http://kevincorbett.com/2013/02/mobile-learning-report-card-infographic/
The preceding infographic
was put out by T-Mobile in late 2012/early 2013, making predictions about how
prevalent mobile devices will be in schools across the United States. Some of the statistics seem improbable, such
as the prediction that by 2016 100% of K-12 students will use handheld mobile
devices for education; this is based on the assumption that every family will
be able to afford a handheld mobile device for every child, and that every
school will be able to provide Wi-Fi for the use of said mobile devices. I can’t see that happening by 2016, although
there is a school in the US that has gone completely digital, Archbishop
Stepinac in White Plains NY, in an effort to be at the forefront of 21st
Century education. A full article can be
found here: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/09/12/no-more-books-high-school-goes-all-digital-/2807577/. A few main points from the article that
highlight how mobile devices can help libraries were as follows: students will
be having lighter loads to carry, student access will be cheaper, and it will
be working towards the goal of having “tech savvy” graduates, which is a necessity
in this age of technology.
I
was actually quite surprised at how few library projects there are for
developing nations, either that, or I was not using the right search
words. That isn’t to say I didn’t find
any, but besides Room to Read and Library for All, I was hard pressed to find
specific programs. With a little bit
more digging, I found a program that might even be considered the fore-father
of these two programs, and it’s called One Laptop Per Child, which had it’s
very early beginnings in 1984 when Nicholas Negroponte had an idea to bring
technology to developing nations, at little to no cost. He discusses this idea, as well as several
others (including touch screen technology, with an amazing demonstration) at a Ted Talk from 1984:
The current
concept is that when someone in North America buys an XO laptop (designed by
Negroponte and his team), then one is given to a child in a developing
country. The initial price for the
laptops when the program officially started in 2005 was $100, and now they cost
$180. Although a laptop is technically
not a handheld mobile device, they are small and lightweight, and a tablet
version was in development stages for release in 2014. Just as I was going to post this blog, I was
looking for an infographic for the OLPC program, and I came across a news
article that said that the non-profit branch of OLPC has closed its doors in
Boston (where the project first began), but the for-profit program is still up
and running in Miami, article can be found here: http://venturebeat.com/2014/03/11/one-laptop-per-child-may-be-done/
Regardless of whether or not the program
continues, it has given over 2.5 million laptops to developing nations between
2006-2014, allowing children to learn through the use of technology, who
otherwise would not have had the opportunity.
Negroponte discusses the project in the following Ted Talk, filmed in
2007, 2 years after the launch of OLPC:
Amazing
Links!!!!
Link to paper discussing
DL’s (Digital Libraries) and how the combination of them and mobile devices can
benefit developing nations:
Link to paper outlining a
program called: The World
Digital Library and Universal Access to Knowledge, which was developed by “UNESCO and 32 partner institutions launched on April 21,
2009 the World Digital Library, a website that features unique cultural
materials from libraries and archives from around the world. The site – located
at www.wdl.org – includes manuscripts, maps, rare books, films, sound
recordings, prints and photographs. It provides unrestricted public access,
free of charge, to this materiali.”
Link to article discussing
other programs that are trying to increase world literacy, not just digital
literacy:
A wonderful book about ICT
in Developing Countries available for free in PDF format, found here:
A good blog post that captures many of then key elements of these issues around mobile devices and how much hype there is out there when not everyone can afford these luxuries. Good work on finding the old OLPC video, they have been focused on this important goal for some time now!
ReplyDeleteI like how you also recognize that students will need broadband width. Mobile devices cost money, but the real cost is in the monthly/ annual subscription fee for data if you cannot access Wifi. I wonder how those laptops get used in some countries with little broadband width?
ReplyDeleteI found the infographic you posted very interesting. I was surprised to read that 1/3 of Americans have not adopted broadband and the disadvantage this must play in education. I can see an increased use of digital textbooks in schools in the coming years but I wonder about the cost?
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