Change list folks, please read from below (change list skipped again in the reply, for a couple of replies) <OT> :Can somebody clarify if the change list is a subset of the TIER list ? Wayan, 1. Maybe i was not clear enough . As i wrote, i indeed "get" Kentaro's point :) But once that's a given, we(especially developing countries like India) have finite & scarce resources. So it behooves us as to come up with the most impactful, cost-effective tech (gadgets, etc) to support the core mission of, imparting learning with motivated teachers & administrators, committed to making a difference. Throwing iPads (or any random computing device willy nilly) at students is not a wise solution IMHO. It doesn't matter if you dumped Pi's or iPads on India's schools. IMO, It does matter. India & other developing countries can afford RPis & XO3s but not iPads. A device which can supplement & aid learning, & was specifically designed to accomplish that (with inputs from motivated teachers with pedagogical insights ) as hinted to by Niall below, is a significantly more optimal choice. (optimal = better results:cost ratio) . IMHO the XO-3 is such a device. 2. A slightly tangential point which just occurred to me. For higher professional education ( college/university , grad school, etc), there are a whole bunch of new innovative free "online classes" which have met with great early success. These can help students world over, to get access to world-class learning content & resources, with just a device & internet access. a. Khan Academy http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/technology/khan-academy-blends-its-youtube... b. ai-class.com (offered by Stanford Prof. Thrun & his new co. Udacity) ml-class.org, pgm-class.org (offered by Coursera (Prof.s Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller) ) http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/06/science/daphne-koller-technology-as-a-pass... http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3500301 For learning CS & programming in a structured manner, http://techcrunch.com/2011/08/22/codecademy-surges-to-200000-users-2-1-milli... I know there are inherent limitations to this : the students need to be highly self-motivated to benefit from these & , it lacks the face-to-face interaction with the teacher & fellow students in the same physical space, & a lot of learning is from fellow students. But, i think, for a self-motivated students anywhere, who don't have access to a great university or good teachers, a device with internet access, can help alleviate the problem significantly, with these new "online classes". cheers ashish ******************************************************************************************************************************* Niall Winters ✆ n.winters@ioe.ac.uk via tier.cs.berkeley.edu 7:30 AM (1 hour ago) to Wayan, tier Agreed with non-technocentric part of this but it is even more complex and I don't think technology independent (although this argument goes all the way back to the 70's!) I like to think of technologies as tools to support particular ways of thinking (or providing particular insights) that couldn't be done without them. Think dynamic geometry or data visualisations. We need teacher to be designers of innovative learning activities with technologies (see http://eprints.ioe.ac.uk/503/ for some early ideas on this) or at the least the tools that support students' computational thinking (NetLogo or Scratch are exemplars) are co-designed iteratively with teachers. Therefore pedagogical design, technology and teacher training are not mutually independent but we could all do a better job of ensuring they are more tightly interwoven! Niall ***************************************************************************************************************** Wayan Vota ✆ wayan.vota@inveneo.org via<http://support.google.com/mail/bin/answer.py?hl=en&ctx=mail&answer=1311182> tier.cs.berkeley.edu 7:08 AM (1 hour ago) to tier These two paragraphs contradict themselves. In the first, you agree that technology is not the real issue, and in the second you come back to thinking that if the technology was just a bit better, then.... It doesn't matter if you dumped Pi's or iPads on India's schools. The problems (and therefore the solutions) to India's major education issues do not involve technology. See http://www.ictworks.org/news/2011/11/02/technology-should-not-be-focus-india... a deeper analysis. Or as I like to remind myself when I get all amped up about the latest gadget (and we all do), the greatest educators, from Socrates to Montessori, were technology independent. So we have to start with trained and motivated educators (the human intent of Kentaro) and then we can add gadgets as we like to boost this or that outcome. Pis for programming, XO's for curiosity, iPhones for Angry Bird Geometry, iPads for literacy, etc 2. I completely *get* the notion that innovative & exciting techology in itself is not going to solve any of society's problems. I find myself in complete agreement with ICTD pioneer Kentaro's viewpoints on this topic & his brilliant articulation " technology only amplifies human intent and capacity" 3. The Indian Aakash tablet I am curious to know if Kentaro/others are familiar with details of the Aakash project. One thing that bugs me is that of all the educational devices projects worldwide, the OLPC is probably the most mature & has the "best" hardware. I read on the Aakash wiki page [III], " After the device was unveiled, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte offered full access to OLPC technology at no cost to the Indian team." I wonder if the Aakash could have much better design & specs, if they had truly collaborated with OLPC. Wayan -- ******************************************************************************************************************************* On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 1:53 AM, ashish makani <ashish.makani@gmail.com> wrote:
Thanks for the amazing comments & pointers ! My $0.02 on some of the replies
1. Peripherals & true cost
A lot of people have pointed out the fact that the RPi is only 25$ just for the cpu. Adding RAM, display, mouse, k/b will balloon up the costs.
a. To this, i would like to argue the notion of a platform. once a platform becomes available, the community builds tons of awesome things (sw & hw peripherals) for the platform to make a kickass ecosystem. e.g. when successful platforms (e.g. fb, iphone ,android,xbox,sony ps, kinect, twitter, etc) 1st came out, nobody could imagine, the massive #of community efforts (e.g. apps) that will pour in.
But as with all platforms, predicting success of a new platform is very hard & kind of a chicken & egg problem - Does the platform have to gain enough adoption for it to drive the ecosystem OR does enough of a ecosystem have to sprout to drive the platform's adoption ?
b. To build a PC out of RPi, at a min., you need a display, mouse & k/b. I can imagine lets say if govt./org X decides to use RPi for a large scale project, they could build a non-profit coalition comprising display makers(samsung), k/b & mouse makers which would supply low-cost displays, k/bs & mice.
2. I completely *get* the notion that innovative & exciting techology in itself is not going to solve any of society's problems. I find myself in complete agreement with ICTD pioneer Kentaro's viewpoints on this topic & his brilliant articulation " technology only amplifies human intent and capacity" On education he says "Technology at best only amplifies the pedagogical capacity of educational systems; it can make good schools better, but it makes bad schools worse." [I] His TEDxTokyo talk on this issue is here [II]
3. The Indian Aakash tablet
I am curious to know if Kentaro/others are familiar with details of the Aakash project. One thing that bugs me is that of all the educational devices projects worldwide, the OLPC is probably the most mature & has the "best" hardware. I read on the Aakash wiki page [III], " After the device was unveiled, OLPC Chairman Nicholas Negroponte offered full access to OLPC technology at no cost to the Indian team." I wonder if the Aakash could have much better design & specs, if they had truly collaborated with OLPC.
I.
http://edutechdebate.org/ict-in-schools/there-are-no-technology-shortcuts-to...
II. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxutDM2r534 III. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aakash_(tablet)#cite_note-15
On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 12:50 AM, James Gray <grayje@uw.edu> wrote:
The cognitive gymnastics are a bit easier to master if you start early, as with language acquisition and mathematics literacy. The skill is also relatively location-agnostic; even crud-level freelancing jobs correspond to a comfortable living in many places.
But there's a lot of value to cheap computing beyond "become a programmer,"
I don't think that's even the primary value of this trend. For example, Stephen Vick gave a talk recently on work they're doing to improve quality and traceability for coffee farmers. Just dropping a laptop into the process to record and track data had a big impact, but the cost is infeasible if the program wasn't providing it. $25(ish) computer which can do the same tasks? Yes please!
James
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