A Technology and Learning - URHCU

T e c h o2og-y and Learning

Technology and Learning UIM

The portfolio was conceived, written and edited by Benedict Faccini and Manish Jain (with special thanks to Swathi Kappagantula)

The designations employed and the presentations of material in this report do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

A Technology and Learning U I I S C O

Reflections on opportunities past and present

“I think there is a world market, for maybe five computers.” Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943

“But what ... is it good for?” Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM,

commenting on the microchip, 1968

“There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home.” Ken Olson, president and chairman of Digital Equipment Corp., 1977

“640K ought to be enough for anybody.” Bill Gates, 198 1

“This ‘telephone’ has too m a n y shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.”

Western Union internal memo, 1876

“The wireless music box has no imaginable commercial value. W h o would pay for a message sent to nobody in particular?”

David Sarnof‘s associates in response to his urgings for investment in radio in the 1920s

“Radio has no future.” Lord Kelvin, mathematician and physicist, former president of Royal Society, 1897

“(Television) won’t be able to hold on to any market it captures after six months. People will soon get tired of staring at a plywood box every night.”

Darrvl F: Zanuck, head of 20th Century Fox, 1946

“Airplanes are interesting toys, but of no military value.” Marechal Foch, Professor of Strategy, €cole Superieure de Guerre, 19 1 1

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.” Charles H. Duell, Commissioner, U.S. Office of Patents, 1899

Source: Newsweek, January 27, 1997

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TOWARDS OPEN LEARNING COMMUNITIES

“The ‘untested feasible’ is an untested thing, an unprecedented thing, something not yet clearly known and experienced, but dreamed of.”

Paul0 Freire, Pedagogy of Hope, 1994

1. Opening up the school

The multitude of changes and challenges confronting the world today calls for renewed thinking on the means and ends of learning. Many of the fundamental assumptions that have shaped and guided past thinking about the nature of work, social relationships, the environment, cultural diversity, political participation, etc. seem increasingly inappropriate. In order to cope with these transformations and facilitate them in a socially constructive manner, it is vital for learning to take on a broader meaning and role: in assisting people in their individual and collective struggles, in providing them with the tools to make sense of a changing world marked by social fragmentation and conflict, and in encouraging them to contribute to peaceful development.

Yet, despite the concerted efforts of schools around the world, it is becoming evident that present educational systems are ill-equipped for taking on the challenges that lie ahead. Today, there are still nearly one billion illiterate people in the world, 130 million school-aged children out of school, and very few options for supporting the continuing learning needs of those w h o have dropped out of schools or w h o have no possibility of joining them. Barriers to learning are varied, from time, age, circumstance and socio- economic status; but the problem that confronts us runs much deeper than simply inadequate delivery mechanisms. The formal education system can often, in itself, constitute a barrier to learning.

Models of education have predominantly focused on building a culture of schooling/teaching rather than on enabling a culture of learning. The result, as Seymour Papert, of MIT Media Lab, says in “The Children’s Machine”, is that “the institution of School, with its daily lesson plans, fixed curriculum, standardized tests, and other such paraphernalia, tends constantly to reduce learning to a series of technical acts and the teacher to the role of a technician.” Roles and relationships of teachers and learners have often been narrowly constructed with little space for growth and change. Discussion, in educational decision-making circles, has unfortunately

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tended to remain focused on building/maintaining school buildings and trying to get children into them, rather than on what actually happens inside the classroom and when children leave (both on a daily basis and upon graduation/drop-out). Education is, all too often, seen as an activity for the early part of one’s life, a stage to prepare for life ahead, even though continuous learning is becoming increasingly critical for meaningful participation in society. In drawing strict boundaries with the informal and non-formal domains of learning, mainstream schools are often isolated from their surroundings, cut off from the communities to which they belong. They have had difficulty not only in legitimizing other learning communities, other learning. experiences, or other systems of knowledge, but also in drawing from these for n e w ideas, energy and relevance.

So, h o w can learning be liberated, in and beyond the classroom? What opportunities exist for cracking open narrow and confined visions of schooling, learning and individual growth? The frameworks and discourse with references linked to schooling often do not allow us to think about supporting learning in a broader sense. Nothing short of a mindshift is required in and outside the school. There is, today, without doubt, an urgent need to look for further solutions and the means for doing things differently, rather than doing more of the same. This means facilitating and transforming existing structures, creating n e w ones and seizing the opportunities that surround us. One such catalyst for change might lie in information and communication technologies.

II. The promises and concerns behind technologies

“To serve the basic learning needs of all requires more than a recommitment to basic education as it now exists. What is needed is an ‘expanded vision’ that surpasses present resource levels, institutional structures, curricula, and conventional delivery systems while building on the best in current practices. New possibilities exist today which result from the convergence of the increase in information and the unprecedented capacity to communicate. We must seize them with creativity and determination for increased effectiveness.”

World Conference on Education for Ally Jomtien, Thailandy 1990

The emergence of powerful n e w information and communication technologies, such as those based on the use of computers and multimedia, digital compression and satellites, fiber-optics and wireless networks, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, dramatically expand our options for engaging in learning and teaching at the individual, community, and societal level. Opportunities are also emerging for making better use of technologies that have been previously under-utilized in supporting learning processes and learning communities (i.e., radio, television, photography, blackboard, textbooks). Today, n e w possibilities in information processing and communication networks are making the idea of open learning communities increasingly viable alternatives to conventional forms of education as a means to facilitate learning.

Discussion around n e w technologies, however, tends to stir up a whole range of emotions from optimism and hope to skepticism and anxiety - s o m e talk of

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leapfrogging development, others of the widening information gap and others still of the dehumanization of society. Much of this stems from the history of technology which has provided m a n y instances of predicted revolutions that failed to materialize. Samuel Morse, for example, once predicted that the telegraph would help world communities enjoy a peaceful co-existence in the future by “annihilating space and time” and thus “bringing mankind into a c o m m o n brotherhood”. Reflecting on these failures, analyzing trends and experiences, several important concerns have been raised around the use of technologies, specifically in education:

0 h o w can one ensure that different socio-economic and cultural groups have equal access to technologies and information? 0 d o benefits iustifv the costs involved? 0 what types of training are required to fully utilize the potential of these technologies? 0 h o w can content be adapted to different audiences, and what is the appropriate technology for a particular group or setting? 0 are better, traditional technologies being ignored for more recent yet less adapted technologies? 0 h o w can teachers’ fears surrounding technologies be dealt with? 0 h o w can the “right mix” of multichannel approaches be developed for effectively mixing various technologies?

Past uses of technology have focused on dissemination and “drill and skill” applications. Broadcast radio and TV and computer-aided instruction, for example, were developed from a perspective that learners were recipients and their behaviour could be anticipated. To m o v e beyond technologies as mere transmission modes, a broader and more complete vision of h o w technologies could nurture and transform the learning process is needed.

The possibilities for using different combinations of technology to create and facilitate learning processes and environments are infinite. In the words of Gerald Lesser, co- founder of Sesame Street TV programme: ”Television’s greatest power is its capacity to transport, to show the world to children -to display people, events, and ideas that they have never encountered before and are unlikely ever to have the opportunity to confront.” Technologies make it possible to visualize other worlds, linking u p diverse learning communities, creating n e w worlds beyond the constraints of reality. More immediately, these technologies, and their breaking d o w n of barriers, present us with a chance to address questions of distance and time. They allow us to question fundamental assumptions, generate n e w ideas and even, sometimes, albeit more rarely, catalyze social and institutional change. To unlock this potential requires recontextualizing the ways in which w e “see” n e w technologies.

History has repeatedly shown that just blindly chasing after access to the latest technologies, without asking for what ends, will not allow us to achieve m a n y of our goals for development. Discussion and recontextualization, particularly for the countries of the South, should start with challenging the deficit model of development in which developing countries are pushed to “catch up” with the industrialized world. The overriding questions for countries (in both North and South) must be: What are our

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goals, h o w d o these goals serve the interests of our learners, h o w d o they relate to creating a more equitable world, and can networks or communities of learners be created or facilitated?

111. Technology is real... in the South too

“The death of distance will probably be the single most important economic force shaping society in the first half of the next century. It will alter in ways which are still only dimly imaginable, decisions about where people live and work; concepts of national borders, patterns of international trade.”

The Economist, 1995

The last few years have seen the proliferation of virtual worlds, cyberspace and intricate networks of communication between businesses, banks and other commercial outlets. E-mail, internet and tele-conferencing, etc. are n o w in c o m m o n usage in many parts of the world. Yet, this electronic world should not let us forget that a real world m a d e up of hunger and disease lies beyond, and that this real world is where the majority of humans still live. It has been said, for example, that more than half of humanity has never m a d e a telephone call and that there are more telephone lines in Manhattan than in all of Sub-Saharan Africa. A w a y from the screens of the modern age, tangible and pressing issues of survival confront most of the developing world. Within such a context, there is a real risk that technology will become just another means for widening the gap between economic “haves” and “have-nots”, that it will develop into another w a y of imposing outside models on others, and that so-called global culture, with its tantalizing images of potential wealth and symbolism will override and devalue local knowledge systems.

To deal with this situation, it is important to see technology as an evolving entity. Developments are happening daily and the role the South has to play, whether it be as generator or user of information and communication technologies, is still in the making. Information and communication technologies are not s o m e magical panacea from the outside, artificial means to create artificial worlds. They are a w a y to increase human exchange and capacity; a possibility for widening learning opportunities and, as such, have their right to a place in the South as much as in the North. Furthermore, it can be stated that technology is already a reality in the South and increasingly so for greater numbers. Its impact on development both positive and negative cannot be ignored. Solar panels, wind-powered electricity, etc. have already shown their success in the developing world. Today, information and communications technologies are trying to find their place. The following give a brief idea of current developments and the opportunity they present for the South.

0 WorldSpace is preparing the launch of satellites which will provide up to 200 channels of radio coverage over each of the continents reaching the most remote areas, of Africa, South America and Asia; 0 Motorola is scheduled to launch the first of 66 low-orbit satellites that will form a global telephone system known as Iridium. By 1998, Iridium should

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link personal computers, pocket telephones, fax machines, and pagers in a global network; 0 Free from the constraints of inherited decades-old copper wire such as the ones used in industrialized world, some developing nations which have made communications a priority, are installing digital switches, fiber-optic lines and the newest cellular and mobile technology. For example, the most sophisticated national networks are in Djibouti, Rwanda, the Maldives and the Solomon Islands, where 100 per cent of the main lines are digital, compared with, for instance, 49.5 per cent in the United States of America; 0 Interactive television with two-way video and audio teleconferencing is already being used in m a n y developing countries; 0 Around 3 0 countries in Africa have full Internet access. Other countries such as India are able to produce their o w n software. Since 1990, India’s software exports have soared by 53 per cent, to reach US$ 500 million in the year 1994-5; 0 High speed fiber optic ‘skynet’ can use high frequency with repeaters to carry volumes of voice, video, and data through the air. There will no longer be a need to dig up streets or plough through mountains to lay cable; 0 Pakistan Telecommunications Co. received at least 3,000 enquiries on the day it first advertised nationwide local-call access to Internet; 0 According to an Inter-American Development Bank report, TV education could be offered for all adults and children in Haiti at the cost of US$2 per person, per year.

Given this situation, h o w will the South use these n e w technologies? How can they be channelled to foster learning opportunities? How can they reflect the cultural and social specificities of each country? W h e n will people no longer receive information but also generate it? This is particularly relevant for the education systems of the South which, like their counterparts of the North, are generally ill-prepared to deal with the challenges and opportunities inherent in the emerging information and communication technologies. Preparing for the “information society” means developing critical insight and reinforcing the processes of dialogue. It means going beyond appropriate technologies towards the appropriation of technologies.

IV. Towards open learning communities:

From appropriate technologies to appropriation “Given the trend toward more open societies and global economies, we must emphasize the forms of learning and critical thinking that enable individuals to understand changing environments, create new knowledge and shape their own destinies. We must respond to new challenges by promoting learning in all aspects of life, through all institutions of society, in efect, creating environments in which living is learning.”

The A m m a n Amrmation Mid-Decade Meeting on Education for All, Jordan, 1996

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Negotiating the relationship between technologies, learning, communities and cultures is and will remain an increasingly difficult task. The need for sustainable human development and the arrival of n e w methods of gathering, dispensing and reacting to information calls for a n e w conceptualization of learning - one that strives to be more participatory, social, and anticipatory. This approach might or might not pass through schools. What is certain, however, is that opening up education, building on the best of current practice, mixing learner-centred methodologies and supporting the development of local content and a renewed vision of community dialogue are going to be increasingly important. More purposeful and pro-active approaches to technology, such as those encompassed in the concept of open learning communities, could pre- empt formulating and imposing yet another top-down irrelevant vision on people.

Several questions are vital in the shaping of dynamic learning contexts by technologies:

What would learning environments look like if they were constructed from the perspective of each learner - sensitive to learning needs, pace, local culture, values, interests and aspirations - and geared towards developing each human being’s individual and collective potential? What would learning environments look like if they were constructed and managed by the learners and communities and linked to dynamic processes of continually identifying and realizing their development priorities? What would learning environments look like if they were comprised of dynamically inter-connected diverse learning communities which shared information, culture and experiences and supported the evolution and construction of local knowledge systems? What would learning environments look like if they allowed learners the flexibility to m o v e in and out of them and encouraged wider social interact ion? What would learning environments look like if they tried to engage in their o w n organizational learning?

These questions are central to the concept of open learning communities. (The term open learning communities, while including environments that m a y continue to be called schools or even exist in schools, is deliberately used to challenge the reader to think beyond the narrow school-teacher-textbook model of supporting learning). Philosophically, open learning communities are concerned with re-linking learning to broader development issues and trends such as globalization/localization, the emergence of technological and information societies, the growth of informal institutions and economies, democratic participation, cultural homogenization, social justice and equality. The very concept of open learning communities asks the question: education for what? It is based on a generative convergence of thinking and experiences linking different ideas concerning learning (i.e. lifelong learning, multiple intelligences, intergenerational, multichannel and collaborative learning), cultural pluralism and communities, people-centered development and participation (in conceptualization, planning, implementation, research, evaluation). The ability to adapt to and generate change and participate in society is central to the concept of open learning communities.

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Practically speaking, open learning communities have existed for a long time. Many diverse and potential open learning communities can be identified: extended families, homes, television talk-show audiences, distance learning courses, the computer community in Silicon Valley, women’s collectives, schools, youth clubs, income- generation groups, religious communities, cities and villages and Internet-based environments for dialogue. What is n e w is not only recognition and validation of these dissonant contexts as spaces with valuable knowledge systems but also the desire to strengthen them as learning entities and link them to each other.

Stimulating local and global processes towards the conceptualizing of a n e w system of diverse and inter-connected open learning communities which attempt to g o beyond the boundaries of formal, non-formal and informal education constitutes a huge challenge. Many interesting and promising experiences are still beginning but the development of global internet classrooms, for example, shows h o w networks of learning can support wider visions of learning and cater to the needs of a wide group and number. Several specific aspects and applications of technology should be considered in the context of open learning communities, such as: I rn Communication and Information

Information and communication technologies can be used to support the interactive sharing of ideas and information. Such dialogue is critical not only to the support and motivation of the learners, but, more importantly, to their overall growth and development. The technologies provide an opportunity for diverse groups of people to communicate while at the same time potentially altering the nature of communication (i.e., the medium becomes the message). They challenge realities of space and time. The technologies also allow us to construct, store, process and share information in different ways.

rn Learning Information and communication technologies can be used to provide flexibility for catering to different learning styles (e.g., through multisensory aural, visual, pictorial, oral, physical means, etc.) and learning needs. They are capable of engaging individuals and communities in different kinds of learning processes, particularly more collaborative and participatory ones. They can be used to liberate learners in and outside the classroom and create n e w learning spaces available in any place and at any time. They can also be used to allow learners to be given a greater role in planning their o w n learning programmes and producing their o w n learning materials. Technologies can be used to support the development of cultural diversity, local knowledge and pluralism. They can provide the opportunity for greater relevance and socio-cultural specificity of content and activities.

rn Agent of Institutional Change Information and communication technologies can be used to create spaces for questioning existing policies and institutional structures and for introducing n e w ideas. They can support the presentation of ideas differently, create n e w avenues for reflecting and allow people to work with others in

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different ways. Technologies can be used to support processes for re-defining traditional roles and relationships (e.g., teachers/learners, gender, rich/poor, majority/minority). Such processes might involve engaging individuals to reflect on and reconsider their perceptions or attitudes about themselves or others and allowing non-traditional actors (such as community members) to enter into dialogue over decision-making in previously closed circles.

Underlying this discussion is a fundamental shift in the way in which technologies are implemented and planned: from trying to promote an elusive mix of appropriate technologies to supporting a process in which technologies themselves are appropriated by the people and cultures they serve. Through this process of appropriation, individuals and communities will create uses for technologies that have not even been imagined today. They might address some of the following questions:

h o w can technologies become “institutions of reflection”, which promote authentic social interaction, critical reflection, dialogue, vision building and creative action? . what is a local information infrastructure and h o w can it be built in a participatory manner? h o w can processes of critical media literacy be supported? h o w can authentic social interaction be built around the technologies? . h o w can learner-generated learning resources and, more broadly, local content production be supported? h o w d o w e m o v e from centralized source providers to building distributed

information networks? what kinds of processes are essential for appropriation? . what can be done with previously under-utilized “obsolete” technologies into which institutions have already invested large sums of money; h o w to avoid the cycle of just chasing after the latest technologies? . what are the copyright implications? How can the free flow of information be ensured but also the protection of the rights of producers of content? what is really meant by “effectiveness” in the cost-effective equation? How

do w e measure whether people are really learning? what is the role of human facilitation, particularly teachers, vis-a-vis the

various technologies? . h o w can the various technologies be humanized and framed within social contexts?

These will be s o m e of the future challenges for technology and open learning communities. For technology to assist individuals and communities in identifying and meeting their learning goals and support the building of open learning communities, continuous purposeful efforts must be made in applying technologies with an equal, if not greater, amount of vision and innovational commitment as was used to create them.

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V. About the portfolio: from promises to practice

This portfolio seeks to highlight illustrative cases in which technology has been creatively and effectively used to build and support open learning communities. At the same time, it wishes to contribute to a larger discussion on h o w technology can be used to support learning. It is comprised of this discussion paper, several cases of practice and abstracts, opinion pieces by leading change agents from around the world, a list of resources for learning more about the topic including books and W e b sites, and a list of definitions. The portfolio is concerned with opening up peoples’ minds to the possibilities but also the limitations presented by technologies. It asks readers to question and reject m a n y of the basic assumptions surrounding education and to tap into the spirit of creativity and inventiveness that has allowed so m a n y of the projects mentioned (see cases and abstracts) to blossom. The cases and abstracts were selected from all around the world, with s o m e from the countries of the North. This mix of cases from the so-called developing and industrialized world shows h o w the marginalized, isolated and poor are a concern of all countries and that their needs and aspirations can, in m a n y cases, be addressed through technology. Technologies, of course, also challenge our ideas of space - w h o is the North and w h o is the South - and what are their connections?

This publication is the culmination of a six-month-long learning process in which the editors contacted over 200 institutions via mail, fax and e-mail. It is a process which will continue through the Learning Without Frontiers W e b Site:

<www.education.unesco.org/lwf>

where readers will be encouraged to share both cases and their opinions. Readers are encouraged to contact the authors and projects directly for further information.

Cases: From Afghanistan, Mali, Mongolia, United Kingdom, and a selection of Global Classrooms, the cases of practice contain detailed information on set-up stage, obstacles encountered, use of technology, creation of learning environments through technology, open learning communities and costs.

I I I

Abstracts: From a vast range of countries and technologies, a brief history and synthesis of innovative practice in technology and learning.

Opinion pieces: These consist of contributions from distinguished thinkers/practitioners from around the world w h o are involved in a combination of action and reflection: Ron Burnett, academic; Steve Cisler, Apple Computer Co.; Aicha Bah Diallo, Director of Basic Education at UNESCO; Edward Gaible, People’s Computer CO; Wadi Haddad of the World Bank; Charles and Carol Okigbo, African Comm. Network; Ed Palmer, Children’s TV; Mitchel Resnick, Nicolas Negroponte and Justine Cassell of the MIT Media Lab;

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Bunker Roy, Indian village worker; Doris Schoenhoff, author of the Barefoot Expert; Minda Sutaria, SEAMEO/INNOTECH; J.I. Vargas, Third World Academy of Sciences.

List of definitions: Key words and concepts that have shaped the concepts of open learning, open learning communities and our relationship to technology.

List of resources: A mix of publications and web-sites which provide an insight into the wealth of open learning communities world-wide and the creative use of technology.

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EDUCATION FOR ALL: &&XING IT WORK INNOVATIONS IN BASIC EDUCATION

The joint UNESCO/UNICEF Project, Education for All : Making it Work, was launched in the wake of the Jomtien Conference. It promotes and publicizes information on those w h o are seeking n e w and innovative methods of bringing learning opportunities to all. It asks such questions as “How can the learning needs of all be met? What is presently being done to overcome the stagnation of conventional systems?” Through a variety of tools, a database, a videobank, an Innovations series highlighting successful projects, thematic portfolios and local capacity building workshops, the project brings concrete facts to the widest number. The project strongly believes that effective and sustainable change can only c o m e from a broader vision of learning and the courage of those w h o wish to turn it into practice.

LEARNING WITH0 UT FRONTIERS

Learning Without Frontiers (1) is a transdisciplinary and supranational initiative geared towards stimulating sustainable alternative pathways/partners/technologies for supporting the learning and empowerment of individuals and communities. It seeks to enable the creation of distributed learning environments which assist people in their lifelong struggle to participate in and transform a world which is increasingly overwhelmed by rapid change, uncertainty, information, alienation, and conflict. Such environments must be developed not only with the recognition of the vast diversity of learners, learning processes, styles, needs and learning contexts but also with a commitment to supporting the development of the full h u m a n potential of both individuals and communities. This starts with no longer viewing the learner as a passive recipient of knowledge in the environment but rather as an active chooser, builder and connector of diverse integrated open learning communities within the wider environment. In this dynamic context, the self-directed and motivated lifelong learner is empowered to continually access a variety of learning resources and opportunities, construct knowledge, transform social roles and relationships, critically challenge unequal power structures, take personal responsibility, negotiate and create a working vision of sustainable human development. Underlying LWF is a desire to question and focus on s o m e very fundamental assumptions around the nature of learning; the content of what should be learned; the modalities by which learning is supported; and the relationship between learning, socio-cultural contexts and international development. Much of what w e d o today in the field of education actually contradicts what research and experience tells us about learners and learning. The Learning Without Frontiers Coordination Unit has been set up in UNESCO to work with partners all around the world to develop a n e w joint vision surrounding the world of learning and create increasingly inclusive contexts for learners and their needs. As part of this challenge, LWF is exploring h o w existing and emerging technologies and approaches can be used to overcome multiple barriers to learning (i.e., age, time, space, circumstance) and to support participatory, multichannel and innovative learning. It should be clear, though, that LWF does not view technology as a panacea but rather as a tool that must be continually situated within the larger context of humanity.

(I) Although the development of Learning Without Frontiers is being facilitated by UNESCO, it should be clear that LWF is a non-proprietary concept.

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Definitions and

Resources

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DEFINITIONS

APPROPRIATION: processes by which individuals and communities consciously take both conceptual and operational control of an idea, a tool, a technology, etc. within the context of their real and perceived culture. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI): tools that exhibit human intelligence and behaviour including self-learning robots, expert systems, voice recognition, natural and automated translation. COLLABORATIVE LEARNING: when learners work in groups on the same task simultaneously, thinking together over demands and tackling complexities. Collaboration is here seen as the act of shared creation and/or discovery. Within the context of electronic communication, collaborative learning can take place without members being physically in the same location. CONSTRUCTIVISM: sees learning as a dynamic process in which learners construct new ideas or concepts on their current/past knowledge and in response to the instructional situation. Constructivism implies the notion that learners do not passively absorb information but construct it themselves. CYBERSPACE: the virtual shared universe of the world's computer networks, it has come to describe the global information space. For example, telephone conversations, 'chatroom' discussions, computer communications and ATM transactions all take place in cyberspace. DISTANCE EDUCATION: an educational process and system in which all or a significant proportion of the teaching is carried out by someone or something removed in space and time from the learner. Distance education requires structured planning, well-designed courses, special instructional techniques and methods of communication by electronic and other technology, as well as specific organizational and administrative arrangements. DISTANCE LEARNING: a process that connects learners to distributed learning resources. Distance learning can take a variety of forms. All distance learning, however, is characterized by (a) separation/distance of place and/or time between instructor and learner, amongst learners, and/or between learners and learning resources; and (b) interaction between the learner and the instructor, among learners and/or between learners and learning resources conducted through one or more media. DISTRIBUTED ENVIRONMENTS: physical and virtual diversification of learning resources. ELECTRONIC MAIL: network tool that allows an individual to send a message to the computer mailbox of another user. Mailboxes have unique and specific addresses which can generally be mailed to or by anyone else on the Internet. E-mail can also be sent automatically to a large number of addresses (through a Mailing List). E M P O W E R M E N T : how individuals/communities engage in learning processes in which they create, appropriate and share knowledge, tools and techniques in order to change and improve the quality of their own lives and societies. Through empowerment, individuals not only manage and adapt to change but also contribute to/generate changes in their lives and environments. EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING: learning by doing. FIBER OPTICS: communications infrastructure that uses optical fibers for transmission. Optical fibers transmit large amounts of complex and varied information such as text, diagrammes and graphics more quickly and efficiently than traditional copper wires. GUI (Graphical User lmterface): a graphics-based user interface that incorporates icons, pull-down menus and a mouse, as in Microso0 Windows or the interface on Macintosh computers. The CUI has become the standard way users interact with a computer.

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H A R D W A R E : machinery and equipment (CPU, disks, tapes, modem, cables, printers, scanners, CD drives, etc.). In operation, a computer is both hardware and software. HOMEPAGE: The homepage is the first Web page you come to when you access a Web site. Many companies, individuals and universities, for example, have homepages. HTML: HyperText Markup Language is the underlying document format used on the World Wide Web. Webpages are built with HTML tags, or codes, embedded in the text, that allow different web browses (like Netscape, Mosaic, Ms Internet Explorer, etc.) to display formatted Web pages. INFORMATION SUPERHIGHWAY: a broad term used for the many emerging and existing paths for accessing electronic information. They include computer networks, electronic mail, enhanced cable TV systems, electronic shopping and banking, etc. INTERACTIVE RADIO INSTRUCTION: Instruction through radio which allows for a return of communication via telephone, fax, e-mail, etc. INTERACTIVE TELEVISION (ITV): television programmes which typically consist of one-way video transmission (students see instructor at a distance) and two-way audio (students hear instructor either through the television or by telephone and the instructor can hear students by telephone). With the advent of compressed video, IN programmes are now being implemented that allow both students and teachers to see, hear and respond to each other via video and audio in real-time. INTERACTIVIN: reciprocal process of information exchange between two or more “players” in communication, or, more specifically, learning. “Players” can be pupils, facilitators, peers but also automated learner resources, like databases and other CAL devices. INTERNET: the world-wide network of networks. Known as ‘The Net,’ it is a wide collection of interconnected computer networks that allow electronic mail, files, and other information, to flow between computers. INTRANET: An in-house Web site that serves the employees of an company. Even if intranet pages can be linked to the Internet, an intranet is not a site accessed by the general public. With programming languages like Java, client/server applications can be built on intranets. JUST-IN-TIME LEARNING: a term to describe ways of making information available over Internet to people when they need it and at a level equal to their ability to understand it. LAN: local area network, or a group of computers connected for the purpose of sharing resources. The computers on a local area network are typically joined by a single transmission cable and are located within a small area, often not more than a few square kilometres, and a single building or section of a building. LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS: an organization that shares and constructs knowledge, resources, and experiences towards a common goal. LISTSERV/MAILING LIST: application on the Internet that gives users the oppovtunity to distribute mail to other addresses. Automated mailing lists allow for online discussions conducted by electronic mail. L O C A L K N O W L E D G E SYSTEMS: frameworks for interacting, understanding, interpreting, and constructing meaning based on local knowledge, oral traditions, and historical experiences of a given area or group. LOGIN: to identify oneself to a computer system or network and start to use it. Usually, logging on requires a password, depending on the system. Same as log-on; opposite of log-off. MEDIA: means and ways of distribution and communication. From text, audio, graphics, animated graphics to full-motion video. Media is the plural of “medium.” Multimedia is the mix or combination of media. MEDIA LITERACY: the ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and produce communication and information in a variety of forms and means. METACOGNITION: thinking about one’s thinking processes. It has to do with the active monitoring and regulation of cognitive processes. MUD: Multiple User Domains/Dungeons/Dialogues are also known as ‘chatrooms.’ They are text-based environments in which many users are able to communicate and construct an environment in ‘real-time.’ MULTICHANNEL LEARNING: learning processes whereby the interaction between learners and learing source takes place through a variety of communication channels (for example, print, TV e-mail, Internet and video). MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES: Howard Cardner identifies at least seven different human intelligences that allow

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us to engage in learning and help us make sense of the world: (I) language; (2) logical-mathematical analysis; (3) spatial representation; (4) musical thinking; (5) the use of the body to solve problems or to make things; (6) an understanding of other individuals; and, (7) an understanding of ourselves. Within the framework of learning with technology, each has a specific role and capacity. N E T W O R K : an arrangement of objects or people that are interconnected electronically or not. See LAN. In communications, the transmission channels interconnecting all client and server stations also suppot7 hardware and software. ON-LINE: when a computer is connected to a network and logged in. On-line is the opposite of off-line. O P E N LEARNING: instructional systems in which many facets of the learning process are under the control of the learner. It attempts to deliver learning opportunities where, when, and how the learner needs them. SERVER: a computer that provides a service across a network. The service may be file access, login access, file transfer, printing and so on. SOFTWARE: instructions for the computer. A series of instructions that performs a particular task is called a programme. Two major categories of software are system operating software and application software. See hardware. SURFING T H E NET: Scanning online material, such as databases, news and forums. The term originated from “channel surfing,” the rapid changing of 7V channels to identify something of interest. TELECOMMUNICATION: the electronic process that enables communication across distances, large and small, from one sender to another. TELECONFERENCING: rlong distance” conferencing) describes meetings at a distance using electronic means such as satellite, telephone, Internet, radio etc. in which participants have direct visual or aural contact. TELEMATICS: mixing of resources and services of computer science and telecommunications. URL: (Uniform Resource Locator) the Internet addressing scheme that defines the route to a file or programme. For example, a home page on the World Wide Web is accessed via its URL. VIRTUAL COMMUNITIES: a community accessible only online via computer, for example through compurer conferencing systems that allow people around the world to participate in public conversations or exchange private messages via electronic mail. VIRTUAL REALITY: an immersive and interactive simulation of either reality-based or imaginary images and scenes. See Cyberspace. VIRUS: software programme used to infect a computer. After the virus code is written, it is buried within an existing programme. Once that programme is executed, the virus code is activated and attaches copies of itself to programmes in the system. WORLD WIDE WEB: a hyper-text-based system for finding and accessing resources on the Internet.

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PUBLICATIONS and WEBSITES

Anzalone, S. (Ed.). Multichannel Learning: Connecting All to Education. Washington, Education Development Center, 1995.

Anzalone, S., Sutaria, M., Desroches, R. and Visser, J. Multi-channel learning: A note on work in progress. In Stewart, D. (Ed), One world many voices: Quality in open and distance learning. Milton Keynes, The Open University, 1995.

Black, K. Kid Vid - Fundamentals of Video Instruction. Tucson, Zephyr Press, 1989.

Botkin, J.W., Elmandjra, M. and Malitza, M. No Limits to Learning - Bridging the Human Gap (A Report to the Club of Rome). Oxford, Pergamon Press Ltd, 1979.

Brand and Stewart. The Media Lab: Inventing the Future at M.l.1 N e w York, Penguin Books, 1984.

Burnett, R. Cultures of Vision: Images, Media & the Imaginary. Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1995. Brook, J. and Boal, LA. (Ed.). Resisting the Virtual Life - The Culture and Politics of Information. San Francisco, City Lights Books, 1991.

Brush, S. and Stabinsky, D. Valuing Local Knowledge, Indigenous People, and Intellectual Property Rights. Island Press, 1995.

Capra, F. The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. N e w York, Anchor Books, 1996.

Cetron, M. and Davies, 0. Probable Tomorrows - How Science and Technology will Transform our Lives in the Next Twenty Years. N e w York, St Martin s Press, 1997.

Craig, C. and Mayo, M. Community Empowerment: A Reader in Participation and Development. London, Zed Books, 1995.

Collis, B., Nikolova, 1. and Martcheva, K. lnformation technologies in teacher education. Issue and experiences of countries in transition. Paris, UNESCO, 1995

D’Orville, H. Technology Revolution Study: Communications and Knowledge-Based Technologies for Sustainable Human Development. N e w York, United Nations Development Programme, 1 996.

Gardner, H. Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice. N e w York, Basic Books, 1993.

Coleman, D. Emotional Intelligence. N e w York, Bantam Books, 1995.

Greenfield, P.M. Mind and Media - The Effects of Television, Video Games and Computers. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1984.

Hiemstra, R. (Ed.) Creating Environments for Effective Adult Learning. San Francisco, Jossey Bass, 1991

ITU and UNESCO. The Right to Communicate - At What Price? Economic Constraints to the Effective Use of Telecommunications in Education, Science, Culture and in the Circulation of Information, Paris, 1 995.

Land, S. and Hannafin, M. A Conceptual Framework for the Development of Theories in Action with Open-Ended Learning Environments. Educational Technology Research and Development. Volume 44, Number 3, 1 996.

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Levinger, B. Critical Transitions: Human Capacity Development Across the Lifespan. Newton, Education Development Center, 1996.

Longworth, N. and Davies, W.K. Lifelong learning: New vision, new implications, new roles for people, organisations, nation and communities in the 21st century. London, Kogan Page, 1996.

Marcus, C.E. (Ed) Connected: Engagements with media. Chicago, Chicago University Press, 1996.

Marquardt, M. and Reynolds, A. The Global Learning Organization: Gaining Competitive Advantage through Continuous Learning. Burr Ridge Illinois, Irwin, 1994.

Marshall, S. Creating Sustainable Learning Communities for the Twenty-First Century: in Hesselbein F. The Organization of the Future. The Drucker Foundation, San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1 997.

Mason, R. Using communicarions media in open and flexible learning. London, Kogan Page, 1996.

Minsky, M. The Society of Mind. N e w York, Simon I% Schuster, 1987.

Miranker, C. and Elliott, A. The Computer Museum Guide to the Best Software for Kids. N e w York, Harper Collins, 1995.

Moore, M.C. and Kearsley, C. Distance Education - A Systems View. Belmont, California, 1996.

Negroponte, N. Being Digital. London, Hodder and Stoughton, 1995.

Nostbakken, D. and Akhtar, S. Does the Highway Go South? - Southern Perspectives on the Information Highway (Report of an International Institute of Communications Pre-Conference Symposium on Southern Country Interests, Tampere, Finland, September 3-4, 1994). Ottawa, IDRC, 1995.

Papert, S. The Children s Machine: Rethinking School in the Age of the Computer. N e w York, Basic Books, 1993.

Papert, 5 The connected family: Bridging the digital generation gap. Atlanta, Longstreet Press, 1996,

Parer, M.S. Unlocking Open Learning. Churchill, Centre for Distance Learning; 1994.

Perkins, D. Smart Schools - Berter Thinking and Learning for Every child. N e w York, Free Press, 1995.

Postman, N. Technopoly - The Surrender of Culture to Technology. N e w York, Alfred A. Knopf, 1992.

Potashnik, M., Gonzales, M., Mayville, W. and Adkins, D., Education and Technology Series, Volume 1 , Nos 1-3, World Bank H u m a n Development Department, 1996.

Rheingold, H. The Virtual Community. Ottawa, Addison- Wesley, 1993.

Richardson, J. Teaching, Learning, Information: Towards an Open Socratic School Luxembourg, 1 997 (Background paper for the European Commission Workshop, Luxembourg, February 24-25, 1997).

Schoenhoff, D. The Barefoot Expert: The Interface of Computerized Knowledge Systems and Indigenous Knowledge Systems. Greenwood Press, 1995.

Senge, P. The Fifth Discipline: The Art 13 Practice of The Learning Organization. N e w York, Currency Doubleday, 1990.

Senge, P. The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building A Learning Organization. N e w York, Currency Doubleday, 1994.

UNESCO. Information and Communication Technologies in Development: A UNESCO Perspective. Working Document Cll-96-WS/6, Paris, UNESCO, 1996.

Visser, J. and Jain, M. Towards Open Learning Communities: Recontextualizing Teachers and Learners. in Passey, D. and Samways, B. (Eds.) Information Technology: Supporting Change through Teacher Education. IFlP Joint Working Conference Proceedings, London, Chapman and Hall, 1997.

Willis, B. (Ed.). Distance Education: Strategies and Tools. Englewood Cliffs, Educational Technology Publications, 1994.

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We bsites:

Women on the Net - http://www.waw.be/sid/won/won.htm/ A multicultural perspective on international communication systems to promote discussion on gender identity and the way it is being shaped by the cyberworld.

Electricminds - http://www.minds.com/cgi-bin/maslink.cgi/command?statthome/ Electric Minds brings together information and discussions on technology and its effects on our lives, communities and future.

Nicenet - http://www.nicenet.org/ Nicenet is a volunteer organization of Internet professionals who give their time to provide services to the Internet community.

Microsoft - http://www.microsoft.com/education/kl Z/clc.htm/ Microsoft, use of computers in schools, etc.

Summer Institute of Linguistics - http://www.sil.org/lingualinks/ SIL activities and information (literacy and indigenous knowledge).

Institute for Learning Sciences - http://www.ils.nwu.edu/ Resource website. Role of technologies In education, reform and discussions.

EduCom - http://educorn.edu/ A non-profit consortium of higher education institutions that facilitates the transformation of education through information technology.

Commonwealth of Learning - http://www.col.org/ Site with documentation, resources, information on learning and distance education.

Center for Media Education - http://tap.epn.org/cme/ Issues related to media in education.

Center for Democracy and Technology - http://www.cdt.org/ Issues surrounding democracy in the technological age,

Teachers Web Pages - http://www.teachers.net/ Resources and information for teachers.

TechWeb Technology Encyclopedia - http://www.techweb.com/encyclopedia/defineterm.cgi Resources and information for teachers on technology.

International Institute for Sustainable Development - http://iisd 1 .iisd.ca/ Issues of development, environment and North/South co-operation.

Learning Without Frontiers - http://unesco.uneb.edu/lwf/ Resources and discussions around new paradigms for learning, in and outside the school, home and community. Role of technology in the learning process.

The North Central Regional Technology in Education Consortium - http://www.ncrtec.org/ Helm school1 to intearate technoloav into their classrooms and manaae chanae.

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IDRC (International Development Research Centre) - http:/bvww.idrc.ca/ Information on IDRC's work in education and development.

Education Development Center, Center for Children and Technology - http://www.educa.org/CCT Discussions on children's interaction with technology.

Education Development Center - http://www.edc.org/home.html/ Resources and information for actors in education.

21 st Century Learning Initiative - http://www.2 1 learn.org/format/home.html/ Current thinking in education.

International University Consortium - gopher://nova.umd.edu/00/Staffresources/lUC/iuc2.txt/ Membership organization, offers mediaassisted course package for distance education and open learning programmes.

International Literacy Institute - http://litserver.literacy.upenn.edu/lLl/default.htmI Issues of literacy and technology.

The Electric Learning Web - http://www.chaos.com/learn/index. html/ Includes LEARNTOPIA, a cyberspatial learning community under development.

The Association For Community Networking - <http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/resources/AFCN.html> A new group in the United States whose goal is to help communities make choices about the appropriate use of information technology.

Telecommunities Canada - <www.freenet.mb.ca/info/press/infra-press.release.html> Has been holding annual conferences since 1993 and is planning an international conference on community networks in 1998.

University of Michigan <h ttp://www.si . umic h.edu/Com munity/> Big Sky Telegraph in Montana<macsky.bigsky.dillon.mt.us> and Center for Civic Networking <www.civicnet.org/>.

Clearinghouses of electronic information about community networks.

Apple Library of Tomorrow <www.research.apple.com/research/proj/alot/alot96.html> the US. Department of Commerce <www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/tiiap/tiiaphome.htm> The Corporation For Public Broadcasting <www.cpb.org/edtech/cweis/index.html>

Information on community network projects.

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Opinions

Technology and Learning I J I I S C O

The opinions expressed by the authors of the “opinion pieces” do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO. For reproduction or further information please contact authors.

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LIVING ARCHAEOLOGY ELECTRONIC NEWORKS AND A LIFE OF LEARNING Ron Burnett

n most cultures of the North and the South w e are witnessing a variety of traditions, life styles and learning activities co-existing with n e w technologies of I communication. Telephones and satellite technology can be found in remote

villages in Cambia along with conventional forms of architecture and village life. Large battery driven stereos can be heard in the villages of Senegal even as traditional musicians continue to practice musical styles which are centuries old. In India the

intersection of village life with television is recreating the w a y communities and their members normally interact. This, even as all of the religious ceremonies which have been the foundation of rural existence in India continue to be practiced with fervour and intensity.

Dr. Ron Bumtt, President, Emily Caw Institute of Art and Design, is the former Director of the Graduate Programme in Communications at McGill University. His most recent publication is ((Cultures of Vision: Images, Media and the Imaginary?

Homepage: http//www. eciad. bc. ca/-rburnett

In South Africa community radio and television co-exist in the townships with ceremonial forms of expression which hearken back to a history long repressed under apartheid. In the United States advanced internet based communications technologies are used for traditional messages about religion, politics and culture. Religious fundamentalism is being driven by this convergence, on the one hand an archaic form of communalism and on the other hand a radical right wing movement. At the same time, n e w cyberspace communities are appearing in Europe and North America testing the very idea of community even as the cities which they originate from are being transformed.

From an historical perspective these points of intersection are sedimented, building upon each other in what I would like to describe as a living archeology. The electronic converges with and diverges from information, knowledge and communication. The elasticity of this archeology means that its layers are undergoing continual change. There are no simple vantage points from which the process can be viewed. In fact, point of view, the very basis of subjectivity is no longer bounded by a transparent geography with clear markers and destinations.

S o m e policymakers find this situation dangerous and erosive. Others, in government and education blame the conflicts of tradition and technology for all the contradictions which n o w beset us. I would argue that w e are participating in an explosion of diversity and complexity which is bringing all of the richness of everyday life into view. W e are entering a golden age of access and exchange. It is not an accident that fibre optic lines are being carved into the landscape of Thailand or that satellite technology is being introduced into the jungles of Indonesia. It is not an accident because the channels of information which are being created will drive economies of the future, will promote

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the linkages which will determine trade patterns and investment, and will also be the foundation for the intersection of traditional and n e w cultures. For example, teachers in remote villages in Indonesia for w h o m librairies have at best been a dream for the future will n o w be able to use cellular technologies to connect to the Internet. They m a y not have the books, but they will have a digitized cornucopia of material which will approximate a vast encyclopedia. This has dramatic implications not only for the exchange of ideas and knowledge, but for access. W e are witnessing a redefinition of access as a concept and as a practice. This will mean that policymakers in the fields of development and educators hoping to use internet based technologies in Southern countries will have to redefine both their o w n use of information and the role of learners. It also means that w e are witnessing the creation of a n e w field of research into the effects of computer mediated learning within cultural and political contexts that just a short time ago would not have been the site for these processes.

How then does learning, teaching, the exchange of information and knowledge fit into this highly charged environment? How will this change the role of community activists and educators in the field? I would like to propose that part of the answer lies with technologies which empower those w h o use them. Another part of the answer lies with the mix between the traditional and the new. Knowledge has always been defined by its owners and purveyors. To varying degrees this process continues with a variety of monopolies n o w vying for control of broadcast technologies world-wide. However, the internet has changed the parameters of this power struggle because it will be virtually impossible to recreate the internet as a mass medium with centralized forms of control. It is precisely this dispersion which opens up the potential for educators and for learners because to varying degrees it suggests that activities of linkage will empower people in unpredictable ways. The cartography will never be a simple one to draw. The World Wide W e b as it n a m e suggests will complicate communications and the transmission of information as well as learning and teaching.

It matters little that the World Wide W e b will soon be available in North America through cable networks. Efforts to transform the W e b into a traditional broadcast medium will not succeed because gatekeeping is not what the process is about. Rather, and most importantly, the highly local forms of creation which n o w sustain the W e b are about small groups of people communicating with each other either because they have to or because they want to. It is about informal methods of learning and exchange which are not restricted by conventional pressures of distribution but are dependent upon the needs of the people w h o make use of networks because they want to learn.

The shift that I a m talking about then, this explosion of diversity is a move towards the needs of learners and with that comes a different conception of community. Learning for life or a life of learning has always been the everyday life of individuals from all parts of the world. It has been the move towards formality through schooling which has often interfered with tradition and the growth and development of legitimate and useful forms of local and transnational knowledge.

The most difficult aspect of these developments is the rather loose w a y in which community both as a term and as a concept is applied to learning processes. O n the one hand, networked technologies suggest the dissolution of traditional boundaries between communities under the guise of a universalist, global economic and cultural

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order. O n the other hand, locality, uniqueness, tradition and history c o m e into play as foundations for a healthy community. It m a y be the case however, that networked technologies are about the recreation of ((locality)) as a concept and as a lived experience. W e m a y be witnessing the nascent moments of an historic change in which “bricolage” will allow communities to define themselves in a much more fluid manner than they ever have. (“Bricolage” as a concept describes a process of mixing and matching, choosing ideas and practices which fit with the historical moment. For example, communities in any part of the world can n o w decide which sources of information are more important to them than others. Official channels of information become just one part of many possible sites for the exchange of ideas. The bricoleur is empowered by this diversity and is able to control more of the political and cultural agenda.)

As “bricoleurs” community members will be able to choose at will, borrowing what they need from other communities, incorporating experiences and knowledge from anonymous neighbours, redefining and refining their relationships with each other as they discover m a n y different ways of learning.

This learning will have to take place within the network and outside. It will have to appropriate conventional discourses, conventional strategies of exchange with n e w languages based on digitization. W e have yet to understand what the digital process is doing to our language, to our talking, writing and listening, to our ways of seeing and understanding the world around us. W e d o know that every phase of technological change in the twentieth century has altered if not transformed our expectations about the future. W e are n o w in a position to test if the potentially empowering aspects of networked technologies will achieve a democratic vision for learning while at the same time enhancing the community’s ability to redevelop itself. In order for democracy to grow in areas where it is under attack or in areas where political power lies with an entrenched elite, w e will have to approach the creation of pedagogical materials for the internet from a radically different perspective.

There are four significant aspects to this n e w approach which will affect the cultural and political context for setting policy in the areas of communications and education: the intellectual framework within which w e think about ideas, history and critical analysis; the physical reality of daily life including the interaction of our bodies with virtual spaces; the spiritual values which so m a n y individuals and cultures find important and which should always be included in our overall understanding of both formal and informal learning contexts; the pedagogical needs to be seen as through a broader lens so that w e can recognize not only h o w people learn, but h o w m a n y different ways there are to learn (from traditional cultural forms to popular cultural expression).

Late twentieth century culture has converged with education and education has converged with computerized technologies. The results are layered onto each other in what I have described above as a living archeology. There is no top or bottom to these many layers. Rather, w e are both viewers of and participants in the sedimentation process. The challenge will be to get a cut out view of the ways in which the layers interact. This will be a challenge which many cultures will have to face even as they struggle with networked technologies to find s o m e w a y of plugging in. It is also a challenge which policymakers in all fields will have to confront if they are to make any

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sense of the shifting terrain of social and cultural development which the world is n o w entering into.

(I a m grateful to Deborah Shackleton of Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design for her help in defining some of the priorities of this argument.)

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COWERSATIONS ABOUT COMMUNITYAND COMPUTING Steve Cider

an the tectonic shifts in global telematics be meaningful to the average citizen? Community networking is an attempt to provide a context for local citizens to C understand and participate in the changes in availability of lower cost

computers and expanding telecommunications infrastructure by linking them up with each other and with local organizations and services. However, the gap between enthusiastic technologists and the people affected remains wide, even after all the studies and field experience. How technology is diffused into n e w settings and

communities has been studied and discussed ever since Everett Rogers wrote his seminal work, Diffusion of Innovations.(l) Even as the technology changes from week to week, human Steve Cislev is a researcher and librarian in

the Advanced Technology Group at Apple. He has been involved in community networking since 1987.

He also ran theAppk Library of Tomorrow program that provided equipment and sojtware for innovative research and demonstration projects in all types of libraries. From 1993 the program has been supporting community computer networks where libraries are playing a laqe role.

E-mail: sacQappk.com.

habits and local traditions d o not easily adapt to even the most beneficial advances.

As aid agencies, international lending organizations, national planners, and local entrepreneurs begin to extend the reach of telecommunications improvements beyond the capital city, they should realize that local citizens and civic groups need to be engaged in planning the expansion process. The Loka Institute <http://www.amherst.edu/-loka/paneI/paneI.htm> in Massachusetts has been working on consensus conferences (2), an innovative way of involving citizens in important technological decisions. S o m e governments are planning aggressive telecommunications projects that are primarily top-down with no

grass roots input. This centralized approach m a y work in some cultures or authoritarian political environments, but w e have found one of the most effective ways to involve people in the expansion of local infrastructure is in the formation of local community networks. Several hundred of these have been started in North America, Australia, and a few in Europe, Japan, and N e w Zealand. S o m e of the lessons w e have learned will also apply to areas in Africa, Latin America, the Pacific and Asia, even though the levels of computer ownership and telecommunications usage is much lower than North America.

S o m e of the first community networks were the Free-Nets, and many of these still exist in the United States in Canada. These predated the current growth of the Internet in many towns. Using a server, clusters of m o d e m s and regular phone lines, the interface was set up using the metaphor of an electronic city. Users were issued passwords free of charge, and volunteers took over the staffing and operation of sections of the online areas.

While a few community networks and s o m e Free-nets have evolved into n e w institutions (though they are still weak financially) they d o involve networks of people

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and organizations as much as they are networks of computers and communications lines. The computer networks have been used to strengthen the networks of people in the community, but it has not been noticed very much by the popular press. Non-profit groups are in closer contact, and citizens have used the network for interaction with the government officials and service staff from different agencies. For this to have some measure of success, it is critical that the system is accepted and used by the powers in the community and not just lower level enthusiasts.

La Plaza Telecommunity in Taos, N e w Mexico, serves a rural population of about 10,000 people. Many of these people had never used a computer, yet the trainers and network planners were able to involve m a n y residents as volunteers, trainees, and then regular users of La Plaza. In 1996, the La Plaza Telecommunity Network in Taos, N e w Mexico, responded to destructive brush fires in the area by using the network to help link people, relief agencies, and outsiders to news about the crisis and to each other.

W h e n it concerns telecommunications, what makes the headlines and the political speeches? Mergers of transnational corporations, the laying of fiber optic cable d o w n the spine of a continent or around it borders, country after country getting some kind of access to the Internet, the plans for networks of satellites that will afford access in every part of the planet-for a price, and n e w software and faster hardware to increase the network speed and capacity. Yet beyond the growing audience of consultants, industry and PlT officials, government planners, and computer enthusiasts, there are billions of people for w h o m these changes make little sense.

Many of these are among those w h o live on less that US$2.00 per day (3) and whose concerns are more about survival than about exploring the world on online information and linking up via email with acquaintances and friends. While donors and planners m a y have a tangible dream to establish such a network, frequently the average citizens have no context to understand what is proposed.

Imagine this: two planners from the ministry of transportation make their w a y to a remote village where no road exists, and everyone walks or rides a burro or horse. The ministry officials assemble the elders and village leaders and ask for their assistance in providing volunteer labor for a very important task: to excavate a huge hole in a clearing near the center of the dwellings. “But w h y d o w e need a hole?” asks one elder. “Infrastructure! Global competitiveness” replies one planner. The villagers are not sure what infrastructure is, but they are persuaded to help the officials. Experts from the capital rarely visit this village, and they, must be treated politely. A large group of villagers spends a two days digging the hole and hauling away the tailings. As soon as the hole is finished, the officials s u m m o n a helicopter by portable radio, and the next morning a huge automobile fuel tank is ferried from the highway far away and is lowered into the hole and covered by the volunteers w h o tamp the earth down, but they wonder what sense it makes to have a fuel storage facility when they have no road and therefore no cars or trucks or motorcycles.

This was the feeling some American communities had after: NetDay <http://www.netday96.com/> took place. Technologists set the agenda and w o n the support of the Clinton administration to make wiring the schools a top priority,

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even though some schools were not yet ready for wiring. S o m e did not have computers or were far from an internet connection, or they needed other supplies or improvements before doing wiring for a LAN they could not afford. Other schools and communities, especially those with s o m e existing networking infrastructure, enthusiastically joined in the NetDay program. They had a context for understanding the need, and they saw h o w they could build on the volunteer work. S o m e NetDay organizers saw the school staff as barriers to their technological goals of getting the schools wired. The initial project in March 1996, was declared to be a success by the organizers and by the Clinton Administration. Many thousands of volunteers took part in intensive sessions to string cable in classrooms and libraries around the state. However, many schools, especially in rural areas, distant from the high tech volunteers in Silicon Valley, did not participate, and critics pointed out that the project widened the gap between these schools and wealthier ones.

This is not to say that a state or country-wide initiative like this should not be undertaken, but planners need to understand that different areas m o v e at different speeds for a myriad of reasons: cultural, economic, educational, and technological. Community network efforts involve more than just educators and students, so it is even more complex for planners to include m a n y other sectors such as health, government, social services, and libraries, and local organizations.

They did this by helping real people solve real problems in their daily lives. La Plaza trainers began their introductory sessions in Taos with a discussion not of technology, TCP/IP and the World Wide W e b but one about problems that people are faced with at h o m e or at work and then suggested s o m e ways that others have solved similar problems using online information or collaborative software and electronic mail. Many of the best trainers are good story tellers. They help their audience make a connection between the proposed network and their o w n lives, usually by describing success stories from other community networks.(4) S o m e storytellers are able to make technical issues understandable to people w h o are unfamiliar with computers and networks.

Once the Community Network organizers begin to make those connections, s o m e people will begin to see the value of having one locally. Obviously, it must make sense to key members of the town, or support will be limited to the fringe group of early adopters of technology. While m a n y tout access to the Internet as an end in itself, the nature of a local network enables people to find information and assistance locally as well as on the Internet. S o m e systems are emphasizing the production of local cultural, tourist, and government information. The existing community networks have not been studied or analyzed as much as other media such as radio or television, so w e do not have a good profile of the users or h o w they are affected by these local systems. Andrew Patrick, a Canadian researcher, has m a d e s o m e important initial surveys that raise important questions about h o w these networks are being used <http://debra.dg bt.doc.ca/services-researchb.

In our experience w e have found that the establishment of community networks will not solve the problems of a dysfunctional community, but they can help a community that works together. Many times, the local people will not put aside their old grievances, turf battles, and pride for a cooperative effort. In most cases the key parties have not worked together previously on a c o m m o n project; they m a y even have been competitors, but it is more likely that until the networking project was initiated, they

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ignored each other. If the town lacks a rich variety of volunteer organizations, a functional government structure that serves the people, or a stable business class, it is unlikely that a community network can take root even if outside agencies and donors bring in the latest equipment, optical fiber and provide adequate training. What m a y happen is that businesses and government offices will be the initial linkages, but much of the growth after that will result from community development efforts and some infusion of hardware, software, and training for use in public places.

In the towns and rural areas of Canada and the United States where community networks have been established, the motivations behind the efforts have been to understand the technological choices, to bind together members of the existing community through a c o m m o n project, to maintain s o m e form of control over local communications facilities, to improve the information flow between schools, libraries, health facilities, government offices, and non-profit organizations, and to promote the local economy through the dissemination of information about tourism, investment opportunities, and job openings. S o m e community networks focus on one of these goals, while others will support the whole array. Depending on the social, economic, and political ecology of your town or rural area, the community network can take many different shapes. The following resources can be of initial help, but much of the substance of a network will come from local sources.

The Association For Community Networking: <http://bcn.boulder.co.us/community/resources/AFCN. h t m b is a n e w group in the United States whose goal is to help communities make wise choices about the appropriate use of information technology. Telecommunities Canada <www.freenet.mb.ca/info/press/infra-press.release.html> has been holding annual conferences since 1993 and is planning an international conference on community networks in 1998. There exists several online clearinghouses of electronic information about community networks: University of Michigan <http://www.si.umich.edu/Community/> Big Sky Telegraph in Montana<macsky.bigsky.dillon.mt.us> and Center for Civic Networking <www.civicnet.org/>. A recent conference report on Australian activities is at: <www.vicnet.net.au/-vacab/comnet/comrep.htm> Many funding agencies have supported these networks. Three sites with information about community network projects include: Apple Library of Tomorrow <www.research.apple.com/research/proj/alot/alot96.html~ the US. Department of Commerce <www.ntia.doc.gov/otiahome/tiiap/tiiaphome.htm> The Corporation For Public Broadcasting <www.cpb.org/edtech/cweis/index.html>

0 1997. (I) Rogers, Everett. Diffuson of Innovations. Free Press 1995. (2) Consensus conferences, originating in Denmark in the I98O's, were designed to assist a broad range of participants in having discussions about technology policy. Since 1987, the Danish Board of Technology has had a dozen conferences on this topic. (3) See the Association For Community Networking stories: h ttp://bcn. boulder.co. us/community/resources/why/stories. html

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TECHNOLOGY LEAWING AND AFRICA Aicba Bab Diallo

t is somewhat of a paradox to talk about information and communication technologies in Africa when m a n y people, particularly in rural areas, don’t even I have access to electricity. W h e n you are hungry, the priority is food, meeting basic

needs, struggling to survive and not the latest technologies. Most technologies, electronic networks, computers, etc. are far beyond the reach of the majority. This is not to say, however, that they don’t have a place in Africa. They certainly do, but their application and even potential are still waiting to be defined. What w e k n o w is that

certain technologies, such as radio and TV, if channelled properly, can and do work in favour of people and it is perhaps on these that w e should build our technological base. Ms. Aicha Bah LXa& currently

heads the Basic Education Division at UNESCO and is former Minister of Education for Guinea. Fu: 33-1 45 67 16 90

In m a n y African villages there is often s o m e information and communication technology, like radio, but again it is often out of reach of the poor. The transition towards larger and better use is not, however, merely a case of increasing access. If a technology is to reach

its potential, it needs to be- understood. Those wishing to implement or bring information and communication technologies into a community have to have a very clear agenda. If technologies are just droppped into communities, especially in rural areas, they will not take root and their total power will not be attained. The reason, the methodology and the goal of technologies have to be shared and developed in collaboration with the populations. Their adherence is capital. It is not a question of access but rather purpose.

If one is talking about technologies within the setting of the formal school, it seems important that someone captures and filters the power of these modern inventions. Teachers and village elders, for example, are often the custodians of technology. It is they, maybe, who are the most apt to harness, at a first stage, the potential behind information and communication technologies. They have the capacity to hand technology over. This capacity is not, of course, always used. Technologies can also exacerbate frustrations. For example, teachers w h o don’t master computing skills will necessarily prevent pupils, more eager than they, from using technology. Resistance to change is hard to overcome.

So h o w can technologies which are beneficial to people be introduced and used to their best? I feel this can happen either through a filtering person such as the village elder or teacher, or more importantly through a sense of relevance. With a solid learning base, a community would be able to feel responsible for their o w n information, instead of simply receiving it. Their learning base would enable them to translate information into their context, language and needs. This process of assimilation and generation might

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c o m e when communities create their o w n information and when they have acquired the means to manage and control their networks of communication.

People w h o don’t have the necessary learning to filter information are drowned in it. It m a y be that s o m e master technology without previous learning or education but then to what end will they use it. Learning brings values and this brings us back to the purpose of these technologies. Learning has to be the essential back-up, it is the filtering strength behind communication, the generator of critical thinking and the motor to transform information into a positive force. I d o feel that schools have a strong role in this process. They can serve as preliminary centres for the appropriation of technologies.

I have two very telling examples of h o w technology can work in Africa, particularly in m y region. As Minister, a w o m a n from the provinces came to see m e to complain that her daughter had got pregnant because of her teacher. She said the teacher refused to recognise the child and was behaving badly. I took his n a me and thought about the whole problem. Later during a government meeting in the Fouta Djallon region, I spoke in the local language, Pular, on radio about the issue of sexual harassment by teachers and male pupils and said that from n o w on anyone guilty of it would lose their job or be sent away from school. I gave the example of the teacher and said that it was because of fear of sexual harassment that people didn’t send their daughters to school. In the days following that radio intervention, many people from the whole country told m e h o w glad they were that I had broken a taboo and dared to mention sexual harassment, that they n o w felt more confident about sending their daughters to school and, moreover, the teacher w h o m I spoke about felt so embarassed to be mentioned in public that he recognised his child and married the girl. Radio intervention, especially in national languages, can have an extremely strong impact.

Another example, this time with television, is also particularly revealing of the potential technologies could have in Africa. Whilst at the Ministry of Education, I produced several short lV spots and sketches to promote and encourage girls’ education and I had them broadcast in national languages so those, excluded from conventional schooling, could have a chance of understanding and acting on them. The result was that many educated people, even in m y o w n circle of friends, complained that every time the spots came on TV their maids and domestic staff became glued to the screen and got excited about the possibility of educating their children. One w o m a n even told m e she would send her maid out shopping around the time of the spots so she wouldn’t get any strange ideas above her rank! It is technology that brought about such awareness. Suddenly for all these people, the lV became something they could relate to. It was speaking to them, in their tongue, in their way. It was theirs and they replied.

Technology is a double-edged sword, w e in Africa can’t accept it wholeheartedly without calling into question many of its pitfalls. For example it is those w h o know h o w to use it well w h o can use it to manipulate the poor or keep it to themselves. Internet, for example, can vehicle educational messages, helplines, vital information but also racist and socially inacceptable matter. So what is needed, whether it be for Africa, the developing world and other countries, is a sense of purpose. Technology will only be beneficial to mankind if it is used to help bring m e n and w o m e n closer, if it speaks of peace, learning and understanding amongst nations.

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POLYCENTRIC LEARNING Edmond Gaible

The digital bridge

Technology changes our relationship to space and place. W e experience distance - its increase or decrease, our journey “there” and our arrival “here” - less acutely. In business settings and educational settings, (1) w e no longer need to feel the limitation of being in a particular place. W e can interact with business partners or learn from

experts anywhere in the world. W e can invest in any market or explore repositories of information anywhere. The boost this factor gives to education, resulting from radically improved access to information, has been known for a Iona time: In the US., the totemization of the Internet

Edmond Gaible, Ph.D., is senior instructional designer and project manager at The People’s Computer Company in Berkelq, California. The People’s Computer Company was founded in 1972 to address issues ofpublic access to technology and to computer literacy training. Since 1983, it has focused on the effective use of technology in education. He is currently collaborating with the Bangladesh RuralAdvancement Committee on the design and implementation of Computer Resource Centers for teacher development in rural villages.

E-mail: egaible@pccinc. org

- as an engine of learning has been realized as annual Net Days, devoted to the goal (to be achieved at a cost of $ 1 0 billion) of wiring every school in the nation for “connectivity.”

But if the “here”, in the wired world, has been enriched in terms of access to information and communication, it has been depleted in terms of particularity, in the terms of its “hereness.”(2) In rural sectors of northern Portugal, younger Portuguese regularly leave a strongly functioning traditional economy to fill low-end service roles in Lisbon, Geneva, Paris, because the cachet of the “here” has diminished in contrast to media- delivered images of “here.” The potential effect of Internet-based technologies is similar but far greater: Cyberspace, and the creation of cyberplaces within it, can completely dis-place the individual, tying him or her to virtual communities in which bonds of taste, occasion and performance replace those of tradition and c o m m o n need. The local runs the risk of dissolving into the global, or to be more precise, into the globalized.

The lessened intensity of distance and the depletion of the “here” are complemented by a second transformative effect arising from digitization: the interchangeability of information and experience. Digitized still images, video, and audio can stream our lives, or “captures” of them, into the spatial accordion of the World Wide Web. Online simulations, multi-user domains, and virtual environments deliver to us “cyberlives” that can be more vivid, more engaged and engaging, than our lives outside the screen, the box, and the net. As information, then, experience becomes manipulable, c o m m u n icable.

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What is the effect on learning?

Learning itself forms a bridge between experience and knowledge. W h e n experience (of all kinds-textual and verbal, corporal and spatial) is understood, it becomes knowledge (a special form of information). Such knowledge engenders the capacity to create information (as communication) and to guide further experience.

By rendering experience as information, the digital bridge of technology gives us the opportunity to make the learner’s o w n curiosity and the issues critical to the local community into stepping-off points for investigation, calculation, exploration, and the building of skill in thought. W e are able to relocate learning in the connection of learners to the world around them. W e are able to reaffirm, to replenish, the experience of “here.” And at the same time, the digital bridge blends the near and the far to remove the boundaries on newly-localized learning. Within a given community, region, or nation, there can be m a n y concurrent “centers” of learning; w e can (relinvent a system of learning that is polycentric, addressing the needs and desires of learners within the context of broad-based knowledge.

Such polycentric learning is dependent on the identification of local “occasions” for the building of knowledge. N e w technologies facilitate the translation of those occasions into learnable information.

The interchangeability of experience and information can thus comprise a critical factor in the nurturing of polycentric systems of localized learning.

W h o does this learning?

If learning can be made local to both the community and to the individual (as it must if it is to be successful in opening opportunities for and increasing the capacities of learners), the prospect of learning is enhanced for anyone. Or, for everyone: students learning with each other; teachers learning with other teachers, and with students. Adults. Families. Actual and virtual communities.

What is to be learned in a polycentric system?

What is to be learned is what possesses, or what appears to possess, meaning for the learner and the community.

What is learning?

Learning is an increase in the capacity of the individual or the community to draw relationships, comprehend and construct information, and solve problems. Learning is also what is to be learned. (3)

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The information tools needed to transform our teaching/learning practices exist today. Moreover, versions of those tools that are appropriate for the developing world - in terms of cost, durability, flexibility, ease of localization, and the capacity to bypass the barriers of limited infrastructure - are available, or will be available before education projects making use of them are past the planning stages.

One simple and effective combination of technologies, potentially appropriate for rural communities, involves the following: the eMate 300, a simple, powerful, inexpensive laptop computer that is resistant to dirt and moisture (4); a solar-powered battery charger adapted for the eMate’s rechargeable batteries; a bandwidth-scanning radio- based Internet connection, bypassing the installation of telephone lines and the cost of cellular or satellite means. Such a combination can deliver low-cost, powerful computing almost anywhere in the world.

The usefulness of this combination, however, is contingent on the availability of appropriate, localized digital learning materials. For the developing world, especially those countries where mature software-development industries have not yet emerged, such tools and materials will be both in short supply and difficult to create within a reasonable timeframe. However, in this case again, powerful and appropriate tools are becoming available. Object-oriented or component-architecture software environments, such as OpenDoc (5) or Java, enable the development of simulations and other interactive learning tools by skilled teachers, learners, and experts rather than by software engineers.

Such a combination of technologies creates the capacity to deliver content-rich computer-based support for learning (and so for commerce - the connection of business to education must continue to be teased out into the development of productive capacity, of consumer demand, of the eradication of poverty) to all but the most inaccessible reaches of the world.

Appropriate technologies for learning, then, are at hand.

But to translate these technologies into localized learning and enhanced lifestyles among the rural and urban poor, as well as among those currently served by systems of education, non-technological factors need to be addressed. These factors are generally legal in nature when they pertain to commerce and government, bureaucratic as they pertain to education.

The array of government policies that can negatively influence the mobilization of information technology for learning can include import taxes and tariffs, and high communications costs, and the allocations of capacities. W h e n these and other barriers are minimized, education systems can speed the mobilization of information technologies for learning. Outreach to software developers and strong advocacy of the importance of information technology are critical first steps. However, it is by acting as centers of demand that education systems can have the greatest effect. By positioning themselves as emerging markets within their national economies, education systems can engender the development of computer - and network-based learning materials.

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But centralized education systems, as they are currently conceived, are inimical to localized learning. The result of a non-responsive and ineffective school system is that its graduates lack the problem-solving and other skills that a nation, its businesses, and its people need. Generalized curricula geared toward nationwide testing fail to take advantage of a learner’s desire to learn and that desire’s specific fields of focus. And, as success in the tests is critical to success in higher education, the school system is often augmented by a gray market of “cram schools” that assist in test taking. These gray- market schools divert substantial funds, in the form of families’ investments in tuition, that could be invested in capital improvement of the schools as environments for learning. And, geared exclusively to success in the tests, the cram schools d o no better at developing cognitive capacities than the government’s schools. Assessment is a critical issue, but it must (in a network of localized learning environments) assess what has been learned, not what has proven itself to be unimportant to or unlearnable by the learner. (6)

Increasing the efficiency of an ineffective education system is a worthless enterprise; the mobilization of technology in this enterprise is, in addition, a costly one.

It is easy - given the shifts in focus brought about by information technology, from the classroom, from content, from curriculum onto the learner - to overlook the teacher and the critical role he or she plays. For policymakers embedded in education systems, there is no more effective expenditure than investment in teacher development. Prior to (or even without) the introduction of information tools for learning, teachers must be seen (and trained) as agents of change, creating connections between learners and the community (as for example, to a doctor for health information, to a fisherman for the woven patterns of nets), and between the learner and information resources. In a system of polycentric learning, it is the teacher w h o helps the learner transform curiosity, or even passionate interest, into the development of experience, knowledge, and cognitive skills.

Such mentoring is more natural than the regimented transmission of information and the objective assessment of skills; the knowable, for the learner, is not bound by the teacher’s knowledge. But providing such mentoring for groups of learners, for classes, suggests training in management of group work, in inquiry-based learning, in navigating knowledge resources. These skills enable learning that is polycentric within a single classroom or community to take place. They are not esoteric; they are learnable. The goal of teacher development, then, is in a sense to engender in the teacher the modeling of the skills to be gained by the learner, to recast teachers as learners themselves, of teaching practices, of n e w knowledge, of technology - and, essentially, of learning.

Endnotes I) For the moment in the multinational private sector and among international development agencies, success in education and in business are correlated. This linkage can be suppovted and sustained.

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2) See Heidegger’s discussion of the transformation of distance and place, see ((The question concerning technology,), in The question concerning technology and other essays (translated by William Lovitt (New York: Harper Colophon Books; 1977). See also The condition of postmodernity, by David Harvey (London: Basil Blackwell; 1989).

3) As part of our re-vision of learning, we would do well to commit ourselves to the development of higher-order thinking skills and cognitive capacities, while crafting mechanisms whereby ((basic), skills can be mastered as outcomes of these endeavors.

4) The eMate 300, currently sold byApple Computer, has been designed as a portable ((distributed learning,, computer to augment the desktop computers installed in schools in the United States. However, it features a PC/MCIA slot for telecommunications, battery life of up to 24 hours, and extreme resistance to the elements, based on its lack of a hard disk drive and other moving parts.

5) OpenDoc is component-architecture container software, originally developed through the partnership of IBM, Novell, and Apple Computev.

6) The English language at the moment raises questions abour the desirability ofstandards, and even about their possibility. English is now undergoing a transition from its original role as a national language to that of an international language, a language on which communication among individuals around the world is based. The language has become community property, affected by each speaker, “revitalized,” “vulgarized,” “mongrelized,” transformed for the sake of communication. This transformation is in at least one sense the reverse of a long and significant transition undergone by many European languages at the close of the Middle-Ages from systems that were based wholly on spoken or handwritten communication, to one that relied increasingly on mechanically printed texts. As the arbitration of spelling became concentrated in the practical hands of typesetters, words became regularized. Standards of correctness other than the functional standard of communication emerged. Now, in polynational communications, including interactions in US. cities (such as New York and San Francisco), functionality is again the primary standard. The prior transition, which began in the Renaissance and was mature perhaps in the 18th century, is being reversed. Is this a cause for alarm? The greatest age of European literature - spanning the lives of Dante, Boccaccio, Rabelais, Chaucer, and Cervantes - took place when their cultures were engaged in centuries-long transition. During this period, William Shakespeare spelled his name five different ways. So much for the importance of standards.

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TECHNOLOGYAND THE EWIRONMENT FOR LEARNING WHaddad

he rapidly increasing capacities of information and communications technologies make possible quantum changes in our individual and collective ability to access, T manipulate and share information. There is little doubt that these capacities will

continue to expand and that these changes will accelerate over the coming decades.

Whether this accelerating capacity to access information results in improvements to the

Lh- Haddad has spent a total of 16years at the World Bank. He has worked as Special Adviser to UNESCO, as Executive Secretary to the World Conference on Education for All, held in Jomtien and as Professor and Director of the American University of Beirut. Fm: 1202 331 9121

human condition will depend on h o w well societies respond to three challenges: 1) reorienting education systems so that the skills of information assessment, sense making and knowledge construction become core skills; 2) increasing the focus on the young child and on the events in the h o m e environment in the earliest years and months during which much of each individual’s learning capacity is established; and 3) ensuring time and space for reflective learning, creative expression and building of learning communities.

The first challenge is to rethink learning objectives and to align the learning technologies with the learning objectives. Education quality must be redefined and framed to include critical thinkinq, information

management and sense-making capacities. It is no longer enough merelyto be efficient in helping learners achieve mastery of content and basic skills. The need is for a different education, with success measured more by the ability of learners to think independently, exercise appropriate judgment and skepticism and collaborate with others to make sense of their changing environment.

The understanding of learning will shift from the current emphasis on acquiring knowledge to one of generating n e w knowledge and testing previous understandings against current realities. O n e of the qualitative measures of education outcomes will be the efficacy with which learners address n e w information, unanswered questions and opportunities for further learning. Such changes in education perspective and purpose raise profound questions for effective pedagogy, for systems of measurement and evaluation and for governance and management. Perhaps the most profound shift is from systems of teaching and supervision of learning to systems of learning and facilitation of learning. These shifts will be as difficult for advantaged communities to make, with established schooling authorities and capacities in place, as for disadvantaged communities which have yet to establish the physical capacities and for which questions of appropriate knowledge and relevant skills are still open. A second challenge will be to focus on the young child and the events that shape learning capacity in the early years and months. There is rapidly growing understanding of the information processing, networking and memory capacities of

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the human brain and the processes by which learning capacities are shaped. A m o n g the n e w understandings is that the young brain is much more plastic than previously assumed. Environment matters. A s much as half of adult potential is set by age four. For s o m e capacities such as vision and sound recognition the critical period is measured in months, even weeks. Even with currently limited understandings of the infant brain and h o w it develops, it is clear that differences in nurturing environment result in significant and permanent differences in adult intelligence and learning capacities. These differences m a y be as much as 30 or more I Q points. As m uch as 20 points can be attributed to good nutrition and effective stimulation in a diverse sensory environment with attention by a caring adult. Similar amounts can be lost due to environmental assaults in the early years, ranging from poor nutrition to environmental contaminants, substance abuse and child abuse including psychological trauma and emotional neglect.

People also matter, particularly the parents and other adults in the child’s environment. The most critical events for the young child occur in the home, not the school, and are not particularly dependent on economic resources or formal institutions. Singing and reading with a child and helping a child to feel confident and whole are basic. Many different types of environment can provide purposeful contexts for learning. For the child, play is serious work and even the most mundane tasks are n e w experiences full of wonderfully complex learning challenges and questions. Effective early learning environments require that the child is able to explore and interact and that the child’s instinctive and natural efforts to explore and make sense of the environment are validated and supported. That is the essence of learning, and is the essential starting point for a lifetime of engaged learning. Those children fortunate to have such support and validation in the early years will have vastly better chances to explore more distant frontiers as they grow and become more competent. Those w h o d o not will find their frontiers closer to home, literally as well as metaphorically.

A third challenge is to keep learning in perspective as a process of making sense of information, understanding things in context and learning h o w to act and function effectively as a m e m b e r of a community, or of several communities. Howard Cardner has helped identify the multiple intelligences with which people learn and express themselves. Cardner and others assign particular importance to reflective intelligence, or meta-cognition. The core tasks of the learning support systems of the future include facilitating opportunities for reflective learning, creative expression and building of learning communities through sharing, dialogue and interactions with others trying to make sense of their environment and gain control over their lives. This includes quiet time and opportunities to listen. It also includes opportunities to test ideas, make mistakes, explore options and change to n e w choices when reflection forces reassessment. Such opportunities for reflection and human interactions in real contexts m a y be increasingly difficult to achieve and protect in the fast-paced cyber environment of the future. They also are difficult in the degraded environments of the poor at present.

These are the real challenges for a future of learning without frontiers. Learning must become more of a sense-making activity. Attention to learning capacities must begin early with support, stimulus and care for the young child. The most critical of learning tasks m a y be the continuing processes of reflection on what is known, h o w it is known and what such knowledge means. Expanding technologies and accelerating access to

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information can enrich the environment for each of these tasks, but they cannot substitute for them.

These processes must become central to the n e w learning systems. Where they are, there will be few limits to learning, for individuals and for the society at large. Where they are not, the frontiers for learning will continue to be the rigidities of the institutional education systems, the fact that children begin life in very different environments and the fact that most people have too little time or economic and social space within which to reflect on what they know, what they are learning and what their communities are becoming.

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THE CHALLENGES OF COMMUNICATION AND EDUCATION IN AFRICA Charles Okigbo and Carol Okigbo

he promises of communication technologies' contribution to African social development have gone largely unrealized, in spite of m a n y decades of both ad T hoc and purposive uses of media to support social change and behavior

modification. In the period immediately preceding political independence in the 1960s, m a n y African countries were optimistic about the positive contributions that the modern mass media along with western education could m a k e to national development. Not surprisingly, newspapers, radio and television stations as well as

ambitious infrastructures in higher education were s o m e of the development targets of the independence era. African development planners could look to western countries, and see h o w their media and Carol Okigbo is lecturer at the

Kenya Institute of Mass Communication, Nairobi. Her current research covers Strategic Education and Communication in Social Change Campaigns.

Charles Okigbo is senior lecturer at the Mass Communication Department at the University of Nigeria. He is curwently the Executive coordinator for the African Council for Communication Education (ACCE).ACCEs main objective is to foster maximum cooperation in all aspects of communication training and practice in Africa.

Charles Okigbo (ACCE) and Carol Okigbo (Daystar University), Nairobi, PO. Box 76540, Kenya Tel.:254 2 713559 E-mail : iecQarcc.ocke

education.

educational systems provided the engines for public education, professional development, and economic expansion that coalesced to yield sustained social development. The same trajectory was envisioned for Africa.

The reality since the 1980s has shown that the western model has not been replicated in Africa, as the majority of African counties were (and still are) overburdened by evident and abundant under-development, in spite of their investment in communication media and formal education. At present, the outlook for socio-economic development in sub-Saharan Africa is not attractive, as s o m e countries are experiencing zero or negative growth, declining investments in the media and education, and the increasing incidence of diseases and national disasters. The situation is compounded by pervasive unstable politics, inter-group conflicts, and a mono-crop agricultural culture that produces mostly primary products. These lead to serious challenges that can, in themselves, present great opportunities for communication technology and education.

The poverty in Africa is not necessarily a result of technological inertia or lack of formal education. It is more a result of misapplication of technology and the adoption of inappropriate educational policies which very often are implemented without proper research to determine their applicability and suitability. Meeting the challenges of the future will need n e w approaches to communication technology and

With regard to technology, the focus should be on intermediate, time-tested, durable, and cost-effective techniques that can be sustained in the harsh tropical environment of sub-Saharan Africa, rather than the latest technological innovations. Traveling the

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superhighway is not necessarily better than using a battery-operated tape recorder to teach rural African communities. It is often overlooked that 70% of Africa is rural where basic facilities for advanced technologies are lacking.

W e cannot deny that there is an important place for s o m e of the latest technologies in Africa, especially in s o m e of the urban centers such as Johannesburg, Nairobi, Lagos, Cairo and Abidjan. Admitted also is the fact that African countries can “leap-frog’’ and j u m p into the modern technological age, but w e must caution that learning to walk, before attempting to run is the most logical step in systematic growth. The answer is to adopt a needs-based approach to technological innovation. The needs of the particular society and publics must be considered before any attempts to embrace or reject any particular contraption. Technology - both as a communication medium and an aid to education, must be a means, and not an end. There is still room for mobile cinemas, rotary press, and battery-operated transistor radios among people whose average per capita annual income is less than US$200. The South African “Wind-up radio” which uses neither batteries nor electricity is a good example of need-based technological innovation. This holds tremendous promise for both school-based and informal education in Africa. Such intermediate and culturally-relevant technological tools are needed in m a n y areas - agriculture, education, health, and public affairs.

There are significant n e w developments all across Africa, especially in the area of individual initiatives, multi-party democracy, and community revival. The serious problems confronting the school systems in Africa (among which are declining financial resources, exodus of manpower from the teaching profession, lack of motivation for remaining staff) have left m a n y Africans re-inventing the individual initiatives that had characterized pre-colonial Africa.

The informal sector of skilled (but often uneducated) artisans, is proving to be the bulwark of many African economies. Auto mechanics, plumbers, iron workers and other such groups are adopting available intermediate or rudimentary technology to meet their community’s needs, in the absence of sophisticated and unaffordable n e w technologies. This development needs to interface with the educational system to ensure that this is not just a passing fad. Similarly, the evolving democratic culture and the pervasive n e w community revival initiatives need to be supported with appropriate technological and educational methods. Sustainable growth is enhanced by stable politics and participatory community development. Technology and education are fast acquiring n e w roles in the sustainable development of Africa, with the informal sector and individual initiatives n o w taking more central positions than was the case in the past. In the process, m a n y people and communities w h o were formerly at the periphery are n o w being drawn into the vortex of social development.

For African countries to overcome their present development deficits, they need to integrate appropriate technology and education in a sense that will enable them use problem-based approaches, instead of too easily borrowing from what obtains in other parts of the world. This poses challenges to policy makers w h o need to encourage intermediate technologies and also promote both school-based and informal educational opportunities for learning. The media and educational systems have important roles in social development. These roles must reflect the particular societies and their needs. Above all the people must be active participants in the development

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process. The tasks for UNESCO, UNICEF and other similar agencies is to encourage needs-based and participatory approaches to the integration of technology and education to avoid unnecessary copying of foreign models without due consideration for cultural sensitivity and differing levels of development. There is hope for African sustainable development if the right mix of technology and educational methods can be found to address s o m e of the most pressing development deficits on the continent.

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TELEVISION FOR LEAWING: OUR FOREMOST TOOL FOR DEVELOPMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY Ed Palmer

D epending on h o w one looks at the status of educational television in the world today, one sees either a glass half full or a glass half empty. Great advances have been m a d e worldwide in forging inventive applications. Many different

program genres have been used to address diverse audiences for a variety of formal and non-formal learning purposes, with scientifically measured results. The record of accomplishments is impressive, yet TV is drastically underutilized as a teaching tool in countries that have the highest prevalence of urgent and otherwise unmet education

Ed Palmer is founder of the Children’s Television Workshop uQere he was ??P/Research for 19 years and an originator of Sesame Street. He has recently consulted for UNICEF inlcuding helping to launch a long-range plan for W a n d radio applications in the Middle East and North African Region. He may be reached on <Edpalmer2@aol.com>

needs. The large gap that exists between the state of the art and the state of practice in the use of television for development has m a n y causes, including a major lapse of international attention to national capacity building and application.

A m o n g the nations that receive the greatest amounts of international assistance in health, education, child rights, ecology and the environment, many n o w contain 20 to 40 million or more individuals w h o regularly see Tv. This means that in s o m e of the most economically limited countries of the world, tens of millions of households of very meager means have invested in the purchase of a Tv set which for them is immensely expensive. Although these sets are purchased mainly for entertainment, the result is to make one of the world’s most powerful educational tools available on a massively wide scale to many people in

the world w h o have limited access to education through other means. A critical mass of Tv viable countries n o w exists for educational purposes, to justify undertaking unprecedented levels of international coordination in such areas as experience exchange, training, resource development, and national and regional capacity building.

Huge numbers of non-literate or marginally literate individuals, for w h o m formal education has little practical applicability, will live out their lives in print-scarce environments with few or no reading materials in their homes, but with regular access to television. TV and radio, for as far as w e can see into the 2 1 st century, will be their most important outside source of lifelong and lifewide learning. Viewed in this light, the real costs in terms of human survival, quality of life, and productivity in countries that fail to develop educational television more fully must be reckoned with as an important policy consideration.

Television during its earliest stage of growth in a given developing country is useful mainly as a means to reach and influence policy makers in urban settings. W e know a great deal today about the role TV often plays in “agenda setting” - i.e., in elevating issues in the agendas of nations, ministries, and professional groups. During its second

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(intermediary) phase of availability, television also begins to function according to the classical two-step model, whereby it reaches significant numbers of influential community opinion leaders, w h o in turn relay its educational and motivational points to large numbers of individual householders. Policy makers in countries where television reaches only a fraction of the population need to be aware that this fraction will include a disproportionately large number of community opinion leaders, w h o can be counted on to further disseminate the practical lessons that they see presented on TV. In the third (mature) phase, TV continues to reach policy makers and community opinion leaders and, in addition, reaches significantly large numbers of individual householders. It is during this stage that television begins to reach the “neediest of the needy” in significantly large numbers.

Model uses of TV for national development have emerged in widely separated times and places, but never has a determined human effort been m a d e in a single locale to realize anything approaching the full scope and impact of television in its capacity to teach, illuminate, and empower. Totally absent in developing countries at the close of the 20th century are exemplars of carefully planned, comprehensive national policies geared to making the best-informed and most rational uses of television to address the highest priority education needs, based on a realistic sense of what these nations actually are going to spend.

A great deal is known - if not widely known - about h o w to use TV effectively as a disseminator of knowledge, shaper of attitudes, and motivator of recommended actions. Television also has been used in documented ways to bring about measured gains in the thinking skills of viewers in such areas as scientific and mathematical reasoning and analysis of distortions in TV news and advertising. The literature includes, still further, m a n y articles on h o w to collect and make use of audience data, such as research on pilot productions, to guide improvements in the appeal and educational effectiveness of the completed programs.

“Best practices” are defined according to important criteria. S o m e are low-cost/high- yield. Others are ones that lV organizations are likely to perpetuate on a sustaining basis. Still others make use of popular program genres, in which education and entertainment are blended, to be able to attract large viewing-learning audiences during peak TV viewing periods.

The literature on educational uses of TV focuses, variously, on applications of particular TV program genres; research and evaluation practices; evaluation results; design of effective educational and motivational program approaches; specialized producer and researcher training; and patterns of international co-production. The Japan Prize Contest, n o w a decades-old tradition, serves as a screening center for identifying and honoring the best educational programs from all over the world, and as a venue for professional exchange. The NHK generously makes its library of prize-winning programs available for study at selected centers located around the world.

Program genres that have been widely used and found to work effectively for education in countries all around the world include communication campaigns based on minute- long public service announcements, somewhat longer program “fillers,” soap operas

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(popular dramatic serials), magazine-style variety series with recurring features, hosted talk shows with live audiences and expert panels, interview shows especially when these contain interesting and informative inserts, animations, popular music specials, news and documentaries, and re-enactment5 in the form of docu-dramas, to mention just a few. The range of subjects is large and diverse, and includes farm shows, doctor’s advice shows, shows on food preparation and preservation, shows on ecology and on international and inter-ethnic conflict resolution, specials on child development and child rearing, and shows about education and schooling, automobile and appliance repair, and do-it-yourself h o m e and community improvements.

The following ideas for capacity building to improve educational television in developing countries were chosen more to suggest a range of ways in which capacity can be increased than necessarily in all cases to address top priorities.

Expand and improve technical facilities. Shortages of technical facilities for creating educational TV programs often result from prior failures in national planning. The best results c o m e when planning is comprehensive and open to wide stakeholder participation, and when stakeholders and decision makers alike are well informed on h o w and h o w effectively television can be used to serve various national education needs. Helping them become so informed is a crucial early step in promoting increased investments in technical facilities.

Best practices. A n especially important international capacity building activity, one that provides a foundation for other crucially important actions, is to develop an extensive data base on best practices, make it easily available, and actively promote its fullest possible use worldwide. A data base of this type, available on the internet, could show program excerpts with full motion and sound, illustrating for policy makers and educational TV practitioners alike what television has the demonstrated capacity to accomplish in education. Countries would be saved the cost of “reinventing the wheel,” and could download for each genre technical information on content planning, audience research, presentational design, and evaluation.

Planning for global policy implementation. Many countries that are signatories to the various global policy initiatives (e.g., in education, health, child rights, ecology and the environment) have no systematic plan for how to use TV and radio to implement these policies. A capacity building activity is to help interested countries launch this type of planning.

Planning for increased channel capacity. W h e n countries increase their lV channel capacity, usually with an increase in satellite-imported programs, special steps are needed to ensure that local educational programming receives adequate consideration, funding and air space.

Show doctoring. Countries that wish to improve under-performing educational TV series m a y be interested in show doctoring, whereby experts come in for a short time to help plan and implement sustainable improvements in such areas as content planning, use of audience research, educational strategies, and technical and artistic production values.

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Grassroots community empowerment. A lV series on grassroots empowerment might feature emulatable forms of community action, which could range from funding a community irrigation system or setting up cooperatives, to improving health conditions.

Train those who invest in or manage educational TV offerings. Many in positions of educational TV funding and oversight lack related policy and technical backgrounds, and might welcome access to training and resource materials geared especially for them.

Training of TV scriptwriters and directors. Untold levels of expenditure have been made worldwide on h o w to make TV for learning more engaging, interactive, persuasive, and sensitive to the needs and interests of the learner. Yet this accumulated knowledge often sits on the shelf. An effective self-teaching course for scriptwriters and directors is urgently needed.

It is no idle forecast to say that lV will be the preeminent tool in learning for development during at least the first half of the 21 st century. It is happening already, but not with anything like the focus and intensity that the field deserves from the international assistance community.

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THE NEED FORA LEARNING REVOLUTION Mitchel Resnick, Nicholas Negroponte and Justine Cassell

hildren are the future. If w e hope to solve the world’s major problems - achieving world peace, healthy lives, economic development, and global C sustainability - w e must provide richer learning opportunities for the world’s

children. A n educated and creative population is, without a doubt, the best path to global health, wealth, and peace.

Nicholas Negroponte is founder and director of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ma Media Laborato y - an interdisciplina y research centre that focuses on the study of future forms of communication. Negroponte is senior columnist for KIRED magazine (available online through Hotwired).

Mitcbel Resnick is associate professor at the MIT Media Laborato y, where is domain of research is how new technological tools can help bring about deep changes in how people think and learn. He is cofounder of the Computer Clubhouse, an afterschool learning centre for youth from under-smed communities.

Justine Cassell is faculty at MIT’s Media Laboratory Her domain of research and interest is how autonomous agents and toys can be designed with psychosocial competencies, based on an understanding of human lingusistic, cognitive and social abilities.

But throughout today’s world, educational practices are woefully outdated. Even as scientific and technological advances have radically transformed agriculture, medicine, and industry, the w a y children learn has remained largely unchanged, based on ideas inherited from previous centuries.

N e w digital technologies are n o w providing an historic opportunity for fundamental and global-scale changes in children’s learning and education. Just as advances in biotechnologies made possible the “green revolution” in agriculture, digital technologies are making possible a “learning revolution” in education. W e believe that these n e w digital technologies can (and should) transform not only h o w children learn, but also what children learn, and w h o they learn with.

* How children learn Digital technologies can enable children to become more active and independent learners, taking charge of their o w n learning through direct exploration, expression, and experience. The focus shifts from “being taught” to “learning.”

* What children learn Much of what children learn in schools today was designed for the era of paper-and-pencil. With n e w digital technologies, children can undertake projects (and learn concepts) that were seen as too complex for children in the pre-digital era.

* W h o children learn with Global connectedness can enable n e w “knowledge-building communities” in which children (and adults) around the globe

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Nicholas Negroponte, Mitchel Resnick and Justine Cassell are working on many of the ideas in research projects at the MIT Media Lab (http://www. media.miL edu), and are planning to create a major new research center that focuses explicitly on issues of children and learning. Tbq also work closely with 281, a new foundation that supports innovative educational uses of computers in the developing woru. For more information, see http://www. 2b 1. erg/

collaborate on projects and learn from one another. These efforts require n e w multicultural, multilingual, and multimodal approaches to learning.

CUI DI NC PRINCIPLES

These changes will not happen automatically. Although declining costs will make digital technologies increasingly available to children around the world, access to computers and Internet connections is not enough. Many of the software products that are being developed for children today serve to narrow, rather than broaden, children’s intellectual horizons. To create a true learning revolution, w e must create technologies that support a n e w vision of learning and a n e w vision of children.

In our work towards this goal, w e are guided by the following principles:

* Direct exploration The traditional view is that children learn about the world directly (by crawling, touching, chewing - that is, by exploring) until preschool, but then they need to be “taught” more advanced ideas. Our goal is to develop digital technologies that enable children to continue to learn ever more advanced ideas by direct exploration and experimentation. For example, children w h o live in remote villages should be able to contribute directly to their community’s agricultural efforts by using computers connected globally to the Internet, and locally to sensors, to run experiments on the quality of soil, air, and vegetation.

* Direct expression N e w media will enable children to relate their o w n stories and ideas - and relate them to a much broader and more diverse audience - rather than having adults d o the talking for them. The traditional view is that children should focus on “absorbing” ideas from adults, not on expressing their o w n ideas. Even what children k n o w about themselves and their culture is what they hear from adults. Our goal is to g o beyond this traditional view and develop digital technologies that enable children to express themselves to others through storytelling, communicating, designing, and inventing in n e w ways - in effect, to find their o w n voice.

* Direct experience In the future, children will no longer rely only on their parents for reports of the great big world out there. Instead, they will experience it directly through their o w n personal contacts with other people around the globe. Through electronic eyes and ears, they will be able to see h o w the other side of the world looks and sounds. This experience will diminish the impact of national frontiers, although local cultures - what children experience in their o w n schoolyards and homes - will remain important. Perhaps most important, children will develop a different sense of themselves as intellectual agents - as valuable members of real and virtual communities. Children will become accustomed to expressing themselves across boundaries of geography, culture, language, and age.

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* Multicultural Most technologies support only a limited set of cultural styles and approaches. With global connectedness comes both a need and an opportunity for more encompassing approaches, encouraging participation by children from all different cultures. Our goal is to develop n e w digital technologies that provide multiple paths of entry and multiple patterns of use, while also encouraging children around the world to share and learn about one another’s cultural traditions.

* Multilingual To date, the great variety of languages spoken around the world has been perceived as a major obstacle to the development of a global community. With global connectedness comes an ever greater need for children to “speak a c o m m o n language,” and an ever greater opportunity for children to learn more about one another‘s languages - and about language in general. Our goal is to develop n e w tools that enable children to communicate with one another across linguistic boundaries, while supporting their learning of other languages, and enhancing the value of their own.

* Multimodal The channels of communication between children and computers have been extremely limited: keystrokes and mouse clicks in one direction, text and graphics in the other. By enabling computers to understand and produce gestures and other forms of nonverbal communication, w e will enrich the nature of the interaction between children and computers. By the same token, computers that understand verbal and nonverbal communication can open up computing to a broader range of ages and cultural traditions (including non-literate people). That is, children w h o cannot (yet) type, can certainly speak and gesture in the direction of their computer, and understand the speech and gesture that the computer returns.

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TECHNOLOGY TRADITION AND THE BAREFOOT COLLEGE Bunker Roy

ilonia is a small village in the middle of the Rajasthan desert 400 miles south west of Delhi, one of the 600,000 villages in India. It is here that the Barefoot T College is based. What makes this college unique and different is its approach: it

has rejected the outside professionals from the formal education system. It believes instead in identifying and using the skills, knowledge and practical experience available a m o n g ordinary people in the community itself to provide for basic needs (drinking water, health, education, employment, fuel and fodder).

The example of reading and writing is telling. To millions in India reading MK Roy has lived and worked in the village of Tilonia for the last 30 years. Tilonia is home to the Barefoot College, otherwise known as the Social Work and Research Centre. E-mail: Swrc@un%ernet.in Fm: 91 1463 8806

and writing should, in theory, lead to liberation: in reality it is equated with tyranny and exploitation because it is the Literate M a n m o m a n in the village w h o does not want change, does not want innovation and will fight till the end to maintain the status quo. It is not suprising that all cases of corruption, discrimination, cheating and injustice can be traced back to Literate M e n and W o m e n . Similarly with technology, it should not become a tool for exploitation. The Barefoot College doesn’t believe in technology that deprives people of jobs, increases dependency and leads to exploitation, tyranny and more control in the

name of efficiency. Information sharing, better management, quicker responses, should not lead to people being intimidated by machines and m a d e to feel inferior just because they feel technology is out of their reach and comprehension. Everyone understands and accepts that information is important but information alone is not power. Information that leads to knowledge and action is power. The poor remain poor because they are not receiving enough information that will allow them to grow, allow them to make choices.

Knowing full well how “experts” feel about technology, the role of Tilonia and the Barefoot College has been to destroy myths and show what is possible. It is to set an example for others to see. At Tilonia, very ordinary m e n and w o m e n , in rural communities have done extraordinary work. Anyone and everyone, whatever their qualifications, can learn about computers, solar energy, bio-gas, and electronic mail. The roles have to be flexible: the teacher can be the learner and the learner the teacher. The environment is one of creative learning which leads to very quietly destroying myths, demystifying technology and “unlearning” through processes that are natural, non-violent and respecting spaces. These concerns cannot only be written about. They have to be effectively demonstrated - as w e have done in Tilonia.

Technology might reduce the dependency of communities on government, exterior sources and promote n e w ways of empowerment and collaboration. But for this to

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happen the mind set has to change. Indeed it has to be broken. The technologies that government, external funding agencies, business houses are marketing openly in the name of development have resulted in an unhealthy and sinister distraction from the real needs of the people (drinking water, health, education, housing and employment).The misinformation that is being spread is that technology is, today, required to solve these pressing problems - which is far from true. Take drinking water as an example, the mind set of the technological engineers is that problems of water shortage and drinkability can only be solved if bigger, more expensive and deep well drilling rigs exploit the ground water or alternatively p u m p water from a permanent water source through pipes. The people, however, are saying NO. The simple cost effective solution, hundreds of years old, is to collect rain water through roofs. It is cheap (US$ O.lOcents/litre) to construct a complete 100,000 litre tank in a school located in brackish water areas. Traditional technologies, low cost materials could be used. And a village committee could be empowerd by the village to control and distribute the water without being dependent on the outside for any technical, human and financial resource. It will bring communities and castes, rich and poor, together in a village.

So Tilonia’s approach is to demystify technology in order to serve the wider needs of the people. This, in turn, means that if there is a message for national and international decision makers, it is that they will only understand what is possible on the ground when they realise that it is possible that literacy, high powered degrees and qualifications are NOT required to disseminate the most sophisticated of technologies to improve the quality of life. What is required is faith, trust and practical c o m m o n sense to begin facilitating the process of demystifying technology - and that tragically is totally absent in the so-called higher places of learning. We, at Tilonia, believe that to support the process you obviously need to spread the idea of the Barefoot College all over the World. Indeed every country has problems of rural youth acquiring valueless degrees that are not worth the paper they are printed on. Rural youth w h o come from remote villages, given the proper training and orientation, could easily become barefoot doctors, teachers and engineers thus being an effective alternative to frustrated city-based professionals w h o consider it an imposition and a punishment to be posted in villages.

Systems, policies, attitudes and even information have to change for technologies to empower people. The misinformation through the mass media must, of course, stop. Barefoot teachers, communicators, designers, soil chemists, geologists and engineers have acquired a self confidence in themselves and respect from the communities they serve that no city-based paper qualified professional can ever hope to achieve. Appealing to their sense of sacrifice, commitment, duty and compassion is hopeless. Peoples technologies, whether they have the sanction of governments or not, need to be identified, mobilised and used on a large scale. Traditional communicators (puppeteers, street players, minstrels) instead of radio and TV and newspapers:water diviners instead of geologists and geophysicists: village midwives instead of nurses: traditional bone setters, traditional medicine m e n (homeopaths and ayurveds) are all under-utilised and not even recognised as a technical and human resource. Whatever the planners and policy makers might say, they have the trust and faith of the communities. Systems, policies and attitudes can only change through the conflict of ideas, approaches and methods. Over the last 25 years what w e have “unlearnt” is h o w grossly w e have underestimated the infinite capacity of people to identify and solve their o w n problems, with their o w n skills and where the dependence is on each other. W h e n governments, industry and multi-nationals start being less arrogant, when they stop calling illiterate people backward and primitive, when the mental and physical space has been provided for the poor to develop themselves, only then can w e have real genuine development and partnership.

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CATCHING DREAIMS ON THE WEB Doris M. Schoenhoff

rophecy and the Internet seem to g o together these days, especially as the countdown to the n e w millennium has begun. There is talk, not all of it playful, of cyberorganisms free-floating out there in cyberspace, self-organizing

intelligence, distributed, collaborative, meta-human.

Over fifteen years ago, I wrote an article called “The Electronic Noosphere”. Noosphere is a term coined by Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to describe a thinking layer of the earth. As human population covers the earth and converges upon itself and as human thought reflects upon c o m m o n ideas and problems, Teilhard believed something (or someone) was coalescing and iridescing in the blackness of space - a global intelligence, perhaps an

Doris M. SchoenhofJ Born in St. Louis, Missouri (USA). PhD in Artificial Intelligence and International Development from Washington University (St. Louis), 1992. Author of The Barefoot Expert: The Interface of Computerized Knowledge Systems and Indigenous Knowledge Systems, 1993. Fulbright Fellow in Computer Science, Department of Bioloe, University of Natal, South Africa, 1996 Doris M. Schoenhofl 2912 Kincaid St. Louis, Missouri 63114 USA Fax: 3 14- 724-844 7. E-mail - dorisms@swbell.net.

eternal yet emerging god. Teilhard died in 1955, before the personal computer or the Internet came on the scene. But back in 1980, I w as enthused with the idea that electronic communication, particularly the computer, might create this encircling stratum of mind that Teilhard wrote about.

In part, that is already the case. W e send our voices and images around the planet almost instantaneously, speeding up understanding and misunderstanding. W e even beam our messages and memorabilia into the galaxy: “We are/were here!” Moreover, increasing numbers of us spend several hours a day facing a PC monitor; emailing to Kenya or Paraguay; viewing digital images from the Sistine Chapel or Mars Pathfinder; downloading free-so-far software, like Linux, from W e b sites all over the world; or conferencing in real time with a colleague on a distant continent, sharing whiteboard, interactive software, and sometimes Net-phone conversation.

A few years ago, a line ofjewelry, called dreamcatchers, became popular in the United States. Behind the design was a Native American legend. The story supposedly varies among the tribal nations but often it involves a spiritual leader w h o has a vision. In the vision, a teacher and trickster, as teachers sometimes are, appears as a spider. H e weaves a w e b with a hole in the center. This awesome arachnid then tells the spiritual leader to use the w e b to help his people attain their goals, realize their ideas, dreams, and visions. If all goes well, good dreams will be caught in the w e b and bad dreams will fall through its hole in the center.

Through the Internet, the teachers and tricksters among us have spun our o w n

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technological dreamcatcher - the World Wide Web. Contrary to design, some very bad dreams have been caught within the Web. Pornography. Stalking. Lies. Ignorance. Creed. Bigotry. Cults. Hollowness. But it has captured good dreams as well. And none better than the dream that this technology might lessen the gap between rich and poor by bringing information over the walls of politics and commerce, institutions and nations.

O n e term that has been adapted for this n e w synergism between situated learners and networked computers is “open learning community”. In this context, the term implies that learners are no longer confined by space and time; that w e learn from and with each other; and that our community of knowledge has expanded to global dimensions.

In s o m e cultural contexts, the term might take on a different interpretation. W e must always mind our words because they wriggle under all attempts to fasten them to meaning. Ask in outlying areas of Rwanda or Zambia, for example, about an “open learning community” and someone might tell you that it has been part of the African landscape for years. For a variety of reasons (tradition, lack of money, civil war, relocation of refugees), it is still possible to see African children receiving their education under shade trees in open spaces and living, not conceptualizing, c o m m u n ity.

For some of the more affluent nations of the earth, however, the spin on “open learning community” is decidedly technological. In England, the United States, Australia, and other countries, w e have moved from debates on open education in the 1960s to the implementation of distance education, lifelong learning programs, computer-mediated education, and electronic access to global information-most of this brought about by n e w technologies, particularly the PC and the Internet.

Still, peeking out from behind the equally n e w educational theories and scholarly definitions is an interesting bit of mischief. At least in the United States, this desire for openness and community has grown out of a society of individuals largely raised in single-family houses, entertained by living-room television, educated in structured classrooms, and graduated to corporate cubicles. A n “open learning community” in Africa, without all the computer technology, might easily be more “open” and more “communal”, in a deeply human sense, than an “open learning community” in the United States, supported by a first-class university and its computer network. As it turns out, m a n y Americans want openness and community that is also private and secure. Corporate intranets routinely put up firewalls, while government and financial institutions are looking for better encryption formulas to restrict Internet access.

Yes, technology can expand and enhance the transmission of information. It is a mistake, though, to conclude that information itself is equivalent to communication or that exchanging information is equivalent to community. Communication and community require personal resonance. They must evoke a response from within.

It is ironic that today, in the United States, w e will often ignore the teachers right around us and g o seeking teachers on the Web. W e m a y not talk to members of our family or

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our neighbors, but w e spend hours chatting anonymously to strangers on the Web. Those w h o look to us for answers should realize w e have much to learn about our technology and ourselves. In the future an anthropologist from N e w Guinea or Mali m a y study our virtual communities and theorize about their complex relationships and meanings.

That said, if the Internet is to expand to literally bring the world on-line, where will the additional power c o m e from? S o m e are looking to the heavens. There is already a project to put almost 300 low-orbiting satellites overhead by the year 2002. The money for this n e w “Internet in the sky” is coming from big players, like Bill Gates at Microsoft. Another company wants to put up almost as m a n y satellites to support worldwide access for cellular phone users. Reportedly, there was an atomic physicist, of Einstein vintage, w h o walked around in snowshoes, so afraid had he become of falling through the spaces of matter. The mental model of the atom had become real for him. The world might appear solid, but he knew there was looming emptiness everywhere. Today he would likely don a crash helmet, keenly aware that showers of megabytes were falling from the sky.

Even with all the shining satellites in place, where will the money for more Net terminals, more host computers, more software licenses, and more connect time c o m e from, particularly in the developing world? And h o w m a n y more connections can the Internet sustain?

The Internet is growing so rapidly that no matter what statistics w e throw out today, they will be wrong tomorrow. The number of current users, however, does not even make up one per cent of the world’s population. It m a d e the news last year when one network expert predicted the Internet would g o out like a supernova and collapse upon itself. At this point, w e simply cannot predict the stability of this expanding electronic universe.

In developing countries the issue, however, is not simply h o w to get on the Internet. It is h o w to best use the Internet. And there are wonderful possibilities there. There is health information and advice, for example, for doctors and medical personnel w h o are remote from medical centers and hospitals in developing countries. There are resources like the MIT Media Lab that showcase s o m e of the latest research on artificial intelligence and multimedia. Obviously, this will appeal most to those already plugged in to the n e w thinking, language, and body skills that a technology brings about. W e d o not simply create a n e w technology. Technology creates a n e w us.

To be a player and not just a consumer on the Internet, the costs are much higher. Typically a large business will spend over US$l 00,000 a year to acquire, design, and use a W e b site. W h o will pay for these costs in developing countries? Even in developing countries, of course, there is profit to be m a d e and corporations that compete internationally. The large corporations and universities of Johannesburg or Lima will cruise the superhighway along with their counterparts in Munich or Hong Kong. But what of local communities, particularly those that are silenced and cloaked by poverty or ethnicity, by religion or gender? Will government taxes or international funding pay the bill for W e b sites on which such communities can put what they choose - their

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cultural history; political issues that require attention and action as a community; marketing and promotional information for local businesses or events; tutorials and W e b space where young persons can learn to express themselves in these n e w media?

There are experiments with such W e b sites today, such as Indigenet, an initiative of the Aboriginal Research Institute at the University of N e w South Australia. Funded by research groups, this site is meant to benefit university researchers, as well as the aboriginal community. W h e n someone else pays the bill, there are always questions of whose values, policies, and agendas are foremost. All of us need this reminder. As the Internet becomes more and more a source of commerce and profit, it will be increasingly regulated by governments and redesigned for corporations. Everyone w h o uses it will feel the impact.

In embracing n e w technologies, such as the Internet, local communities within developing countries m a y first want to understand what it is that makes them a community; what it is they value, share, depend upon, aspire to; what it is they can offer; what it is they are unwilling to sell or exchange or lose. This understanding will empower them. Ultimately, the real power comes from within the individual and from within the community. It does not c o me from a satellite or a network, a PC or a software package.

Wisdom tells us that it is often harder to see the present than to predict the future. But for present or future, the technological signs are clear. Whether you are in Manhattan or Mogadishu, “the world as you know it is passing away”. And it always was!

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TECHNOLOGY IS THE ANSWER Minda C. Sutaria

ducation for all by the year 2000! This has been the battle cry of countries across continents since the 1990 Jomtien Conference on Education for All. In less than E three years, the year 2000 will be upon us, yet w e are not any closer to this goal

despite the dramatic efforts of governments and the private sector to universalize primary education and eradicate illiteracy.

Seven years after the Jomtien Conference, the picture is still bleak. Close to a billion people can neither read nor write and compute. Nearly 130 million boys and girls of school age are not in school, and an alarming number of young people drop out of school, and for m a n y of them, the

Lk Sutaria is Director of SEAMEO INNOTECH in the Philippines. Formerly, she served as Under secretary of Education for Programs in the Philippine Department of Education, Culture and Sports. E-mail: minda@innotech.ph. net

prospects of retrieval are dim on account of reasons they and their families alone cannot resolve.

To provide immediate and effective educational service to these hapless sectors of the world’s population before the year 2000 will require forays into unbeaten paths and a paradigm shift in delivery systems and curricula. No time must be lost in meeting the challenge of adopting

fresh approaches for providing basic education and illiteracy eradication programmes that provide the foundation for lifelong and lifewide learning which should equip them for life in the next millennium.

Traditional solutions to the problem, such as, providing more classrooms, teachers, and books alone can no longer be depended upon to solve the problem. There is an urgency for n e w alternatives that will make it possible to reach the vast unreached populations as quickly, effectively and economically as possible. The approaching millennium will require more and higher-level skills for coping with life in a more complex, technologically-driven world. This is the raison dPtre for the need to accelerate the tempo of action towards the delivery of education for all.

How can the vast unreached populations be m a d e functionally literate more quickly, effectively and economically within the little time left before the year 2000? How can greater learning effectiveness be insured? Technology is the answer. Technology that is appropriate and affordable, if properly used, can be the solution to the problem of h o w the great masses of illiterates across the world can be m a d e literate in order to prepare them for the challenges of life in the next millennium.

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Technology is capable of revolutionizing the w a y education and training are delivered and the manner in which individuals learn, if properly harnessed. It is known to have toppled critical barriers to learning, such as, fixed and rigid class schedules, so that learning can take place any time with appropriate use of old and n e w technology. Learners w h o cannot join the formal school or training programmes can n o w learn wherever they are and whenever they can with appropriate technology in place: print, radio, audio and video, TV or computer, or a combination of any number of these.

Technology can raise the quality of learning by making teaching more interesting and consequently encourage learners to stay on until they complete basic education or become functionally literate and capable of managing their o w n lifelong and lifewide learning.

Technology has proven effective in countervailing the rigidities of the formal school and in reaching out to vast unreached school-age populations. This has been well demonstrated in Australia, N e w Zealand, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Thailand where distance education programmes have effectively delivered education to young people w h o are unable to attend school or training courses for various reasons. They have been able to effect out-of-school learning for youth and children and even adults w h o are separated from the teacher in time and space through learning systems that heavily rely on printed self-instructional materials backstopped by radio and audio and video tapes and supported by occasional contact sessions with tutors and facilitators and user-friendly assessment systems.

Where teachers are insufficiently trained, distance education technologies offer alternatives for providing them much-needed training or upgrading of competencies without pulling them too often from their classrooms where they ought to be.

Technology has made it possible for China to train 1.2 million teachers through TV broadcasts within six years. The Allama lqbal Open University Primary Teacher Orientation Program of Pakistan trained 47,000 teachers in only six months. The various permutations of distance education practised worldwide provide a “smorgasbord” or selection from which education providers can choose alternatives that are appropriate and affordable for unique target groups of learners. Experience documented worldwide indicates that while the initial cost of distance education programmes is high, in the long run, they prove to be cost effective. Distance education need not be prohibitive.

Technology can improve the quality of learning and its outcomes by encouraging active learning. This has been effectively demonstrated in interactive radio instruction which has been experimented on in Nicaragua, Kenya, Papua N e w Guinea, Bolivia and Costa Rica to improve the quality of teaching and learning.

Technology can make it possible to individualize instruction and make learners experience a sense of achievement in learning through computer networks called integrated learning systems. The teacher can assign students individual learning paths which they pursue at their o w n rate in a psychologically secure manner. Technology can

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develop thinking skills by provoking thought through interactive video and computer- aided programmes. With computers, it is possible for students to collect and evaluate information efficiently as well as communicate what they think and feel. Experience in m a n y computer-based learning systems suggests that if learners are provided a collection of computer applications and taught h o w to use them, they can significantly improve in the w a y they think and work.

Technology can thus contribute to the development of personal and social competence. Technology offers countless possibilities for providing quality education for all in less the time that traditional strategies require, provided that its utilization is well thought out, planned and subject to continuing evaluation and system renewal.

W h e n the old approaches continue to be ineffective in meeting the goals of education for all, it is time to explore n e w avenues, to try out fresh approaches and venture into unbeaten paths. Technology can infuse newness that can generate interest and effectiveness in old approaches. It can provide the innovative ingredient that spells the difference between success and failure in meeting the goal of quality education for all.

It will d o well for education decision makers and providers to muster courage to depart from the old strategies and structures for providing education for all and adopt technology that is appropriate and affordable. “Innovate or stagnate!” might well be their battle cry. They must have the courage to experiment, to develop and try out n e w alternatives. This might be a combination of old and n e w technologies, or a n e w technology grafted to an old strategy to replace the traditional one which has become ineffective.

There will be s o m e risks that will make those with faint hearts falter, but they should have courage and not shirk the-challenge of crafting a more effective solution to a long festering problem. They must draw inspiration from Andre Gide w h o said, “No m a n can discover n e w oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shores.”

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TECHNOLOGYAND THE BUILDING OF LOCAL CAPACITY JI Vargas

odern scientific and technological knowledge have sharply divided our world into two parts inhabited by two distinct and highly polarized groups of people. About 20% of the Earth’s inhabitants (largely localized in the North)

generate considerable wealth and enjoy a high standard of living, sharing over 85% of the world’s income and contributing over 90% of the world’s current scientific knowledge. O n the other hand, the remaining 80% of humanity w h o are in the South, are unable to master and utilize present day science/technology and are poor, deprived

Professor Vargas is President of the Third World Academy of Sciences W A S ’ and the i%ird World Network of ScientQc Organizations (TWNSOj. Minister of Science and Technology in Brazil from 1992.

For a&itiod information: htlp//www. icp. trieste. it/nr;;lS/TwAS. htmU

and marginalized. The income share of the poorest 20% is one sixtieth of the richest 20%.

The new forces of science and technology, however, if harnessed properly, offer immense possibilities for solving many of the complex problems which are currently impeding economic and social development in the South. Recent advances in tissue culture, genetic engineering and biotechnology, for example, can be instrumental in raising agricultural production, reversing land degradation and conserving biodiversity in the ecologically fragile zones of the South.

Another example is information and communication technologies and their networks which have profoundly revolutionalized the modes of interaction in research, education and business. However, access to these technologies requires investment in telecommunication systems which are currently beyond the reach of a vast number of poor countries, thereby posing the risk of further enhancing growing education and information gap between them and the rest of the world.

The challenge, therefore, is for developing countries to master modern science and technology and apply them to their o w n development requirements. To meet this challenge, radical measures are needed by the governments in the South. These will include substantially more investment in research and development and full integration of science and technology into national development plans, building national and regional capacities in science and technology, intensifying regional cooperation and establishing strong national and regional alliances between the private sector and research and development in st i t ut ion s.

For science and technology to make an effective contribution to development, a critical minimum of investment in R&D (Research and Development) must be devoted by governments in the South. At present, very few developing countries allocate more than

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0.5% of their C N P to R&D, as compared to the allocation of over 3% in the majority of industrialized countries. Thus a meaningful commitment by developing countries should at least require a doubling of the existing resources to bring them close to the level of 1% of the CNP, as recommended previously by UNESCO and more recently by the World Bank. Furthermore, science and technology policy need to be integrated fully into the national development plans of every country in the South. This will ensure that the scientific and technological knowledge generated by various research institutions is dovetailed to the socio-economic and industrial needs of the country.

Building indigenous capacities calls for strengthening research institutions and science education at all levels, as well as developing the human resources beyond the critical mass. This will require adequate funding for equipment, scientific literature and modern communication systems which are urgently needed in the majority of schools and universities. There is also a dire need for restructuring the systems of secondary and higher education in favour of more investment in mathematics, science and technical training. Furthermore, to counteract the brain-drain and to ensure that a critical mass of highly qualified experts in science and technology is always available, a number of world-class research and training institutions in critical areas such as energy, tropical diseases, soil erosion, deforestation and desertification must be established and sustained within the South. In addition, collective action by governments and international development assistance organizations in the North and the South is required to establish high-level research and training centres in the South in key areas of frontier science and high technology such as molecular biology, biotechnology, informatics and n e w materials.

Regarding human resource development, the plan should be to reach the level of at least one thousand scientists per million population in every country in the South in the next decade. To achieve this aim, universities and research institutions should be provided with sufficient infrastructure to enable them to offer attractive opportunities for outstanding science students to pursue higher education within the South. Postgraduate training in Southern institutions will enhance the indigenous generation and application of knowledge, diminish and possibly reverse the brain-drain, and ease the pressure on governments to pay for large numbers of students studying in the North.

Throughout the process of human resources development, special attention should be paid to the discovery and development of talent, for the aspiration of developing countries to achieve science-led and sustainable development depends very crucially on engaging fully their most able and talented young minds. Given the scarcity of resources, regional cooperation in s o m e critical areas of science and technology is essential. Priority should be given to setting up jointly-funded regional research and training centres of excellence in key areas of frontier science, high technology and environment relevant to the economic and social development. The Third World Academy of Sciences W A S ) , which has brought together eminent scientists from all parts of the South, is in a unique position to play a key role in developing regional and inter-regional programmes in science and technology.

For research institutions in the South to have a strong impact on economic development, it is necessary that they establish strong links with local industries to facilitate the utilization of scientific results by the productive sectors. In addition, the

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scientific and technological needs of industry should also be clarified to a large extent to universities and research institutions to enable them to orient part of their research and training plans to meet these needs.

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Tbe Gobi Women's Project

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Contact information:

Ms Undrakh L?irectoT Non formal distance education project Ministry of Science, Technolou, Education and Culture Government Building III Baga Loiruu - 44 UlaanbaataT Mongolia Tel: 9 76 1 322 480 Fm:976 1 323 158

he 1990s have brought sudden and dramatic changes to Mongolia. The shift from a centralised state-run economy to a market one has required n e w ways of learning and living for the majority of the population, especially the nomadic peoples of the deserts. These groups,

particularly the w o m e n , have to cope with heavy family chores, harsh climatic conditions, animal husbandry and the task of regularly moving tents and pastures. Under a joint UNESCO/DANIDA (Danish International Development Fund) sponsored programme, 1 5,000 nomadic w o m e n , aged 15 to 45, are currently receiving training through radio to better their conditions. The introduction of radio instruction has had considerable

T

impact on community, family and commercial life.

The nomadic peoples of Mongolia live in "gers" or tent- like structures built of felt. Their encampments consist of 1 to 4 families. Vast distances, up to 20 miles,

separate one settlement from another. The average family size is 4 to 5 people. Conditions, particularly in the Southern Gobi Desert, are harsh, with extremes of climate ranging from +40"c in the s u m m e r to -4O"c in winter. Until recently, herders' children went to boarding schools in the nearest settlement and received a state education. For this reason, m a n y nomads have up to eight years formal education even if present economic difficulties are undermining this achievement as m a n y of the country's structures fall apart. Boarding schools have been effective in providing solid literacy and numeracy but had the disadvantage, however, of separating families and imparting a curriculum that was often far removed from the realities of nomadic life. Literacy rates in Mongolia are, today, relatively high, 81 per cent overall and 75 per cent for women. The women's share of the labour force stands at 49 per cent. W o m e n in Mongolia have traditionally enjoyed equal status to men, participating in activities at all levels of economic and social life. They are a particularly sustaining force in the country and, in m a n y ways, epitomise the national spirit of Mongolia which is deeply rooted in nomadic culture and a sense of survival.

For the nomadic peoples, the collapse of the Soviet system and the change from the state management of herds as collectives to private ownership was a major transformation. It brought with it n e w hardships as well as opportunities, with the decrease in free services provided by the state leading to n e w forms of private initiative and self-reliance. In a short space of time, households became responsible for producing their o w n goods, obtaining services and marketing their products. At the same time as this loss of public services, outside information also became rarer. Newspapers and other reading materials were hit by paper shortages. Transport slowed down, isolating people further, and the State boarding schools closed.

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With this context of uncertainty, the whole education and learning environment of the country could only but change. The government, well-aware of these transformations, realised that learning in the country had to be redesigned and redirected especially for the populations most at risk of marginalisation, notably the nomadic women. Learning environments conducive to bettering life conditions and community action had to be formed. A needs assessment survey carried out by the government revealed that learning differently and in a n e w w a y had become a matter of survival. Along with UNESCO, the state set about planning a project for the nomadic peoples. Several distinct challenges faced project planners as they dealt with the potential implementation of a programme:

0 How best to meet the newly-arisen needs for information, in a context of changing socio- economic resources and conditions? 0 How to reach large numbers of rural learners scattered over vast distances, given limited resources of transport, communication infrastructure and funds? 0 How to create a decentralised framework of lifelong learning in a country accustomed to centralised planning and control? 0 How to develop learning systems and materials appropriate for nomadic women’s lives, customs and culture?

Learning outside the formal education was deemed an appropriate solution and particularly distance education. Print and radio were identified as suitable media as their combination allowed for the overcoming of distance that was so crucial in Mongolia. A system of visiting teachers would then allow for face-to-face contact to complement the material. The target was to provide nomadic w o m e n with the tools to survive the many and rapid changes affecting their lives through n e w access to learning opportunities and relevant learning. A project, entitled The Gobi Women’s Project, was accordingly implemented in 1991.

Radio instruction aimed to empower the w o m e n by providing learning opportunities, but the appeal of income generation was needed to serve as an entry point. For m a n y w o m e n , finding and developing the tools to direct their existence meant being able to produce and sell. The learning in the project then had a strong earning aspect with subjects of direct relevance to those w h o were struggling to make ends meet. Key areas for content were identified: livestock rearing techniques; family care (family planning, health, nutrition and hygiene); income generation using locally available raw materials and basic business skills for a n e w market economy. Literacy subjects were then grafted on to these (the maintenance and upgrading of literacy skihs). Income-generation served as motivation to the literacy and numeracy content of the broadcasts.

Centrally planned learning materials were and continue to be supplemented by locally produced print materials and radio programmes. Initially five booklets and 17 radio programmes were produced by the National Coordination Committee. A further 23 printed booklets were produced in Ulaanbaatar on health, income generation and literacy support. They include topics such as family planning, making camel saddles and Mongol deels (clothes), producing milk and meat products, making fuel from animal dung, leather processing, felt-making, vegetable-growing, civics and small business development. The literacy support booklets tackle subjects as varied as Mongolian fairy tales, mathematics and the environment. The booklets are distributed by jeeps and take 1 to 7 weeks to reach the learners. Printed materials are produced at local level too. “Aimag” or provincial centres create newsletters, information sheets and prepare teachers’ booklets and demonstration materials. These supplement centrally produced booklets, developing materials in response to local needs and circumstances. The radio programmes use a variety of formats. Two programmes are broadcast from

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Ulaanbaatar but the rest c o m e from local stations where they rely on strong local content and topicality. Radio programmes are broadcast at times convenient to the w o m e n , mostly at evening time, They generally relate to the booklet content and use a variety of formats. A few are broadcast from Ulaanbaatar such as “Sunrise” and “Shortcut” which cover topics of general interest, whilst others are more specific and directly relate to the needs of the Gobi women.

The role of visiting teachers is to reduce nomadic women’s isolation and support their learning process. Each teacher is responsible for 15 learners and is expected to visit them once or twice a month. Given the distance between nomadic families and the lack of learning opportunities provided by the State, w o m e n are encouraged to involve their family in the learning activities and present them to the teachers. Most of the teachers are volunteers, people w h o have completed secondary schooling, even university, and are well-versed in a subject. S o m e of the teachers were in fact veterinary surgeons, doctors and teachers during the Soviet era and are willing to put their knowledge to good use. Teachers help with any problems that might arise from the booklets or radio programmes or in carrying out practical work. They g o through each learner’s journal where they complete their lessons and bring supplementary materials, occasionally bringing together groups of w o m e n in the “sum” or district centres. The teachers are also a vital link with the whole system, providing feedback to “sum” and “aimag” co-ordinating committees and listening to any need that might c o m e from the learners themselves.

Small information centres also serve as meeting points. These are set up in local (“sum”) and provincial (“aimag”) central points. They are rooms in a local government office or school and contain a set of project booklets and other learning materials, information leaflets, posters and a radio. Radios can be repaired here and technological issues discussed. The room also houses occasional exhibitions of women’s work and is used for group meetings. W o m e n can c o m e to these places of their o w n accord and use the information available for self-study. Group meetings are held here to mark the beginning of courses. These three-day meetings are so-called crash courses where w o m e n meet their visiting teachers and have teaching and demonstration sessions. This kind of contact provides much social support and is an opportunity for direct teaching, skill development and exchange of experience and news.

Consultative committees at national, provincial and local levels were set up for the project. A plan for material generation was established and print and radio production groups developed. Collaborative arrangements were made with the state-owned Mongol Radio in Ulaanbaatar, where the Gobi Women’s Project Radio was set up. In addition, three “aimag” radio stations were re-equipped and training provided for producers and technicians (these three radio stations reached all six “aimags”). Ten teacher trainers from each pilot “sum” were trained and they, in turn, trained 10 visiting teachers. Locally produced radios (250) and batteries (25,000) were distributed since 20 per cent of the target group were without working radios or batteries.

The w o m e n of the Gobi desert are not weak w o m e n w h o require s o m e outside assistance to become empowered. Surviving is their w a y of life. Radio has had the ability to bring various forces into play, the most important of which is the interaction of people and flows of information. This interaction lies at the heart of the project’s success. After the initial lessons, the w o m e n , on their o w n initiative, wrote to the central radio, asking for details on prices of wool, practical issues concerning animals and health. The w o m e n themselves then asked for their husbands and children to be brought into the project, so they could share and listen to the radio programmes. Thanks to the w o m e n , whole families have ended up benefiting from the project. It is the w o m e n w h o passed on their knowledge to their children, w h o informed their husbands of their n e w capabilities and saw the enormous

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potential that could be drawn from using local capacity. Most significantly, the levels of local activity have increased. Small information centres have been set up in m a n y sums. Increased communication and collaboration has developed, between neighbouring settlements, “sums” and provinces. The w o m e n n o w organise local markets with exhibitions of handicrafts and sales of products.

W h e n the central authorities saw h o w active local groups were in organising their o w n learning, and h o w satisfied and productive they had become, they gave the project their full encouragement. W o m e n n o w regularly send letters to their local radio stations and even to central government asking for n e w materials, subjects and presenting ideas. It is on the basis of these letters that the Head of State asked UNESCO for the extension of the project to other areas. Radio has allowed for this communication, creating networks between the w o m e n themselves, but also between the nomads and Government.

The Gobi Women’s Project has acted as a catalyst in the formation of local groups and networks of specialists and resource persons (veterinary surgeons, doctors, teachers, local officials) w h o visit learners at h o m e or organise group meetings. It has also opened up n e w areas of learning directly related to the needs of the w o m e n breaking with the past formal education system which was more scholarly in approach and less based on local culture. The mobilisation of nomadic w o m e n and their new-found skills has also depended on using the national education crisis as a positive chance for developing n e w ways of thinking rather than carrying on blindly with a formal system that couldn’t adapt. The Gobi Women’s Project is proving effective in using radio to create change, bettering existing opportunities and even providing thousands of w o m e n with the tools to tackle their environment. Nomadic w o m e n , in this process, have become active learners and agents of change in the desert.

SomeJigures :

Population of Mongolia : 2.3 million Ruralpopulation : 47 % Expenditure on education as percentage of GNP :2.7% DAhTDA funds for project : USD $1.4 million Number of women reached : 15,000 for initialphase. Source: In the Green DeserG N012, Innovations Series, ED/EFA UNESCO

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London Docklands Project

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t is estimated that in Britain 16 per cent of young people still leave school with poor literacy skills and many are unable to carry out essential everyday tasks. This situation is particularly true in communities stricken by high unemployment such as the Docklands Area in East London. In this

language other than English at home, that there are over traditionally low-income area it is estimated that more than half the school population speak a

75 different languages spoken in pupils’ homes, that 42 per cent of pupils c o m e from families with more than four children aged under 16 and that 19 per cent of pupils are from single-parent families. I I

Contact information:

Ray Barkeel; Project Co-ordinatoel; London Docklands Accelerated Learning Project, The Urban Learning Foundation, 56 East India Dock Road, London E14 CJE Tel: 171 53 7 1329 Fax: 171 537 1331 100744.1347@COMPUSER~.COM

Educational programmes within such an environment, where low achievement is c o m m o n , have to be carefully designed and adapted. To begin addressing s o m e of the complex issues at stake in the area, the London Docklands Development Corporation joined forces with the National Literacy Association in 1995 to fund an

innovative project in a two-year effort to increase standards of literacy and basic skills in over 600 children, aged 7 to 8, in 15 schools of the area. This venture, entitled “The London Docklands Learning Acceleration Project”, aims to break the vicious cycle of underachievement by working with families, communities and schools to raise the status of literacy and learning activities through a new, exciting medium of technology: a pocket-size, easily-understandable computer entrusted to each child to carry out individual and collective learning activities. Furthermore, schools are also equipped with larger, multimedia machines to run a more general programme to create a computer-literate and learning environment conducive to creativity and child development.

The schools ensure the provision of daily sessions according to national curricula but use the subjects of English (Spelling, Words, Rhymes, Sentences, Talking Books) and Maths to introduce up- to-date technology and other, more traditional, computer software. This diverse software is directly relevant to the use of English in science, maths, technology and arts areas and seeks to develop an understanding of and interest in different cultural traditions. The Pocket Book Computers g o further than the in-school computer hardware and are used to encourage a child/parent partnership in learning activities in the home. School management is trained in the use of these various hardwares and softwares. It is its role to maximise the children’s development and be aware of management or curriculum issues arising from implementation of technology into the learning process.

Results from the project are encouraging. Technology has noticeably acted as a great facilitator and leveller in the project, giving children the chance to overcome many of the barriers to learning which have held back their communities. Giving children access to technology - on desktop computers at school and Pocket Book computers at h o m e - has made them actors in their learning and increased

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their motivation. The unique drafting potential of writing on computer is boosting the confidence of children, especially those with learning difficulties, and for some special-needs pupils the programme has proved so absorbing that their concentration span has increased from 5 to 30 minutes. The ability of the project to change attitudes towards learning is evident from membership rates in local libraries, which have shown a rapid rise in borrowing.

The implementation of this project was no easy task. Teachers and schools showed a considerable amount of reticence. Accustomed to the low achievement of m a n y pupils, teachers were not always convinced that improvements were possible and were wary of using technology in the classroom. Support to change came slowly. The setting up of a carefully-managed system for the distribution of computers did much to help organise a system around the n e w technologies. The system entails parents coming to pick up their children and the pocket computers after school. Machines are then marked in and checked out with each use every day. The parents sign a contract to show their interest and commitment to borrowing the machines. This has obviously increased the face-to-face meetings between parents and teachers and meant that many family members w h o were unknown to the school management have entered into regular contact with teachers.

Initially, both parents and teachers were anxious about the children taking computers home. Worries about theft, loss and damage dominated. Children, too, were wary of having full responsibility for their computers as they feared punishment if they were to lose or break them. A system of mutual trust had to develop to overcome such reticences. In many ways, these fears showed the attitudes at play in the area where children are seen to quickly become delinquent and disrespectful of material. A major success of the project has been to disprove this negative outlook on children and adolescents. The children are given direct responsibility for their machines and are proud of having them. They realise that they have a chance to learn differently and with n e w tools and assume this role with a certain ease.

The Pocket Book computer is a learning resource in itself. It contains a Thesaurus, a dictionary, a spell checker, a calculator, a database for collecting information and a world map. Very often, children d o not have these in book form at h o m e or d o not have sufficiently advanced literacy skills to be able to search in a public library. The Pocket Books allow the children to be creative by simply browsing or by typing into the computer. Easy to manipulate, they encourage curiosity, for example, using the world map. At no point are the computers considered as recreational toys: they are serious interactive educational tools. The purpose and the outcomes of work on the computers is also a different and intelligent exercise. What particularly motivates children is the fact that every boy or girl has a computer and it belongs to them. They are proud to put them to good use and look forward to being able to work at home. They create an individual space for constructive authentic learning.

The operating systems are simpler than more conventional technology but the Pocket Books can be easily linked to desktop systems if need be. Writing on the Pocket Book is designed to focus the mind more upon the content of the work and less on the presentation. It has the advantage of concentrating work on one particular object, on one particular subject. Redrafting and changing language is especially easy and this is most welcome to children w h o enjoy rewriting or realise that more work is needed on their original texts.

H o m e computers are not a c o m m o n feature in the area, so the Pocket Books often bring together family members. Children soon become experts in their manipulation and are able to teach others within their immediate family or community. This raises their self-esteem and the expectations of

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others in what they can do. Reading, writing and oral work can become communal activities and have a distinct purpose. Literacy can become a focus of the h o m e as well as the school as all are using or working around the technology. By using n e w language with parents or care givers, the children can prove to those parents w h o don’t have English literacy skills that reading and writing activities are interesting, important and helpful.

Work on the pocket computers normally starts with a piece of writing which is then taken h o m e for the family to help with. Time is spent on a range of homework tasks from writing stories which develop wordprocessing skills to, for example, logging the number of insects in the garden, etc. This would involve talking to the adults about the ideas contained in the piece, developing a grammatical use of language and checking n e w words in the thesaurus. Parents appreciate the approach because they are able to see the writing process on the screen. Adults, especially those with limited English literacy skills, often misunderstand the idea of children drafting their work in a rough form before finishing with a clean copy. They often think the work is scruffy and not as good as it should be. With the Pocket Books, children have the freedom to take time over their work, changing, rechanging or adding pieces here or there. They can take the work back to school to print it out or download onto the desktop machines in the classroom. If their work is not finished, it can be put back on to the Pocket Book and taken h o m e again. It is a whole process that reflects the learning stages of writing and presenting logical sequences of ideas. The language the children use is particularly rich and creative as they have easy access to a thesaurus and a spell checker. They can find n e w words, discover their significance, learn them and employ them in a variety of ways. Such liberty and dynamism with language would be difficult to find with books, pens and paper.

Many parents have gone beyond assisting in the child’s interest in using the Pocket Book and take part in after-school sessions using all kinds of technology to improve their basic skills. Parents can, in this way, work towards consolidating their o w n experience, drawing them further into their child’s learning process. The workshops have proved vital in motivating parents and increasing their self- esteem. They are able to see concretely what they can d o for their children and achieve something real for themselves. A specifically-nominated Assistant Coordinator was appointed to run these workshops and support all teachers, children and families in the project by visiting schools and working with learners. Further work is being carried out with libraries by bringing together technological tools, parents and children. This last activity has proven especially useful to m a n y parents with limited literacy w h o find libraries threatening.

The project has cost in total US$464,000. 75 per cent of this s u m comes from the London Docklands Development Corporation set up by government in 1981 to rejuvenate the Docklands area of East London. By rejuvenation, they meant not just to invest in n e w roads, but to encourage the lifelong learning of the people of the area. The money is not regular state funding as such but rather supplied by various government budgets. 25 per cent of the funding comes from the National Literacy Association via grants to various companies (mostly computer companies), educational trusts and charities. The total cost of the computer software has been US$ 232,000. The rest of the funding is used for paying the salaries and office base team of three members, the training of teachers, children and parents as well as the project’s evaluation and dissemination. Individual hand-held computers cost about US$ 116. The desktop computers with accompanying software range from US$ 870 to US$ 1 160 each. This computer equipment, although relatively expensive, is considered an investment as it has a long life and can be adapted to n e w software if necessary. The project relies on the fact that the technological infrastructure will last for some time in material terms and that the changes in learning and community attitudes will also last.

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f

New Home, New Life

e w Home, N e w Life” is a radio soap opera designed and produced for broadcast in Afghanistan. It was first aired in April 1994 and has since been aired weekly. Each “N episode is broadcast three times from the BBC, once in the morning, once in the

evening and once in an omnibus edition during the weekend.

Contact information.-

BBCAfghan Education Dvama Project, PO. Box 946, University Totun, Peshawal; Pakistan, TeC:92 521 842320, Fax: 92 521 8423 19

The drama series has both practical and informative purposes. It covers a whole range of subjects from women’s issues, the preservation of oral traditions and historical monuments, income-generation activities, methods for conflict resolution, awareness of mines, community participation in development, livestock raising and agriculture to personal and environmental hygiene.

Soap opera was initially chosen as a format because it allows for the repeating of educational messages as needed. Episodes of particular relevance can be rebroadcast according to perceived need or demand. Furthermore, soap opera is on-going and limitless because it is rooted in real-life situations and it sounds real and authentic to rural and urban communities. Characterisation of problems, human conflict and dilemmas, and h o w to overcome them through dialogue, are all part of the soap opera “genre”. It is, therefore, perfectly suited to carrying educational messages, drawing on people’s experience, past and present. N e w themes are progressively incorporated into the soap’s scenario as listeners respond to the story or as the project’s authors, particularly the evaluation team, integrate n e w concerns and steer the drama towards further relevant topics. N e w problems and cases for discussion naturally arise as the drama unfolds. These points, in turn, have to be resolved to serve the story and provide a structure to integrate practical advice.

Given the situation of conflict in Afghanistan, it should be noted that radio is one of the few media that can reach each corner of the country and one of the few technologies that can be found in households. The crisis in Afghanistan, indeed, has encouraged the use of radio. Demand has risen over the last two decades as radio has provided almost the only source of information. According to the latest data collected by the “ N e w H o m e , N e w Life” evaluation team, the majority of the population have access to radio. People either o w n a radio or listen to neighbours’ radios. Family group listening is very c o m m o n , allowing for inter-generational learning. Male listenership, however, is said to be higher than women’s. It is quite usual for m e n to gather in the guest room or outside the house around the radio. Recent surveys on the impact of the “ N e w H o m e , N e w Life” programme, in February 1997, revealed that 83 per cent of w o m e n and m e n said they listened to the BBC project. These figures, however, fluctuate as families m o v e from one area to another.

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Employing the plot as an entry point for serious social concerns and giving a true representation of society has necessitated the use of a whole range of actors from every walk of life. It is their diverse and contrasting opinions, stances and social standings that breathe life into the story. The programme is based on the stories of two fictional communities - Upper and Lower Villages. It brings people from differing backgrounds and age groups into play. The drama focuses on the villages’ problems and the dilemmas facing the inhabitants. The difficulty of the project is translating educational content into dramatic action and, at the same time, entertaining listeners. Although the drama is directed at rural communities, people from urban areas, particularly w o m e n , say that they appreciate the drama and find it relevant. They mostly refer to the issues of income generation and education in the drama. Nomadic communities also find a mirror for their concerns in the stories about mine awareness.

Since the balance between drama and practical advice is difficult to keep, and practical counselling is increasingly important, yet less dramatic, programmes have been divided into drama and “reinforcement” sections. This division has meant that counselling and advice can receive the m a x i m u m attention they warrant without interfering in the plot. Initially, 12 to 15 minute feature programmes, the “reinforcement” sections have turned into short packages, interviews and then, in an innovative move, into songs backing up certain themes and storylines in the drama. These songs are regularly aired on the BBC Persian and Pashto services, and packages and interviews fill slots in the Pashto and Persian service development programmes (“Refugee File” and “Viliage Voice”, besides other programmes on the Pashto service such as “Merman” (women’s programme), “Da Zwanano Narhae” (youth programme) and the science and medical programmes).

The “reinforcement” programmes concentrate on one topic from the soap in detail. They stand between the “News and Current Affairs” and “ N e w H o m e , N e w Life” drama. They are developed in such a w a y as to be particularly convincing and informative. Reinforcements give substance to issues of concern; for example, women’s employment and girls’ education. A n evaluation team has been created purposely to keep in contact with listeners at the grassroots level and maintain the relevance of topics and drama cases. The inital evaluations for the programme were carried out prior to the programmes in refugee camps and in Eastern Afghanistan. Dynamic contact with the listeners has, therefore, been one of the hallmarks of the project since the beginning. It has meant that everyday issues, of concern to people living in harsh conditions, can be incorporated into the programmes convincingly. O n e episode, in particular, shows the level of interactivity between the producers of the programme and their audience. In 1994, a story was aired in which a child’s death was described after a traditional midwife cut its umbilical cord with a dirty knife and covered it in henna and ash. The descriptions of the topic were particularly vivid and moving and many listeners complained that they had their fair share of suffering without having to listen to more - but the health message which advised against such practices, also got through. The symbiosis between learning source and learner had been achieved.

The project has gone through various stages of development and refinement. With the installation of a BBC Peshawar studio in neighbouring Pakistan and the introduction of a full-time BBC producer to help in the preparation of materials from Peshawar, it was decided that the BBC A E D project (BBC Afghan Education Drama Project) would itself prepare the two weekly development programmes - “Village Voice” and “Refugee File”. This was to increase the level of topicality and create a body directly in touch with the audience. Over the last year the programmes broadcast from this station have consisted almost entirely of educational features prepared by the BBC A E D “reinforcement” team. In order to make the “reinforcement” output more topical and enable BBC A E D to line up with N C O s working inside Afghanistan, the “reinforcement” team carry out regular and targeted research trips to the field. Their findings and support to the radio programmes are published in a newsletter

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and cartoon magazine. These publications, in turn, back up the awareness “campaigns” and are a w a y of keeping listeners in touch with their service. The documents also provide opportunities for developing literacy and numeracy skills. The “reinforcement” team inside Afghanistan has a two- pronged approach. It is they w h o bring back programme material which is more representative of what is actually happening inside Afghanistan but w h o also forge partnerships with N G O s working in the field to allow them to make full use of the radio training programmes.

Besides the monthly cartoon magazine, special editions of the magazine have also been prepared on humanitarian issues, health issues for children and sports and peace. A separate edition of the cartoon magazine has also been prepared, based on mine-awareness storylines from “ N e w Home, N e w Life”. Recently, BBC A E D began producing educational packages on particular themes dealt with in “ N e w H o m e , N e w Life”. These consist of a mix of drama sequences, clips from “reinforcement” programmes, and songs. Several N C O s have expressed an interest in using these educational packages in their training programmes. As the programme develops and the audience for the radio project grows, the “reinforcement” efforts of BBC A E D will be directed towards completing these educational packages, tackling all the themes covered so far in the series and ensuring that N G O s working in the field inside Afghanistan get to make full use of them. The “reinforcement” team are currently streamlining the distribution system of the monthly magazine. Improving the system should lead to greater distribution of the magazine to provide feedback on its reach and usefulness. A n e w option being considered is the rebroadcasting of specific episodes of “ N e w Home, N e w Life” for schools, in tandem with the use of the cartoon magazine. For this to be successful, local radio stations will receive tapes and schools the accompanying magazines. Targeted distribution of “educational packages” for local rebroadcasters should allow them to become familiar with the aims and audience of the project and, again, allow for the optimum use of the product. The BBC A E D with its n e w multi-faceted approach to “reinforcement” is n o w present at most levels in the field and in the topical programmes on the BBC Persian/Pashto service. A recent example of this strong position on the ground and on the air waves was the back-up provided by radio to the immunisation campaign inside Afghanistan.

The radio project is funded by the BBC World Service, UNESCO, UNICEF, UNOPS, U N O C H A , FAO, U N H C R , WHO, ICRC, ODA. As an indication of costs, a year’s broadcasting and production costs US $407,369, monitoring and evaluation US$ 58,000, reinforcement sections US$l 01,733 and the cartoon magazine US$ 77,700. The radio programmes have been positively evaluated with listeners giving favourable responses to the topicality and interest of the project. Listeners tell researchers h o w they identify with the characters of the programmes and, during evaluations say h o w they want to avoid situations characters have found themselves in. Furthermore, they wish to find out more about issues (hence the need and necessity of reinforcement sections) and wait to see h o w problem resolution is weaved into the story. Dramas typically cover drinking water, hygiene and mines which are day-to-day problems. A n interactive network has been created around the project, with listeners writing directly to the broadcasters and reading letters coming from other members of the public. These letters are included in a specific listeners’ section in the project magazine and cartoon publication. This comes out once a month and shows the extent to which radio has facilitated an open learning community in and around the soap opera.

Given the situation in Afghanistan and the collapse of several infrastructures, radio is having to fill in on many fronts. It has, accordingly, taken on greater responsibility in terms of increasing learning opportunities and information. The BBC A E D radio programme has brought m a n y forces into play in Afghanistan and within neighbouring Pakistan. Outside Afghanistan, it has maintained knowledge of Afghan customs, history and current affairs in times of strife. It has kept those cut off by war in touch with their motherland and helped strengthen community ties that could have

Technology and Learning U l t l S C O

easily been severed. Inside Afghanistan, the soap opera has provided practical advice, education and entertainment.

The drama is totally Afghan in context and content. It has drawn from the rich history of community action and customs to achieve its high degree of relevance. It has, therefore, played a significant role in reviving old traditions and customs. “Hashar”, the old tradition of collective work and local ‘7irgas” or councils were more or less forgotten or considered less important. The radio drama has revived these to some extent with collective actions being undertaken as a result of listening to the radio. Oral legends and customs are also being written into the drama which is progressively being used as an expression for the safeguard of Afghan traditions.

Shovt extracts from the story Episodes 13-24 Jandad has had his foot badly injured by a mine. In the clinic, he is in serious need of blood. Zaynab’s blood group does not conform to that of her son Jandad, and no one else is ready to donate blood, citing one excuse after another. Finally, Nek Mohammed‘s son Karim comes forward and his donation of blood saves landad‘s life. Later, the doctor is forced to amputate Jandad‘s foot from the ankle. Taj Bibi carries her son Ahmad home from the clinic on her back. Being pregnant with her ninth child, she develops a pain in her back and wants Culalai to come and treat her. However, Gulalai’s mother will not allow her daughter to visit Jabbar Khan’s house. Soon after Culalai is appointed as a health-worker in the clinic, there is an outbreak of malaria in Upper Village. Palwasha, the youngest daughter of Akbar and Zarmina, is the first to be affected, having been bitten by a mosquito in Zaynab’s house. After that Nek Mohammad is determined to counteract the harmful effects of such mosquitoes by fixing nets to the windows of his house.

Some extracts of letters sent to the radio broadcasters: “We should again emphasize that people should give blood because those who are hurt like Jamdad need blood.” “I suggest that you incorporate some special messages and pictures for children so that they can improve their reading as well as their health awareness. I appreciate your efforts.” “The messages regarding preservation and maintenance of public properties and natural wealth such as forest, dams, buildings, roads and bridges are very effective.”

Technology and Learning U I I S E O

CESPA, Project for Community Video

ith the assistance of FAO and UNDP, the Government of Mali has established a national centre specialised in the production of audiovisual materials - “Centre de Services de Production Audiovisuelle” (CESPA). It is currently growing in importance as one of the

country’s strategies to create learning opportunities in rural and semi-urban areas. W

Contact information:

M. Cbeickna Diarra CESPA

Tel: 223 22 09 32 ~ a ~ 2 2 3 22 11 09

The CESPA’s prime aim is to reach disadvantaged rural communities w h o have little or no access to conventional forms of education (eg. shepherds, river fishermen or subsistence farmers). The project started with the recognition that n e w forms of learning, which were of relevance and immediate value, had to be created to bring educational opportunities to remote and rural populations. CESPA’s philosophy, therefore, is to encourage people to take part in their o w n development programmes, responding io their specific needs. Its method for this is to use

appropriate methodologies, namely training with audiovisual materials, to work with learners wherever they might be.

CESPA’s m o d e of operation is relatively straightforward -trainers or animators, grounded in the use of video and other media, travel to rural areas where they inform, train and assist communities through multimedia on matters of hygiene, income-generation, agriculture, literacy, etc. The villagers, once they have gone through this training, are more apt to face their daily problems, put their knowledge to good use and become agents of change raising awareness in rural areas.

Initially a pilot project (1 988 to 1993), the CESPA has become an autonomous national body, which is mostly self-financed by providing training services, advice in communication and audiovisual technology, the sale of materials and technical support in installing audiovisual units. Further training programmes of relevance to ministerial departments, such as education and healthcare, are currently being developed as a means of generating funds.

The CESPA operates from the capital, Bamako, where the production of training materials is based. The centre is on the w a y to becoming self-sufficient financially and technically. It houses six video editing suites with three cutting and montage units, two recording studios and a training room for workshops and other sessions. A permanent staff of producers, trainers and administrators manage the whole. Plans are currently going ahead for the construction of a library for the stocking of audiovisual material. Since its foundation, the CESPA has collected over a thousand audio cassettes covering regional and local music, rural experiences, legends and traditional knowledge. It has also produced up to 500 video cassettes covering all aspects of training from awareness raising, literacy and numeracy to income-generating activities.

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The CESPA works on the basis of “training contracts” with village communities, associations, NGOs, individuals and co-operatives. A village m a y request training or a government body such as the “Banque Nationale de Developpement Agricole” (National Agricultural Bank, BNDA) m a y sub-contract the CESPA to work in a given village or area. Once the animators are in the villages, they work with their various materials (video machines, cassette players and charts) in informal sessions and communal activities. These sessions are purposely informal to recreate a reflection of village ties and social relationships within a learning experience.

The animators’ material is contained in a single box which can be easily transported from community to community. Particular subjects such as health, environmental or educational issues m a y interest one village more than another, so animators have to be prepared to adapt and respond directly to learners’ questions and needs. The skills imparted by the animators generally c o m e in a so-called “learning package” as they range from farming techniques, income generation to problem-solving skills. The villagers are free, however, to choose which training aspect most interests them according to their local needs.

To further their work and make sure they reach the most disadvantaged, the animators use national institutional structures to identify vulnerable populations. Knowing which areas are unserved by the conventional educational system, for example, is a great help to the CESPA organisers. Outlets owned by the Chamber of Agriculture and other governmental bodies often serve as meeting places to hold training sessions, so co-ordination between all national bodies is key.

The CESPA works on three fronts - creating appropriate audiovisual material, training animators and imparting skills to disadvantaged communities. As the rural trainers or animators are the main energy behind the CESPA, their development is of the utmost importance. It is they w h o have to g o out into the field, confront very localised problems, overcome obstacles and assess a community’s learning ability. To be able to work with a population, for example, in the building of a well or the purification of water, the trainers have to be aware of community dynamics, technological pitfalls and the various ways of communicating with learners of different educational backgrounds (multichannel learning, inter-generational learning and motivation).

The training of animators is a rigorous process. For each session, the number of participants varies from 3 to 15 people. Sessions can last anything from a week to 56 working days and take place in workshops. In all, there are 10 modules, each with a specific theme and content. In every module, the aim is to allow the trainee to conceptualise and assimilate communication skills as a means for effectively supporting the development and self-reliance of disadvantaged communities. Each module or theme can be taken separately or in conjunction with another. S o m e modules, such as script writing, are more popular with individuals and sectors outside adult learning or rural development. Themes 9 and 10 aim to qualify a trainer in managing rural development issues. The ten different modules are as follows:

Theme I: Communication for development (5 working days) During this first session, the animator becomes familiar with the concept of using communication skills, particularly in conjunction with information and communication technologies, as a means of engaging people in dialogue and enhancing their capacities to analyse situations. The impact of communication in the solving of problems and the implementation of strategies is discussed.

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Theme 2: Training through audiovisual media for development (5 working days) During this session the aim is to identify and discuss the pedagogical effectiveness of different audiovisual media in adult learning. Initiation to the appropriate use of these media begins in this session.

Theme 3: Writing of scripts and technical editing (6 working days) Acquiring the skills to write an account for a video documentary or reportage is the aim of this session. Over the course of the work, the scripts are steered towards practical content and the inclusion of specific educational messages. Notions of communication and information are by n o w well-assimilated.

Theme 4: Taking camera shots and sound, constructing a sequence of images (7 0 working days) Initiation to the correct use of video cameras, the framing of images and the recording of sound. Choice and selection of relevant situations. Creating a logical and meaningful sequence of pictures in view of a montage.

Theme 5: Making of a film (20 working days) Creating a video project from scratch, from the writing of a script, to shooting and carrying out production/post production work.

Theme 6: Video montage techniques (70 working days) Initiation to the correct and proper use of an editing machine. Practice in the use of various editing and montage techniques is carried out with tests and creative use of film.

Theme 7: Audio-visual pedagogy ; creation and making of documentaries for training (65 working days) Development of the concept of communication for development. Initiation to h o w video can be used to train. Understanding the governing principles of adult learning and what adults might look for in a training video. Understanding the basic notions of technology (electricity, machine work etc). Making a specific training video. Designing a training session with video. Carrying out a mock or test training session.

Theme 8: Shot taking techniques in photography (5 working days) Initiation to the theory of photography and its usage and techniques.

Theme 9: Videos for training purposes, use of material and pedagogical approach (7 0 working days) Initiation to an adapted use of video machinery and material. Management of rural training sessions according to specific themes - hygiene, income-generation, farming, adult education.

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Theme IO: Dialogue and exchange between people, managing a group session (7 0 working days) Developing skills in learners that are conducive to group and rural development action. Sharing opinions, communicating and working towards a c o m m o n goal in a group situation.

After nine years of existence, it can be said that the CESPA has had a strong impact in rural areas. A survey team, under the guidance of the UNDP, visited most regions reached by the programme and found that m a n y populations managed to maintain the levels of knowledge they had learnt through their training sessions with animators. Hygiene levels, for example, were seen to be greater than before the programme and cases of diarrhoea and food poisoning visibly diminished after the CESPA had been through a community. Many communities had gone about protecting wells, boring n e w water holes and making sure that food was kept away from sources of contamination. Those regions where the programme failed to have a strong impact were, more often than not, in areas where training videos could not be used and workshops could not be carried out in the specific local language. This was the case in areas such as the Mopti region. In other language regions, learners, despite linguistic differences, said h o w much they had appreciated the training sessions even though they had had difficulties in understanding. The areas where response was generally good were either in Bambara areas (the working language) or in areas where the populations’ educational level was relatively high. Rural communities already well-versed in training or in watching videos were particularly responsive. In m a n y communities, people expressed the desire to master the technologies themselves.

Training sessions have had to be modified as the CESPA develops. For example, in s o m e villages people felt that they needed further training or longer sessions. Video spots and film literacy programmes have had to be cut or worded in such a w a y as to be logical, forceful and understandable to people with little conventional education backgrounds. Other difficulties such as passing educational messages, lack of interest or boredom have also been tackled by making sure films and training sessions speak about locally-relevant issues. Training sessions that addressed everyday problems, such as diarrhoea, bad drinking water etc, are of direct relevance to learners and it is these that have had the most impact.

The learners themselves have been and continue to be demanding in what they expect from the training sessions. Often, through village authorities or a local NCO, they contact the CESPA requesting further information on a subject or a training session to complement previous information. In return, the CESPA requests that villages select their learners prior to training sessions so that those with the greatest capacity and willingness to assimilate and disseminate n e w knowledge attend.

As for the sustainability of the n e w knowledge learnt by the villagers, it is obvious that those w h o are able to keep up with the techniques imparted, through booklets or guides, are the most apt to put their training into practice. Communities w h o have little opportunity to practice or revise their knowledge generally need further briefings to become fully functional in their n e w skills. The CESPA booklets or guides which accompany the training sessions are particularly important in this respect as they permit continued learning, group discussion and become reference points for work. Follow- up in areas visited by the CESPA is increasingly becoming a concern for the programme as it would permit a stronger knowledge retention rate.

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CESPA's training development is currently growing to extend to the development of animators from other countries of the continent: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mauritania, Nigeria, Rwanda and Senegal. Technology has a long w a y to g o in the region before it reaches everyone, but it is beginning to raise questions, stimulate minds and rural development. The aim for the CESPA, today, is to continue finding further and better-suited communication technologies which are less costly such as audio cassettes, photographs, pictorial language boards and slides. This means listening carefully to learners, developing and adapting materials, and understanding the ways information and communication technologies can and d o influence local development.

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Global classrooms, learning networks

and virtual communities XTDLNK SOCIEW SCHOOLNET SERVICES, THE GLOBE PROGRAMN& mRC, E-MAIL CLASSROOMS, THE

GLOBEWDE NETWORK A W E M I : UNICEF VOICES OF YOUTH, THE GLOBE PROGRAM

he emergence of different and effective modes of electronic communication is rapidly expanding our possibilities for dialogue, collaboration and learning, offering the chance to T break d o w n barriers of time, space and circumstance but also the walls that have kept

knowledge out of the reach of many. Technologies which were once mainly conceived of as aids to economic growth, business and research are n o w being offered to a wide spectrum and number of people, particularly in the field of education and learning. This has led to the establishment of distinct services, in the form of Internet sites or e-mail-connected classrooms and other learning communities, which aim to address learning issues and seek to develop ways of stimulating learning among people of different ages. These services have achieved a particular relevance, in and outside the school, in creating environments for innovative learning practice, assisting teachers and in accompanying individual learners in the quest for dialogue and the sharing of ideas beyond their o w n families, regions or country.

A global internet classroom starts with one group of students asking a question to another group of students living in another part of the world. Their dialogue and exchange through internet is then passed onto another classroom in a further school. Results of dialogues or joint classroom projects are posted onto the w e b and the process continues. A n Internet user, unlike the person watching television or radio, has the benefit of being able to respond directly to information. It is this interaction that characterises the Internet and gives it a unique opportunity for opening up learning. It has given m any children worldwide the chance to discover culturally diverse opinions and develop a global dimension to their work. These channels of communication are still very much in their infancy but the movements they are creating are changing notions of both teaching and learning.

Rather than attempting to present an exhaustive list of these cases, following is a short overview of s o m e of the most interesting sites and experiences attempting to address children’s concerns and encourage thought in and outside the school.

The w e b site Voices of youth (http://www.unicef.org/voy/) was developed by UNICEF to create an appropriate environment for children and adolescents to take part in discussions on current global issues and concerns. The site is, therefore, interactive. Youths from around the world are encouraged to speak up and are asked to discuss h o w the world could become a better place where the rights of each and everyone, particularly children, are exercised -that is, the right to live in peace, to have a decent shelter, to be healthy and well-nourished, to have clean water, play, g o to school, and be protected from violence, abuse and exploitation.

Electronic discussion on this site has enabled thousands to interact, adding their opinions to others from around the world. The site stresses to young people: ‘Remember that your voice is strongest

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w h e n it is joined by the voices of other young people around the world. The greater the number of those w h o take part in Voices of Youth, the louder the voices are.” Children’s opinions are shared on- line with many adults w h o consult the site for research or w h o use the links and information presented. Write-ups on events, selections of key opinions and documents are contained on the site and updated regularly. The site is also a chance for UNICEF to keep in touch with adolescents’ opinions, stress the notions of dialogue and concertation in their work and see what trends and ideas are emanating from children from diverse backgrounds and countries. The site is divided into three main fora:

The meeting place: in this forum children think about and give their opinions on current global issues, particularly in the light of h o w they affect children worldwide. Internet users are asked to see in which ways they themselves can take action in their community in favour of children. Again each response is shared with others using the forum. The learning place: here a series of interactive global learning projects are carried out by learning groups, schools or volunteer groups. Most of these projects are still being defined but already children can join in interactive play situations such as completing a puzzle. The teachers’ place is a further forum where teachers and others can find and share useful material for their pupils. It has documents, connections to other sites and areas for joint action.

In each of these three fora there is the chance to discuss and respond to others. For example, in the meeting place, the user is confronted with several choices - “The Girl Child”, “Children’s Rights”, “Children and War” and “Cities and Children”. Each of these sub-sections contains information on the subject and asks questions for answer in the response boxes.

S o m e examples of what children have said to one another. Here in the Children and War section:

Luciano, from Argentina: Young people must read a lot and study different opinions and cultures to be open-minded when they grow up, and in that way, respect all human beings and realise that the only solution in conflicts is to talk. Long life to peace in the world. Luciano from Argentina says hi to you all.

Maya, from Japan: Hi Luciano, I agree with you. Us, young people don’t know much about war in our countries. W e tend to think it doesn’t have much to d o with us. Especially in my country. Few of us try and read and learn about war. But I think w e should be taught about it as one of the subjects required at school. Without knowing absolutely anything, w e don’t know h o w to think, or h o w to look up about it. I first became interested in finding books and things when I learnt about war in our o w n country, in the history lesson. But w e were taught nothing about war in the world now. W e aren’t taught h o w the children feel, what is being done in their country, and h o w they are suffering. M y love to everyone in the world. Maya.

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The KIDLINK site (www.kidlink.org) and its joint project KIDPROJ Founded in 1990, KIDLINK attempts to facilitate communication on the W e b for students aged 10 to 15 around the world. It describes itself as “a world where kids can join together and talk’. To subscribe students, generally aged 10 to 15, have to answer 4 basic questions for example: “How d o I want the world to improve?” and “What can I d o n o w to make this happen?” 37,000 children from 71 countries have subscribed to this particular project which is also available in various languages from Spanish, Japanese, Swedish, French and Portuguese. O n e example of a girl’s reply from Brazil typifies this project. In Portuguese she describes w h y she has joined thousands of children to create a more just world : “My name is Cabriela. I a m 14. I want to be a doctor. I don’t want there to be any more thieves or bloodshed in the world. To make this happen I will educate my family and friends to respect others.” Other school pupils in different countries also collaborate on the website on year- long curriculum projects in which information and resources are shared in a similar fashion.

KIDPROJ is a forum enabling teachers and youth group leaders to provide projects for children through the KIDLINK network. KIDPROJ was set up for the exchange, among schools and youth groups, of curriculum based activities and other projects of an educational or informative nature. The site has a particularly interesting subject which reveals its global character. Called “How people live”, it seeks to compare and share experiences of children from different countries. Children can describe h o w they live and discover the differences or similarities of their w a y of life with others. If children take part in this programme in schools, the teacher is asked to help with vocabulary and steer the subjects towards dialogue. The programme is written in a variety of languages and children can provide their o w n translation for others.

TERC (http://www.terc.edu/aboutterc/abourtterc.html) is a non-profit research and development organisation dedicated to improving mathematics and/or science learning and teaching. Founded in 1965, it has accompanied various technological inventions over the last few decades. In 1986, it established the N C S Kids Network to share scientific discoveries and data and brought about the successful participation and collaboration of 4,000 classrooms around the globe. Today, its w e b site is a source of information for thousands of Internet users from the world over. Specific TERC projects can be accessed through the site. There a total of 44 projects under construction on the web. These are for example: Ecology Curriculum, Research on Science Teaching and Learning in Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Classrooms and South African Teacher Enhancement. TERC also produces monographs, teacher guides and research papers which are available by writing to the organisation or can, in part, be accessed through the web. The site is also a forum for discussion.

SchoolNet Services (http:www.schoolnet.ca/info/services.html) is a global network to give students and particularly teachers access to services and resources. These range from information on teaching methodologies, the latest pedagogical findings to specific questions of introducing computers into the classroom. The site is an educational resource which hopes to answer m a n y of the concerns teachers are asking themselves worldwide. It provides on-line support, training, presentations and design for software and system administration. Its global character means that it has developed a link called “Nouvelles de la francophonie” which enables French speakers to connect to other sites and discover information in their language.

The Globe Programme (http://www.globe.gov/ghome/invite.html) is a worldwide network of students, teachers and scientists working together to study and preserve the environment. On-line students gather data from their environments near their schools, in their countries and report their research back to the project through Internet. Scientists use the data in their o w n research and

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provide students with feedback to enrich their work. Each day, particular images of subjects are posted on to the site to allow students to visualise environmental issues. The project has established agreements between countries to retrieve and study scientific data. It has 55 countries with 4,000 members co-operating, from Argentina to Tanzania.

Intercultural E-mail Classroom Connections (http://www.stolaf.edu/network/iecc/) provides worldwide e-mail connections for children and college students. Individual students can request a pen-pal from a specific country or whole classrooms can link up to work on joint research projects. This site also contains an extensive list of other current international e-mail projects and the possibility for teachers to announce or request help with specific classroom projects that involve e-mail, internationally and cross-culturally. O n e project to connect teachers holds 29,555 subscribers for 47 different countries. It directs discussions on topics of relevance to teachers such as integration of e-mail into classrooms, success stories in learning with technology and updates in pedagogy.

Rescue Mission : Planet Earth (http//www. worldweb.com/ASBA.Sptrum/old 1 /rescue.html) is a collaborative effort between 4 United Nations Agencies (UNEP, UNICEF, U N D P and UNESCO). It supports and encourages young people to discuss h o w to deal with environmental issues in their local communities. It takes as its basis Agenda 2 1 , the action plan adopted at the World Summit held in Rio, and has developed a set of indicators for young people to use in monitoring progress on the implementation of environmental laws and policies.

Further sites, based in various countries but connecting the planet in cyberspace, are being developed regularly. This movement is still in its infancy but n e w developments such as global sites in languages other than English show that communication between learners is effective and is increasing. These developments are actively being discussed within the U N system, N C O s and research institutes. Examples and references can be found with the Learning without Frontiers at UNESCO (h ttp://www.ed ucat ion. u nesco.org/lwf).

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INFOMTION TECHNOLOGYAND SOCIETY PROJECT OPEN UNIVERSITY United Kingdom

he Open University of the United Kingdom has been at the forefront of open and distance learning for the past 25 years. Through a combination of degree T programmes, short courses and self-contained study packs, the university offers

many adults their only opportunity for higher education.

Within the university, one project in particular shows the extent to which information technologies are changing the roles and nature of learning: The Information Technology and Society Project, a collaborative development between the faculties of the Open University and the Institute of Educational Technology. The project’s course is built around subjects ranging from Mathematics to Social Sciences and is based on the interaction of three key technologies: CD-

Contact informatim

Open University, Walton Hall Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA United Kingdom Tel: (44) 1908 274066 Fax: (44> 1908 653 744 hp/www.open.ac. uk/

ROM, computer-mediated communication and Internet for search and delivery. There are no academic prerequisites for entry to the course and so students are drawn from differing educational backgrounds and occupations. The intensive use of technology within a h o m e setting makes the course particularly attractive to physically disabled students.

C D - R O M s provide students with a distribution medium for a purpose-built library of interactive resource materials including journal articles, research reports, newspaper extracts, book chapters and audio and video interviews. Appropriate hyper-text links are created between documents, offering contrasting viewpoints, and ‘concept maps’ provide a graphical overview of the library contents. The ‘viewer‘ software permits free text searches of the entire document set as well as cut and paste and book marking. A computer-based learning package was created to teach students h o w to use these resources.

Computer-mediated communication services provide a combination of electronic mail (with file attachments) and computer conferencing (no attachments). Experience has shown a multimedia approach with these two forms of communication can support different learning activities, styles and needs. E-mail offers one to one and one to m a n y private messaging services, whilst conferencing supports a m a n y to many style of public messaging. General chat groups help students gain confidence about the n e w technology; this structure is then used to establish private conferences for individual tutors and their group of students (about 25 students per tutor).

Finally, Internet offers students facilities to search public database services and the World Wide Web, and for the course team to deliver, or identify, updated resource components. In some cases, students find the Internet a more cost-effective access

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route to the services. Students are still required, however, to have printed materials for the study guide and assessment package. In addition, a number of key articles are delivered in book form to provide a measure of flexibility in study patterns. The project has a strong research element and aims to explore the impact which information technologies are having on everyday lives, promote team work among students, validate the professional and personal backgrounds of students through appropriate forms of assessment and provide greater opportunity for personal choice in the selection of study content. For students uncomfortable with the use of n e w technology, a service was established to support those encountering difficulties with course-related software and communication problems.

The most noticeable outcome of this media mix for instruction has been the development of group learning activities and, in particular, an assessed group project. Most important of all, students can draw on their personal lives and add their experiences to the body of resources. The diversity of contributions from 1,300 students is quite overwhelming; the greatest task for the teaching staff is to keep abreast of activities and offer guidance when appropriate. Many of the student groups remain in close contact after the course and there is n o w a very active and committed open learning community readily awaiting the next cohort of students.

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COMPUTER-ASSISTED INSTRUCTION IN PHJURYAnlrD SECONDMY SCHOOLS Jamaica

n 1989, the Jamaica Computer Society, a private, non-profit, professional body, became concerned about the number of students graduating from the Jamaican school system w h o were unqualified to fill the increasing demand for computer professionals

(programmers, system analysts and engineers). It concluded that intervention at the secondary level would be the most effective way to address the problem. This led to the establishment of the Jamaica Computer Society Education Foundation (ICSEF) and a specific Jamaica 2000 project to support secondary schools in the in-service training of teachers in

computer science, the provision of adequately-equipped computer labs for the teaching of English and Maths and the integration of computer studies as a subject for certification. The Jamaica 2000 project set itself the target of providing a station lab in each of Jamaica’s 143 secondary schools, seven

Taken from Partnership and Computerasisted Instruction in Primary and Secondary Schools in Jamaica, by Em1 Miller Presented at meeting on Implementation of Education Reform, Washington, September 1996

community colleges and ten teacher-training colleges by the year 2000.

In its first two years the project stuck closely to its mandate of improving learning efficiency in English and Mathematics and providing computer knowledge to teachers. Several schools and colleges, however, wished to maximise their potential and use the equipment at their disposal to widen their application of technology to support learning needs. Accordingly, in

1995, the project’s -mission was expanded to allow use of computers to encompass the entire range of the secondary school curriculum. Much of this drive came from teachers themselves w h o were anxious to adapt their schools and introduce pupils to the fast- growing world of information and communication technologies. They realised that technology, employed to re-engineer school education, could be the key to improved quality and could empower them in their curriculum work.

The success and proliferation of computer instruction in secondary education led on to the establishment of a similar programme in the primary schooling system using links with the business community: “Education Technology 20/20”. The aim for this last project was to target rural communities and depressed urban areas by setting up computers in nearly 800 primary schools.

The effects of introducing computers into the Jamaican schooling system, both primary and secondary, have been wide and varied. It has meant a n e w demand on teachers and an increase in their capacity to assimilate and spread n e w ideas. Specifically, it has necessitated the use of computing tools by teachers and students to write, publish, solve problems, create data bases, use multimedia for research and enrichment, and build network capabilities to investigate and share information. O n a national scale, the introduction of computers has spearheaded a reform movement for the whole education system, providing leadership for innovation. The scope of the initial reform

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has been considerably enlarged beyond the original vision set up by the Computer Society. From its beginnings as a w a y of seeking to enhance the development and preparation of students for the computer professions, the reform has grown into a national exercise to transform instruction and learning outcomes in the school system. Each school was able to develop the framework to take the computers and adapt them to their schedules, student needs and teacher capacity. The beneficiaries were students in grades 10 and 1 1 but teachers could also sign up for one class per week in the lab for the teaching of their subject. Teachers had the role of previewing software programmes, selecting elements that were relevant to the topics they were teaching, and then coming with their students to the lab for the use of these materials. In addition, after-school courses were offered on a cost-recovery basis for teachers and members of the community interested in developing personal mastery in computers and their applications. This mix of community and school activities was particularly valid in drawing parents’ attention to the value of computing. Independent initiatives at school level have been numerous and innovative. At one school in southwestern Jamaica, computers were used to develop word processing, desktop publishing and research skills. With these elements, students were then required to devleop a creative writing portfolio comprised of five projects over the course of the year. This use of the imagination and development of literary structures facilitated learner progress and interest in classroom subjects.

O n e of the most striking features of the Jamaican case has been the emergence of an NCO, the JCSEF, as an actor in education policy at national level. The implementation of computers into the schooling system has managed to bring various forces into play. It has meant a collaboration between different professions - those operating within areas of pedagogy and learning in the school and those in the field of professional technical knowledge. Moreover, it was the private sector which pushed for reform, implementing computers and defining roles, rather than the Ministry, however supportive.

A symbiosis has occurred between the business community, motivated by the need for employees with a higher level of general education, and schools keen to modernise and acquire resources that will enhance their efficiency and raise their prestige in the communities. Teachers, too, have been interested in training and resources that improve their effectiveness and respond to the considerable public pressure to perform, even with very limited resources. The loosely formed partnership has fostered both flexibility and responsiveness, based as it is on the pragmatic vision of what actually works with computers in schools.

It is difficult to explain the impact and success of the introduction of computers as merely technical. W h y the computer should have had the reform effect it did throughout schools may, in part, be due to the fact that computers are a symbol of modernity and progress in Jamaica. They were actively desired by the communities and the schools and, in the emerging global market place, advantage is seen to rest with information technology. Furthermore, the teaching corps of a small country like Jamaica, with open economies that are perennially vulnerable to outside influences, are aware that they have no choice but to modernise and keep abreast with developments in information technologies. It is the teachers’ conviction that they had to adapt, and make full use of the computers, that allowed schools to create the space necessary to investigate new ways of learning.

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LITERACYAND AWARENESS PUBLICATION (LAMP) CENTRES Papua New Guinea Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL)

IL has assisted in the establishment of 20 Literacy and Awareness Publication (LAMP) centres in each of the 20 provinces of Papua N e w Guinea (PNG). These S centres, fitted with desktop publishing equipment, provide literacy materials and

opportunities for training in local languages. The L A M P centres produce literacy and awareness materials in the 850 or so languages of PNC, taking into account that very few, if any, literacy materials exist in the majority of the local languages and that over 55 per cent of the population aged over 10 is illiterate (1 990 census). The centres aim

to nurture a literate environment in and around the centres so the written word becomes part of the everyday setting.

Contact information:

L?r Clinton D. WRobinson, SIL, Literacy and Development Liaison Unit Horsleys Green, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, HP14 3X, UK Tel: 44 1494 682206 Fax:44 1494 483297 e-mail. lit-deu uk@sil. otg

Each centre is equipped with an LC I l l Macintosh computer, a dot matrix printer, a four-inch hand-held lightning scanner, a Risograph R C 6300 digital duplicator and support items like desks and cabinets. SIL provides the training for one trainer per province, w h o then trains two operators for each L A M P centre. Each centre has two operators. S o m e trainers of operators are foreign but the majority are from Papua N e w Guinea.

The literacy texts, produced by the L A M P centres, cover subjects such as healthcare (mother and child, food preparation, disease prevention), hygiene and preservation of the environment. The computer equipment is available

for use by local people but priority is given to producing and preparing literacy materials for the Tokples Prep Schools (TPS), adult literacy classes and elementary schools (which are part of a wider national network). The LAMP centres produce two forms of material, one created by local people in the local language and another, more general article created outside the language group which can be adapted to each context. The latter is a model or “shell” which contains pictures and stories and is already prepared and formatted for computer use. In this way, the story can be easily adapted and translated, n e w pictures scanned and captions adapted to suit the appropriate environment. Often, centres actually produce shell books themselves which they offer or suggest to other centres for re-appropriation in other contexts. The interactivity of centres means that a wide variety of shell books is evolving. L A M P centre operators are able to see what other centres are doing, h o w they have created materials and what subjects they are tackling.

Many centres also produce their o w n material specifically for their local language and context. Such material is not offered to other centres outside the area but is used to involve the community and provide literacy content to the inhabitants living close to the L A M P centre. Materials can also be produced in response to direct local demand. Local people, in this case, actually take part in the elaboration of documents, offering

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their opinion, taking part in meetings and deciding on issues of topical relevance. Communities, too, are directly involved in selecting members for their centres, deciding on c o m m o n concerns and organising events in and around the centre. In this way, the centre personnel, through their application of technology, become facilitators for the expression of local processes and knowledge. Operators are connected to each other through the SIL network and can seek assistance in terms of material and personnel if necessary. The centres also serve as resource bases for information and the personnel lend their time, support and ability to keep local communities alive.

Local languages in PNC are under threat. Their preservation, continued use and employment in literacy programmes is, today, the mandate of the LAMP centres. Local knowledge, like regional language use, is having to fight against the power of widely- used foreign languages, imported goods and the pull of the outside world. Empowering and strengthening local cultures necessarily means preserving local languages. This requires writing oral languages d o w n with their accompanying regional histories, accounts, sounds and tales. The LAMP centres’ policy is to use oral knowledge, and the need to write it down, as an entry point to develop literacy materials. The computers, scanners, digital duplicators might be n e w technology, but the materials produced on this equipment are in local languages based on local customs and culture. Once the materials leave a LAMP centre they are shared amongst the community and, if they are shell books, amongst a large audience in the country. In this way, specific regional knowledge and customs become known to a wider public, allowing m a n y people to discover parts of their o w n country.

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OPEN LEARNING SYSTEMS EDUCATION TRUST (OLSEU South Africa

n 1995, a National Teacher Audit noted that South Africa’s 360,000 teachers were “all in need of some form of in-service training.” The country’s education system indeed faces serious deficiences and inequalities which affect both teacher and

learner. It is estimated, for example, that overcrowding is c o m m o n in m a n y classes with a student/teacher ratio as high as 65:1, that management of classes is often archaic and based on authoritarian methods, that basic equipment and learning materials are lacking and that English is not the first language for many teachers and this when

proficiency in the language is necessary for m a n y subjects.

Contact information.

Gordon Naidoo, OLSET, 5th flool; Olivetti House 15 Stiemens Street, Braamfontein El: 01 1 339 5491 Fa: 01 1 339 6818

The implications of these professional deficits in terms of educational quality, curricular changes, classroom practice and learner development are vast. Much will be needed to bridge gaps but OLSET’s teacher development programme has carved itself a distinct role in meeting the professional needs of teachers. Originally conceived as a system of bringing instruction through radio to learners in distant classrooms, OLSET has since diversified its tasks and its learning groups. It soon realised that broadcasting radio programmes was not enough to bring about true learning in pupils. Successful radio instruction also depended on teacher inventiveness and stimulation in the

classroom. To make the optimum use of radio, therefore, OLSET decided to work with teachers.

Working with teachers, however, meant requestioning their roles, aspirations and methodologies. OLSET has shown that the teacher is, in many ways, the radio’s partner, ensuring that pupils learn the most they can, preparing the lesson, managing radio instruction and giving explanations which are beyond the radio’s limits. These requirements place a heavy burden on the teacher’s skills and abilities. This has led OLSET to establish a few key principles, which, it believes, can facilitate and create the appropriate conditions for the radio/teacher partnership to be successful. They are that :

0 teachers should be treated as a community of professionals; 0 programmes should be able to operate in the context of a wide range of skills among teachers; 0 a multichannel system of teacher support should be offered (including face- to-face training and peer group meetings, audio, video and print media) as an optimal model of teacher support; 0 the radio programmes should, in themselves, promote n e w and more effective learner-centred approaches: 0 because regular classroom audio programmes for children also offer

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extensive, certain and extremely valuable contact time with teachers, this time should be used for in-service teacher development; 0 practice with radio-assisted teaching should act as an entry point for other practical and inventive skills.

OLSET sees radio as a chance to suggest a broader vision of teacher growth and seeks to transform the teacher from a traditional technical role dispensing information, into a more active stimulator of community and learner development. Simply producing n e w materials and informing teachers about n e w methods is unlikely to bring about the needed changes in classroom practice and in teachers’ attitudes. OLSET aims to empower teachers and help them solve and overcome everyday obstacles in their work. It places a mirror in front of teachers, getting them far more engaged in what actually happens in their classrooms.

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UC LINKS United States of America

C Links is a US university faculty initiative to establish computer-based after- school educational activities for youth from various backgrounds at school and U in communities. These activities, carried out by undergraduates, create a

dynamic interaction between young people outside the university and college students inside the university. The project started with the recognition that, traditionally, colleges were disconnected from the communities around them, that marginalised youths had little opportunity to interact with college students and that undergraduates, in turn, had

little knowledge or experience of life in neighbourhoods surrounding campus, especially those isolated or excluded from mainstream society.

Through the project, disadvantaged youths get the chance to access n e w instructional technologies and receive mentoring from older peers. In turn, L this interaction grants both academic and community service opportunities to

university faculty students. Activities take the shape of informal sessions with undergraduates in after-school hours, youths receiving intensive learning in maths, science, and basic literacy whilst undergraduates develop field research skills in assisting children and youths’ computer and basic learning. As mentors and models, undergraduates help create a pipeline to higher education for youths w h o c o m e from a very different community-based experience. The project is especially relevant for youth from linguistic or ethnic minority groups (Latinos, etc.) and represents an example of collaborative efforts at bringing educational opportunities to the widest number. U C Links has grown from a total of three sites at two campuses to a total of 15 sites at nine U C campuses.

Contact information:

mcamrm@webmucsd. edu

The U C Link methodology is an intricate process. It has the following steps: 0 allocating a space for after-school activities (classroom, computer lab, etc.); 0 securing the necessary computer hardware and software for the educational content; 0 instituting the training course which enables U C students to work with youths in the area; 0 consolidating ties between students and community youth through use of educational technology.

Example of a U C Link programme: At Santa Cruz university (UCSC), the U C Links project has taken on a life of its o w n at a community site called Barrios Unidos. UCSC and Barrios Unidos are partners in this

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after-school programme, serving largely elementary and middle school students from surrounding low-income areas. The collaboration between students and community aims to promote communication, dialogue, problem-solving on violence prevention and other issues. About 30 elementary-school children attend UC Links in the neighbourhood. Four days per week, 10 to 12 children fill the small, lively computer room. Slowly, undergraduates are deveioping knowledge of child development issues and the children, by daring to interact more with technology, are becoming computer I i terate.

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Contact informution:

Tech Corps Tel:508 620 7749 Fax308 875 4394 http://www.ustc.org e-mail: info@ustc.org

TECH CORPS United States of America

interact around technology and its uses in furthering learning. In the United States, 8.4 million Americans are listed as being information technology professionals but 70 per cent have no children of school-age. Their precious knowledge has no means of being shared and most children, w h o could benefit, have no contact with expertise and material in their school or community. It is this situation of “haves” and “have-nots” that is being challenged by Tech Corps.

Tech Corps is funded through contributions from the private sector, primarily corporations and foundations. Volunteers are generally from the technology and telecommunication industries but also from hospitals, banks, government offices, insurance companies, colleges, consulting firms etc. S o m e are former teachers, s o m e are retired professionals. They all share a desire to make a difference and share their knowledge with those w h o m they feel need it or w h o could exploit it to the maximum.

Volunteers have several ways of operating in and around local schools: 0 by conducting teacher training seminars, giving demonstrations and lectures; 0 by mentoring students and staff, helping with homework, intervening on specific issues;

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0 by repairing and installing computers; 0 by participating on technology planning teams; 0 by working side by side with teachers in the classroom, tackling everyday problems; 0 by assisting teachers with the integration of technology into the curriculum; 0 by supporting a wide variety of local technology activities involving the c o m m u n i ty.

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LEARNING NEWORKS (ENLACE) Chile

Source:

n 1991, Chile launched a wide and ambitious educational reform programme to address problems within both primary and secondary education. The major I structure for this reform was the Primary Education Improvement Project (MECE)

which, with a budget of US$ 243 million, had the task of improving the quality, efficiency and equity of primary schooling over a five-year period. O n e of the main components and innovative forces of this reform movement was the establishment of a telecommunications network for underprivileged schools called Enlaces (Links).

Begun in 1993, as an experimental pilot programme, it has, today, managed to build a network among s o m e 180 primary and 6 2 secondary schools. The Ministry of Education recently converted the project into a national

M fitmhnik, Vol 1, Number 2, Education and Technology Series, 1996, World Bank Human Development Department.

Contact information:

Web site: http://enlaces. un fro. cl

Enlaces,

programme and granted it the political and financial support to integrate all secondary schools and half of all primary schools by the year 2000.

Most significantly, a majority of the schools in the programme are a m o n g the country’s poorest communities and serve a mainly indigenous population. These schools are characterised by low standardised test scores in Maths, Spanish and other subjects, late primary entrance, high repetition and drop- out rates. Teachers often lack the means, knowledge of subject matter and training to deliver quality education using modern pedagogical methods. Shortages of educational materials, textbooks and guides also prevail. The computing and communications technology provided by Enlaces is attempting to address m a n y of these issues.

through the introduction of computers and the connection to learning networks, seeks to transform schools. It has several specific aims:

0 to motivate teachers (by increasing information resources for research, analysis and communication between colleagues) and bring students in touch with n e w ways and contents of learning. The network facilitates the development of collaborative learning between students and teachers. In particular, work around computers is designed to develop collaboration and solidarity among teachers and classroom, and a new, expanded vision of the world outside. From a curriculum perspective, the network produces a gradual integration of course-content across the curriculum (teaching resource, collaborative learning); 0 to allow teachers to share experiences, teachers’ guides, and successful educational experiences across the network (professionalisation); 0 to enable schools, regardless of their location in the country, to become part of a wider learning community. Teachers in the network, therefore, have

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access to the same information and projects regardless of where they are located. (equity and decentralisation); e to enable teachers and students to gain access to high quality educational software for instructional purposes. It should also modify teaching practice, knowledge transmission and acquisition and stimulate skill development. (pedagogical modernisation); e to allow teachers in the network the possibility of using their computer to produce instructional materials and to make educational administration more modern and efficient by maintaining data bases of student records, attendance and examinations (modernisation of education administration).

The Enlaces standard approach is to grant a small school (1 00 or less students) three computers, a m o d e m , a C D - R O M player, a dot matrix printer and software package. A larger school (1 00 to 300 students) would receive six computers. The Enlaces network links schools and ofher educational institutions by means of Chile’s national computer network. Those schools which are part of the network are able to communicate with each other using E-mail and Bulletin boards with standard addresses of the Internet. Enlaces has used a gradual demand-oriented strategy for expanding the network at the primary level. Enlaces’ staff have actively promoted the network by visiting schools and meeting with principals and teachers to brief them on the network‘s educational benefits. If and when a school wishes to become a member of the network it has to demonstrate its commitment by applying officially, presenting a proposal as to h o w it intends to use the computer network in its educational programmes and agree to provide facilities, furniture, etc. At secondary level, the project plans to incorporate all 1,700 schools into the network by the year 2000. So far Enlaces costs can be broken d o w n as follows: US$ 5,880 for a small school to US$ 20, 932 for a large school, with US$ 78 per student (US$ 17 recurrent expenses) being spent at a small primary school level. Large schools cost US$ 21 per student.

Enlaces has conducted s o m e evaluation studies to assess changes occurring in schools. Research has shown positive changes in teachers’ attitudes towards teaching, computers and in the benefits of the network. Evaluators found significant changes in student attitudes and a noticeable increase in creativity, individual and group initiatives. Teachers, and particularly school heads, have noticed reductions in school drop-out, as well as improvements in achievements a m o n g slow learners. Many heads felt proud of their schools especially when they were able to have the same resources as those in higher income communities. They also saw a wide variety of improvements in student communication skills, creativity and self-learning. Interviews with students also found that pupils were learning to use computers faster than their teachers, and that relationships and communication between students were changing to become more collaborative.

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TELESECUNDARIA (LOWER SECONDARY SCHOOL LEARlVING WITH TELEWSION SUPPORD Mexico

exico is a large and diverse country of scattered communities and vast distances. Out of the 150,000 rural and far-flung communities, more than 100,000 have less than 100 inhabitants. Until relatively recently it has been

impossible, in economic and human terms, to provide secondary education along conventional lines to these communities. The Telesecundaria project (lower secondary school learning with television support) has been instrumental in changing this situation and Mexico’s communications infrastructure is n o w opening up to different

forms of education and learning.

Contact information:

General Coordinatol; Telesecundaria Ministy of Public Education. Fmflel: 95 594 96 83

Telesecundaria was launched in Mexico in 1968 as a means of extending lower secondary school learning with television support to remote and small communities at a cost inferior to that of conventional secondary schools. The early model was pretty simple; lessons corresponding to grades 7 to 9 were transmitted live, through open public channels to television sets placed in distant classrooms where students listened and took notes in the presence of a teacher. These lessons were transmitted 6 hours per day, Monday through Friday, for the length of a school year. Each hour of class was m a d e up of 20

minutes of television and 40 minutes of discussion on what had been seen with the teacher. The system was inexpensive because the airtime was donated to the Ministry of Public Education by public networks and required one teacher per grade whilst the conventional system needed eight or nine.

The system has gone through various stages of improvement to reach its present level. As the system evolved, the design of television programmes was handed over to specialised teachers w h o had the sole and specific task of producing scripts and materials. Teaching roles also had to adapt. Classrooms became more interactive places with the teachers becoming facilitators of pupil learning rather than just dispensers of information. The TV programmes moved away from the idea of “talking heads”, towards more interactive modes with charismatic speakers and simple use of language. Student books also adopted a more targeted approach, corresponding precisely to the television programmes in detail and content. The programme writers particularly built on the w a y the students could use their products to the m a x i m u m whether it be alone or in group sessions. Textbooks serve to encourage individual study topics, homework and sound methods of studying. By the end of 1993, Telesecundaria was being offered in more than 9,000 schools throughout the country to nearly 600,000 students (some 15 per cent of the lower secondary school population). Each received 1 or 2 books per subject. In 1994, a more powerful and advanced satellite was launched, capable of covering further territory. The n e w system was named EDUSAT and was m a d e up of 6 channels capable of transmitting 24 hours a day.

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Telesecundaria requires four main groups of people to function. These interrelated, yet independent, components can be briefly summarised as follows:

0 the generators of educational content : selected from the various parts of the educational system, adult, elementary, secondary, higher and technical; 0 the producers of videos: professional producers and script writers; 0 the programming and transmission council: this group is made up of representatives of the audience. The council decides which television programme goes into which channel, the number of repetitions, and transmission time. It also develops programming charts for all channels; 0 the users themselves: individual users, teachers, schools, families, work centres, homes. The programmes can, accordingly, be adapted to suit perceived or expressed needs. The success of the programme depends on this precise targeting of particular audiences at school level.

The curriculum takes its programmatic contents from the nationwide Study Plans and Programmes designed for the lower secondary school level. Three main didactic aids are schemed to support the television system. The Learning Guide is the textbook for the activities covering the main issues of the learning process. The student uses it to go through the different stages of knowledge acquisition from the very beginning of the session up to the evaluation phase. The Book of Basic Concepts is a thematic encyclopaedia where the pupil can find information given during the television sessions and students m a y consult it at any stage during the programme. The Didactic Guide is a book with technical-pedagogical orientations for the exclusive use of the teacher, which he or she uses in the planning and facilitation of the learning process. The book contains information for dealing with learning problems which m a y arise in class, as well as alternatives or solutions which are useful in helping learners overcome their difficulties.

Today, Telesecundaria lessons contain twenty minutes of interactive, dynamic and action-oriented learning. They can be watched live on TV or can be recorded on video, depending on availability of machines in schools. Each teacher follows a basic pattern but is free to adapt the TV programmes to his or her style, learner needs or student characteristics. This flexibility to mould the programme to specific circumstances depends very much on the individual competence of the teacher, but the programme’s materials encourage such use.

W h e n the Ministry of Education announced a n e w study plan for basic education in the early 199Os, focusing on the needs of individual students, their families and communities, Telesecundaria responded by further developing its methodology. It decided to increase the interactivity between learners, community and teaching source. This approach required a n e w effort on the part of the programme developers, opening up to intergenerational learning and community action, but it also meant that teachers had the task of informing schools and communities. The aim was to link the community to the programme around the teaching method. The strategy meant combining community issues into the programmes offering children an integrated education, involving the community at large in the organisation and management of the school and stimulating students to carry out community activities (poster campaigns, communal actions, meetings). Within the actual teaching methodology this meant merging the three roles of the teacher, the printed materials and the TV programmes into a convincing whole for the students. Currently, Telesecundaria is building on the possibility of communities producing their o w n material, extending the concept of learning beyond the classroom.

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PEACE P R O G W M E FOR WOMEN El Salvador

Contact information:

Culture of Peace Programme UNESCO Tel: 33 1 45 68 10 00 Fm:33 1 45 67 1690

he 1992 Chapultepec peace accords ushered in a process of national reconciliation in El Salvador. Mediated by the United Nations, they provided the T framework for an extensive military peace-keeping and peace-building

operation. N o specific provisions were contained in the accords for a national culture of peace programme, yet the government, in collaboration with UNESCO, decided to launch a radio programme entitled “Support to Radio Services in Non-formal Education, Training and Information on Women”. It was to constitute a c o m m o n goal for the

country, of benefit to all parties. Its management, content and direction were to be a peace-building process in themselves, bringing hostile factions together.

The radio project’s content is directed at raising awareness of poor women’s rights and creating the social and educational environment necessary for the exercising of those rights. The project’s major activity is the production of daily radio broadcasts and non-formal education campaigns. There are n o w 24 stations broadcastinq daily. S o m e are national but most are regional or

local. In addition to broadcasting into homes, the programmes are broadcast by loudspeakers at market places, where the vendors and buyers are mostly women. The span of transmission varies from 5 a m to 8 p m to catch w o m e n , such as factory workers, w h o work business hours. Each broadcast is composed of a number of segments dealing with various subjects such as legal rights of w o m e n , salary problems in working in coffee farms, violence in couples, sharing of domestic work and women’s values. As m a n y of the issues tackled are harsh and practical, light and entertaining flashes with music intersperse the programmes.

The most striking element of the project is the w a y radio has served as a c o m m o n interest to bring feuding parties together. Prior to the implementation of the project, people often expressed their reticence and hestitation about working with others. Participants would ask questions such as “who would o w n the project or the equipment?” This environment of mistrust could only really be overcome once outputs and objectives were clear. Once a c o m m o n goal was set, collaborative work became all the easier. A Technical Committee was created to precisely co-ordinate and structure this process of consensus and concertation. It is composed of a representative of women’s NCOs, a m e m b e r of the community involved in radio broadcasting, a representative from UNESCO and Government. The Committee has the task of designing work plans and supporting technical issues and decision-making. It maintains a surveillance and monitoring function and seeks to ensure the continued philosophy of dialogue and communication between all participants. For example, each content module of the radio programme has to be approved by the Committee prior to broadcast. The project

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is monitored according to five key aspects: leadership, clarity, level of interest, usefulness and duration. The process of consensus is known to the populations w h o listen to the radio broadcasts and it helps maintain their trust in the radio and its vocation of reconcilement.

Training workshops reinforce the emphasis on dialogue and make sure the radio keeps up its relevance. Workshops are particularly aimed at community correspondents. They are the people w h o feed the radio shows with news from all over the country, thus guaranteeing that it has quality information, of interest and reality to the listening audience. There are a total of 64 correspondents in the country. During workshops, they discuss the process of information carried in the mass media and h o w their role in the handling of women’s issues can affect women. In the communities themselves, campaign promoters, 1,500 w o m e n and m e n throughout the country, raise awareness through meetings and rallies. Given the lack of opportunities in m a n y communities, this is a chance for m a n y people to take part in a national programme that directly addresses their needs and allows them to play a crucial role in the peace process. Campaign promoters, in turn, train organisations working in the municipalities, communities and rural areas in the importance of the themes addressed in the radio shows. It is their duty to verify that radio programmes are a source of agreement in the provinces and that topics c o m m o n to all Salvadorians are being discussed.

Radio shows are produced by a technical team composed of professionals. Each show is the fruit of much discussion and debate. Scripts are prepared for each segment which is then recorded using radio formats such as dramas, interviews, testimonies and articles. Production entails constant bibliographical research, visits to the field and interviews (contacts with community correspondents and campaign promoters). Radio programmes are given to commercial radios at no charge and they are free to accompany them with advertising if they so wish. The project has, in fact, improved the image of the radio stations recovering from factional strife. Thanks to the project they are all seen as partners with the government in addressing national concerns.

The production team has had to show considerable maturity to come to terms with problems, despite disagreement, and reach a consensus on radio content. Often people would disagree as to the importance of one theme over another but maintaining the project in line with the peace-building process has meant opinions and stances have grown less virulent and hostile. Exchange and negotiation have become aspects of work, and people have been transformed through their o w n actions and their social exchange.

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Contact information:

http./wWur newhonkomotg

THE BUILDING:

effective teaching and learning practices, support an expanded vision of learning that identifies and fosters the fullest development of human capacities; 0 support implementation of proven strategies for learning at every age and

NEW HORIZONS FOR LEARNING

e w Horizons for Learning’s open learning community on the Internet is called the Building - more a verb than a noun, as it continues to grow daily. It is the N primary communication vehicle for a non-profit international education

network. As an Internet site, built along the same principles as a building or house, it can be visited, consulted and interacted with to:

The Building contains a journal with contributions from around the world. This is hyperlinked to user-friendly categorised resources in the Building and on the Internet. Entrance to the Building is through a lobby which leads to the W e b Travel Agency, a Reading R o o m and to an elevator to reach the different floors. It contains 1 1 floors which include some of the following:

0 The Cornerstone and Foundations, which provide the philosophical base 0 The Tool Room, with s o m e well-documented teaching and learning practices, their source and origin, a description, where it has been applied, what results it has obtained, where to get further information and a bibliography and other resources 0 Resource Library and Databases 0 N e w Horizons Journal and Publications 0 Learning in Business and Industry 0 Parents and Families, Early Learning 0 International Education News 0 Recreation Centre which includes a Gymnasium with information on ways to keep fit 0 Adolescent centre 0 The Brain Lab

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0 Multicultural Education 0 Restructuring Education, focused on the school years 0 Technology in Education 0 Observation Deck with inspiring ideas and n e w resources and futuristic concepts

Various individuals, organisations, universities and an International Advisory Board collaborate with the Building. The Building does not have on-line discussion groups, as participants found them cumbersome, repetitive and difficult to keep up with; so instead, n e w ways of communicating between individuals are being sought as a w a y of increasing the participation of members of an open learning community. Participants currently communicate via e-mail, which is offered in nearly every area of the Building. Software connected to the site details w h o comes in everyday, from where and what they print out. As a result, the organisers are able to know that educators, school administrators, business people, parents, policy-makers, researchers and consultants from around the world visit the site, print out large numbers of documents, sending back responses via e-mail and providing n e w information, including articles and other resources. This active participation is encouraged. At present, the Building is able to reach twenty times more people than via its previous quarterly newsletter.

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PAROO MOBILE Australia

et up in 1987, the Paroo Mobile Project provides services to isolated and disadvantaged groups (aborigines, disabled children and isolated farming communities) in Australia’s vast hinterland. It is run by an organisation, Contact

Incorporated, in close collaboration with the Bernard van Leer Foundation and the Australian Government. It works by operating several equipped vehicles which travel to and fro amongst remote communities bringing educational and healthcare services where a stand-alone service or centre is not viable. Vehicles transport staff, equipment

and appropriate materials to these localities as an integral part of existing educational programmes or as the sole educational opening available. Mobiles also interact with other services on the ground such as Health, Contact information:

Project for isolated cbildm, 1st ROOT 30 Wilson Street, Newtown, NSW 2042 Fm: (02) 9565 1477 Tel: (02) 9565 1333

Welfare, Information, Disability services, etc. The mobile staff are m a d e up of groups of professional people prepared to work under harsh conditions : driving vast distances, long hours and coping with problems and lack of facilities. Their background is normally one of experience in child development and community networking.

The project’s philosophy is to provide a flexible, responsive and innovative service for children and families who are experiencing social, geographic,

cultural or economic isolation. It does this by promoting and putting in place adapted ranges of educational, social and recreational activities for children of all ages. The aim is to support the development of personal and social skills for families with children and this by facilitating opportunities for socialisation between children and adults w h o are experiencing isolation. Paroo Mobile also attempts to develop a contact service linking children and family workers, services and service users.

The characteristic of the project is that it brings learning to people rather than people to learning. It is, above all, about mobility. The project vehicles often have to stop and create learning spaces for children out of virtually nothing. Walls, playgrounds or even seating are a luxury of better-equipped communities. The vehicles take over spaces such as old buildings, parks, even sheds or, if lucky, school grounds. W h e n the mobiles arrive in a given place, children are given the priority in literacy, numeracy and other learning activities but it is the concern of staff that the whole family is involved. Activities centre around play sessions, art, early-intervention programmes and information groups. Most vehicles are equipped with materials like books, toys, posters and video and tape machines and libraries. For those children w h o do, at times, g o to more conventional schools the Mobiles offer after-school sessions and help in school work. Working parents find time to join in, taking advantage of the parenting skills imparted. Those w h o otherwise would have to travel great distances for services (up to 300 kms) are particularly responsive to the Mobile Project. They use workers to discuss

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confidential matters, seek advice regarding their children’s education, and obtain valuable information regarding Government resources and openings. It is worth noting that 32 per cent of Australia’s total population lives outside the main urban areas.

The Federal Department of Health and Family Services funds most of the Mobile Services. Local Government tends to provide administrative and financial support, pays some workers and helps in offering cheaper fuel for the vehicles. The ongoing funding of the project was taken up by the Australian Federal Government in 1993. In 1994, the Mobile Services moved to self-management with an elected community-based parents’ c o m m ittee.

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TEO Luxern bourg

Contact information.

Gerard Gretscb Ministy of Education 29 rue Aldringen L-2926 Luxemboutg e-mail: Gerard GretscbQCI. EDUC LU

n Luxembourg, the Education Department has produced a simple yet highly versatile oral word processor - T E O - which encourages the development of oral I expression skills in both native and foreign languages. It is n o w implemented in

several schools where its aim is to stress the importance of developing a fluent, articulate c o m m a n d of language in pupils and foster the transition from concrete to formal operational reasoning. Although, nowadays, it is generally accepted that logic arises from action, not language, verbal reasoning is still a major vehicle on which

logical operations operate. Language provides the most important means by which children can communicate their mental representations of scenarios and events, and have them received and examined, accepted or rejected by others. Through a process of self-regulation, they will then gradually modify and build on individual concepts and knowledge to continue on the path of learning. Due to the demands of busy teaching schedules and managing the classroom, however, and also to the difficulties inherent in assessing progress, oral expression is often neglected in school. It is important to note that T E O is particularly implemented in classrooms where pupils are from various cultural and ethnic backgrounds. The computer gives them a greater sense of freedom in creating an authentic learning experience.

T E O offers an attractive, user-friendly environment for oral expression through story building in class, and is easily accessible even to children and teachers w h o have had little experience with information technologies. The user interface is presented in the form of a blank page similar to that used in word processing programmes with a traditional but simplified m e n u bar at the top of the screen with a tool bar on the left and, at the bottom of the screen, a selection of icons which are numbered consecutively as they are placed on the page one at a time to “contain” the user‘s recorded text. Pupils work at the computer in small groups, taking turns to input their sentences. They click first on an icon of their choice, then on the microphone to start the recording process. A n icon is displayed representing the recorded text. A second click deactivates the microphone and the computer repeats the recorded speech so that the children have immediate feedback on the quality of their production. During and after recording, the story can be edited by deleting, re-arranging or re-recording icons.

. A C D - R O M audio-CD compilation of work produced on T E O shows the remarkable power of this medium not only to encourage children to engage in authentic learning, trying out n e w language they have heard or found in a dictionary, but also expressing their most secret desires, fears and taboos in stories that they proudly present in class once their project is completed.

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T E O is a particularly valid learning and assessment tool in that it “captures” speech graphically and compactly, enabling teachers to keep records of children’s progress by comparing n e w examples with earlier work. The children themselves become more aware of their o w n production and begin to permanently assess it, thereby becoming actively involved in the learning process and, at the same time, developing listening skills. Like word-processing, oral text processing plays an important role in the psychological development process as it allows children to dissect their o w n utterances, rearranging, deleting and adding as desired. In this way it enables the child to develop another, more abstract, form of thinking, disconnected from direct experience. Access to and development of this m o d e of “decentred” or “disembedded” thinking is indispensable both in aiding a child to express him/herself coherently in public, and in developing the higher cognitive skills needed if he or she is to cope with the school programme or, indeed, life outside the school.

A n inherent advantage in the use of TEO, particularly in a multicultural country such as Luxembourg where children c o m e from very different backgrounds, is that children work in groups around the computer, each using and integrating their o w n linguistic competencies which differ largely from child to child. Those with greater capacities help their peers to reach a higher level by enabling them to bridge the gap between what they are capable of doing alone and what they can achieve with the assistance of others more knowledgeable or skilled than themselves. Obviously, this factor comes into play in all group interactions, but here T E O serves as a creative medium which encourages and facilitates exchanges, particularly for children w h o have difficulties in expressing themselves oral I y in broader classroom situations.

The wider applications of this open-ended oral-expression tool are still under review in Luxembourg. At present, it is being successfully incorporated into both school and adult education programmes to open up n e w frontiers in foreign and native language learning.

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CREATING LEARATING NEWORKS FOR AFRICAN TEACHERS

he emerging power of information technologies might contribute to resolving two of the central issues which are crippling African education systems today, T namely : 1 ) the lack of access to necessary information and learning resources,

which considerably lessens the chances of building up the existing formal system’s capacity and 2) the lack of opportunities for communication a m o n g key players in the learning process (students and their parents, educators, researchers) and education officials (planners, policy makers and curriculum developers) which often results in a

bureaucratic and top-down approach to the provision of learning with isolated or disconnected teacher training colleges.

Contact information:

Learning without Frontiers Coordination Unit UNESCO E-mail: EDVOG@unesco. otg Fax:33 1 45 68 0828

With this in mind, a project - “Creating Learning Networks for African Teachers” - has been established to facilitate knowledge of and access to Internet in Africa. Considering the rapid expansion of affordable access to full Internet, even in s o m e of the poorest regions of Africa, the World Wide W e b and e-mail are increasingly becoming a possibility for challenging educators and formal systems of communication to overcome s o m e of the existing barriers to learning.

The project aims to improve the quality of education and learning by connecting teacher training colleges in Africa to the information highway, thereby enhancing their capacity to respond to n e w challenges to teaching and learn by facilitating and stimulating innovative experiences, ie:

0 opening up teacher training colleges to communities by becoming information, communication and learning resources for educational planners, researchers, teachers and, through them, create or support specific learning communities; 0 changing perceptions a m o n g educational planners and policy makers, researchers, teacher educators and teachers, to begin seeing themselves as lifelong learners and agents for transformation in multi-faceted environments.

The project, still in its pilot stage, will connect a number of teacher training colleges (four to six in twenty African countries) to the Internet in order to develop local, national and regional networks to initiate activities that focus on:

0 enhancing dialogue between teacher training colleges, educational planners and policy makers, researchers and practising teachers on issues related to learning and teaching;

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0 accessing and assessing information on latest concepts, developments and experiments in the field of learning, teaching and education to enhance professional development, build local knowledge structures, and stimulate processes of change; 0 stimulating the development of locally adapted and relevant curricula, appropriate teaching and print-based learning materials through groupwork and groupware, using locally relevant images and sounds (including otherwise inaccessible “artefacts”) in close collaboration with the relevant national education authorities; 0 promoting the development and implementation of learning projects at teacher training colleges, targeting different learner groups of the communities around them; 0 exploring the use of the Internet to stimulate more learner-centred and interactive approaches in the teaching-learning process at colleges and in the classroom.

Before implementing the project on a large scale, pilot activities will be initiated in a limited number of countries to assess the feasibility of the proposed activities and to further develop the specific modalities and requirements - in terms of hardware, software, connectivity arrangements, networking partners, training, etc. Zimbabwe was selected as a first country for this pilot project and it is currently experimenting with the first phase of the project. The choice of Zimbabwe was based on its advanced connectivity status and its current attempts to improve the overall quality of its educational system.

So far, a team of enthusiastic educators comprising a selection of members of teacher training colleges, the teacher education department at the University of Zimbabwe, and the audio-visual and curriculum development unit within the Ministry of Education, is directing procedures. This initial team has received basic training in the use of the Internet and been provided with computers that are connected by specialists from the country. Currently, an electronic discussion group is being set up for thematic discussions on education issues, relevant to the specific Zimbabwean context and a national w e b site is being prepared that will facilitate access to learning resources for Zimbabwean teachers. More advanced applications and collaborative learning projects in further countries are expected in time as users gain more experience in handling the n e w technology.