Dung Powered Devices

The topic for Module 8 is HUGE in that it incorporates both the idea of global education and world literacy and how organizations are using technology as a viable solution for the lack of print resources available to students in developing countries.  Although my school has a global education program called Students Without Borders Academy (SWB-A) SWBA ,  I did not know much about other organizations such as CODE, the World Literacy Foundation, UNESCO,  One Laptop per Child (OLPC Canada for Aboriginal Youth) and  Feed the Children.   

   Many of these organizations strive to fight poverty by educating the population.  As it has been a challenge to provide quality,  age appropriate, culturally relevant print resources in the proper language and textbooks for different subject areas, one of the solutions has been to provide students in developing countries with technology that allows them to access the information on the internet.   

While delving into the topic of world literacy, I couldn't help but notice that the lack of resources was a key road block in each of these ventures and that there are many different organizations that strive to solve this problem.  In our own school system, we are also dealing with a lack of funding for resources in education and there are many inequities within the same school district as to what each school can provide for its students.  Within my school district, my school is considered to be one of the "have" schools and yet my library's budget is thirteen percent of the budget of one of the other high schools that have a population with overall lower socioeconomic status.  And, we are the only school in our school district without a smart board.  In areas where there is a perceived need, many people rally to fund raise to provide resources that are deemed lacking.  For areas deemed "privileged" such as my school, the lack of fundraising and community support has resulted in us being left behind.  

I think it is wonderful to have people rallying for education whether it be locally or globally. The students in our school district can expect to have laptops provided in a ratio of one laptop per four students.  I have looked into the one laptop per child program for students in developing countries and  I had a lot of questions.  For example, how do they have the bandwidth to deal with all of the individual devices when my school district is still struggling with this issue.  Currently, the WIFI in our schools cannot support student's bringing their own device; we have been told that it would crash the system.

Also, how do they power the devices in rural communities?  In my research, I came across laptops that had cranks on them to generate electricity and watched a YouTube clip describing innovative ways of generating electricity such as having cows attached to a turbine that walk in a circle (Cow Power).  Learning about this topic has been fascinating and humbling in that it makes me feel like we have been less than creative in troubleshooting our own technology issues.

While exploring the topic of bring your own device to school, I once again had to relate the topic to my own situation before considering how it would look in a rural school in Africa or South America.  Although most of my students have a device of their own, they don't all have a device of their own.  I have some students that do not have internet at home and rely heavily on the technology at school to complete their homework.  Many people think that students at my school are all privileged and as such, would have no problem providing their own devices.  One advantage to having the students provide their own devices would be to save the school district the cost of providing these devices.  I'm afraid that based on my school's reputation as a "have" school, that our budget could get cut more than most.

Students are already bringing their own devices to school-they just have to use their own data plan to access the internet.   I have looked up some articles on BYOD and there are many that outline the pros and cons of providing WIFI to students and encouraging the use of these devices in school 20 Pros and-Cons-of--BYOD-in-schools .  Although BYOD will come with its own set of problems, I feel that students need to learn appropriate use of their devices somewhere as they are not learning it at home.  So although I think we should open our doors to the use of student devices, I think it's very important that there be guidelines as to when students are allowed to use them and when they are not.  Alberta Education Guideline for BYOD ,

 5 Pros and Cons for BYOD

As for using technology to provide students in developing countries with educational materials, I think that we should support organizations that advocate for those who want to improve their circumstances.  As our world becomes more global thinking, it is important that people be literate and have access to information so they can make informed decisions and be good global citizens. It is also important that we maintain educational standards here in British Columbia, advocate for public education and educate our own students to be globally aware. 

An article by the World Literacy Foundation:  The Economic and Social Cost of Illiteracy

Sources:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Cow_Power

http://www.securedgenetworks.com/strategy-blog/20-Pros-and-Cons-of-implementing-BYOD-in-schools

 http://www.worldliteracyfoundation.org/The_Economic_&_Social_Cost_of_Illiteracy.pdf

 http://education.alberta.ca/media/6749210/byod%20guide%20revised%202012-09-05.pdf

 http://blog.tophat.com/5-pros-and-cons-of-byod-in-education/

 http://en.flossmanuals.net/class-acts/_all/_booki/class-acts/static/Waveplace-haiti_kids-en.jpg

 http://www.globaleducationmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Screen-Shot-2012-06-08-at-7.58.37-PM-e13391970188182.png

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1NMWIF16JOk

 http://www.worldliteracyfoundation.org/

 http://www.olpccanada.com/

 http://www.canadianfeedthechildren.ca/what/education

http://blogs.cisco.com/wp-content/uploads/pic.jpg

 https://growingupwell.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/back-to-to-school-cartoon-twitter1-598x4901.jpg