BPN 1567 World Summit Award Winners 2011 Category 3

Category 3: e-Learning & Education

3001  Wikigoviya, Sri Lanka

3030  Bitstrips for Schools, Canada

3039  Rufoof, UAE

3044  Technology and Civilization in Ancient China, China

3057  Dnevnik.ru, Russian Federation

Wikigoviya, Sri Lanka, Audio Visual Centre, Department of Agriculture,

URL: http://www.goviya.lk

Description: The latest ICT initiative of Cyber Agriculture Wikipedia known as Wikigoviya is a participatory and interactive web tool for agriculture development in Sri Lanka through the participation of agriculture community (AC). Wikigoviya serves as a common meeting place for AC of farmers, experts, academics, students and general public interested in agriculture. This is a read-and-write web rather than the traditional read only website which has been hosted under the domain name of www.goviya.lk. It provides necessary platform for disseminating and sharing agriculture information among interested groups while serving as a room for discussing and constructively criticize the present agriculture policies and adoption. The detailed agriculture crop technology guide is given with the support of latest multimedia applications in order to understand easily. All information is presented in a very user friendly manner and in a ‘tone’ & dialect in

which the rural farmer feels comfortable.

Bitstrips for Schools, Canada, Bitstrips Inc.

URL: www.bitstripsforschools.com

Description: Bitstrips for Schools is a groundbreaking educational website that enables any student to create, share and collaborate on amazing comics without having to draw, and gives teachers an entirely new teaching medium. Bitstrips for Schools engages kids by making the process of writing more visual, interactive and fun. It introduces elements of identity, role-play and digital storytelling to schoolwork, letting students demonstrate their learning in a more personal and creative way. Since launching in September 2009, Bitstrips for Schools has been used by over 60,000 teachers and 600,000 students in every grade and virtually every subject. Over 20,000 kids log on each day and create 20,000 new comics!

Rufoof, UAE, Flagship Projects Marketing FZ-LLC

URL: www.rufoof.com

Description: This product is one of a kind e-content store application that targets the Arab audience with thousands of books and publications covering various sectors. Rufoof offers an amazing reading experience for the Arabic and English Content. Steps to live a quality reading experience with Rufoof are very easy because we strive to make technology easier and user friendly to everyone. Rufoof app is absolutely free of charge. The language is 70% Arabic and 30% English, thus targeting the Arab audience. The platform complies with iPad, iPhone, iPod, Android, web app and Windows Phone coming soon.

Technology and Civilization in Ancient China, China, Information Center of China

Association for Science and Technology

URL: www.ancientech.cn

Description: “Technology and Civilization in Ancient China” is an e-learning and education website, designed as a special introduction to the development and advancement of ancient Chinese scientific techniques. The website contains a vast amount of information, with over two hundred thousand words of text, 1,500 images, and more than 100 movies. The website is divided into a Chinese-language section, an English-language section, and a discussion forum. The website is steadfastly devoted to disseminating scientific understanding, explaining the creative process behind scientific principles, and using modern multi-media methods to reinvigorate and reconstruct ancient inventions. It uncovers their underlying scientific thought and reasoning, displaying the value and wisdom of our human inheritance to today's society.

Dnevnik.ru, Russian Federation, Dnevnik.ru

URL: www.dnevnik.ru

Description: Dnevnik.ru is the first Social Educational Network in the Russian Federation that aims to create a single educational network for all participants (school administrators, teachers, students and their parents) in the educational process. Dnevnik.ru is making school life more convenient by creating a tool for efficient and convenient electronic document management by allowing participants of the program to quickly and simultaneously exchange information with each other as well as be informed of current developments in participating schools. Additionally, Dnevnik.ru houses a large learning resource centre, provides an electronic information exchange system, electronic messaging and distance teaching capability, educational audio and video materials and facilities for creating personal profiles, subject blogs and groups for schools and online learning communities.

BPN 1567

Cross country for cross-media (8)

At CMID07 two instructors of the Noordelijke Hogeschool Leeuwarden (NHL) in The Netherlands, Eric Voigt (left) and Mikel Hanekamp (right), were present and offered a presentation on the minor cross-media at their college.

The Communication & Multimedia Design (CMD) Degree program is a 4-year professional education program leading to a Bachelor’s diploma (Bachelor of Multimedia). It is characterized by competence-based learning and flexible learning routes. There are 2 phases:
- The propaedeutic phase (1 year, 60 European Credits)
- The post-propaedeutic phase (3 years, 180 European Credits)

The first year consists of three mandatory projects each incorporating a number of competencies totalling 18 EC each. The remaining 6 EC will be awarded in individual assessments. In the post-propaedeutic phase (years 2, 3, and 4) students may collaborate in 4 ready-made projects, as a way to master the required competencies; alternatively they may plan their own learning route, as long as it leads to the same above-mentioned result. There are no formal majors (as yet), but students may opt for a tailor-made profile (totalling 60 EC) that fits his/her abilities and interests by:
- Working in route-independent training projects; these projects are either commissioned by external clients or set up by the students themselves
- Following an individual learning route through e.g. ‘shopping’ at other disciplines
- Doing an industrial placement (mandatory)
The 5-month industrial placement (max. 35 EC) in year 3 is intended to give students a better understanding of Multimedia professional practice, to promote their awareness of the organizational context, and to enhance their ability to relate theory to practice. The final project (30 EC) during the second semester of year 4, serves as proof of competence.

The course prepares students for jobs as:
- interface designer of multimedia products
- multimedia developer
- multimedia consultant
- content manager (administrator of multimedia applications)

At CMD the educational approach is through projects and based on the gaining of competencies, rather than swotting for exams. Students will not have to sit tests: instead they will be assessed, either individually or in a small group After the first year, projects mostly fall within the sphere of one of eight minors: Education and Multimedia, 3D-visualization, Games Design, Entrepreneurship, Rich Internet Applications, Concepting, Cross-Media, and a Free minor.

The minor Cross-media offers students multidirectional routes on different levels. Whether they are interested in camera work, editing, audio, programming, streaming media, database programming, or prefer marketing, public relations and management; they can either join the platform as a rooky and gain experience that way, or they can enrol in a Learning Centre Course and enter on a more experienced level expanding and deepening their expertise. The objective of the minor is to work as a team for 6 months on the Cross-media platform. The students will produce television broadcasts/ internet television to be aired on television, Internet and UMTS (mobile phone). Occasionally they will be producing programs for third parties. They will pass through all the stages necessary for bringing about a television broadcast, managing the website, and maintaining the broadcast corporation. The students will have to show their competencies in analysis, end products, working in projects and domains. They can specialise in audio production, moving image production, image production, programming, project management, marketing and communication and graphic design. The students will get guest-lectures, workshops, consults, practical assignments and participate in collaborations with third parties.

The students of this minor, roughly 50 students every half year, run cross-media content on http://www.mjuks.nl/ of www.mjuks.nl/umts. Amongst others a take-off is presented on Nordic walking. They students changed the title in Nordic stalking and filmed comic scenes on the street (enlarge the photograph by clicking on it).

Blog Posting Number: 713

Tags: education, cross-media

Aussies and Kiwis sampling Dutch broadband (7)

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Now there are three presentations available about:
- Amsterdam Internet Exchange
- Amsterdam CityNet
- Almere Smart City
The presentations can viewed and downloaded from
Budde.Com.AU website
=====================================

(c) Elaine Sullivan

As said before education is one of the key areas in broadband development. It was interesting to hear Mr Toine Maes, managing director of KennisNet (Knowledge Net/ ICT at School). It is an ICT support organisation with 160 FTE and a budget of 35 to 40 million euro. The organisation exists since 1997.

He immediately put down a statement: it will take three to five years to marry broadband and education. This was rather a shock. But he made clear that educational models change due to broadband. Of course broadband is fine for the teacher to select resources for the classes. Yet the educational model will change to the learner’s model, where by the pupil goes after learning resources.

Another reason why it will take long before broadband will be accepted in school is the present acceptance of computer in schools. Pupils might play till the moment that they go to school in the morning and start again when they arrive at home again. But at school they will not use these media for a lot of different reasons. So for the pupils and teachers it is difficult to make a total shift.

Primary schools have now roughly 30 to 40 PCs per school. The telecom company KPN provides 75 percent of the 8.500 schools with broadband connections of 2Mbps. There are 750 primary schools using fibre up to 100Mbps.

That broadband has the potential to shake up education is clear. It creates unlimited access to learning. Pupils use already resources YouTube, Delicious, Wikipedia, Flickr and Friendster. Comparable to this the educational broadcast company Teleac has developed Teleblik, a collection of contemporary and historic resources from the archives of the public broadcast companies and Polygoon Journal. It contains thousands of hours, from full programs to custom made fragments of a few minutes. The teachers can use the material to spice their lessons, while pupils can discover subjects. Besides these audio and video resources, a distant expert is needed, who can be called upon when a pupil gets stuck.

It is clear that education is on the move and that the basic position in The Netherlands is not bad. Yet innovation is slow and broadband innovation in education will take up to five years. Yet broadband and education are really closely related. Most challenging will be an innovative cooperation project by which pupils create content by themselves.

Blog Posting Number: 698

Tags: broadband, education

Connected by broadband, slow in applications (4)

I was eager to learn about the connection between broadband and education. The educational field has always been following. A lot of money has been pumped into the area, machines, devices, software and content. In The Netherlands we have a special network for schools, Kennisnet, for primary and secondary schools and SURFnet for the universities and colleges.

In this area there is a lot of dreaming and reality. Many of the school administrators dream of fabulous programs. At the session there was an official of a hotel college, who would love to have links ins and links outs to their own kitchen department in such a way that cooks could remotely teach more than one college, while students could observe the kitchen brigade and the cook at night. The official was realistic enough to recognise that broadband should be used all over in the college by the college management, the teachers and instructors and remotely by the colleagues of top restaurants. Of course the students would also use broadband; but they would do that all the same for their own fun; but they should also be taught how to collaborate with other students locally, nationally and internationally by working on assignments.

This model is okay and covers the natural column in the school. However it does not cover the entire trade column. In the hotel college, outside cooks are interesting as they can deliver apprenticeships and internships. Yet they will have to cover the whole value column and control the quality of delivered goods. But it is not only the value column of the hotels and restaurants; on the other hand the system would also have to make transparent what the student knows and does not know.

Cees Morsch, CEO of Case Builders, stresses that in education the students should be analysed for the gap between what they know and what they should know. The gap between education and business should be transparent, so that the students can learn oriented towards competencies and functions and apply blended learning. In this way the student should be prepared for the future. The system is being applied in an education learning environment in the South of the Netherlands. And, if we can believe Cees Morsch (from way-back CD-I experience I can vouch for him), the results are better than traditional classical teaching. The amount of drop-outs has decreased dramatically; there are still drop-outs, but their number has been dramatically lowered.

Blog Posting Number: 654

Tags: e-learning, broadband

Digital paper tested in a school

Pupils of the Bonnefanten College in Maastricht, in the South of The Netherlands, will start testing digital paper next month. The eReader will be used to store the books; the pupils can also make their homework on the tablet with digital paper. The tablet is the iLiad of iRex Technologies and the project has been initiated by the Edupaper.nl company and the school.

The school thinks that the tablet will replace the heavy book load. Edupaper has negotiated copyright arrangements with educational publishers. The pupils will also hand in their homework wirelessly.

Edupaper.nl focuses on M-learning or Mobile learning and considers digital papers as one of the tools in the application. The company also delivers services for government, health care and trainings; for the present they deliver these services in the Benelux (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg). The company indicates that it knows about the Sony Librie, but that it did not select this device as Sony obliges users to buy content via the Sony servers. Besides the company considers the iLiad as more technologically advanced. The screen is beautiful and offers a fine contrast. The device offers more freedom. The device is robust and eyes professional. The weight is interesting with its 390 grams; there is a touch screen and other actions can be started by using the navigation knobs and icons. Starting the reader is easier than starting up a laptop. The battery holds for 20 hours. As disadvantages the company notes the presence of a virtual keyboard and the ambiguity of the icons.

The company believes that with the development of the Open Educational Resources more free e-books will hit the market. However the company also signals that the present iLiad is not fit to surf on internet. The Web pages need to be adapted as not everything can be shown; but the web browser Opera will solve this, the company believes. Movies can not be played on the reader, as the screen is too slow to play out 18 images per second; but animations are possible.

The reader is seen as a real device in the electronic educational environment. All documents will be loaded in the reader. Dokeos Nederland, an open source company for the Dutch market will execute the pilot. The Open University has been asked to evaluate this pilot.

So far for the jubilant press release and site information from Edupaper.nl. It is interesting to see a commercial company and a school picking up on such an experiment with such expensive machines. It needs a lot of courage to do so. But I am wondering how much background study the company performed. Did they check the Austrian e-book experiment in schools, of which we never heard again? Why did not we hear the results and why has this Edupaper experiment a better chance?

I personally think that the company is too optimistic about the experiment. The company has taken the technical specifications such as battery hours for granted and I am wondering whether the team has tested the machine themselves thoroughly. Yes the experiment will undoubtedly show that kids do not have to lug their books back and forth to school. Yet how many books will they be able to store? And I do not mean the quantity, for I know that the reader will be able to store some 20 books, depending on size and illustrations. But the reader will only be able to store black and white books; this means that some colour printed books will have to be converted to black/white or be dropped. And, of course the copyright will have to be negotiated. For the experiment it looks like that has been done and of course all the publishers were willing to partake in this experiment as long as they would hear about the results first hand. The publishers will only start thinking about their copyright policies after the experiment.
As the company itself indicated, there are problems in surfing internet. This is of course a blessing as the pupils will be unable to surf during classes. On the other hand the kids will have to go to computers in school or at home in order to pick up information and to transfer it to the reader.

And last but not least, I am eager to hear what educationalists think of it: the use in classes, the versioning of the software (Madam, my machine works differently), and the reliability of the batteries (Sir, I can not deliver my paper as my batteries have gone flat!). For in the end the question is: did the pupils get better grades using an electronic reader with digital paper than with books?

Blog Posting Number: 648

Tags: digital paper, iliad, education, e-book, ereader