ICT SupportDebate over effectiveness of cheap computers for the poor.

Debate over effectiveness of cheap computers for the poor. John Markoff. IHT. Online November 2006. Update on $100 laptop.

Informative ReadingICT, Education Reform and Economic Growth

ICT, Education Reform and Economic Growth. Robert Kozma. Intel. Published November 2005. Online November 2006. The goal of this paper is to explore the relationships between ICT, education, and economic and social development and to suggest how policy makers and school administrators can best connect technology and education reform to sustained, equitable economic growth. …

Informative ReadingICT Use in the Developing Word:An Analysis of Differences in Computer and Internet Penetration.

ICT Use in the Developing Word:An Analysis of Differences in Computer and Internet Penetration. Menzie David Chinn and Robert W. Fairlie. SSRN. Online November 2006. Computer and Internet use, especially in developing countries, has expanded rapidly in recent years… penetration rates differ markedly between developed and developing countries and across developing countries. … we examine panel data for 161 countries over the 1999-2004 period. We explore the role of a comprehensive set of economic, demographic, infrastructure, institutional and financial factors in contributing to the global digital divide. We find evidence indicating that income, human capital, the youth dependency ratio, telephone density, legal quality and banking sector development are associated with technology penetration rates. … factors associated with computer and Internet penetration do not differ substantially between developed and developing countries. …

Informative ReadingEducation for All Global Monitoring Report 2007

Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007 released by UNESCO. Early childhood care and education the forgotten link claims new report published by UNESCO. Online November 2006. Strong foundations: Early childhood care and education focuses particularly on the years before a child goes to primary school and also reviews general progress toward Education for All…very few countries, especially in the developing world, have national policies for early childhood that integrate care, health and nutrition with education. … there is considerable progress in primary school enrolment, and international aid to education is also increasing. Report, summary report, regional overviews and commissioned background papers at www.efareport.unesco.org.

Update from AfghanistanDistance Learning Comes to Afghanistan

Distance Learning Comes to Afghanistan. San Francisco-based group to use satellite broadcasts to educate children in rural areas. Ivan Velinov. Epoch Times. Online November 2006. A San Francisco Bay Area-based group has launched a unique educational program that will improve literacy for children in rural areas of Afghanistan via satellite television. …The two-hour educational programming will be shown into 15-minute segments. One of the segments will be the Arabic version of Sesame Street which was produced in Egypt, but the show will be dubbed in Dari and Pashto, the native languages of Afghanistan. …

Update from RwandaReturn from Genocide.

Return from Genocide. Rwanda has moved from horror show to a model of wireless connectivity. James Daly. Edutopia. Online November 2006.Twelve years ago, Rwanda was an abattoir, a scene of unimaginable carnage where hundreds of thousands were hacked to death in a savage civil war. …Today, the small, landlocked country about the size of Maryland is home to one of the most ambitious wireless projects on Earth, one that will eventually connect every school, hospital, and home via high-speed Internet access. … Though wiring schools with high bandwidth is Wyler's main mission, Terracom is also wiring the whole country, which provides economic growth and, consequently, jobs for the students when they finish school. …

Informative ReadingInternet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics.

Internet World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics. Internet World Stats.com. (As noted in dot-EDU eNewsletter) Online November 2006. An International website featuring up to date free worldwide Internet Usage, the Population Statistics and Market data, for over 233 countries and world regions. E.g. Current data about Internet usage shows that only 3.6% of Africans have access, yet the growth in usage overall from 2000-2006 was over 625%--the highest of any region in the world.

Informative ReadingElection 2006 Results

Election 2006 Results. Education Week. Online November 2006. In addition to recording the results of US elections nationally and state-by-state, Education Week also comments on the probable impact of each election on education issues in the US.

ICT Support for LearningScientists Press Uncle Sam to Support Video Games

Scientists Press Uncle Sam to Support Video Games. Andrea L. Foster. The Wired Campus. Online November 2006. The (US) federal government should provide money for the development of educational video games, according to a report released today by the Federation of American Scientists. "Video games are engaging and can teach higher-order skills, and they are especially attractive to today's young digital natives who have grown up with digital technology," said Henry Kelly, president of the group, at a news conference this morning. The report, "Harnessing the Power of Video Games for Learning," calls for the U.S. Departments of Education and Labor to work together with the video-game industry, educators, and academe to support research and development into educational games for people of all ages. …

ICT Support for LearningNew version of webportal for youth in Arab region launched

New version of webportal for youth in Arab region launched. Reported on UNESCO News. Site online September 2006 at http://www.jeunessearabe.info/. …, dedicated to the youth living in the Arab region, … revamped its design and content outlay. … Created in 2004 within the frame of a joint programming initiative between UNESCO and ISESCO the jeunessearabe.info portal aims to provide the information needs of the youth and youth associations of the Arab world. This portal is part of INFOYOUTH programme, a worldwide information network on youth issues. …

ICT Support for LearningA million books online for free.

A million books online for free. Anmar W. Mango. Jordan Times. Online November 2006. … The Million Book Project … digitising a million books in multiple languages, and providing them for free on the internet as part of … "Universal Library." …initiated by Carnegie Mellon University, is part of a bigger scheme to create a universal library that will capture all books in publication worldwide. … exist on the internet for people to access freely around the clock. … started on August 2001 … with over 600,000 books already scanned. … While most references are in the English language, some are in other languages, including Arabic. … some of the books are already available on the site for searching by users. … http://tera-3.ul.cs.cmu.edu/. .. Visitors can search by title and author, as well as perform a full text search. Users can choose the language of the search and the subject sought. …