Dot Learnt

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)

Peer 2 Peer University is back again this month with some added bonuses. Early February, P2PU School of Ed eagerly announced their latest offerings – a new round of free, open-licensed professional learning groups meant specifically for educators.

Classes will begin on March 5^th and will explore a range of topics including:

• Student Grant Writing – Students will learn the grant-writing process
• Empower Your Personal Learning – For students and educators, this course unearths the different manners by which you can take control of your personal learning
• Writing and Inquiry in the Digital Age – Students will have the opportunity to join the National Writing Project
• Effective Use of Multimedia and Graphics – Learn to foster deeper learning through multimedia and graphics
• Global Classroom Collaboration Elementary and Secondary – Teachers from all around the world will talk over and design collaborations in order to bridge international classrooms
• Connected Learning with Youth Voices – A study group that encourages and helps teachers become accustomed to Youth Voices, a school-based social network (more…)

The new year is a time for reflection on both past and future. As the Bon team prepares our Dot Learnt editorial calendar for 2012, here are some of our favorite posts from 2011 that we’d like to remember

We’ve talked about:

Open Education Resources: Hop on over to Stanford University for some free technology courses & with MIT OpenCourseWare celebrating it’s 10^th year in free education, there are no limits to who can receive an Ivy education.

Game Based Learning:  In Learning Hard and Playing Hard we took a look at the evolution of play with ChicagoQuest, the newest addition to the realm of gamed-up curriculums. The school is now open, with hundreds of children currently enrolled in the interactive curriculum. We also hosted Tim Hydari, Practitioner of Development and Therapeutic Play, who delved into the importance of gaming and Play Therapy.

Social Media in the Classroom: After chatting with Yasmin Fodil on how Social Media Can Technically Fix all Your Problems, the CEO and Principal Consultant at BYO Consulting shed some light on integrating social media tools from governments to the classroom.  While in Mohammed and Five of Your Friends Just ‘Checked-In’ To… School? you’ll find hard-hitting examples of what the latest Facebook apps can do for schools in emerging markets.

And some other random emerging market extras: (more…)

Philipp Schmidt shares nicely, that is on his blog and now with DotLearnt. Director and co-founder of Peer 2 Peer University, a socially charged open educational resource learning community, Schmidt takes on the role of education activist and social entrepreneur. This December, Philipp sat down with Bon and gave us the low down on social learning and how anyone can learn just about anything.

0-5 Seconds: Tell us anything or everything about P2PU in a Status Update.

P2PU is a lab for the future of online learning. We built a platform and fostered a community that enables learning for everyone, by everyone, about almost anything.

5-10 Seconds: What is the driving force behind P2PU’s schools—The School of Webcraft, Social Innovation, Mathematical Futures and Education?

The idea of “schools” grew out of the initiative and hard work of certain members of the P2PU community. They saw the potential for grouping courses together and partnering with external organizations to design assessments and certification.

10-20 Seconds: Where does the demand for P2PU lie?

The general answer is “everywhere”. P2PU community members come from all over the world, are at different stages in their lifelong learning, and are looking for different learning experiences. However, there is no one-size fits all solution to education, and the nice thing about Schools is that they can target different audiences and experiment with slightly different models and approaches.

20-30 Seconds: What’s the most useful tool in P2PU’s 21st century toolbox?

The innovative and generous nature of our community, and our ability to experiment. There is a lot going on in online education at the moment, and we are constantly looking ahead, and it’s great to see volunteers take initiative, make suggestions for improvements, and then get involved in the implementation of these suggestions. (more…)

Edtechistas and Edtechers – back again for your global education technology fix. Dig in for this month’s most talked about topics unearthing across the globe:

Too Cool for School

These days it is all about mobility. School in a Box brings the very concept of portability and convenience to the notion of schooling. The new non-profit initiative providesaccess to education ICTs in rural populations throughout India and sub-Saharan Africa. Weighing in at 11 KG, the $1600 boxes will set up teched out schools. Each box contains an iPad, solar panel, projector and speakers. Looks like officials in Zimbabwe are liking what they see…

Samsung Africa is shedding some light on education. The new Solar Powered Internet School in Boksburg, South Africa is one of the first of its kind. The Internet accessbile and solar-powered school grants students more accessibility to education, especially throughout areas that lack connectivity.  Shine on Africa!

Spreading that Tech Love

Looking for free Wi-Fi can be tough, but when it comes to emerging markets, finding any Wi-Fi can be a challenge. Last month, the Global Education Challenge, a competition to find original ideas that can improve student outcomes across the globe, announced their annual winners. Prizewinner Neil Dsouza introduced Education Hotspots, a program that provides mobile hotspots and free educational courseware to emerging communities lacking Internet connection. Neil’s in good company – check out the other GEC winners, here. (more…)

Reality:

Many educators in the world…

• Don’t receive sufficient teacher training.
• Have little or no ongoing professional development.
• Work in schools that suffer from chronic lack of funding.

Vision:

What if edu-passionate volunteers from around the world banned together to…

• Build an open licensed, free, multilingual virtual school of education driven by the principles of peer learning.
• Facilitate the free exchange of knowledge and ideas between educators in a context that positively transforms teacher and student practice, learning and engagement.
• Codify existing educational best practices into a series of experiences that provide foundational knowledge of how to be an effective teacher.

It’s Happening:

Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Encourage Deeper Learning from Bon Education on Vimeo.

Now get involved:

• Check out the Peer to Peer University School of Education Pilot. For example, view “Using Social Media to Promote Deeper Learning,” “Differentiated Instruction,” or “Student Engagement”.
• What if we expanded this pilot into a Global Teaching Certificate Program? What practical educational experiences (or courses) would need to be created to help multinational cohorts of pre and in-service educators become phenomenal teachers?

Help think through the tricky details:

• Design—How do we design a program whose requirements are realistic and practical for all involved?
• Accreditation—Do it? Dump it? Redefine it? Teaching certificates vs. badges? FYI – Many school principals, parents and students don’t want “certified teachers” per se, they want “great teachers”. Great teachers come with and without certification.
• Sustainability—How do we sustain a program run by 99% volunteers?
• Marketing—How do we get volunteer curricula writers, course facilitators, coordinators and teachers from mountains of Oman, to the valleys of China to the beaches of the Seychelles to get involved?

From one P2PU School of Ed fan to another,

Anna

Facebook

Twitter

Images Available Under CC Licensure by Thelonious Gonzo and Casey David

Technology has done wonders for the world of medicine in both developed and emerging markets. In an effort to fuse the teachings of the health-conscious with the world of academia, I have compiled three undoubtedly game-changing health initiatives and shown how they can be tailored to enhance education systems.

HealthMap: As our world becomes increasingly interconnected, the pace at which disease and information travels has become expedited. With international jet travel no longer being seen as a luxury, an infectious disease or new virus has the ability to bounce between Thailand, the UAE and the USA within the span of twenty-four hours. Even more so, Facebook and Twitter have helped make communication instantaneous. HealthMap merges these concepts as it automatically monitors news sites, government data sites and eyewitness reports to pinpoint on an interactive map, new patterns of outbreaks. With a few clicks, one can find out about the most recent death rates in Chad or the rate of occurrence of a virus in Mexico, all while engaging users in what the site describes as “participatory epidemiology.”

Teching out the teachers: Imagine if school systems across the world were engaged in an online platform where educators and education officials could sync up their most recent developments, setbacks or ideas regarding schooling? Through automated fine-tuning, one would discover the most relevant and recent advancements, from their Twitter account to their Global Education Collaborative homepage, in one live and interactive interface.

Cell Phones as a Lifesaver: In a partnership with the United Nations Foundation, The Vodafone Foundation has invested almost $28 million in order to revamp health clinics throughout emerging markets. Doctors and nurses no longer have to succumb to using out-dated administrative and research facilities. Doctors can now access data regarding immunization rates, vaccine supplies and the likelihood of an outbreak by pushing a few buttons on their cell phone. Doctors can also use EpiSurveyor, the software used to download the health surveys, to make a verdict regarding childbirth. The EpiSurveyor helps provide doctors and hospital administrators with important documentation that assists in making crucial, life-saving decisions.

What the Minister of Education has to say about this: Pulling up a student’s academic history with a few swipes and clicks on my cell phone? I’m in. What could be more adequate in gauging the academic level of a student or dodging the bureaucracy of paperwork and mismanagement of paper files? Wireless Generation has caught on to the idea – creating mobile technologies that help teachers track reading and math levels of their students.

Digital Villages: The telecom giants of Kenya are changing the health landscape of the country. Safricom and Telkom Kenya have recently unleashed an electronic infrastructure that looks to connect Kenyans living in rural areas to doctors in urban cities. The 800 digital villages, which they hope will soon become 5,000, sync up patients with e-health services and small medical clinics through video conferencing equipment.

Eduvillages: So by using ICT to make the world, or in this case, the country a smaller place, digital villages help combat many of the common problems faced in emerging markets. By creating a digital videoconference network, students can attend school from the comfort of their home, leaving ample time to perform familial obligations. Take a look at  P2PU’s efforts!

So there you have it. The world of edutech merges with e-health; just what the doctor called for.

Know of any other health initiatives that could inspire education systems? Shoot us a comment!

Keep Calm and Learn On,

Nora

Facebook

Twitter

Image Available Under CC Licensure by truthout.org

Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Encourage Deeper Learning from Bon Education on Vimeo.

This fall Bon Education co-founders, Anna and Chris Batchelder, will be creating and facilitating a course for Peer 2 Peer University’s newest initiative – The School of Education (pilot). Funded by the Hewlett and Shuttleworth foundations, P2PU is an open education project that knocks down the walls of the university by providing students and their peers with an open platform where they can teach courses and learn from one another for free. As the P2PU mission statement points out:

The Peer 2 Peer University is a grassroots open education project that organizes learning outside of institutional walls and gives learners recognition for their achievements. P2PU creates a model for lifelong learning alongside traditional formal higher education. Leveraging the Internet and educational materials openly available online, P2PU enables high-quality low-cost education opportunities. P2PU – learning for everyone, by everyone about almost everything.

To learn more about the founding of P2PU read Fast Company’s, “How Web-Savvy Edupunks Are Transforming American Higher Education.”

The P2PU School of Education will bring the model of open, community-based peer learning to professional development for K-12 teachers and administrators. Seven courses will be offered between September and November 2011, with a focus on innovative teaching methods. Anna and Chris were invited to create and facilitate “Using Web 2.0 and Social Media to Promote Deeper Learning.” The course is for K-12 teachers and administrators that wish to utilize web 2.0 and social media tools to promote student core content knowledge, critical thinking, collaboration skills, communication, self-directed learning and global outlook (components of what the Hewlett Foundation calls deeper learning). Teachers and administrators interested in participating can register here.

“Learning for everyone, by everyone about almost anything!” That is a motto we like!

Facebook

Twitter