June 13, 2013: IJEDICT Weekly News is out

"IJEDICT Weekly News", by Stewart Marshall: A free online newspaper with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos about ICT for education and development.

Read and subscribe free online at: http://paper.li/f-1325685118

ICT as an enabler of growth and development

ABOUT two weeks ago, I delivered my contribution to the Sectoral Debate in Parliament. It was my second such presentation as minister of state in the Ministry of Science, Technology, Energy, and Mining, at which time, I presented Jamaica's first National Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Roadmap.
Created from a year of consultation with industry specialists and stakeholders, policymakers, academics and a wide range of other contributors, I believe many of the details deserve further explanation, as this plan that will drive this all-important sector.

Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/ICT-as-an-enabler-of-growth-and-development_14447177#ixzz2W7bVlvv4

Digital divide widens in The Gambia

Expensive and inaccessible electricity is preventing poor children in Africa from joining in the digital revolution

Muhammed Jawara's lessons never last more than half an hour. Teaching ICT at a secondary school in the Gambian village of Sohm, where there is no mains power source, means when the battery of the clapped-out donated laptop he uses to teach with dies, class is over.
To charge this laptop for his next class, Jawara must cycle to a nearby village where an NGO with electricity lets him plug in. He makes this trip up to ten times a day.

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jun/06/gambia-digital-divide-widens

Chinese Farmer Turns His Homemade Bionic Arms Into Business

After Chinese farmer Sun Jifa lost both of his arms in an accident, he invented his own bionic arms and turned that into a business.

Read more at: http://mashable.com/2013/05/29/chinese-farmer-bionic-arms/

20 Important African Startups to Watch

Kenya's huge success with mobile money and the M-Pesa platform has launched Africa into the startup spotlight.
Whether ecommerce in Nigera, price comparison in South Africa or mobile advertising in Tanzania, African startups are changing the continent.

Read more at: http://mashable.com/2013/06/06/african-startups/

ICT development discussed in Baku

The ICT sector will play an important role in the development of Azerbaijan's economy, next to the oil sector, Communications and Information Technologies Minister Ali Abbasov told journalists on June 3.
According to Abbasov, issues related to the development of the ICT sector and its role in the framework of the development concept "Azerbaijan 2020: A Look into the Future" are on the agenda of discussions with foreign experts at the Baku Futures Forum being held on June 3.

Read more at:  http://www.azernews.az/business/54806.html

Should Africa beware tech companies bearing gifts?

When Erin Hayba began a project to bring computers to solar-powered schools in the world's biggest refugee camp, there were plenty of sceptics.
Two years later, there are 215 computers spread among 32 primary, seven secondary and four vocational schools in the Dadaab complex in north-east Kenya, home to more than 400,000 people, mostly from nearby Somalia. Each school has a solar panel.
But the intentions of the world's leading tech companies came under scrutiny during last week's eighth conference on ICT for development, education and training, attended by 1,500 participants. Efforts to close the gap between California's Silicon Valley and the specific needs of millions of African children were not always successful.

Read more at: http://m.guardian.co.uk/global-development/2013/jun/03/africa-beware-tech-companies-gifts

‘Digital natives’: An Asian perspective for using learning technologies

Authors:
D.M. Kennedy, James Cook University Australia, Singapore Campus
R. Fox, The University of Hong Kong

Abstract
Students entering universities in the 21st century have been described variously as digital natives, the millennial generation or the net generation.
To date there has been little information specific to the Asian learner and their use of technology. This paper begins with a description and analysis of a survey that examined the knowledge, skills and understanding of students entering first-year undergraduate studies at the University of Hong Kong. This description is followed by a discussion of the potential impact this has for the design of learning environments in higher education.

Published in the International Journal of Education and Development using ICT - Vol. 9, No. 1 (2013)

Read more at: http://ijedict.dec.uwi.edu//viewarticle.php?id=1558

Ghana Business News » ICT experts asked to help accelerate Africa’s economic development

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts in Africa have been tasked to develop workable solutions to address the numerous challenges in the mobile communications sector to accelerate economic development.
Dr Osei Darkwa, President of the Ghana Technology University (GTUC), who made the statement during the Second GTUC Conference in Accra recently, asked the experts to explore opportunities in the mobile communications sector to speed up development.
The conference was on the theme: “Applications of Mobile Communications in Africa: Prospects and Challenges”.

Read more at:  http://www.ghanabusinessnews.com/2013/05/25/ict-experts-asked-to-help-accelerate-africas-economic-development/

European Commission laments education sector's lack of ICT skills

Many teachers are ill-equipped to teach students IT-related subjects, according to a survey by the European Commission.
The study featured 190,000 responses from 27 European countries and concluded that access to skilled and confident ICT teachers is more important than being able to use the latest equipment.
However, across the countries surveyed, teacher training in ICT is rarely compulsory, meaning many teachers have to use their spare time to develop these skills.
Its findings also suggest that, while the number of computers in schools has doubled since 2006, 20 per cent of secondary-level students claim to have never (or almost never) used a computer in their school lessons.

Read more: http://www.itpro.co.uk/staffing/19662/european-commission-laments-education-sectors-lack-ict-skills#ixzz2UIwR6P6t

On the Move: Mobile Learning for Development

Edited by:
Wanjira Kinuthia, Georgia State University
Stewart Marshall, The University of the West Indies

This a recently published book on how some educators have embraced the opportunities afforded by mobile learning in developing and resource challenged contexts.
The book will appeal to elected public/government representatives, public service agencies, community groups, regional development bodies, researchers, educational technologists and others interested in mobile learning. Students on senior undergraduate or postgraduate courses in educational technology, education, development studies, information technology, information systems, business, health, and social work will find this book useful in their studies related to the application of mobiles in learning and development.

More details: http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/mobile-learning-book

May 23, 2013: IJEDICT Weekly News is out

"IJEDICT Weekly News", by Stewart Marshall: a free, online newspaper with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos about the use of ICT for education in developing and resource challenged contexts.

Read and subscribe free online at: http://paper.li/f-1325685118

IJEDICT Weekly News

"IJEDICT Weekly News", by Stewart Marshall: A free, online newspaper with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos about education and development using ICT.

Read and subscribe free at: http://paper.li/f-1325685118

How can social media change how development is done?

From journalism to business, social media is changing how institutions engage citizens. But what effect will this have on development? Join the debate Thursday, 16 May.

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/may/13/social-media-global-development-debate

May 2, 2013: IJEDICT Weekly News is out

"IJEDICT Weekly News", by Stewart Marshall: an online newspaper with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos about ICT for education and development.

Read and subscribe free at: http://paper.li/f-1325685118

Lead Poisoning Comes to the Remote Amazon

Inside the simple wood-frame house, a 6-year-old boy plays with a piece of malleable metal, biting it as his younger sister watches. In the background, piled against the wall, are two long strips of the metal – lead sheathing from an electrical cable that the family sold for scrap.
Lead seems like an odd thing to find in an Achuar village deep in the Peruvian Amazon. But the metal is valuable here, since it is easily molded  to make perfect weights for fishing lines and nets.
That convenience comes at a cost. Three out of every four children in communities in the Corrientes River basin have blood lead levels higher than those considered excessive under U.S. health guidelines.

Read more at: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=lead-poisoning-comes-to-the-remote-amazon

UNICEF Admits Its Facebook Likes Don't Save Lives

In the latest TV commercial campaign from UNICEF Sweden, the organization admits something few seem to remember in the age of social media milestones: Facebook Likes don't save lives.
In the most viral clip, which has received more than 40,000 views on YouTube, we meet a young boy named Rahim, who's sick, though he says he's not worried because of UNICEF Sweden's Facebook community.
"UNICEF Sweden has 177,000 Likes on Facebook. Maybe they will reach 200,000 by summer," he says.
His sardonic statement, as you can see in the above video, reflects many organizations' and brands' preoccupations with getting Likes. UNICEF Sweden informs viewers that Likes won't deliver life-saving vaccines to the children in need.

Read more at: http://mashable.com/2013/05/01/unicef-facebook-likes-dont-save-lives/

Emerging Issues: Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)

On this week's one-year anniversary of Coursera bursting onto the MOOCs scene, COL is starting an online discussion on the emerging issue of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).
COL advocates increased access to education at all levels.
We are conscious of the existence of the “iron triangle” relationship between access, quality and costs. Technology has been considered a key factor in adjusting the iron triangle in favour of the learner and society at large. Can MOOCs, primarily a technology-based development in education, contribute to improved access to education with higher quality?

Read more at: http://www.col.org/resources/Pages/EmergingIssues.aspx

Mobile Phones Deliver Millions of E-Books to Developing World

Non-profit Worldreader has brought more than half a million e-books to children in Africa via the 10,000 Kindles it's distributed. After a one-year pilot program, the organization has launched Worldreader Mobile, a way for any feature phone user with a 2G connection to read more than 1,400 books for free.
"Feature phones are omnipresent in the developing world. They're people's lifelines; they're where they get their access to payments and the Internet," Susan Moody, Worldreader's director of marketing and communications, tells Mashable. IPhones and similar smartphones may be buzzworthy, she says, but they apply to a proportionally small number of people. Five billion people are using feature phones that run on 2G networks.

Read more at: http://mashable.com/2013/04/17/worldreader-mobile/

April 25, 2013: IJEDICT Weekly News is out

"IJEDICT Weekly News", by Stewart Marshall: A free, online newspaper with a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos about using ICT for education and development.

Read and subscribe free at: http://paper.li/f-1325685118