Can pupils respect 'teacher on wheels'?

Rory Cellan-Jones checks out a new kind of robot that developers say will help teachers educate from a distance.

On show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year was a simple type of robot designed to allow teachers to educate from long-distance, harnessing wireless technology.
The 'Skype-enabled' telepresence robot, designed to work with most major tablets, is called MantaroBot and is made by TeleMe.
The BBC's Rory Cellan-Jones watched a demonstration by Ronda Zelezny-Green, who teaches at Royal Holloway, University College of London, and Andrew Parker, a director of Connected Experiences at the GSMA, the body which runs Mobile World Congress.

Watch the video at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21592189

Educational Leadership Administration Doctorate

Find educational leadership administration doctorate programs. This page provides information on what is studied and where you can study such programs online.

These PhD programs (and variants such as an educational management and administration PhD programs) are designed to enhance your expertise and career potential in school and college administration.

Read more at:  http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/educational-leadership-administration-doctorate

Social media In Indian Pharma & Healthcare

'Social Media In Indian Pharma' is an awareness video covering local and global insights on how the pharmaceutical industry in India can use emerging media and technology. This video is the 1st in the series of 4 videos that will cover newer trends in terms of technology, social media, and the overall paradigm shift happening within the pharma industry.



Read more at: ICT for Education and Development

Connecting African universities to the world

The impact of the growth of fibre-optic infrastructure for universities in Africa that UbuntuNet catalyzed cannot be overstated, Song says. “It means you can be a world-class researcher and remain at an African university, and that really changes the state of play for African universities.”
Today, the majority of academics in southern and eastern Africa are moving toward enjoying the same Internet access as colleagues on other continents. They connect with the world through UbuntuNet routers in London and Amsterdam. A regional network will soon be completed that allows African universities to communicate directly with each other without being routed through Europe. -

See more at: http://www.idrc.ca/EN/Themes/Information_and_Communication/Pages/ArticleDetails.aspx?PublicationID=1116

Policy guidelines for the development and promotion of open access

UNESCO issued this publication to demystify the concept of Open Access (OA) and to provide concrete steps on putting relevant policies in place. Building capacities in Member States for Open Access is a necessary but not sufficient condition for promotion of the concept. Creating an enabling policy environment for OA is therefore a priority.
This publication will serve the needs of OA policy development at the government, institutional and funding agency level. The overall objective of thePolicy Guidelines is to promote Open Access in Member States by facilitating understanding of all relevant issues related to Open Access.
The guidelines are not prescriptive in nature, but are suggestive to facilitate knowledge-based decision-making to adopt OA policies and strengthen national research systems.

More details at: http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/resources/publications-and-communication-materials/publications/full-list/policy-guidelines-for-the-development-and-promotion-of-open-access/

Broadband access can help bridge educational divides, empower students

Broadband connectivity has the potential to transform education by giving teachers and students access to learning resources and technologies that will allow them to improve their skills in the context of a globalized economy, according to a United Nations report released today.
The report, Technology, Broadband and Education: Advancing the Education for All Agenda, argues that access to high-speed technologies over fixed and mobile platforms can help students acquire the digital skills required to participate in the global economy and contribute to ensure their employability once they finish their studies.

Read more at: http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=44220
 

Kenyan Boy's Invention Scares Off Lions

Lions are a constant threat to farmers around Nairobi National Park in Kenya. Cattle were their preferred late-night snack. Turere, 11 years old at the time, was charged with protecting his family’s cows, sheep and goats. He noticed that the lions stayed away when he moved around at night with a flashlight, CNN’s Teo Kermeliotis reported.
A few weeks later Turere came up with a low-cost solution that came to be known as “Lion Lights.” He attached LEDs to poles around the animals’ area and faced them outward. Turere programmed the lights to flicker intermittently, resembling a human with a flashlight. He hooked them to a switch box and powered them with a solar panel and an old car battery.

Read more at: ICT for Education and Development

Crowdsourcing ideas to co-create a smarter future

In preparation for the February 28 ICT Solutions Day, the World Bank ICT team is piloting a crowdsourcing initiative to develop innovative ICT-enabled solutions for client countries. Thanks to innovations in information and communication technologies (ICT), individuals around the world can now be active participants in the value creation process, and co-creators of smarter solutions to a range of development challenges. Co-creation means developing a product or service guided by the feedback received from a community, including end-users.

More details at: http://blogs.worldbank.org/ic4d/crowdsourcing-ideas-to-co-create-a-smarter-future

How to Learn Online and Succeed at College

How to learn online? Find out how online learning is different to classroom learning, and how you can learn more effectively.

Read more at: http://onlineanddistancelearning.com/how-to-learn-online

The Role of Crowdsourcing for Better Governance in Fragile State Contexts

This paper is meant to serve as a primer on crowdsourcing as an informational resource for development, crisis response, and post-conflict recovery, with a specific focus on governance in fragile states. Inherent in the theoretical approach is that broader, unencumbered participation in governance is an objectively positive and democratic aim, and that governments’ accountability to its citizens can be increased and poor-performance corrected, through openness and empowerment of citizens.

Read more at: http://www.scribd.com/doc/75642401/The-Role-of-Crowdsourcing-for-Better-Governance-in-Fragile-State-Contexts ;