Informative Reading Fingertip Knowledge

Fingertip Knowledge: Memorization is No Longer Key to Learning. Joshua Rucker. Converge. Online July 2006. … students and professionals alike no longer have to memorize fact, dates, names and numbers, as they are all at our fingertips. … a change has occurred and must now be included as a factor in teaching styles. … Elliott Masie, founder of the MASIE Center … sees technology allowing for four key changes in education: …1. Content from more points of expertise. …2. Learning will be more digestible." …3. Failure and simulation will be harnessed as a core element in learning. "…4. Learning will become more natural. …

ICT Support for Learning Turning Programming Into Child's Play.

Turning Programming Into Child's Play. The Chronicle of Higher Education. Online July 2007. Computer programming is not usually taught to 8-year-olds. But a new system developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology turns building video games into child's play. The system is called Scratch, named after a method that hip-hop DJ's use to mix music. The software, available free online, is being used by schools and some colleges to teach basic computer-science concepts while avoiding scary programming jargon. Students have used Scratch to create maze-running games, animated stories, and other interactive amusements. Watch a demonstration of Scratch, and see some of the most popular creations.(Ginny notes: I have reported about Scratch before. This short online video from The Chronicle demonstrates it quite well.)

Informative Reading MENA Flagship Report on Education: The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa

MENA Flagship Report on Education: The Road Not Traveled: Education Reform in the Middle East and North Africa. World Bank. Executive Summary Online July 2007. ... tells the story of education development in the region, focusing specifically on its contribution to social and economic development. It addresses the following questions:
· Did the investments in education produce the expected results and prepare countries for upcoming new demands for an educated workforce with different skills?
·What types of strategies and policies should be considered to redress any gaps in achievement and to better prepare for the future?
·Looking from the demand side, are domestic and international labor markets providing effective outlets for reaping the benefits of a more educated labor force?

(Ginny notes: The entire report is not yet available online. The Executive Summary is available from the Projects Management Unit (PMU) page of the Higher Education Enhancement Project (HEEP) site in Egypt.)

News from Industry Intel and $100 laptop join forces

Intel and $100 laptop join forces. BBC. Online July 2007. … The agreement marks a huge turnaround for both the not-for-profit One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation and Intel. … Intel will sit alongside the 11 companies, including Google and Red Hat, which are partners in the OLPC scheme. … An application developed for the XO laptop should work on the Classmate and vice versa. …

ICT Support for Learning Google Lets Users Overlay Data on Personalized Maps

Google Lets Users Overlay Data on Personalized Maps. Reuters. NYTimes. Online July 2007. … a new feature that lets users create personalized maps which plot the locations of everything from cheap gas locally to the latest earthquakes worldwide. MyMaps … allows consumers to select from more than one hundred mini-applications created by independent software developers. These allow users to overlay data on top of Google's popular online map service. …Visitors to http://maps.google.com … a new tab that contains links to dozens of the mini-applications, which Google calls Maplets. …

Update from Industry Cellphones may take banking to the rural poor in the third world.

Cellphones may take banking to the rural poor in the third world. Chris Nicholson. IHT. Online July 2007. … Mobile devices like cellphones have the potential to effectively bring financial markets to the countryside, allowing banks and other lenders in urban areas to provide services like loans and savings accounts to a new population …

Update on Project Relief International's Telecenter in Bangladeshi Village turns to a Digital Photo Studio

Relief International's Telecenter in Bangladeshi Village turns to a Digital Photo Studio. Telecentre.org. Online July 2007. … story about how a school based telecenter in a Bangladeshi village has recently turned to a digital photo studio. … RI-SOL helped the school to plan for income generation through providing basic ICT services. Interestingly, the school has recently set up a digital photo studio inside its telecenter at its own cost. …

Informative Reading OLPC and Economic Development.

OLPC and Economic Development. Robert Kozma. OLPCNews. Online July 2007. “... Like Nicolas Negroponte—and the villagers of Sauri—I believe that technology has a role to play in supporting economic development in Africa and reducing poverty. But my conclusions about how technology should be used are quite different than those of Negroponte. … ” (Ginny notes: This is the second thoughtful commentary in OLPCNews from Bob Kozma. His first, equally provocative, was “OLPC and Education Reform” published in June 2007. Ginny also notes: OLPCNews self-describes as “Your independent source for news, information, commentary, and discussion of One Laptop Per Child's computer, the OLPC Children's Machine XO, developed by MIT Media Lab co-founder Nicholas Negroponte.”)