Mobile on the move - Mobile learning publication

A showcase of IICD's mobile projects in economic development, education and health in Africa and Latin America and some of the lessons learned.

Mobile phone usage is exploding in developing countries. Africa alone had more than 500 million mobile telephone subscribers in 2011. Mobile learning or ‘m-learning’ services therefore play a growing role in IICD’s education, health and economic development programmes. This publication shows some examples of the projects with a mobile component that IICD supports.

 More details at: http://www.iicd.org/about/publications/mobile-on-the-move-mobile-learning-publication/

MPrep: Making education mobile for the world

Though Kenya has emerged as a regional powerhouse for mobile innovation, many of its future visionaries remain burdened by the structural challenges—overcrowding, underfunding, and lack of access—facing the 9 million Kenyan children in primary school.
The problem is especially daunting in rural areas, where more than two out of three current students will fail their classes, including 80 percent of girls.
In response, MPrep founder Toni Maraviglia designed the app to make it possible for teachers to deliver quality, one-on-one attention to students, and to monitor their performance in detail, even remotely—all just a text message away in a country with widespread mobile access.

Read more: ICT for Education and Development

About Online Learning: A Resource for Teachers and Students

Find out more about online learning or elearning - using audio and video-conferencing, email, chat, and completing an online degree or certificate by distance.

Teachers can find out more about how ICT is changing classroom education and the social media tools that are facilitating so many of the changes.  Students can find tips for learning online, and obtain help in finding a suitable distance learning online program or a school that offers the program they want.

Read more at:  http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/about-online-learning

OER Web Sites

Find out more about the content available on OER websites.

Any list of web sites is bound to be out of date as soon as it is published. However, for people just starting to explore OER, here is one list of important websites, adapted from a published list courtesy of the author and publisher ...

Read more at: http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/oer-websites

World Radio Day Reflections - affordable ICTs solutions make radio more relevant

The just concluded Word Radio Day saw KenTel undertake a series of trainings on practical interventions for radio mainly looking at selected Free Open Source Software’s and Social Media.
Here is a recap of the presentations; since many of the community radios or community centres/telecentres do not enjoy the benefits of broadband internet connectivity we narrowed down to options that would need limited or no access to internet to implement. KenTel is happy to note that its capacity to train and moderate sessions on Social Media was developed by The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA), through the various new media trainings that CTA has been undertaking in various countries across the ACP countries. We also wish to acknowledge the training from UNITAR.

Read more at: ICT for Education and Development

Assumptions about Autism are Detrimental to All Involved

By Danica C. (originally posted at My Corner of the Pond)
Something that has been bothering me for a while is someone who visited my family a while backand spent maybe an hour or two. This person told another friend my daughter was not on spectrum. Now this person has never up till that day spent time with my daughter. As far as I know she knows nothing of kids on the high end of the spectrum. Every individual with Autism is unique. No two diagnoses are the same. Just like each person has a different personality, each person has a different level of Autism. Yet she is an expert and is now telling others that I am making up my daughters autism?
 

See it on Scoop.it, via ICT for Education and Development

How ICT tools are improving efficiency of agricultural development

Data collection and monitoring and evaluation through mobile apps is fast taking over traditional methods of collecting and using information – and the results are impressive

In a recent global discussion organised by the World Bank and e-Agriculture, experts from various fields and organisations around the world shared their experiences and discussed the ways in which they were using ICT – mobilephones, tablets, applications and software – to collect data in the field, and to perform M&E in development projects, while also working closely with rural communities and taking their feedback. The discussion has been summarised in a policy brief and outlines the benefits of using ICT for data collection. Several examples of theapps were also showcased in the discussion, among those:
 Read more at: http://www.guardian.co.uk/global-development-professionals-network/2013/jan/24/data-collection-evaluation-technology-agriculture

ict4D: the complex mLearning challenges for specific ethnic groups

Leslie Dodson from the University of Colorado on "The mobile utitly gap and literacy challenges in oral-language communities: sms use by Berber women".
These are my live blognotes coming from UNESCO's mobile learning week enriched with tweets from Ronda (@glam_mobileleo).
Leslie used an epigraphic research approach and working in the field for 8 to 9 months.
For those interested in the number of challenges that can be encountered when diving into a mLearning project with very specific target learners... this is it!

Read more at: http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.com/2013/02/ict4d-complex-mlearning-challenges-for.html

Internet users in Kenya now at 17.38 million

http://www.ntv.co.ke

Kenya's information and communications sector appears to be on course according to the latest Julisha survey phase two findings.
The report, conducted by International Data Corporation indicates that Internet usage rose from 10.99 million to 17.38 million users for the period between 2010 and 2011. The report however recommends that skills development in the fast growing sector is still wanting and recommends more training and generation of content by application developers. NTV's Aby Agina has the latest from the tech end.

See it on Scoop.it, via ICT for Education and Development

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