February 18, 2013: Teaching and Learning Weekly is out

Teaching and Learning Weekly, by Adam Atodl: A free online newspaper containing a curated selection of articles, blog posts, videos and photos about development sin teaching and learning.  Of interest to both students and teachers.

Read and subscribe free at:  http://paper.li/f-1328546324

Cell phones can speed up malaria treatment in remote areas - SciDev.Net

Mobile phones can help improve malaria detection and treatment in remote rural areas, according to research carried out in Bangladesh.

Although people could report suspected malaria to field workers when they visited local communities, a slightly greater number of suspected cases were reported using mobile phones, leading the researchers to conclude that the use of mobiles had helped to increase the number of potential cases tested and treated.

Read more at: http://m.scidev.net/en/new-technologies/icts/news/cell-phones-can-speed-up-malaria-treatment-in-remote-areas.html

Saving the world through social media? How development is going digital

Maeve Shearlaw: From tracking World Bank projects to Twitter conversations with Rwanda's health minister, technology is driving innovation

Social media and mobile technologies offer a wide range of benefits for people working in development: a potentially cheap and efficient way to link citizens with their governments, the chance to monitor real-time progress on projects, and the ability to connect people from remote parts of the world to share experiences and teach best practice.
It is no surprise that there's an endless stream of development projects trying to tap into these technologies. In many cases it's still too early to tell what difference these efforts will make, but here are five that caught our eye.

Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development/poverty-matters/2013/jan/04/saving-world-social-media-development-digital

Rural Kenya not enjoying phone boom

The majority of people in rural Kenya have been left behind by the flourishing mobile phone industry, which has enhanced faster transaction of business through mobile money and communication, new data shows.

Read more at: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/Rural-Kenya-not-enjoying-phone-boom/-/2558/1696156/-/hgubjoz/-/index.html

On Campus and Online RN to BSN

Why does a nurse who is already registered as an RN need to take a Bachelor's degree, and do special upgrade programs exist pn;ine?
This page is about online RN to BSN programs, what's would be included in them, and where they can be studied?

Read more: On Campus and Online RN to BSN

Studying a Masters Teaching Program

This page provides details of online masters teaching programs, where they can be found, what the career and salary prospects are, and more ...

If you already have a bachelor's degree in another field, you can take a masters teaching program that satisfies licensing requirements.  In this way you obtain your teaching license and also enhance your career prospects by having the higher degree.

Read more:  http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/masters-teaching-programs

OER Challenges

Access to the Internet is spreading and so more people are able to access online education.  But a major problem has been the access to affordable content. The OER movement seeks to address this issue by making content free to use and adapt by anyone. So what are the problems?
Find out about OER challenges of quality, modularity, stability, persuading subject matter experts to cooperate, and more ...

More details at: http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/oer-challenges

Boosting mobile learning potential for women and girls in Africa: lingering considerations

During the past five years at least five major mobile learning initiatives have been implemented in Africa that sought to directly benefit women and girls, or which included women and girls and provided some evidence of benefits to them. The Jokko Initiative (Senegal), Project ABC (Niger), the Somali Youth Livelihoods Project (Somalia), Nokia Life Tools (Nigeria), and M4Girls (South Africa) are interventions that used mobile devices to teach literacy, numeracy, maths, and/or employability skills and provide learning opportunities for people (often primarily of the female gender) who may not otherwise receive this instruction. While the potential for women and girls in Africa to leverage mobile phones for educational purposes has been demonstrated in these cases, there remain challenges to making these opportunities sustainable.

Details at: http://www.elearning-africa.com/eLA_Newsportal/boosting-mobile-learning-potential-for-women-and-girls-in-africa-lingering-considerations/

Open Source

Find out more about open source software and open educational resources (OER), so that you can use them in your teaching and learning.

OSS and OER both share the same benefits:
- Low or no cost to users, as products are generally free to access and download;
- Shorter development cycle due to the collaborative, parallel efforts of developers;
- Adaptability to suit own conditions.

Read more at: http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/open-source

New versus old media: how best to get information to smallholder farmers

For smallholders in developing countries, information on weather, markets and agricultural techniques is key to improving productivity. But what is the best way of delivering that information? Here, three projects based on radio, mobile technology and social networking give an insight into what can work.

More details at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/feb/07/smallholder-farmers-radio-mobile-social-networking