The short answer is “very slowly”!

In spite of all the hype, the vast majority of students in the developing world cannot afford suitable ICT devices. And, while low-cost mobile phones are becoming more widespread, they are of limited value in terms of the creation and distribution of open content.

The second problem is connectivity. Most universities and schools either do not have broadband, or their bandwidth is inadequate. Also, the ratio of lab based computers to students is very low. The result is that internet access is painfully slow, and on-line reading of e-books is not an option.

The third problem is relevance. While much good work has been done to develop local context Open Education Resources (“OERs”), and to adapt internationally available resources, this has so far only scratched the surface. And local language resources are almost non-existent.

The fourth problem is culture. The scarcity and cost of physical books has led to a non-reading culture; it has also let to the prevalence of “content” teaching from photocopied extracts instead of “conceptual” teaching, in which students learn how to learn.

And the fifth problem is capacity. Most academic staff at universities are too busy to search for relevant OERs and proprietory e-books, let alone develop new OER content. Also, large numbers of teachers at primary, and to a lesser extent secondary, schools are not even computer literate.

The solutions to these problems are asymmetrical at each of the country, institution, and staff levels, and they include:

1. providing subsidized hire purchase facilities for students to acquire low-cost Notebook computers, or building the cost into the educational fee structure,
2. replacing the high-cost-low-volume model for e-books with a low-cost-high-volume model (the IADP has recently reached agreement on this with a core group of the world’s leading publishers),
3. downloading e-books and OERs onto ICT devices so that they can be viewed off-line,
4. giving academic staff who develop and/or adapt OERs institutional recognition and financial rewards in addition to the normal practice of attribution, and
5. developing sustainable communities of practice among “pioneering” academic staff, and extending their influence through the hub and spoke principle.

Question: will educational systems, and the stakeholders that support them, be able to adapt existing and new content onto these devices? Might this adaptation facilitate a more egalitarian content creation structure, challenging the existing pricing structures and vested interests of current curriculum production & dissemination models?

The short answers are “yes, and maybe”.

There are no technical reasons why OERs cannot be developed, adapted, and viewed on ICT devices – subject, of course, to system and format compatibility. The challenge is to make these resources mainstream, and integrate them into the curricula and pedagogy.

The first issue is quality and usefulness. Common standards and appropriate tagging of metadata are a given, but quality and usefulness require a review process. Committees usually don’t work because they create an obstacle and/or a bottle-neck. The best model is a periodic virtual peer group review, including a star rating system, in which individual and institutional reputations are placed on the line. Wikipedia has some of these elements, but in my view it doesn’t go far enough. A further point to emphasize is the importance of high quality abstracts.

The second issue is awareness. Busy academic staff do not have the time or inclination to search through the universe of OERs and e-books; equally, they don’t like the “all or nothing” approach of content aggregators. The best model is a well researched package of resources from which academic staff can choose, including the ability to step outside the package when desired.

The third issue is: who pays? The popular belief among some stakeholders is that OERs are, or should be, “free”. In reality, however, they are not. Quite apart from the fact that the platforms upon which they reside need to be maintained, most of the developers, editors, formatters, promoters, and reviewers of OERs are paid.

The only difference is that they are paid directly or indirectly by governments, universities, or NGOs, rather than by sales to the end users. It is therefore open to question as to whether authors and publishers of proprietory resources offer good value for money compared with those that produce OERs.

I personally believe that both proprietory resources and OERs will have a continuing place in the future, and that convenient and affordable access through the advent of ICT devices will improve the quality of selected resources and enhance competition.

Question: should this content focus on e-books and other electronic media that replicates existing content? Or is this an opportunity to change the way in which content is created, teachers educate, and students learn?

The short answer is “both”.

Much good work has been done to archive physical resources in a digital format. Also, publishers are beginning to make e-books available in developing countries at an affordable price. As a result, academic staff and school teachers are at last beginning to have affordable access to high quality educational resources. But much needs to be done to improve awareness and integrate this into curricula and pedagogy.

The advent of low-cost ICT devices is indeed a wonderful opportunity to change the educational landscape. Apart from teaching computer literacy, which is an essential component of education in today’s world, it brings the prospect of higher education and technical training closer to the millions of prospective students who cannot attend, or cannot afford to attend, campus.

It also facilitates the creative use of digital technology to make the content more compelling, and to enhance the learning experience by bringing an interactive and visual dimension to voice and text. The constraint, however, is the capacity of teachers to use the technology and to participate in the development of the resources, which points to the overriding need to improve standards through teacher education.

From this conversation came a very interesting question:

What is the impact of open access resources for primary schools on the current educational content creation models?

Now this question has many angles to it, but for the August Educational Technology Debate, let us focus on how low-cost ICT devices are transforming the creation and distribution of open content in the developing world.

Will educational systems, and the stakeholders that support them, be able to adapt existing and new content onto these devices? Might this adaptation facilitate a more egalitarian content creation structure, challenging the existing pricing structures and vested interests of current curriculum production & dissemination models?

In addition, should this content focus on ebooks and other electronic media that replicates existing content? Or is this an opportunity to change the way in which content is created, teacher’s educate, and students learn?

To lead us in this conversation will be two respected discussants:

• Richard Rowe
  Richard Rowe is the Chair and CEO of the Open Learning Exchange, a network of nation-based NGO’s committed to achieving Quality Universal Basic Education by 2015 . Dr. Rowe has served as Director of Test Development and Research for the West African Examinations Council, Associate Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education.
• Angus Scrimgeour
  Angus Scrimgeour is the President of the International Association for Digital Publications, a program to provide university students and academic staff in developing countries with affordable access to e-books, and support for the identification, development, and effective use of open access e-learning resources. Mr. Scrimgeour is also a former Vice President of the World Bank Group a member of the Knowledge and Learning Council.

Please join us for what we all expect to be a lively and informative conversation – your input can start right now in the comments below, and Richard and Angus will post their opening remarks beginning Monday, August 10.

To bridge this gap, the Education Technology Debate invites thought leaders and opinion makers that directly influence the confluence of technology and education to focus on constructive conversations and open discussions across groups as much as within them.

Become an Educational Technology Debate Discussant

If you’d like to join in building the Educational Technology Debate conversation, please contact us with your ideas, comments, and suggestions on ways to make ETD more informative and engaging.

Previous Educational Technology Debate Discussants

in Assessing ICT4E Evaluations:

Mary Hooker
Mary Hooker is an education specialist with over 30 years experience working in the educational sector in Ireland and Africa. Since 2007 Mary has been working with the Global eSchools and Communities Initiative. Mary is currently engaged in studies for a Doctorate in Education with Queen’s University Belfast, Northern Ireland.

Rob van Son
Rob van Son participated in early Computer Supported Education experiment in the 1980′s, and since worked on everything from small 8088 PCs and the first Mac to modern multi-core file and web servers. Rob is a linguistics expert with a focus on integrating information in spoken communication for Universiteit van Amsterdam. Rob has a PhD in linguistics.

in ICT4E Sustainability:

James BonTempo
James BonTempo is the Learning Technology Advisor for Jhpiego, an international non-profit health organization affiliated with Johns Hopkins University. He is responsible for strategic planning for the integration of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) into pre-service education and in-service training programs. He also leads efforts to design, develop, implement and evaluate ICT initiatives in both arenas.

Atanu Dey
Atanu Dey works as the chief economist at NetCore, a technology firm in Mumbai. His area of interest are the use of technology in education, economic growth of India, and the development of rural populations. He worked in product marketing for several years at Hewlett Packard in California, before receiving his PhD in economics from UC Berkeley. He developed a model called “RISC — Rural Infrastructure & Services Commons” while a Reuters Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford.

in How Can ICT in Education Excite Girls and Boys?:

Alexa Joyce
Alexa Joyce is a specialist in education technology with European Schoolnet. She has consulted for UNESCO Bangkok Asia-Pacific Bureau for Education, UNESCO International Institute of Educational Planning and for the OECD Centre for Educational Research and Innovation. She has a Masters in Biological Sciences from the University of Oxford and an MBA from Solvay Business School, Brussels.

Brooke Partridge
Brook Partridge is CEO and founder of Vital Wave Consulting, which she created to further emerging markets as a new discipline in business management. Previously, she was the Business Director of the Emerging Market Solutions Organization at HP where she lead HP’s first technology solutions for developing economies. She lectured in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Stanford University and holds a Master’s of Pacific International Affairs from UC San Diego.

Karen Coppock
Karen Coppock, PhD is Vice President of Vital Wave Consulting with over a decade of experience in strategic business planning for emerging markets. Previously, Dr. Coppock served as the Director of Industry Collaboration for the Reuters Digital Vision Program at Stanford University, and also held positions with Telcordia Technologies, Williams Communications, INTELSAT, Pacific Bell, AT&T and Harvard’s Center for International Development (Information Technology Group), Santa Clara University’s Global Social Benefit Incubator and the US Peace Corps. She received her Doctoral and Master’s degrees in international business from the Fletcher School, Tufts University.

in Creating Electronic Educational Content:

Richard Rowe
Richard Rowe is the Chair and CEO of the Open Learning Exchange, a network of nation-based NGO’s committed to achieving Quality Universal Basic Education by 2015 . Dr. Rowe has served as Director of Test Development and Research for the West African Examinations Council, Associate Dean of Harvard’s Graduate School of Education and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Technology and Education.

Angus Scrimgeour
Angus Scrimgeour is the President of the International Association for Digital Publications, a program to provide university students and academic staff in developing countries with affordable access to e-books, and support for the identification, development, and effective use of open access e-learning resources. Mr. Scrimgeour is also a former Vice President of the World Bank Group a member of the Knowledge and Learning Council.

in Individual and Communal Computer Usage:

Walter Bender
Walter Bender currently heads Sugar Labs, focusing on the award-winning Sugar Learning Platform (download it now). Previously he was president for software and content development at One Laptop per Child, and is on leave from MIT, where he was executive director of the MIT Media Laboratory.

Mark Beckford
Mark Beckford is currently Vice President of Global Business Development at NComputing, Inc, whose virtualization software and hardware allows multiple users to work off a single computer. Previously, he led diverse global teams at Intel to extend its market leadership and promote growth in new and emerging markets.

in Mobile Phones and Computers:

Dr. Robert B. Kozma
Dr. Kozma has directed or co-directed more than 25 projects that have examined the impact of ICT on teaching and learning and developed advanced computer environments for education.

Michael Trucano:
Mike Trucano is the World Bank’s Senior ICT and Education Policy Specialist, providing support to World Bank education projects with ICT-related ‘components’, and is involved in a variety of research activities.

in Educational Vision and ICT in Education:

Tim Kelly
Dr. Tim Kelly is the Lead ICT Policy Specialist at infoDev, at the World Bank in Washington DC, where he has responsibility for access for all and for mainstreaming ICTs for development. He was previously Head of the Strategy and Policy Unit (SPU) at the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).

Wayan Vota
Wayan Vota is a is a technology expert focused on appropriate information and communication technologies (ICT) for rural and underserved areas of the developing world. He is currently the Senior Director of the Inveneo Certified ICT Partner Program, publisher of OLPC News, and hosts the Technology Salon.