Low cost PCs for the developing world

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan unveiled the first working prototype of the US$100 laptop at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunisia on 16 November 2005. The brainchild of Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and co-founder of the Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the laptop is an ultra-low-cost, full-featured computer. It is the central project of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) association, which is working to equip the world's schoolchildren and their teachers with a personal, portable, connected computer. OLPC's plan is to design, manufacture and distribute laptops that are inexpensive enough to provide every child in the world access to knowledge and modern education.

The $100 laptop has a 500-megahertz processor and flash memory instead of a hard drive - so it has no internal moving parts, which reduces both manufacturing and maintenance costs. To save on software costs, the laptops run the freely available Linux operating system. The full-colour, full-screen computers can connect to Wi-Fi wireless networks and be part of "mesh" networks in which each laptop can relay data to and from other devices, reducing the need for expensive base stations. One of the most innovative aspects of the $100 laptop is a hand crank that can power it when no electricity is available.

Negroponte says he expects production of the $100 laptop to begin in 2006, with initial distribution to children in Brazil, China, Egypt, South Africa and Thailand.

Meanwhile, a Canadian company has begun manufacturing a Read Only Memory (ROM)-based computer. The Ink-PC has an embedded custom version of the Linux operating system and key application programmes. This avoids the need for software licenses while protecting the computer from viruses and spyware. Files can be saved on a USB device. Fully Internet capable, this computer is Wi-Fi ready, has 256 megabytes of memory includes five USB ports. The Ink-PC will be priced from US$180. Mercurial Innovations International Inc. has received large orders from governments and private sector clients in Asia and will begin shipping the first Ink-PCs in 2006.

Choosing a LMS

A Learning Management System (LMS) is the online environment in which students can read study material, share information with other students, chat with learning facilitators and classmates, and submit assignments. Course materials can be created by simple add-on tools such as OpenOffice Writer or Microsoft Word (word processors) or by using Netscape Composer or Microsoft FrontPage (website editors). With more sophisticated Learning Content Management Systems (LCMSs), content can be uploaded to a learning object repository, which stores all the individual pieces of courseware, or "learning objects". The institution or person offering the programme can download the learning objects or course material and import them into the institution's LMS.

Institutions looking to acquire an LMS are faced with a choice of some 300 products. Many are free; others cost anywhere from US$15,000 to over $150,000. Free, open source LMS software, such as ATutor, KEWL.NextGen and Moodle, is becoming more and more popular as it can also be a learning environment for staff and student programmers and IT professionals. Institutions that work with open source "communities" such as these enjoy the opportunity to have programming staff and learners participate in the further development of these systems. From their student experience, learners often produce valuable programming code to add to the LMS. Learners also gain experience in working in groups, irrespective of their location. Collaborative software development is an ideal way of exposing and benefiting from the programming pool of talent in developing countries without contributing to the "brain drain". The AVOIR (African Virtual Open Initiatives and Resources) group of developers is an example of collaboration in software development across Africa.

ATutor is a popular open source web-based LCMS that enables educators to assemble, package and redistribute instructional content, retrieve and import prepackaged content and conduct courses online. Content developers can create reusable content that can be shared among different eLearning systems. Developed in Canada, ATutor is accessible to all potential learners, instructors and administrators, including those with disabilities who are accessing the system using assistive technologies. Institutions across North America, Africa and South Asia are adapting ATutor to suit their specific requirements.  

The Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL) is one of the first comprehensive LMSs available as open source. Originally developed by Professor Derek Keats and his team at the University of the Western Cape in South Africa, KEWL is suitable for use in any online learning situation, including schools, corporate training and higher education. It allows institutions to develop and offer online courses.

The latest version, KEWL.NextGen, is a collaborative effort amongst academics and programmers from five African institutions. It uses open, cross-platform standards for maximum compatibility with open source and proprietary servers. KEWL can be used in many languages, including English, Xhosa, Zulu, Italian and Portuguese. It has also been designed for use in the low-bandwidth environment that characterises most developing countries.

Moodle is a free, open source software package course management system used by educators to create effective online learning communities. The U.K. Open University recently chose Moodle as the platform for its Internet-based courses. Starting in mid-2006, Open University students will use Moodle instead of a variety of software to access their course work, interact with tutors and other students, use the library, submit assignments and handle administrative paperwork. This will be the largest use of Moodle in the world. Moodle is also used by Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada.

COL offers a software tool that helps management evaluate LMSs. Through a series of spreadsheets and questions, the tool helps institutions determine which LMS best meets their needs. Created by 3waynet and licensed to COL, this free online tool is available in the Resources section of this website.

www.atutor.ca

OER Survey

OECD's Centre for Educational Research and Innovation is carrying out a study on Open Educational Resources (OERs) in higher education. As part of the study they are launching a web-based survey for individual teachers, instructors and researchers using or producing OER. They are inviting anyone working in a higher educational institution that uses or produces open learning content, such as courses, courseware, content modules, learning objects, collections and journals, or open software tools to develop, use, re-use and deliver learning content, to take the survey. It will take 10-15 minutes to complete. Survey participants will receive a free electronic copy of the final report.

The survey is at
www2.oecd.org/survey/Surveys/TakeSurvey.aspx?surveyid=1075

www.oecd.org/edu/oer

Evaluating Multimedia Products

When multimedia products fail to deliver results, it is often because the product has not been properly evaluated. In fact, evaluation is a critical element for any project using multimedia for delivery of content.

Any multimedia courseware package merits serious evaluation - both of educational outcomes and medium delivery, explains Dr. Usha Vyasulu Reddi, Director of the Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia (CEMCA) in an informative article on the subject appearing in the June 2005 issue of CEMCA's news publication, EduCom Asia. Dr. Reddi examines the types of evaluation, what should be evaluated, methods of data collection and reporting evaluation results.

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UNESCO, GDENet launch
Decision Support Tool

UNESCO and the Global Distance Education Network (GDENet) have launched an online tool to help people make choices about distance education programmes. Funded by UNESCO as part of their Higher Education Knowledge Base on Open and Distance Learning, the Decision Support Tool was conceptualised by Neil Butcher, an educational consultant with the South African Institute of Distance Education (SAIDE), and developed by Blue Matrix software.

The purpose of the Decision Support Tool is to assist decision-makers (in international organisations, as well as at the national and institutional level) to make first-level assessments about the viability and quality of new and/or existing distance education programmes. The tool assumes that many of the decision-makers may not be experts in distance education and therefore require a simple, understandable decision-making framework. After completing a questionnaire, users are provided with a set of results that helps them determine whether new or ongoing investments in specific programmes are justified.

Registration is free, so anyone in the public domain can use the Decision Support Tool.