the frequency and location of particular species in the local area. The possibilities are really only limited by the imagination. Unfortunately the database is copyright to the Natural History Museum - it would be great to see this as a Creative Commons licensed resource. It's a nice initiative that could be widened to a global scale.

Update (19/10/2006): this morning I read Stephen Downes' post, re-emphasising the value of P2P infrastructures compared to client-server approaches. It made me re-think the value of this kind of postcode database. It would be even better if there were open contribution databases, with feeds which could be federated into one... Then, students could be contributors and constructors of the resource, rather than just users.

Google and Oracle make further moves in education

2006-10-18T11:06:00.000+02:00

Both companies have recently announced new initiatives for education. Google have partnered with a number of educational organisations (mostly US based) to provide examples and advice for teachers around a number of their tools. They now have a specific website for educators bringing together the tools and content.

Meanwhile the Oracle Academy has a new curriculum for secondary school students in advanced ICT, and new training materials for teachers. There is an overview (PDF) posted on the site. It seems like a more formal approach to complement the existing informal learning project I previously blogged about, Thinkquest.

Photo by Marvin.

Thinkquest Thailand

2006-10-17T07:24:00.000+02:00

Oracle's Thinkquest competition for students is taking place again this year. So far, only one Thai team has taken part in the past. This year, three teams will join in the competition, and thanks to Dr. Rangsun at the Thai Bureau of ICT, I have the chance to support them. Dr. Rangsun organised a great one-day workshop, where the teams of students and teacher-coaches presented their ideas so far, and received constructive criticism from Oracle experts, Dr. Rangsun and myself. Now, the teams are supporting each other via a discussion list. I look forward to seeing the results!

Making connections through images: Memory Project

2006-10-13T07:51:00.000+02:00

No Man's Blog recently introduced me to the Memory Project, a really wonderful small-scale project linking high school students in Western countries with disadvantaged kids in developing countries. The high school students are studying art, and are asked to make a portrait of their distant counterpart. As it says on the site/
"Given that children who have been abandoned, neglected, abused, or orphaned usually have few personal keepsakes, the purpose of the portraits is to provide them with a special memory of their youth and to help honor their heritage and identity".

It would be great to see this project enlarged, so that there is a long term means of contact between the two groups. Adding an ICT-based element for maintaining contact would then also act as an informal training mechanism for the children in the developing country.

Mobile learning

2006-09-21T09:41:00.000+02:00

I've often thought that mobile learning is going to be an even more exciting development than traditional eLearning. Even in developing countries, mobile phones are well used (here in Thailand, I'm often embarrassed by how old my phone is compared to the young people on the SkyTrain). So their potential for unlocking a much more accessible approach for education is huge.

There is some interesting work going on in Europe, based on mobile phones. Lots of ideas are flying around like pervasive educational games for pupils, on-demand tutoring/mentoring for university students, making interactive location-based content using the mobile version of the Flash application...

There is a good research project, called emapps.com which has among its goals:

"adaptable interactive tools (primarily games played on a mobile platform) with which to deliver learning objectives and which help to integrate the use of ICT in the delivery of the school curriculum;"

"to build communities of creative, networking children in the NMS, generating their own cultural content and communicating with peer groups in other countries"

"to make the multilingual and multicultural local content created during the games to be shared and repurposed for use in the wider eLearning context of schools and children".

Futurelab is an excellent UK research centre for ICT in education. They have produced a report called "Literature Review in Mobile Technologies and Learning" which includes a number of casestudies.

Ericsson, the mobile phone company is doing some research on m-learning, and offers a nice overview presentation (PDF) and also an update on main EU activities in this area.

Mobilearn is a large scale EU project led by Giunti(an Italian LMS & multimedia company). The project has made available a great deal of handy resources.

Finally, I also came across Mobile Learning, a good blog keeping up to date on the issues.

Update (17/10/2006): I met with Teemu Leionen from FLOSSE Posse in Bangkok a few weeks ago, and he let me know about the MobilEd project, which is doing some interesting experiments using mobile wikis in low connectivity contexts in S. Africa.

Update (3/11/2006): Howard Rheingold recently posted about free mobile phones for teenagers supported by advertising in Finland. It would be interesting to see a similar initiative in developing countries.

Photo by Donknuth.

Open content for education

2006-09-12T04:55:00.000+02:00

Educational content is still too expensive and inaccessible for many developing countries, whether it is digital or traditional. As connectivity rates increase dramatically, it makes sense to prepare digital materials for these newly connected educational institutes, teachers and young people. There are a number of interesting projects worldwide to do this, including the Global Text Book project, aiming to "create a free library of 1,000 electronic textbooks for students in the developing world". These textbooks will cover areas typically included in the first two years of undergraduate study - I'm sure many developed world students will use them too.

Another interesting approach comes from the Centre for Open and Sustainable Learning, part of the Utah State University in the USA. They are involved in a range of projects such as Creative Commons for Education, creative learning environments using advanced visualisation, and open course ware (OCW). Even better, all their materials are CC licensed too.

Wikieducator is also part of the whole open content movement, acting as a hub for those interested in this area. The portal itself hosts free content for education, and the people behind it network to find ways of funding open content projects. Meanwhile the Bazaar is a similar approach, but a wider scope, as it's a community for exchange and use of both open content and free & open source (FOSS) software.

The University of Art and Design Helsinki has recently collaborated with UNESCO to offer the Young Digital Creators kit, a free kit for schools and other educational organisations, which includes a variety of approaches, tips and more for helping young people to make creative content. To support the activity, the kit includes a number of FOSS tools. UNESCO also has another project for producing CDs of FOSS tools and open content for education, which I previously blogged about here.

Finally, the mother of all open content projects, Creative Commons has a great archive of materials and useful advice for licensing your content in more open ways.

Update (24/10/2006): UNESCO's Virtual University project hosts a number of online discussions of Open Educational Resources for Higher Education.