True that kids enjoy audio visuals, but what are pedagogical approaches or systematic uses of A/V that can demonstrably improve reading and literacy? Just giving them Youtube isn't going to lead to better reading skills - in fact, TV watching is highly correlated with decreases in learning outcomes and what is Youtube but proletarian TV?

David,

I do not have any more information than what is posted by USAID. That said, they have just issued a modification that says it provides "Additional Information on Eligibility" for clarification on page 11 of the RFA document.

David,

Interesting point. I never thought of printed OER resources. Could you direct us to a few? Also, do you really think that printed books are more cost-effective than eBooks?

Richard,

I am intrigued by your idea of a "Challenge Prize" for low-cost hardware. I think the prize could already be won.

I listened to the Data Wind CEO's presentation at the World Bank, and the real technology kicker is that he is taking the Amazon Silk browser approach - offloading the client work onto a server so its minimal specs actually work (albeit slowly) and he has a strong business case that does not rely on government funding.

I see it as a commercial success in India as a cheap web access device. I don't think its a great edu device in its own right - not without content, & curriculum tie-in for teachers to use it as an additional instruction device. But if paired with a School BeLL, and quality teacher training/curriculum integration, it could be a game-changer in India where getting 10% of 1.6 Billion online would be a serious business.

In reading Justin Reich's research, I am struck not by the radical notion that OER is widening the gap between privileged schools and everyone else, but how obvious this observation is once you look for it. As a recent New York Times article says:

No one seriously disputes the fact that students from disadvantaged households perform less well in school, on average, than their peers from more advantaged backgrounds. But rather than confront this fact of life head-on, our policy makers mistakenly continue to reason that, since they cannot change the backgrounds of students, they should focus on things they can control.

I feel that many proponents of Open Educational Resources fall into this same trap - they disregard the reality that any resource equally distributed will be more beneficial to those already blessed with advantages and often fail to make outsized investments in supporting poor schools and their teachers. Not to say they are alone in this error. Its sadly too common across all ICT4Edu activities.

Here is Chris' post in full:

An interesting argument to open up here. But wondering how you expect (and why you expect) Scenario #2 to happen as you draw it when your example is ready-to-use OER as opposed to wikis (which require considerable on-going resource from educators if they are to be hosted locally). I accept that well-resourced learners are well resourced so could make more use of OER should they choose to do so, and the same for their teachers. However these students already have many competing demands for their attention in terms of learning options. The well-resourced teachers in scenario #2 would have to be willing to change their teaching (which is already at a high level in your example) to reuse someone else's resources. There is no evidence that reuse will happen at a high, transformational, level in this case. Resource reuse is most likely to happen where there is a gap in the provision, or the offered resource is significantly better than what it replaces. Forgetting OER for a moment, we know this about reusable learning objects, and the behaviour of well-resourced educators with relation to these. They repurposed the resources, or made their own versions, or (most often) preferred their own versions but took new ideas or assets from the RLOs. This was part of what they did in refreshing their teaching, so it was not a huge change, just a boost.

You are also ignoring the opportunity that parents and carers can now direct poorer students to OER. One of the reasons that affluent children do better in school is because of the support of learning at home. For poorer students, where parents may not be well-educated, the great thing about OER is that these are OPEN. Not just the schools can get access. Not only registered students. I wonder at this point how open the wikis you refer to were?

This is an important discussion, it addresses over-hype and perhaps unrealistic expectation of OER (although you are sticking with the developed world here and there is another story to tell globally). However I think that your graphs overstate the case and I am struggling with the comparison of what happens with intra-institutional wikis (if that was what you were looking at) being an indicator for what will happen with OER. I'd suggest a scenario #3 with both rising to some extent but not too much for those who already have good learning resources. After all, access to online all the time via a flashy iPad. smartphone, etc. will not only be used to access education. There is quite a competition for attention going on there from Facebook, YouTube (not the formal educational stuff), etc.

Thanks for raising this.

Andrew,

Thanks for these links, though they actually make a greater point that we should all be aware of. Here is the conclusion from the first link:

Comparative Effectiveness: The CAL program was tested at the same time as a remedial tutor-based program, Balsakhi. The CAL program was shown to be highly effective in raising students' skill levels in math, but was less cost-effective than the tutor-based Balsakhi program.

Ooops! Yes, technology did have an impact, but less than a trained teacher, using good content, and no technology at all.

I am a big fan of the e-Reader idea for several reasons. On the purely technical side, as a single-purpose device it is much easier for novice end users to understand and operate. It is also much easier to support as the ICT manager. Initial purchase costs are significantly less than other multipurpose technologies as well.

As a bonus, by getting content into a digital format, the e-book reader can spur adoption and consumption of digital content across all digital platforms - from eReaders to laptops to desktops and beyond. I think Worldreader's ability to get publishers on board with e-books may be the real long-lasting ICT achievement.

Carmen, you speak here of using ICT tools to assess reading skills, which is a great use of ICT. Do you have any ideas on tools that would increase the reading skills and abilities of students? Tools that could be used by teachers or the learners themselves to increase their reading skills and test scores?

Or is the best approach a motivated and skilled teacher who can use diagnostic ICT tools to improve their non-ICT reading teaching activities?

Great! I always though the lack of a projector capacity was a great oversight by OLPC.