Dot Learnt

The potential for MOOCs, Massive Open Online Courses, to fundamentally change the realm of higher education is clear: students worldwide can take courses and earn certificates from top-tier universities for free.

The spring of 2012 saw the launch of EdX, a joint program between MIT,  Harvard and UC Berkeley. Coursera, a collaboration between Stanford, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania and University of Michigan, began offering MOOCs at this time as well, and many universities have joined the network. The two platforms joined with Udacity,  also from Stanford, in offering top-tier MOOCs to students across the globe.

As more institutions join the MOOC movement, employers are increasingly accepting the certificates earned through an MOOC course. A student can now select a series of courses that directly align with his or her career goals, saving money and acquiring a high-caliber education at the same time.  For example, a student interested in artificial intelligence could start with an introduction to computer programming course from MIT, followed by an introduction to artificial intelligence course from UC Berkeley and even add on a course in Neural Networks for Machine Learning from the University of Toronto.

In spite of the rise in popularity , MOOCs still face challenges in student engagement and assessment.

The average enrollment in MOOCs is 100,000 students and completion rates range between 5%-10%. In a recent EdX course, in which 120,000 students enrolled initially, 10,000 students completed the midterm exam (New York Times, May 2012).

Computer science and mathematics courses tend to dominate MOOC catalogues: homework and test answers are easy to correct using computer algorithms. Courses in the humanities pose an assessment challenge: essays must be graded either by peer-review, crowdsourcing or natural-language programs.

If these challenges are overcome, MOOCs will likely became a mainstay of global higher education.

However, the power of MOOCs to offer basic education to global populations remains untapped. As top-tier universities alter the way higher education is achieved, the next steps should be to figure out how to scale MOOCs to underserved communities.

Today, tens of thousands of students across the globe can enroll in courses to enrich their career prospects. Will there be a day when hundreds of thousands can learn skills such as basic literacy, early numeracy and rural health through an MOOC?

Thinking cap is on.

- Mary

Mary is the educational programs manager for Bon Education (Facebook, Twitter) and an author for Global Books for Kids (Facebook, Twitter)

Global Books for Kids

Facebook

Twitter

Image available under CC License by Earl Wilkerson

As an organization working towards promoting global education for all, it is important to us to show support for our fellow global education advocates. So when we learned about the LitWorld Stand Up for Girls campaign, we decided to help spread the word.

LitWorld, an organization working towards achieving global literacy, asks you to Stand Up for Girls this 11th of October.

The campaign is an effort to gather global support for increasing female literacy rates. According to LitWorld, “523 million girls and women worldwide cannot read or write. Let us stand together to champion the right of all girls to be fierce, fearless and free.”

The campaign aims to educate women in the basic skills that will help them live full, prosperous and fun lives, from writing their names and farming their land to riding a subway and going to college.

To show your support, and to learn more about how you can be involved in the campaign, such as participating in the LitWorld Photo Contest or planning your own Stand Up for Girls event, visit litworld.org. You can also register to participate in Stand Up for Girls here.

Stand with us for female literacy!

- Mary

Global Books for Kids

Facebook

Twitter

Image available under CC License by Vinoth Chandar

At Bon Education, we focus our work at the intersection of education, technology, literacy and global awareness. It is our mission to bring these vastly differently elements together through our creative endeavors. That’s why when we came across Primary Source World we were beyond excited to find others striving towards a similar cause.

The non-profit organization based out of  the United States aims to promote history and the humanities by linking up teachers and educators to individuals from cultures around the world . It is all about making history books and world cultures come to life. Primary Source’s online resources bridge the gap between K-12 educators, scholars and the global community by issuing curriculum resources that introduce classrooms to diverse global content.

Primarily, the organization offers school-year seminars and summer institutes that can take qualified teachers on study tours to different countries such as China, Japan or Ghana, with over 40 schools and school districts participating in their programming.

The classroom ready activities incorporate primary resources such as audio and visual clips, artifacts and written documents in order to demystify misunderstood and under-represented topics and their histories.

For example, the Cultural Snapshots of Daily Life in Japan for Elementary Students lesson plan escorts students on a Japanese excursion, taking students beyond the stereotypes of Hello Kitty and sushi and into the realities of Japanese life. It is an effort to bring the unfamiliar and far away a little bit closer. (more…)

With BB and Sam jet setting the world, I thought it would be an appropriate time to check in with the creative minds behinds the series. Take a look at this quick interview with Co-Founders, Anna and Chris Batchelder as they share their outlook on the importance of global awareness and eBooks for kids reading.

What inspired you to create The Adventures of BB and Sam series?

The answer is simple. We are passionate about reading and promoting global awareness amongst children (and adults) around the world! We also have a travel bug. But we have a different philosophy on travel. A lot of people visit a country and try to see as much of it as possible. We prefer to park ourselves in one or two cities for a period of 2-3 weeks and absorb the vibe of the place: the food, culture, people. The best way to get to know a place is to live there. It’s tough when there are so many countries in the world.

What is your process for creating e-books for kids and families?

First we select the country we want to focus on in each story. We spend a significant amount of time in that country learning about the culture, taking photos, capturing original video footage and imagining possible storylines.

Then a tremendous amount of time is spent working with the Bon Education team to write the story, edit it and make sure it is exciting and age-appropriate. We have children, parents and teachers in different countries read the story drafts along the way, to make sure we are on the right track.

We work with our amazing illustrator Richard Peter David to create character and scene sketches, full color illustrations and interactive diagrams. (more…)

School is out, but before heading to your local library or bookstore, check out the sites below for the perfect children’s books and ebooks for summer reading.

1)    Publisher’s Weekly – This site provides viewers with a comprehensive listing of reviews for the latest children’s books. With commentary on children’s book illustrations, plots and international book news the site boasts a trunkload of info on all things kids lit.

2)    The Children’s Book Review – Another favorite review spot, the categorized site organizes books by an array of topics. Search through children’s book by age or reading level, or discover books by their bilingual attributes and cultural wisdom.

3)    Multicultural Book Reviews – For a place to discover the lastest stand-out literature in the realm of multiculturalism and global education, look no further than this globally savvy site. Authors and books featured from the Middle East to East India and from Asia to Latin America offer children books for global immersion. (more…)

Where in the world are the globally minded? The Asia Society Partnership for Global Learning is headed to New York City June 29-30 to host its fifth annual Partnership for Global Learning Conference. This two-day event connects the business-minded with the academic-minded and the policymakers with the resource providers to dissect best practices and enhance global partnership in education.

The conference looks to create a platform where policies can prosper that ensure the upcoming generation of leaders are capable of managing an interconnected world. It’s an ultimate one-stop shop for those seeking to learn from top-ranking education innovators, leading teachers from high-performing countries and policy makers who plan on sharing their models of success.

This year’s key note lineup boasts world-renowned journalist Dan Rather, Lucy Gray, co-chair of the Global Education worldwide conference, Steve Hargadon (Web 2.o Labs/Global Ed Conference), Lucy Gray (Global Ed Conference), Julie Lindsay (Flat Classroom Project) and other avant-garde ed-thinkers. (more…)

Bon Education CEO Anna Batchelder will be leading a free online seminar-style course on P2PU.org June 4-July1, 2012.

This 1-month virtual seminar is for educators, learners and parents who are keen to discuss and compare education systems from around the world.

The course is divided into 4 modules each containing 2-3 online short videos, an optional reading, asynchronous discussions and an optional synchronous discussion (via Skype) around the following topics:

• Global definitions of learning and education (June 4-10, 2012)
• Cross-country education borrowing and lending (June 11-17, 2012)
• Educating the whole person (June 18-24, 2012)
• Creating sustainable education systems (June 25-July 1, 2012)

Bon Education creates innovative multi-media children’s book series, The Adventures of BB and Sam, using Apple iBooks Author.

Dubai, UAE – May 15, 2012 – Education technology company Bon Education announces the launch of The Adventures of BB and Sam - a new multimedia fiction book series that aims to take children on virtual adventures around the globe via the touch of an iPad. Created with Apple’s iBooks Author, the series is filled with text, illustrations, videos, mood music, photo galleries, quiz features and more.

“When Apple launched iBooks Author as a tool to create engaging multi-touch digital textbooks, we immediately thought to ourselves, ‘This is an amazing tool for creating children’s literature as well!’” said Bon Education CEO Anna Batchelder. “So many kids are choosing to watch TV and play video games over reading these days. By adding a variety of digital enhancements and interactivity to our books, we hope kids will rediscover their love of reading in a digital world.” (more…)

About a month ago, I talked TED – with the advent of TED-Ed, I was super pumped to hear the voices of brilliant educators around the world.

I decided to check back in on the site a few days ago, and to my delight, the site was up, running and transforming education as I have come to know it.

I clicked on the first lecture that caught my eye: The Power of Simple Words.

The 2-minute micro lesson starts off with Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz chanting, “No coordinates exist like one’s domicile,” (get it?) to drive home the point that, bigger words does not necessarily mean, better.

We are currently in a day and age where we are competing with a whole world of distractions, “constantly fighting for space in an attention span that’s continuing to shrink across generations,” as the animated film points out. It got me thinking … are educators getting the message, that short is sweet?

Upon completing the lecture, viewers are guided through an online mini-curriculum.  A “Quick Quiz” tests you on the material in the video, “Think” issues a critical thinking question, while “Dig Deeper” provides a community project and additional resources that expand on the subject matter.

It is important for educators to know their audience. In a world where students are increasingly teched-out, teachers should speak to students in the language that they know. It was only last week that our Literacy Research Resident, Nelly Elzayat introduced us to a teacher’s assignment that had students summarizing Shakespearian passages into a text message. Check out the full post, Trading a Tweet for your GPA.

For more on our thoughts on TED, check out Bon Education’s Co-Founder and CEO – Anna Batchelder’s piece on educators and mass marketing in Coke is it! Why all Educators should be Mass Marketers.

So I guess I am here to say two things, keep it simple and

Keep Calm and Learn On,

Nora

Facebook 

Twitter

The world’s problems have become our problems with the advent of social media. Collaboration between problem-solvers and idealists span the Web, pooling together ideas, funds and strategies to alleviate the world’s most daunting challenges.

In an effort to inspire human-centered design, HCD Connect has emerged as a platform for individuals to build off of empathy, observation and listening in order to design solutions for anyone out in the world who needs it. Think of it as a sort of Facebook for do-gooders.

The HCD Toolkit, available in a hard copy form or digitally online for free, provides nonprofits, social enterprises and people who work with low-income communities around the globe with a problem-solving guide.

It is the social aspect of the site and organization that really caught the attention of my tech-seeking eyes. The website offers a social network for those interested and engaged in a cause, as a means to share stories of their work and for potential collaboration. By simply inputting your location and interests from a dropdown menu, you find others participating in a similar context.

Looking to connect with people in Asia working on environmental projects? Abrar Hassan – a filmmaker and social entrepreneur working in Karachi, Pakistan on issues at the nexus of community development and the environment – popped up on my search.

(more…)