Google announces $50m in support to EdTech in the developing world

UNESCO estimates that there are over 130 million students around the world who don’t have basic maths or literacy skills. Google take that even further, estimating that 221 million students in schools are being taught in a language that is foreign to them and 32 million primary school-aged children can’t even reach traditional classrooms because of violent conflict and displacement.

Today, during Mobile Learning Week in Paris, Brigitte Hoyer-Gosselin from Google.org announced a massive $50 million donation towards addressing this gap.

These grants are aimed at three main areas:

1. getting to students in combat zones, 
2. providing quality learning materials and 
3. aiding in teacher development. 

The details are still emerging, but it looks like any EdTech projects by not-for-profit organisations that aim to address these would be in scope.

As Brigitte says: "Technology can bypass the geographic and financial boundaries that block educational resources from reaching students, while also making those resources more engaging, interactive and effective"

The announcement was today(21 March 2017), and it looks like 9 projects have already been offered funding, with more to follow.

More info on CNN.

Exciting times! Can you, or your business help? Talk to Google.org!

mLearning in the House of Lords

I am just back from a very enjoyable hour spent in the House of Lords with Lord Lucas, discussing new technologies for learning and looking at some of our mobile learning works.

A very interesting man. Like other IT-savvy Lords, he uses his blog and to be open and honest with his views – and has a special interest in home-access and support for parents.

He was very enthusiastic about many of our learning technology initiatives, especially any that encourage providers to have less dependence on short term funding initiatives, and more on successful learning.

In particular, he liked:

• m-learning (of course), both in the UK and the 3rd World. We was particularly interested in some of the big UK successes, like Wolverhampton’s Learning2Go, which for some reason hadn’t yet crossed the House Of Lords radar. 
  
• NCETM – the National Centre of Excellence in Teaching Maths that we run to support CPD in all maths teachers across the UK
  
• The online learning portals we run for Sainsbury’s, McDonalds, Wetherspoons, KFC and other employers (using our AdvanceLearningZone platform and an army of amazing home-based tutors & mentors)
  
• The learning Score – A lesson planning tool that is still in Beta, and just creeping out of our labs which we are lucky enough to have endorsed by many of the great and good in UK learning technology

Wow – heady stuff!

I learned a new term - “target chasing” – both providers, and suppliers focussing on current government targets and losing sight of the real goals of education that underpin that (and was secretly relieved that he felt our initiatives / tools / approaches didn’t fit that category!) 

I hope that he left the meeting as enthused as we did … I assumed so (but maybe that is just British politeness!)

UK government pays £300m to get families online

In one of the worst kept secrets of the summer, the DCSF has announced a credit-crunch-beating £300m to buy laptops and broadband for the neediest kids in England.

Is this good news?

It is great news! Evidence is mounting that kids perform better at school if they can take some of that school work home, and share it with their families. Several recent reports seem to be converging on this from different perspectives:

• DCSF's Children's plan (benefits of access to technology at home)
• Byron report (on managing e-safety)
• Denham's consultation on Informal Adult Learning (drawing in the parents)
• Becta's Harnessing Technology (on how to use it well for learning)

 

From Extending Opportunity (the final report of the minister's taskforce):

Strong evidence exists for the potential educational, economic and wider benefits of home access to technology. Despite this growing body of evidence, approximately 35 per cent of families still do not have access to the internet and the digital divide is not being narrowed. It is clear that cost is a major barrier to access and, whilst costs of home access are falling, they will not do so quickly enough to prevent a large number of low-income families from being excluded from the educational and wider benefits of home access. This exclusion of low-income families results in an inequitable exploitation of home access and means that it is impossible for all learners and their families to experience these educational benefits without some intervention.

 

Needless to say, technology providers are already limbering up to promote their wares. It looks like families will be given vouchers they can spend on eligible technology and connectivity - though debate is already starting up on what types of devices should be included.

Is it just about "laptops"?

What about "mobile devices"?

How about games consoles?

 

Not sure about the answer - though as a mobile blog, our vote is with the "as many methods as possible" camp!

MoleNET lives on ... £4m available for mobile learning in 2008/09

The LSC have just this second announced a further round of funding for the MoLeNET project ... £4m to support new projects, or to bulk up existing ones.

 

The same constraints apply as last time:

- consortia need to be fronted by an English FE college

- money is available for capital expenditure only

- colleges need to pay in 20% of the full amount they request, in cash, to fund training and support

- not a long time between now and getting your bids in (6 October 08)

 

Congratulations to the existing projects, who have obviously managed to show enough benefit to learners to have been able to encourage the LSC to make this new money available!

 

More details here: http://www.molenet.org.uk/search/resource-29769.aspx

 

If you want to get involved, and ARE an English FE college, start by looking at what the current projects are doing. There is some very good information out there (if you dig), with some valuable lessons learned. Make sure you can show why your bid is building on the state of the art!

 

If you want to get involved, and ARE NOT an English FE college, now is the time to make friends with one, to come up with a joint project, and to help them bid for it!

Linux "goes large" in Brazilian schools

Brazil has been stealthily growing an amazing sounding project called ProInfo

They are rolling out infrastructure, technology and software to reach 36million students by the end of this year, with more to come!

The software is Linux (KDE desktop), The technology comes as an instant "computer lab", in a couple of different flavours:

• an inner city one (more seats per single, shared server)
• a rural one (simpler / lower power usage)
• a presenting one (one piece of kit with integrated projector, cpu, bundled content and DVD player)
• an accessible one (huge screen, and extra accessibility devices connected)

I had heard rumours of this, but with no idea of the scale, or the fact that the roll-out includes open content as well.

ProInfo is not about mobility, but a parallel project UCA (One Computer per Student) is. They are about to launch a second phase, buying 150 000 portable machines. Possibly ClassMates, or OLPC.

Wow! The numbers are staggering. The vision bold. The open source world excited. We wait, with baited breath ...

MoLeNET winners go public!

Thanks to the LSN, we have just seen the first, complete list of Colleges and FE Consortia that won slices of the £6m MoLeNET fund.

Congratulations all and good luck with your projects! We look forward to seeing how they turn out

They are:

Aylesbury College	Handheld Pathways – mobile applications for the LLDD provision
Bolton Community College	EISL Project - Extending, Inspiring and Supporting Learning through the use of Mobile Technologies
Boston College	Assessing the impact of m-learning with Work Based Learners undertaking Apprenticeships across Rural Lincolnshire
Bournville College of Further Education	M-learning 4 those who care.
Brockenhurst College	brock.mobi - mLog
Cardinal Newman College	Teaching & Learning : Technology Driven - Quality Driven
Chichester College	Any time, any place, anywhere.
City of Wolverhampton College	Wolverhampton Learning to Go Further!
Cornwall College	Mobile Learning Network across Cornwall
Coulsdon College	Mobile learning for literacy (level 1) students
East Berkshire College	Mobile Learning at East Berkshire College
Eccles College	Mobile IN Salford
Gateshead College	Supporting Science in the Field (SSIF)
Gloucestershire College	Glossy - Mobile Learning in Gloucestershire
Havering Sixth Form College	Using Mobile Technologies in the Classroom, at Home and in the Field to support Minority Teaching Groups (MoLeMINT)
Huddersfield Technical College	m4m Project - m-Learning 4 m-People
Kingston College	KAMPUS: Kingston Access to Mobile Personalisation using Ultra-portable Services
Lewisham College	Wireless Blended Learning for Work Based Learners (WBL 4 WBL)
Lowestoft College	Widening participation Through Mobile Learning
Matthew Boulton College of F&HE	m-strategy in Birmingham (msb)
New College Swindon	Mypodcast Developing innovative approaches to personalised learning.
Norwich City College of Further and Higher Education	Harnessing Technology Towards Personalisation (HTTP)
Oaklands College	The MoLeMentors project
Regent College	Improved Learner engagement for 14-19 year olds in the foundation tier and NEET groups using mobile technology
South Thames College	Mobile Inclusion: using mobile technology to fight gang and gun culture
Stockport College	Learning on the Go (LoG) (inc stockport ALS learners)
Stratford-upon-Avon College	MobTec in Action
Tower Hamlets College	Adding m to the mix
Weston College	Wider Weston
Worcester College of Technology	Herefordshire and Worcestershire Vodcasting and Podcasting Consortium

6 million pounds to buy m-learning kit in UK

Wow! MoLeNET (www.molenet.org.uk)

Hot off the press - the LSC is making £6million available for FE colleges (and their partners) to buy m-learning devices.

Colleges are being invited to apply for grants of between £100 000 and £500 000 for capital expenses, to contribute to mobile learning projects. Colleges will need to contribute other costs, like training and support to a minimum of 20% of the funding they recieve.

This is great news, as it is a clear indication that the mainstream has recognised the potential benefits in mobile learning, and is trying to spread the love

If you are in FE and based in England, come along to the open day on 9 July

keepin' it mobile

Geoff