Hole-in-the-Wall

Global digital divide A digital divide is an economic inequality between groups, broadly construed, in terms of access to, use of, or knowledge of information and communication technologies (ICT).[1][2] The divide within countries, such as the digital divide in the United States) may refer to inequalities between individuals, households, businesses, and geographic areas at different socioeconomic and other demographic levels, while the divide between countries is referred to as the global digital divide,[3][4][5] which designates nations as the units of analysis and examines the gap between developing and developed countries on an international scale.[2] Definition and usage[edit] The term Digital divide is used to describe a gap between those who have ready access to information and communication technology and the skills to make use of those technology and those who do not have the access or skills to use those same technologies within a geographic area, society or community. Means of connectivity[edit]

How I Would Unschool My Kids Altucher Confidential Posted by James Altucher My dad hit me when I got bad grades. Particularly when I was young and got a bad grade in “Conduct”. Happiness was an “A”. Even better: an “A+”. Sadness was an “F”. Updates: Ethiopian Kids Hack Their OLPC Tablets in 5... Ethiopian Kids Hack Their OLPC Tablets in 5 Months, With No Help By Jamie Condliffe Give a thousand Ethiopian kids - who have never seen a printed word let alone played around with expensive consumer technology - a tablet, and what happens? They hack it. Obviously. The amazing One Laptop Per Child scheme has been offering up Motorola Xoom tablets to kids in developing countries for a while.

Every Teenager a Michelangelo: Can Studio Schools Prepare and Engage Adolescent Minds? Many parents and teachers struggle to engage the nebulous minds of teenagers. How does one teach a brain that’s constantly fluctuating? As Shannon Brownless, acting director of the New America Health Policy Program wrote in US News, a teenager’s pre-frontal cortex isn’t yet mature enough to handle certain judgments and dilemmas. “An unfinished prefrontal cortex also means that young teenagers may also have trouble organizing several tasks,” she wrote.

Digital Opportunity Index The ICT Development Index (IDI) is an index published by the United Nations International Telecommunication Union based on internationally agreed information and communication technologies (ICT) indicators. This makes it a valuable tool for benchmarking the most important indicators for measuring the information society. The IDI is a standard tool that governments, operators, development agencies, researchers and others can use to measure the digital divide and compare ICT performance within and across countries. The ICT Development Index is based on 11 ICT indicators, grouped in three clusters: access, use and skills. Top 30 countries[edit] The following is a list of top 30 countries as ranked by the ICT Development Index in 2011.

Laissez-Faire Learning - David Greenwald As a teacher in a public high school, I am daily confronted with the lamentable realities of state-monopoly education. Student apathy, methodological stagnation, bureaucratic inefficiency, textbook-publishing cartels, obsessive preoccupation with grades, coercive relationships, and rigid, sanitized curricula are just a few of the more obvious problems, attended by the cold-shower disillusionment and gradual burnout among teachers to which they almost invariably lead. While outcomes such as these are certainly tragic, the process that produces them is not exactly the stuff of Greek theater. There is no climactic battle, no cathartic denouement, no salvific moral lesson to be taken home when the curtain falls, and seldom are there any readily identifiable heroes or villains.

Information and communication technologies for development Information and Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) refers to the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in the fields of socioeconomic development, international development and human rights. The theory behind this is that more and better information and communication furthers the development of a society. Aside from its reliance on technology, ICT4D also requires an understanding of community development, poverty, agriculture, healthcare, and basic education. This makes ICT4D appropriate technology and if it is shared openly open source appropriate technology.[1] Richard Heeks suggests that the I in ICT4D is related with “library and information sciences”, the C is associated with “communication studies", the T is linked with “information systems", and the D for “development studies”.[2] It is aimed at bridging the digital divide and aid economic development by fostering equitable access to modern communications technologies. History[edit]

Madfloridian's Journal - Another "false front" education reform group? Keep eye out for their op eds in local papers. The Michigan Education Association writes about the Education Action Group and warns to watch out for their activities. Behind the false front Note the ties to the Mackinac Center and the DeVos family. EAG isn’t really a group. It’s two very partisan men with ties to the Mackinac Center for Public Policy and Dick DeVos of Amway Corp. fame. Olson’s brother is director of education policy at the Mackinac Center, another anti-union, pro-privatization group. Inequality kills – the future of online learning in distance education On Friday, 24 August 2012, Tanya Gold posted a piece in The Guardian relating to the denial of class in British society starting with the words “Inequality kills.” In the article, Gold (2012) reflects on the increasing inequality in British society and its impact on social (im)mobility, health care and preventing people reaching their full potential. Children do not have much chance in moving beyond the income of their parents – which does not affect the 7% of children whose parents can afford to send them to private school, but it does affect the other 93%… Gold (2012, para.6) contests that “it doesn’t matter where you come from, it’s where you are going that counts ” and state that “where you come from determines where you are going”…

Doing More Time in School: A Cruel Non-Solution to Our Educational Problems School doesn’t work very well, so let’s make kids do more of it! That seems to be the policy enthusiastically supported by President Obama, by his education secretary Arne Duncan, by many teachers’ unions (as long as the teachers are well paid for the extra time), and by many education policy makers in and out of academia. Kids aren’t learning much in school, so let’s make them start school when they are younger; let’s make them stay more hours in school each day and more days each year; and let’s not allow them to leave until they are at least 18 years old.

Open Innovation and Access to Knowledge - Bertelsmann Future Challenges by Wan-Hsin LIU and Tillmann Schwörer commented by Dr. Anna Maria Köck and Prof. Dr. Klaus Tochtermann 1. Build functional public innovation funding schemes which support multidisplinary innovation networks of innovators from the private and public sector the 7-lesson schoolteacher John Taylor Gatto The 7-Lesson Schoolteacher by John Taylor Gatto New Society Publishers, 1992 Call me Mr. Gatto, please. Twenty-six years ago, having nothing better to do at the time, I tried my hand at schoolteaching. The license I hold certifies that I am an instructor of English language and English literature, but that isn't what I do at all. I don't teach English, I teach school -- and I win awards doing it.

Open Innovation and Access to Knowledge — Global Economic Symposium In open innovation projects, innovators from the private sector and academia voluntarily disclose innovation processes and results to other (potential) innovators. They make internal knowledge accessible to the outside world and attract external expertise in exchange. By doing so, they are able to improve their innovativeness. The success of open innovation projects hinges on the incentives of innovators to share their knowledge and to interact with each other, as well as on the matching of knowledge supplied and demanded.