News about FundersRequiem for a Development Dream

Requiem for a Development Dream. William Fisher. Inter Press Service News Agency. Online January 2006. Foreign affairs experts agree that the Bush Administration is quietly using the Chinese water-torture method to slowly engineer the death of America’s traditional system for delivering foreign aid – and some of them think it’s not such a bad idea. They point to the creation of the Millennium Challenge Account (MCA) and the U.S. Global AIDS initiative outside the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), where such programs would normally be located. And, as further evidence of a shift away from USAID’s traditional international development mandate, they cite the creation of a new democracy promotion apparatus within the State Department and the appointment of the current AIDS coordinator -- who has no development experience – as the new USAID administrator. …
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ICT SupportMicrosoft Would Put Poor Online by Cellphone.

Microsoft Would Put Poor Online by Cellphone. John Markoff. NY Times. Online January 2006. Microsoft executives are discussing their alternative to the $100 laptop: turning a cellphone into a computer by connecting it to a television and a keyboard. … Bill Gates, Microsoft's co-founder and chairman, demonstrated a mockup of his proposed cellular PC at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas earlier this month, and he mentioned it as a cheaper alternative to traditional PC's and laptops during a public discussion here at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum. …

Update from Country(Jordan) Queen underscored Jordan's commitment to remain at the "cutting edge of the cutting edge" in education.

(Jordan) Queen underscored Jordan's commitment to remain at the "cutting edge of the cutting edge" in education. Jordan News Agency. Online January 2006. Jordan is not wasting any time in making the most of these opportunities. "Education, innovation and information technology are the watchwords of our reforms. We may be a small country, but we have big ambitions for our young population", said the Queen. … Queen Rania went on to add that the project's true value surpasses 'wiring schools': "it is about equipping young people with skills that will serve them throughout their lives - leadership, self-confidence, creativity, ambition, and a desire to connect and contribute to the wider world". …

ICT SupportStudents and Teachers, From K to 12, Hit the Podcasts

Students and Teachers, From K to 12, Hit the Podcasts. NY Times. Online January 2006. … Podcasting - posting an audio recording online that can be heard through a computer or downloaded to a mobile device like an iPod - is following blogs and online classes as yet another interactive technology catching on as a teaching tool. Currently, iTunes lists more than 400 podcasts from kindergarten through 12th-grade classes, while Yahoo has nearly 900 education-related podcasts. …

Informative ReadingAre Students Ready for a Technology-Rich World?

Are Students Ready for a Technology-Rich World? What PISA studies tell us. OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development). Online January 2006.School students who are established computer users tend to perform better in key school sujects than those with limited experience or a lack of confidence in their ability to perform basic computer functions according to this new PISA (Program for International Student Assessment) report. … Press release in English and French. Download a pdf version for free. Powerpoint presentation summarising the results.

Informative ReadingJournal of Technology and Teacher Education April 2006

Journal of Technology and Teacher Education Vol. 14, No. 2 (April 2006). Ed/IT Lib. AACE. Online January 2006. Advance copy of April 2006 Journal from the Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education. Abstracts and entire articles available online.

Table of Contents
Field Experience in Distance Delivered Initial Teacher Education Programmes
Relationships Between Teacher Education Students’ Epistemological Beliefs and Their Learning Outcomes in a Case-Based Hypermedia Learning Environment
From Virtual Strangers to a Cohesive Learning Community: The Evolution of Online Group Development in a Professional Development Course
Project MERLOT: Bringing Peer Review to Web-Based Educational Resources
Content Area Specific Technology Integration: A Model For Educating Teachers
Rural Creativity: A Study of District Mandated Online Professional Development
The Impact of Ubiquitous Computing in the Internet Age: How Middle School Teachers Integrated Wireless Laptops in the Initial Stages of Implementation.
Students’ Self-Confidence and Learning Through Dialogues in a Net-Based Environment.
Enhancing Collaboration and Skill Acquisition Through the Use of Technology.

ICT SupportThink Outside the Blog

Think Outside the Blog. Tim Stahmer. Tech Learning. Online January 2006. Web logs are great vehicles for an interactive exchange of ideas between a handful of people, but blogs are not as effective when a large number of people want to collaborate, contribute, and easily find information on a given topic. That's when you need a wiki. … Educators at all levels are finding ways to incorporate wikis into their teaching. … With a simple wiki, students from one class, multiple classes, or even multiple schools can post their writing samples for comment …

Informative ReadingME's PC penetration levels lower than global average

ME's PC penetration levels lower than global average. WAM Emirates News Agency. Online January 2006. The Middle East needs to purchase six million more personal computers (PCs) to keep up with global PC sales figures as the level of PC penetration is much below the world average, with consumers collectively purchasing only one third of the PCs they need to have bought, states a comparative study by the Dubai-based Madar Research Group. … Middle East registering PC sales of a low 3.12 million as against the world sales figure of 188.9 million units. ...

Informative Reading2006 EFA Global Monitoring Report - Literacy for Life.

2006 EFA Global Monitoring Report - Literacy for Life. UNESCO. Online January 2006. Literacy is a right and the foundation for all further learning. Yet literacy remains a right denied to some 771 million adults. The 2006 Global Monitoring Report, Literacy for life, measures the world's progress towards achieving the six Education For All goals, and especially the neglected one of universal literacy. Full Report Summary Press release Presentation (power-point) Headline messages

ICT Support Wireless technology... and WiMax...

Wireless technology about to get a boost. Robert Brumfield. eSchool News . Online January 2006. Hang on: Here come new standards for high-speed, converged wireless. … Industry observers say the new, soon-to-be-approved 802.11n standard, coupled with other technological advances, promises to expand bandwidth and vastly boost higher transmission speeds for wireless devices. Other promising developments, such as more sophisticated networks allowing large-area wireless coverage and better interoperability between communications devices, could help schools individualize learning and broaden the teaching environment beyond traditional boundaries.
WiMAX Struggles for Respect. Red Herring. Online January 2006. WiMAX still sits in Wi-Fi's shadow. WiMAX has attracted a fair amount of venture capitalist attention, but it hasn't yet lived up to its promise in the U.S., where Wi-Fi remains king. The first WiMAX-certified products for the "fixed standard" are scheduled to be announced this week -- a development that could give the technology a boost.

ICT SupportArabic iPod on way.

Arabic iPod on way. AME Info. Online January 2006. Apple is planning to release an Arabic version of its iPod device in the Middle East in the next few months, reported Gulf News. (Note from Ginny: The use of iPods and podcasting in education is rapidly expanding. I believe that they will soon be used in education reform, especially for former applications of radio distance learning for both student learning and teacher training.)

Informative ReadingMeasuring What Counts: Memorization Versus Understanding.

Measuring What Counts: Memorization Versus Understanding. Eeva Reeder. Edutopia online. GLEF. Published Feb. 2002. Online January 2005. ... Undoubtedly, explanation and logic are important aspects of teaching any subject well, but they are insufficient by themselves to move most students' understanding of a topic beyond the naive level of simply recalling facts to the sophisticated level of using the knowledge to solve real problems. So the questions for teachers are: How is understanding best measured? What kinds of learning experiences will move students down the continuum of understanding? Is there a feasible way to provide these experiences in the traditional classroom? … (Note from Ginny: Although not directly related to using ICT, this reading focuses on real-world problem-solving, one of the effective learning strategies targeted in ICT supported learning.)

Informative ReadingThe Dynamics of Technology for Social Change: Understanding the Factors that Influence Results: Lessons Learned from the Field.

The Dynamics of Technology for Social Change: Understanding the Factors that Influence Results: Lessons Learned from the Field. Jonathan Peizer. Published December 2005. ISBN: 0-595-37274-0. … for practitioners including nonprofit and corporate social responsibility project implementers, philanthropic supporters, social entrepreneurs experimenting with sustainable paradigms, researchers evaluating the process and the various government actors delivering solutions. ... Peizer is a practitioner with over two decades of experience implementing successful technology initiatives in over seventy-five countries. He has worked in the private and nonprofit sector ….

Update from projectDuke and Emory host business boot camp for Middle Eastern women

Duke and Emory host business boot camp for Middle Eastern women. Emery P. Dalesio. AP. Miami Herald. Online January 2006. Divided into groups of four, the women from countries across the Middle East quickly break into eager conversation as they tackle an assigned problem. Talking over each other comes naturally, but their cacophony doesn't yield any quick solutions. … The women's internship program is a small part of the Bush Administration's Middle East Partnership Initiative, and builds on the government's long-standing effort to export American business techniques. A program aimed at former Soviet Union nations, for example, has trained about 3,000 people in management techniques since 1992. ...

Informative ReadingImplementing Organic Education: An Interview with Hugh Osborn.

Implementing Organic Education: An Interview with Hugh Osborn. James L. Morrison and Hugh Osborn. Innovate Journal of Online Education. Dec 2005/Jan 2006. Online January 2006. Hugh Osborn … argues that a small group of the right educators and other leaders could start the evolution of our education system into an innovative, 21st century model for about the cost of developing a couple of textbooks. This is Osborn's ultimate goal— to spark a bottom-up, demand-driven transformation of our schools by using a new "organic" educational model that leverages technological and pedagogical innovation.

Informative ReadingsPerspectives on Distance Education: Emerging Trends in the Development of School Networking Initiatives

Perspectives on Distance Education: Emerging Trends in the Development of School Networking Initiatives. Editors: Vis Naidoo and Heba Ramzy. Commonwealth of Learning, 2004. Onlne January 2006. Book downloadable in part or whole. This collection of research and case studies provides snapshots of developments in school networking in seven regions of the world. … This book focuses on the variety of school networking models that have emerged in different regions and the resulting trends and issues that need to be considered in terms of supporting the learning, teaching, management and teacher training processes. … Schoolnets can be defined as the entities that facilitate collaboration among schools and that use information and communications technologies (ICTs) for this and other educational purposes. Recent developments in ICTs (especially computers and Internet-related technologies) and their application to education and training have increasingly allowed learners to access information and knowledge from different sources. In many countries schoolnets as an organised entity do not exist, but the activities generally associated with school networking are being carried out. … Schoolnets in developing countries have also been driven by the need to support the attainment of quality education at both the primary and secondary levels of education.

ICT SupportNortel explores Egyptian initiative

Nortel explores Egyptian initiative. Diana Milne. ITP Technology. IT Weekly. Online January 2006. Nortel is in talks with the Egyptian Government over plans to extend the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) initiative in the country.