Prensky, M. (2001) “Digital natives, Digital Immigrants”. On the Horizon, Volume 9 (issue 5).
This 2001 article is essentially a first major introduction to the concept of Digital Immigration. A new concept in the day, the terms Digital Native and Digital Immigrant are explained. The article then applies these terms to a the real-life sithuation of education highlighting that misscommunication can easily take place as the two groups do not understand eachother like they used to as digital natives have a different use of language and have a different sense of ethics, politics and sociology. The article concludes saying that lecturers (digital immigrants) should alter the way by which they communicate to their students (digital natives) as they are fundamentally different from students in the past.
Prensky, M. (2004) “The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native”. markPrensky.com.
This article highlights areas in which digital natives particularly differ from digital immigrants. It lists and provides details on how digital natives have different ways of communicating, sharing, buying, selling, exchanging, creating, meeting, collecting, coordinating, evaluating, gaming, learning, searching, analysing, reporting, programming, socialising, evolving and ultimately growing up. It gives theory and examples on each of these topics. The article concludes that norms and behaviours are changing much faster than ever before and that digital natives are creating a new different form of life for themselves..
McHale, T. (2005) “Portrait of a Digital Native”. Tech & Learning.
This article starts giving an example of a typical modern day student's working situation and continues with her views on the technology she uses, calling it her "gateway to the world". She also believes that the she "grew up into" a world that expects her to use technology of this kind.
The article continues by introducing Prensky's concept of the Digital Immigrant and mentions Jane Healey's claim that it is impossible for children to focus on more than one thing at a time.
However, continues to discuss that research has shown that perhaps people up till the age of 17 have had the ability to build up a high level of multi-tasking abilities whilst growing up with digital media. The article continue's to discuss different point of views from experts as well as actual Digital natives.
Prensky M. (2003) “Digital game-Based Learning”. Computers in Entertainment, Volume 1 (issue 1), p21-p21.
This article from Prensky discusses the outcomes of a research by the University of Rochester which suggested that playing action-computer games may have a positive effect on a student's visual selective attention. Prensky then uses this data as a rgument stating that videogames may be a good way of engaging children into learning and that gaming could be used for educational purposes.
Prensky, M. (2006) “Listen to the Natives”. Educational Leadership, Volume 63 (issue 4), p 8 - p 13.
This article start by claiming that many educators are still using their old fashioned 20th century ways ways to try and teach the new generation. The article oncemore explains Prensky's concept of digital immigration and again lists a number of things modern students do differently. It dismisses the claim that modern student's can't engage to anything and suggests that student's are having difficulties engaging to school because school does not address them in the right, modern, digital way why the rest of the outside world does. It is then suggested that educators and students should collaborate more in order to find a way by which student's can regain interest in what happens in the classroom rather than being alienated from it because them and the teachers are not on the same wavelength.
Friday, 20 March 2009
RED ANSWERS - Question 4 /// In the Harvard manner, name five different academic articles dealing with the notion of young people's facility... etc.
1)
Prensky, M. (2001) “Digital natives, Digital Immigrants”. On the Horizon, Volume 9 (issue 5). http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.htm. [10/03/09].
2)
Prensky, M. (2004) “The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native”. markPrensky.com. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf. [10/03/09].
3)
McHale, T. (2005) “Portrait of a Digital Native”. Tech & Learning. http://www.techlearning.com/article/4572. [11/03/09].
4)
Prensky M. (2003) “Digital game-Based Learning”. Computers in Entertainment, Volume 1 (issue 1), p21-p21. http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=950596&type=pdf&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=26899431&CFTOKEN=32247491. [11/03/09].
5)
Prensky, M. (2006) “Listen to the Natives”. Educational Leadership, Volume 63 (issue 4), p 8 - p 13. http://centre4.core-ed.net/viewfile.php/users/38/1965011121/ICT_PD_Online/ListentotheNatives.pdf. [13/03/09].
Prensky, M. (2001) “Digital natives, Digital Immigrants”. On the Horizon, Volume 9 (issue 5). http://www.twitchspeed.com/site/Prensky%20-%20Digital%20Natives,%20Digital%20Immigrants%20-%20Part1.htm. [10/03/09].
2)
Prensky, M. (2004) “The Emerging Online Life of the Digital Native”. markPrensky.com. http://www.marcprensky.com/writing/Prensky-The_Emerging_Online_Life_of_the_Digital_Native-03.pdf. [10/03/09].
3)
McHale, T. (2005) “Portrait of a Digital Native”. Tech & Learning. http://www.techlearning.com/article/4572. [11/03/09].
4)
Prensky M. (2003) “Digital game-Based Learning”. Computers in Entertainment, Volume 1 (issue 1), p21-p21. http://portal.acm.org/ft_gateway.cfm?id=950596&type=pdf&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=26899431&CFTOKEN=32247491. [11/03/09].
5)
Prensky, M. (2006) “Listen to the Natives”. Educational Leadership, Volume 63 (issue 4), p 8 - p 13. http://centre4.core-ed.net/viewfile.php/users/38/1965011121/ICT_PD_Online/ListentotheNatives.pdf. [13/03/09].
RED ANSWERS - part 2 /// Identify five different websites/five-pages-on-different sites dealing with digital immigration and its counterpart.
1: "No Good Excuse"
http://www.assortedstuff.com/?p=1541
2: "BlogScholar: Debating Digital Immigration"
http://www.blogscholar.com/content/view/72/2/
3: "TIMES ONLINE Report: The Next Step In Brain Evolution"
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article683193.ece
4: "Digitalnative.org - Wiki"
http://www.digitalnative.org/wiki/Main_Page
5: "New York Times: Click & Jane"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/magazine/01wwln-medium-t.html?_r=2&bl=&ei=5087&en=60e0a8a5ed47f70d&ex=1233982800&pagewanted=all
http://www.assortedstuff.com/?p=1541
2: "BlogScholar: Debating Digital Immigration"
http://www.blogscholar.com/content/view/72/2/
3: "TIMES ONLINE Report: The Next Step In Brain Evolution"
http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/article683193.ece
4: "Digitalnative.org - Wiki"
http://www.digitalnative.org/wiki/Main_Page
5: "New York Times: Click & Jane"
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/magazine/01wwln-medium-t.html?_r=2&bl=&ei=5087&en=60e0a8a5ed47f70d&ex=1233982800&pagewanted=all
RED ANSWERS - part 1 /// Find out about 'Digital Immigration'.
1) Find out about 'Digital Immigration'.What Is it? Who cares about it? What sort of general attitudes have been based upon it?
The concept of digital immigration basically divides the users of modern day "new media" technologies into two groups:
Digital Natives
A digital native is somebody (fairly young) who has grown up in a world that "relies" on digital new media technologies, they basically "grew up with it". Therefore they have grown up using these technologies which are therefore like second nature to them. Some argue that this affects their way of life quite significantly, claiming that a certain social practises for them mostly occur online, rather than IRL.
Digital Immigrants
A digital immigrant is somebody who didn't grow up in "the digital age" and therefore had to adapt to these changing digital standards of new media.
One of the main points that the concept of Digital Immigration handles with is that, where digital antives can easily adapt to new technologies, multi-task and use them with great easy, digital immigrants are sometimes having difficulties finding their way in this "new world" (hence the use of the word "immigrants"). Also, it highlights communication-problems between the two groups as the digital immigrants have trouble communicating to digital natives who have a "new language" and, to a certaine xtend "a new view on the world around them".
Especially at points where the immigrants mostly communicate TO the natives (like in education) this could cause some serious problems. It is the difficultness by which the two communicate which is the "big" issue about digital immigration as the two demographic age groups (below and over 28 years old) are simply not "compatible" like they used to be.
The concept of digital immigration basically divides the users of modern day "new media" technologies into two groups:
Digital Natives
A digital native is somebody (fairly young) who has grown up in a world that "relies" on digital new media technologies, they basically "grew up with it". Therefore they have grown up using these technologies which are therefore like second nature to them. Some argue that this affects their way of life quite significantly, claiming that a certain social practises for them mostly occur online, rather than IRL.
Digital Immigrants
A digital immigrant is somebody who didn't grow up in "the digital age" and therefore had to adapt to these changing digital standards of new media.
One of the main points that the concept of Digital Immigration handles with is that, where digital antives can easily adapt to new technologies, multi-task and use them with great easy, digital immigrants are sometimes having difficulties finding their way in this "new world" (hence the use of the word "immigrants"). Also, it highlights communication-problems between the two groups as the digital immigrants have trouble communicating to digital natives who have a "new language" and, to a certaine xtend "a new view on the world around them".
Especially at points where the immigrants mostly communicate TO the natives (like in education) this could cause some serious problems. It is the difficultness by which the two communicate which is the "big" issue about digital immigration as the two demographic age groups (below and over 28 years old) are simply not "compatible" like they used to be.
Friday, 13 March 2009
Week 8: Articles (PART ONE)
Week 8: Article 1
"Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach."
This article was published in 2001 so fairly soon after the birth of the concepts of digital natives and digital immigrants, which means that research into the phenomenons was still quite basic.
The article seems to make the assumption that digital immigrants in teaching positions are unwilling to adapt their teaching-style to fit with, what he calls, students that are fundamentally different from students in the past. It's all a bit generalising, I feel. Also, as I don't think these new forms of education people are particularly suitable for all sciences. Yes, on a lot of courses new media should be embrassed and actively used, but on some it would not add anything new or enable teahers to get their point accross to students any better. There's also quite a few points made that I do agree with, like how things like changes brought to people's sense of ethics, politics, sociology, languages and other things by the phenomenon, but surely it's hard to determine where these changes are going as I personally feel they are still developing all the time. (If they will ever settle at all)
Article 2:
This article from 2004 lays out how digital natives are different from digital immigrants, and actually going point to point whilst doing so. A nice overview of the digital native/digital immigrant phenomenons and actually uses some practical example making the concepts easy to grasp. However, what this article DOES do is (quite shamelessly) categorising the digital native as "the other", therefore the article gives a very one-sided view.
"In a very short time technology has changed an entire generation’s behavior radically..."
A bit of a bold statement to make, I'd think. The way things are done, the day-to-day practises, if you like, have changed, yes. But I don't think the essence of the interactions has changed in every single category. Yes, people's attitudes to "ownership" and "collecting" have changed (I would think), but I can't say I agree with every single TOTAL trunaround that the writer makes out. I believe that in many cases new social practises have come to exist ALONGSIDE existing ones rather than replacing them completely.
Article 3
Article 3, from 2005, also tends to have a view of digital natives as "the other". An interesting link that article makes is that study on child developments show that the brain's ability to effectively self-organize competing information keeps developping until the age of 16/17, and that therefore digital natives will always be able to multitask better than their parents. But abilities like that differ from person to person. I know people myself who, despite being too old to have been 16/17 by the time the "digital revolution" took place who are able to multitask and use new media forms as good as most digital natives, although I'll admit they are the minority. Then again, I know people who are 20, who find it quite hard to keep up with "the latest technology" and prefer to call rather than text, and go to a record store rather than iTunes. So, maybe the whole notion of 'how new media-savvy' you are is not solely a case of age-group, but more to do with other factors aswel. It is similar to article 1, how it descibes a difference between educators who are digital immigrants and students being digital natives and the problems in communications this causes. The same old generalisation there then and therefore a lot of the critism I have on that article applies to this one and vice-versa.
Article 4
A controversial statement in this piece from 2003, it is claimed that playing action video games enhances a student's visual selective attention. But surely, so would driving and things like that then, wouldn't they? Any practice in reaction-speed and "looking out for stuff" should enhance these kind of skills, surely? So I think he's pretty much stating the obvious here, just served with extra hi-tech chips. (I do like my vague metaphores, sorry!) It is continued that "videogames aren't the enemy but the best opportunity to engage our kids in real learning". Again, practical ways of learning, or learning celeverly disguised as playing is not exactly a new thing either. I would agree that the changed past-time activities of digital natives should be taken into account, so "playing for learning" could indeed be combined with things like computer games, but it's just an evolution of this "tried -and-tested" practise, rather than a brand new thing, as the writer seems to want to put across. The article is clearly a bit dated, as things like the Nintendo DS and even the Nintendo Wii have both embedded education into many of the games they offer.
The writer of the article is credited as working for Games2Train, which means t5hat the author's views are hardly going to be unbiased, considering the company or institution's name.
Article 5
Aaaaaaargh, another article pretty much stating a similar thing about education. It is really hard to find academic articles about other parts of the phenomenon that this one. The article suggests that educational institutions should co-operate with the students more to solve "the problem", and I think there's a point there, even if it might blur the boundary between the teachers and the students a bit. I personally think that this whole digital divide between students and teachers is a temporary one anyway. Change will probably come when the generation who are students now become the teachers, bringing their own ideas of social activity to the teaching staff-meeting of the future (so to speak). Ofcourse people want to make sure these younger people are addressed in a way that engages, relates to and motives them, but I have never heard of fellow students who feel that lecturers REALLY should get a special MSN-account that students can use to ask them questions. Yes, students would probably use it if teachers DID have them, but most are quite happy to e-mail or meet them in real life instead. Simply because "it's the way it is". For now, anyway.
"Our students have changed radically. Today’s students are no longer the people our educational system was designed to teach."
This article was published in 2001 so fairly soon after the birth of the concepts of digital natives and digital immigrants, which means that research into the phenomenons was still quite basic.
The article seems to make the assumption that digital immigrants in teaching positions are unwilling to adapt their teaching-style to fit with, what he calls, students that are fundamentally different from students in the past. It's all a bit generalising, I feel. Also, as I don't think these new forms of education people are particularly suitable for all sciences. Yes, on a lot of courses new media should be embrassed and actively used, but on some it would not add anything new or enable teahers to get their point accross to students any better. There's also quite a few points made that I do agree with, like how things like changes brought to people's sense of ethics, politics, sociology, languages and other things by the phenomenon, but surely it's hard to determine where these changes are going as I personally feel they are still developing all the time. (If they will ever settle at all)
Article 2:
This article from 2004 lays out how digital natives are different from digital immigrants, and actually going point to point whilst doing so. A nice overview of the digital native/digital immigrant phenomenons and actually uses some practical example making the concepts easy to grasp. However, what this article DOES do is (quite shamelessly) categorising the digital native as "the other", therefore the article gives a very one-sided view.
"In a very short time technology has changed an entire generation’s behavior radically..."
A bit of a bold statement to make, I'd think. The way things are done, the day-to-day practises, if you like, have changed, yes. But I don't think the essence of the interactions has changed in every single category. Yes, people's attitudes to "ownership" and "collecting" have changed (I would think), but I can't say I agree with every single TOTAL trunaround that the writer makes out. I believe that in many cases new social practises have come to exist ALONGSIDE existing ones rather than replacing them completely.
Article 3
Article 3, from 2005, also tends to have a view of digital natives as "the other". An interesting link that article makes is that study on child developments show that the brain's ability to effectively self-organize competing information keeps developping until the age of 16/17, and that therefore digital natives will always be able to multitask better than their parents. But abilities like that differ from person to person. I know people myself who, despite being too old to have been 16/17 by the time the "digital revolution" took place who are able to multitask and use new media forms as good as most digital natives, although I'll admit they are the minority. Then again, I know people who are 20, who find it quite hard to keep up with "the latest technology" and prefer to call rather than text, and go to a record store rather than iTunes. So, maybe the whole notion of 'how new media-savvy' you are is not solely a case of age-group, but more to do with other factors aswel. It is similar to article 1, how it descibes a difference between educators who are digital immigrants and students being digital natives and the problems in communications this causes. The same old generalisation there then and therefore a lot of the critism I have on that article applies to this one and vice-versa.
Article 4
A controversial statement in this piece from 2003, it is claimed that playing action video games enhances a student's visual selective attention. But surely, so would driving and things like that then, wouldn't they? Any practice in reaction-speed and "looking out for stuff" should enhance these kind of skills, surely? So I think he's pretty much stating the obvious here, just served with extra hi-tech chips. (I do like my vague metaphores, sorry!) It is continued that "videogames aren't the enemy but the best opportunity to engage our kids in real learning". Again, practical ways of learning, or learning celeverly disguised as playing is not exactly a new thing either. I would agree that the changed past-time activities of digital natives should be taken into account, so "playing for learning" could indeed be combined with things like computer games, but it's just an evolution of this "tried -and-tested" practise, rather than a brand new thing, as the writer seems to want to put across. The article is clearly a bit dated, as things like the Nintendo DS and even the Nintendo Wii have both embedded education into many of the games they offer.
The writer of the article is credited as working for Games2Train, which means t5hat the author's views are hardly going to be unbiased, considering the company or institution's name.
Article 5
Aaaaaaargh, another article pretty much stating a similar thing about education. It is really hard to find academic articles about other parts of the phenomenon that this one. The article suggests that educational institutions should co-operate with the students more to solve "the problem", and I think there's a point there, even if it might blur the boundary between the teachers and the students a bit. I personally think that this whole digital divide between students and teachers is a temporary one anyway. Change will probably come when the generation who are students now become the teachers, bringing their own ideas of social activity to the teaching staff-meeting of the future (so to speak). Ofcourse people want to make sure these younger people are addressed in a way that engages, relates to and motives them, but I have never heard of fellow students who feel that lecturers REALLY should get a special MSN-account that students can use to ask them questions. Yes, students would probably use it if teachers DID have them, but most are quite happy to e-mail or meet them in real life instead. Simply because "it's the way it is". For now, anyway.
Week 8: Digital native: Webpages (PART TWO)
Webpage 4:
This is a complete website, entirely dedicated to the digital native and digital immigrant. It is run mainly by an academic research team with the help of registered users. The website is part of a larger research project on the concept. This research focuses on the impact that the concepts have and adresses specific issues and benefits related to the subject.
Webpage 5:
Another newspaper article, this time from a large American newspaper, that has made it to the web. It was published in January o fthis year so I would say the article is pretty much perfectly up-to-date and aware of the current situation regarding Digital antives and digital immigrants. The article starts by giving a clear example of a situation where the main issue of the concepts are prety obvious. It raises the issue of the development of children that fall into the category of digital natives. The page allows users to comment on the article.
This is a complete website, entirely dedicated to the digital native and digital immigrant. It is run mainly by an academic research team with the help of registered users. The website is part of a larger research project on the concept. This research focuses on the impact that the concepts have and adresses specific issues and benefits related to the subject.
Webpage 5:
Another newspaper article, this time from a large American newspaper, that has made it to the web. It was published in January o fthis year so I would say the article is pretty much perfectly up-to-date and aware of the current situation regarding Digital antives and digital immigrants. The article starts by giving a clear example of a situation where the main issue of the concepts are prety obvious. It raises the issue of the development of children that fall into the category of digital natives. The page allows users to comment on the article.
Thursday, 12 March 2009
Week 8: Digital native: Webpages (PART ONE)
Webpage 1:
This page, written in the summer of 2006 expresses the writer's personal critisism of the concept of the digital native and the digital immigrant. Claiming they are terms that are overused (ALREADY!) to describe something they do not understand or simply to dismiss the behaviour of those who they call digital natives or immigrants.
The page enables users to respond to the article.
Webpage 2:
This page, also from 2006, gives a (VERY!) brief history of the concept of "digital natives/immigrants" and quotes to opposing views on the matter. Sadly, that is all it does.
Webpage 3:
This webpage features a news article from a large British newspaper, also from 2006, explaining the concept itself (by using an example) as well as an example of "the opposite", talks of a "digital divide". Experts involved give their views and the article continues to report on academic research done on the phenomenon. The article concludes with several predictions of future developments of the concept. The article points out that it is not just a case of the age of a person but also their willingness and ability to embrace new technologies. How useful the article is to you depends on your knowledge of the concepts themselves as the article pretty much only covers the basic concepts of digital natives/immigrants themselves, the findings and opinion of experts are only mentioned quite briefly. The article is perfectly useful to give somebody and idea of what digital natives and digital immigrants actually ARE but doesn't seem to go particularly "deep" into the material. However, as it does mention some of these "experts" it could perhaps make it easier to find out more about them elsewhere.
This page, written in the summer of 2006 expresses the writer's personal critisism of the concept of the digital native and the digital immigrant. Claiming they are terms that are overused (ALREADY!) to describe something they do not understand or simply to dismiss the behaviour of those who they call digital natives or immigrants.
The page enables users to respond to the article.
Webpage 2:
This page, also from 2006, gives a (VERY!) brief history of the concept of "digital natives/immigrants" and quotes to opposing views on the matter. Sadly, that is all it does.
Webpage 3:
This webpage features a news article from a large British newspaper, also from 2006, explaining the concept itself (by using an example) as well as an example of "the opposite", talks of a "digital divide". Experts involved give their views and the article continues to report on academic research done on the phenomenon. The article concludes with several predictions of future developments of the concept. The article points out that it is not just a case of the age of a person but also their willingness and ability to embrace new technologies. How useful the article is to you depends on your knowledge of the concepts themselves as the article pretty much only covers the basic concepts of digital natives/immigrants themselves, the findings and opinion of experts are only mentioned quite briefly. The article is perfectly useful to give somebody and idea of what digital natives and digital immigrants actually ARE but doesn't seem to go particularly "deep" into the material. However, as it does mention some of these "experts" it could perhaps make it easier to find out more about them elsewhere.
Friday, 6 March 2009
Week 7: Distance learning: Africa
Education in a Health Disaster – Is eLearning a Solution?
http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news164.php
This article tells about the cholera outbreak in southern Zambia and how E-learning could potentially enable for the educational system to keep going during health disasters like these. These outbreaks obviously result into a wide-spread closure of schools in the area, and outbreaks off this kind have not proven to be particularly uncommon in Zambia.
"The closure of schools has had a negative effect on some exam-sitting pupils who earlier had protested against the government directive to close schools in cholera-affected areas while students in other regions were allowed to keep going to school. The pupils argued that they were all going to write the same exam at the end of the year and that it was not fair for them to stay home while friends in areas unaffected by cholera continued going to school."
Brenda Zulu, the writer of this article, goes on to claim that the Zambian (???) government should, in times like these, provide E-learning alternatives for those pupils who will not be able to attend regular class-sessions because of the health risks and that the country's Ministry of Education prepares themselves for the anual rainy season which traditionally brings not only health problems like these but also other types of disasters, such as floods. She also believes that the community should get prepared to use these other means of education such as E-learning, as, according to her, the country suffers Cholera outbreaks at the beginning of EVERY rainy season, and that therefore it is about time something was done about the way it interupts with pupil's studying, even if it is done by somewhat more "traditional" forms of media, such as Radio & TV, which are both widely available in Zambia.
Prof Thomson Sinkala agrees with her statement and adds that distance learning can also be a tool to educate pupuils and their parents about cholera itself and how to prevent it. He, however, did not think there was one single platform (or ICT tool as the article call them) to distribute the educational content on that is widespread enough to reach all zambians. He suggest teaming up with mobile phone providers as those are quite wide,ly used int he country, followed by Radio & TV broadcasting. He suggests that the government should invest in new technologies more as, (as the article later suggests trhough the words of a 12th grade student) especially younger zambians know how to use technology such as iPods and MP3-players, meaning podcasts could become a considerable option if the right investments are made.
At the moment there is an education radio programme available in Zambia for the lower grades but Brenda suggests that the programme's appeal should be broadened to reach older pupils too. She concludes by saying that, apart from floods and cholera outbreaks other occasional reasons for children to not attend school are strikes, bad weather and political unrest.
It seems weird to me personally that a country which ahs so many different factors that can disrupt its every goings on have shown so little commitment to solutions lik E-learning to at least keep the country's educational system going, especially as the rainy season and the health risks that come with it take place every single year and you would expect a government to take these sort of things into account. I can understand with these other problems, such as strikes an political unrest the government has other things to worry about than just this, but surely the anual cholera-scare is a problem that must've been around for a long time and I would have expected for a government to embrace new possibilities and technologies to solve these problems that have been going for years. Australia have been using distance learning for years, and been embracing available technologies to provide it as soon as they came available to solve their own (somewhat less threatening) problem of people being unnable to attend school so perhaps it actually is all down to the different economic (and political) situation in countries such as Zambia where things like the availability of education for all is "the least of their problems". I guess that this does explain the existence for these International Conferences on ICT for Development, Education & Training that are held in Africa every year as "Distance Learning as a possible solution" just isn't quite as much of a given as it is in economically more developped countries.
http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/news164.php
This article tells about the cholera outbreak in southern Zambia and how E-learning could potentially enable for the educational system to keep going during health disasters like these. These outbreaks obviously result into a wide-spread closure of schools in the area, and outbreaks off this kind have not proven to be particularly uncommon in Zambia.
"The closure of schools has had a negative effect on some exam-sitting pupils who earlier had protested against the government directive to close schools in cholera-affected areas while students in other regions were allowed to keep going to school. The pupils argued that they were all going to write the same exam at the end of the year and that it was not fair for them to stay home while friends in areas unaffected by cholera continued going to school."
Brenda Zulu, the writer of this article, goes on to claim that the Zambian (???) government should, in times like these, provide E-learning alternatives for those pupils who will not be able to attend regular class-sessions because of the health risks and that the country's Ministry of Education prepares themselves for the anual rainy season which traditionally brings not only health problems like these but also other types of disasters, such as floods. She also believes that the community should get prepared to use these other means of education such as E-learning, as, according to her, the country suffers Cholera outbreaks at the beginning of EVERY rainy season, and that therefore it is about time something was done about the way it interupts with pupil's studying, even if it is done by somewhat more "traditional" forms of media, such as Radio & TV, which are both widely available in Zambia.
Prof Thomson Sinkala agrees with her statement and adds that distance learning can also be a tool to educate pupuils and their parents about cholera itself and how to prevent it. He, however, did not think there was one single platform (or ICT tool as the article call them) to distribute the educational content on that is widespread enough to reach all zambians. He suggest teaming up with mobile phone providers as those are quite wide,ly used int he country, followed by Radio & TV broadcasting. He suggests that the government should invest in new technologies more as, (as the article later suggests trhough the words of a 12th grade student) especially younger zambians know how to use technology such as iPods and MP3-players, meaning podcasts could become a considerable option if the right investments are made.
At the moment there is an education radio programme available in Zambia for the lower grades but Brenda suggests that the programme's appeal should be broadened to reach older pupils too. She concludes by saying that, apart from floods and cholera outbreaks other occasional reasons for children to not attend school are strikes, bad weather and political unrest.
It seems weird to me personally that a country which ahs so many different factors that can disrupt its every goings on have shown so little commitment to solutions lik E-learning to at least keep the country's educational system going, especially as the rainy season and the health risks that come with it take place every single year and you would expect a government to take these sort of things into account. I can understand with these other problems, such as strikes an political unrest the government has other things to worry about than just this, but surely the anual cholera-scare is a problem that must've been around for a long time and I would have expected for a government to embrace new possibilities and technologies to solve these problems that have been going for years. Australia have been using distance learning for years, and been embracing available technologies to provide it as soon as they came available to solve their own (somewhat less threatening) problem of people being unnable to attend school so perhaps it actually is all down to the different economic (and political) situation in countries such as Zambia where things like the availability of education for all is "the least of their problems". I guess that this does explain the existence for these International Conferences on ICT for Development, Education & Training that are held in Africa every year as "Distance Learning as a possible solution" just isn't quite as much of a given as it is in economically more developped countries.
Week 7: Distance learning: China
China is a biiiiiiiiig nation, and not just big in size, but it is the enormous population of the country that originally called for the need for distance learning platforms in the "now-sort-of-former-communist" country.
In (traditionally capitalist) country's like Australia the distance learning phenomenon had already been widely adopted due to its relatively small population being spread out over quite a large island. Therefore people were not always able to get their children educated in the traditional school-going way.
In the 1960's China adopted a similar system to solve their own problem of having TOO MANY students to educate in the traditional way, but by using distance learning principles on platforms such as radio, television and "microwave" (in the out-of-the-kitchen-sense) it wa spossible to reach a large proportion of the population without having to build traditional schools/universities, thus keeping costs down whilst not compromising on the amount of people being educated. The Television Universities are funded by the State Education Commission and the quite steep tuition fees of the university. Later the broadcasted lectures became also available on audio and video tape and printed material, such as course books and study guides became available.
Over the years these Television Universities have proven to be moderately succesful educational institutions indeed with a range of 150 different undergraduate courses and over half a a million students graduating in th e last 8 years alone. However, I guess it needs pointing out that over 1.2 million people had enrolled in the same timespan, which means that less than half of all students who enrol actually finish their course.
I have a few issues with this educational system, though.
For one thing, not only do a BIG group of people receive exactly the same information in exactly the same way from exactly the same person, maybe not so muhc a problem in communist China, but still, but also is there no ability for students to question what is being taught. In a traditional learning environment there is quite usually a way for students to ask a lecturer "why" this is what they are being taught and are quite often encouraged to give their own ideas and opinions about an issue, after which a lecturer might even admit that the student "has a point" (even if it is quite often followed by "But,..."). If, for a television uni student the only platform they have to give their OWN opinion on something is in their actual assessment they might not feel comfortable enough to be (somewhat) alternative in the way they address issues and just write safer not-quite-as-ground-breaking (?) work instead.
Lateron, the ongoing crtisisism abotu this resulted in the Television University now offering the availability of face to face tutorials, which is all good and all, but it does mean that two of the main advantages of distance learning. One being the cost-saving of needing physical locations for tuitions and secondly availability for all as some of the students simply would not be able to attend a face-to-face tuition. This way not all students can receive the same level of tuition. Avilability for all is a bit of a weird concept to use in a country like China anyway, where wealth isn't exactly wide-spread and the courses given by the Television Uni's aren't exactly cheap. So basically University is still as elitist in China as it is in many other countries.
In (traditionally capitalist) country's like Australia the distance learning phenomenon had already been widely adopted due to its relatively small population being spread out over quite a large island. Therefore people were not always able to get their children educated in the traditional school-going way.
In the 1960's China adopted a similar system to solve their own problem of having TOO MANY students to educate in the traditional way, but by using distance learning principles on platforms such as radio, television and "microwave" (in the out-of-the-kitchen-sense) it wa spossible to reach a large proportion of the population without having to build traditional schools/universities, thus keeping costs down whilst not compromising on the amount of people being educated. The Television Universities are funded by the State Education Commission and the quite steep tuition fees of the university. Later the broadcasted lectures became also available on audio and video tape and printed material, such as course books and study guides became available.
Over the years these Television Universities have proven to be moderately succesful educational institutions indeed with a range of 150 different undergraduate courses and over half a a million students graduating in th e last 8 years alone. However, I guess it needs pointing out that over 1.2 million people had enrolled in the same timespan, which means that less than half of all students who enrol actually finish their course.
I have a few issues with this educational system, though.
For one thing, not only do a BIG group of people receive exactly the same information in exactly the same way from exactly the same person, maybe not so muhc a problem in communist China, but still, but also is there no ability for students to question what is being taught. In a traditional learning environment there is quite usually a way for students to ask a lecturer "why" this is what they are being taught and are quite often encouraged to give their own ideas and opinions about an issue, after which a lecturer might even admit that the student "has a point" (even if it is quite often followed by "But,..."). If, for a television uni student the only platform they have to give their OWN opinion on something is in their actual assessment they might not feel comfortable enough to be (somewhat) alternative in the way they address issues and just write safer not-quite-as-ground-breaking (?) work instead.
Lateron, the ongoing crtisisism abotu this resulted in the Television University now offering the availability of face to face tutorials, which is all good and all, but it does mean that two of the main advantages of distance learning. One being the cost-saving of needing physical locations for tuitions and secondly availability for all as some of the students simply would not be able to attend a face-to-face tuition. This way not all students can receive the same level of tuition. Avilability for all is a bit of a weird concept to use in a country like China anyway, where wealth isn't exactly wide-spread and the courses given by the Television Uni's aren't exactly cheap. So basically University is still as elitist in China as it is in many other countries.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Week 7: Distance learning: The LOI (The Netherlands)
The LOI (Leidse Onderwijs Instellingen > Leiden-based Educational Institutions) is a privately owned educational institute providing distant-learning only. I feel it needs pointing out that the city of Leiden is home of the prestigious Univerity of Leiden (www.leiden.edu) and that therefore the name of the city is usually associated with higher education. The LOI always put great emphasis on the fact that they're from Leiden in their promotional campaigns, however, the LOI have nothing to do with the university, which is one of the oldest universities in the country.The origins of the LOI lie within the city's "Institute of Trade Sciences". In 1923 this institute started doing their first (postal) distance-learning programme: a course in book-keeping. Ove the years the the institute has started running several other courses and in 1941 (So, surprisingly, in war time) the institute teamed up with a number of Leiden-based colleges to run distant-learning courses on their behalf, all under the LOI-banner.
In 1953 the LOI started providing audio-based language courses (on good old fashioned casettes) and in 1988 the LOI started experimenting with something called "digimail", a computer-based form of distance-learning, the technology of which seemed to be quite similar to what we would later become familiar with under the name E-mail. In 1996 the LOI introduced what they called the "LOI campus", an online, web-based learning environment. Originally the campus provided only written lectures, later video-lectures (some also streamed live) and downloadable audio-lectures became available. Since 2001 most of the courses are almost completely web-based with lectures ebing given through audio, video and text, seminars taking place in forums and online audio/video conferences and most assessments being submitted online. The LOI provides students with their own personal tutor (or I-coahc, as they like to call them) with whom they keep in contact through both email as well as instant messenging.
In 2002 the LOI started doing a small number of full university degrees, completely through distance learning, which up until then these were only provided by the Open Universiteit (Obviously the Dutch equivalent of the Open Univerity). The two however are not really in competition though, as these two distant-learning giants provide different degree courses. The reason for this is probably because the LOI would find it hard to compete with the lower tuition fees of the government funded Open Universiteit. Nonetheless, the LOI-brand has pretty much become synonym with distance-learning in the Netherlands and some of the open university's online services are clearly inspired by the LOI's online campus.
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