I think it is worthwhile to discuss barriers as well as how to overcome this…..for this politics always plays a major role. But you need to find out way to overcome those barriers. For that you need success stories. In Africa they use instructional radio…if you understand the needs and wants and your level of resources easily you can overcome it. Again directly we can’t point out that all developing countries having same problems. They may be unique to each country. That’s why I suggested a need assessment as more important point. But once you are considering the awareness level for that we should have some mechanism.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
Are these students' needs? Watch the video and decide for yourselves.
Interesting and thought provoking as it relates to the situation in highly developed countries, but most developing countries are not worrying about these issues at the moment. The needs of students in developing countries have little to do with the excesses and/or misuse of technology. We're talking about too much access / too many choices vs. very limited access. There's a big difference between not finding time to read because you're spending 2 hours a day on the phone vs. not being able to read because the supply of books in the library is very limited and you can't afford to surf the internet and waste time reading facebook profiles -- I'm probably showing my age with that comment about facebook.
I'm not sure what the point of the video was. I think it can be interpreted in many ways.... which is a good way to get discussions/reactions. I like the idea of introducing videos as learning materials in eLearning but if you have participants in developing countries, you need to be very careful about the bandwidth requirement. If they're using a cybercafe or a telecenter to access the internet, by viewing a high bandwidth video, they can totally wipe out the capacity of other customers to do anything at their computers, robbing them of Internet time they have paid for.
Barbara,
You express the concerns of many educators in developing and developed countries. However, from my observations of the population at FB, I noticed many from developing countries. A social network may actually be excellent motivators. BTW, I wonder how much bandwidth a YouTube google video requires. Does anyone know how user friendly Google and its applications are in developing countries?
You express the concerns of many educators in developing and developed countries. However, from my observations of the population at FB, I noticed many from developing countries. A social network may actually be excellent motivators. BTW, I wonder how much bandwidth a YouTube google video requires. Does anyone know how user friendly Google and its applications are in developing countries?
From Re: Students' Needs by bfillip on Thursday 18 October 2007 12:35:00:
the needs of students in developing countries have little to do with the excesses and/or misuse of technology.
And, inappropriate technology, when someone (from outside the community) has decided what's needed...
Barbara also mentioned the ethics of viewing video, at the expense of others' connections.
The other drawback of that is, of course, that the cybercafe may'nt have the required software installed.
Nellie also asked about the bandwidth of Google - I think that if you have saved the videos at quite a low frame rate & small resolution, they aren't too bad. However, more and more work is being done on MPEG4, which generally requires far less bandwidth than older technologies, but it's still much more than text.
One solution would be to have as many videos as possible on a DVD that could be sent to users, along with other educational materials - which would work for a course that people have to sign up/ pay for, but not freely available material.
Having transcripts of the videos would help those on dial up connections - as well as anyone who's deaf, but clearly it's not quite the same.
Nellie also mentioned "
"However, from my observations of the population at FB, I noticed many from developing countries. A social network may actually be excellent motivators"
Just as a matter of interest - what's the proportion of members from the majority world, to those from the Western world? I agree, that a social network can be a good motivator. I wonder if the more social based communities that often exist in the majority world, compared to, say, the UK (here, it's pretty common to not know your neighbours), might well mean that people find creating social online networks easy from a psychological point of view, even if they aren't too familiar with the technology required to do it.
the needs of students in developing countries have little to do with the excesses and/or misuse of technology.
And, inappropriate technology, when someone (from outside the community) has decided what's needed...
Barbara also mentioned the ethics of viewing video, at the expense of others' connections.
The other drawback of that is, of course, that the cybercafe may'nt have the required software installed.
Nellie also asked about the bandwidth of Google - I think that if you have saved the videos at quite a low frame rate & small resolution, they aren't too bad. However, more and more work is being done on MPEG4, which generally requires far less bandwidth than older technologies, but it's still much more than text.
One solution would be to have as many videos as possible on a DVD that could be sent to users, along with other educational materials - which would work for a course that people have to sign up/ pay for, but not freely available material.
Having transcripts of the videos would help those on dial up connections - as well as anyone who's deaf, but clearly it's not quite the same.
Nellie also mentioned "
"However, from my observations of the population at FB, I noticed many from developing countries. A social network may actually be excellent motivators"
Just as a matter of interest - what's the proportion of members from the majority world, to those from the Western world? I agree, that a social network can be a good motivator. I wonder if the more social based communities that often exist in the majority world, compared to, say, the UK (here, it's pretty common to not know your neighbours), might well mean that people find creating social online networks easy from a psychological point of view, even if they aren't too familiar with the technology required to do it.
cracking video - reflects the power of digital storytelling for educational use
Jim,
Digital storytelling are excellent ways for people of all ages to interact and engage in learning. Thank you for adding the link.
BTW If I am not mistaken, there are 3 people named Jim in this class.
Digital storytelling are excellent ways for people of all ages to interact and engage in learning. Thank you for adding the link.
BTW If I am not mistaken, there are 3 people named Jim in this class.
Nellie, I would like to share the following resource on Digital Story Telling with the group, http://members.shaw.ca/dbrear/dst.html
Dave Brear
PS I enjoy reading the postings !!
Dave Brear
PS I enjoy reading the postings !!
Hi David,
Thank you for sharing the resource on digital story telling and for adding your feedback.
Thank you for sharing the resource on digital story telling and for adding your feedback.
Nellie you are welcome ... I follow the discussions with great interest. I add what I can when I can. SCoPE is awesome !!
Thank you David. I agree; SCoPE offers incredible learning opportunities