My Learning Space

In January 2008, Australian Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd announced the Federal Government’s Digital Education Revolution – a $900m 4 year program which aims to achieve 1:2 (computer to student) ratio in all Australian secondary schools. Grants up to $1m are available to schools for computer hardware whereby the Federal Government enters into a funding agreement with respective Block Grant Authorities. The $900m figure was calculated on 900,000 students nationally in y9-12 at $1000 per unit for ‘effective ICT deployment’ to improve the above mentioned ratio.

First Round funding

The program is based on a Deficit Model, that is to say, schools with less technology resources will receive more funding, upon application. In the recent technology audit of 2967 Australian schools (y9-12); only 147 schools had a ratio of 1:2 or better. Schools with 1:8 computer to student ratio or worse were targeted during the First Round of funding, in fact, 947 schools were encouraged to apply for funding – there was a 90% response rate.

Second Round funding

We recently attended the Round Table Forum for the Future Rounds of the National Secondary School Computer Fund . The discussion was chaired by Shelagh Whittleson, Branch Manager for the NSSCF. The 2nd round of applications commence early July 2008. Applications are open to all schools and opportunities for bulk purchasing to improve cost per unit eg. at a systemic level are encouraged. Special needs funding for adaptive technologies is also available.

As per the first round, funding is calculated based on the 2007 audit data indicating y9-12 access to computers less than 4 years old. Priority will be given to schools with ratio 1:8 or worse who didn’t apply first round and schools 1:3 to 1:7.

Considerations

The $1000 per unit funding to schools must constitute effective deployment of ICT hardware eg. PCs, laptops, thin clients, etc. There is scope for creative use of funds by schools via bulk deals, for example, if a school receives funding that will be calculated at $1000 per unit, then purchases sub-notebooks at $500 per unit, this creates a residual of $500 per unit for staff training, infrastructure and support.

Other projects include a $100 million to the Fibre Connections to Schools (FCS) initiative.  The FCS will contribute to the provision of fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) broadband connections to Australian schools to deliver speeds of up to 100 megabits per second.  There has also been speculation about a National Help Desk.

Access to reliable, affordable, high speed broadband connections will strengthen the capacity of students, parents, teachers and the wider community to communicate, collaborate and access resources across system, State/Territory and national boundaries.

Latest News

The Federal Government has just announced its Budget for 2008-09 . This includes:

- Additional $200 million in 2011-12 for the Digital Education Revolution, taking the total investment to $1.2 billion over 5 years.
- Funding of $32.6 million over 2 years for online curriculum tools and resources.
- Funding of $10 million over 3 years to establish support mechanisms to provide vital assistance for schools in the deployment of ICT.

The Federal Government’s education initiative is ambitious and generous. However, funding to improve ICT hardware provisions in Australian schools does raise concerns about subsequent demands placed on infrastructure, technical support and staff training. There is the question mark over funding longevity – because hardware technology, software and skills date so rapidly. Moreover, Education has traditionally been a State Government responsibility. Time will tell if the current Government is genuinely committed to a Digital Education Revolution.

More information is available at  http://www.digitaleducationrevolution.gov.au

I recently attended the Moodle Moot in New Zealand and an inspiring presentation by Martin Langhoff. Martin is a Moodle guru and works for New Zealand Moodle Partner, Catalyst IT. During his spare time, Martin is involved in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project. I also had the rare privelege of test-driving an XO-1 prototype.

For those not familiar with the project, the OLPC social welfare organisation developed XO-1, previously known as the $100 Laptop, as an inexpensive laptop computer intended for distribution to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge. The XO-1 can be sold to governments and issued to children by schools on a basis of one laptop per child. Pricing is currently set to start at US$188 and the goal is to reach the US$100 mark in 2008. The XO-1 device is promoted as a textbook replacement whereby 5 years of school books for a student is the approximate cost equivalent to a $100 laptop. The project targets under priveleged children in developing countries that are a consequence of infrastructure limitations, limited educational resources and a shortage of teachers.

The OLPC project was founded by Nicholas Negroponte from the MIT’s Media Lab and is reminiscent of Sugata Mitra’s: ‘Hole in the Wall’ project where groups of children, given access to shared, public accessible computers in playgrounds and other public areas, taught themselves to use the technology on their own. Working in self-organised groups, and helping each other, the children typically navigated within three minutes and began to browse in about an hour. Within three months, they achieved basic computer literacy, and by nine months achieved the proficiency level equivalent to most modern office workers. They also picked up a considerable amount of the English language from common multimedia software. These results were obtained when the computers were placed in a safe, public location, such as a playground. The same computers placed inside a classroom did not achieve the same results because students do not consider computers in schools as their property or ‘play things’ because they suspect some hidden agenda on the part of the school.

The XO-1 is much like an eBook, with a sturdy plastic case (predominantly lime and white in colour), carry handle and swivel screen. It has low power consumption, long battery life and is quick charging (10:1 use to charge ratio). The XO-1 has a 1200×900 7.5 inch diagonal LCD screen with two display modes: backlit colour or reflective monochrome for readability in the sun. The device is mesh networkable. It has long-range WiFi (800 metres). It does not connect directly to the internet, but uses ad hoc networking to seek out other wireless devices and use them to ‘piggyback’ to the web.

With regard to software, the XO-1 runs on a pared version of Fedora Linux operating system and uses a graphical user interface called ‘Sugar’. This is detached from the typical desktop metaphor as it is task centric and zoomable. The emphasis is on ease of use, exploration and collaboration for children. Applications include a simple custom web browser, word processor, email through Gmail service, online chat and VoIP programs, several interpreted programming languages, a musical sequencer with digital instruments, audio and video player software.

Interestingly, Steve Jobs had offered Mac OS X free of charge for use in the OLPC program but the offer was declined. According to Seymour Papert, a professor emeritus at MIT who is one of the initiative’s founders, the designers wanted an operating system that could be tinkered with, therefore Linux was chosen.

In terms of the XO-1’s hardware; durability and low maintenance are obvious. There are no moving parts, it is shock and water resistant. It does have a built-in video camera and speakers, microphone, stylus, USB and SD card slots. Other specifications include 433 MHz AMD CPU, 256MB RAM and 1GB flash storage. The device is functional, but understandably at $100 per unit, it is not over-resourced with its hardware, software and features. Needless to say, it is a marvelous initiative that will help to reduce the educational resource disparity between developing and developed countries.

If you would like to read more about the OLPC project or make a donation, go to http://www.laptop.org/

Traditionally, education has been an entity, a system, a learning process that students undergo, or all or a combination of these things. Albert Einstein was once quoted as saying:

“Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school“.

In modern terms, education today is about learning as a life-long experience, not simply a process that students endure for a period of their lives.

Future learning requires deconstructing traditional views of education as an institution. For education, the next 10 years are about building communities of learners that can connect, communicate and collaborate about anything, anywhere and anytime. Social constructivism maintains that we learn well from expressing our ideas for others in a culture of shared meanings and contexts. Moreover, the advent of Web 2.0 technologies such as AJAX, blog, chat, forums, podcasting, RSS feeds, wikis and so on, means that learning can be self-directed, dynamic, interactive and media-rich.

Boundaries that exist in the physical world, don’t necessarily exist in the virtual world. Virtually speaking, the world is flat. In theory, every person with an internet connection and some basic computer literacy has access to a wealth of digital information providing opportunities for new experiences, knowledge and skills. Technology can go beyond the four walls of a traditional classroom or lecture theatre. This ‘level playing field’ can mitigate inequities based on age, gender, geography, race, religion or wealth.

I believe technology is a driving factor in the pedagogical paradigm shift. The role for educators has transformed from instructors to that of facilitators, knowledge architects and co-learners. It’s an exciting time to be involved in education.

The ‘mass production line’ is a great analogy to describe the traditional school system. Students as the raw material and educators as the cogs in the machine working for a bureaucracy. For too long, many schools and universities have operated like this: farms and factories that produce clones of a pre-determined specification, fit for society.

It is refreshing to consider an educational system that is not bound by four walls. Learning can happen about anything, anywhere and anytime. On the same token, our learners must become the producers, not simply institutionalised consumers of knowledge. I believe, that we as educators, must facilitate opportunities for our learners to connect, communicate and collaborate to extend their cognitive potential, virtually speaking. Technology is the perfect catalyst to realise this potential.

Will we ever deconstruct the traditional role of schools and universities as physical entities, bound by systems, structures and controlling mechanisms?