African NRENs can expand educational opportunities across education sectors

African NRENs can expand educational opportunities across education sectors

Over the past three decades, the revolution in computers and telecommunications networks has created unprecedented changes in business, commerce, government, science, health care, and education. New jobs, new industries, an explosion in entrepreneurship, new modes of community building, increased learning opportunities, ease of access to timely information and global markets, and the ability of an extended community to interact closely across space and time: all are dividends of this revolution in network and information technology and the remarkable underlying Internet culture of change.

Yet the fruits of this Information Age are still unevenly distributed. This gap threatens to continue to cut off some populations from new opportunities. Access to new forms of education, good jobs, medical and health information, communication, and the chance to participate in the affairs of the broader society may be denied to them. For some individuals, technology brings the promise of inclusion, education, opportunity, wealth, and better health; for others, greater isolation and continuing poverty. Many look to universities and K-12 schools to bridge this gap.

Meanwhile, today’s Internet—the commodity or commercial Internet—has recognized a number of limitations. At the same time numerous opportunities and new possibilities have emerged. Some challenges, like the inability to provide workable “quality of service” or end-to-end performance guarantees needed for demanding applications such as telepresence (the current state-of-the-art videoconferencing technology) were outside the scope of the Internet’s original design goals. Challenges, such as dealing with today’s gargantuan amounts of traffic, exploding number of users and sites, privacy and security needs of users and institutions, and requirements for Internet addresses, are the consequences of unanticipated success.

Many new but challenging opportunities, like the delivery on demand of real-time, movie-quality, high definition television (HDTV) or even films over the Internet, as well as many new and experimental approaches to health care, are the product of extraordinary progress in a wide array of technology industries that are now convergent with the Internet’s evolutionary path. Other new applications and capacities are outside the focus of the commercial Internet. These innovative activities are supported best by research test-beds, the international fabric of national research and education networks (NRENs), which focus on the development and deployment of the next generation of Internet technologies.

The regular or “commodity” Internet was not designed to handle the huge amount of data transfer, the explosive numbers of users, or the interactive, media-rich applications commonly used today. For applications where reliability is critical and delay is unacceptable – applications such as real-time streaming events, access to remote scientific instruments, high definition video-conferencing, online gaming, and interactive immersive worlds and simulations – the commodity Internet is inadequate. Research and education networks were purpose-built by the research and education community to offer the flexibility, performance, speed, and advanced services that allow these applications to evolve and thrive.

NRENs serve many functions. They create leading-edge network capability for the international research community; they enable revolutionary Internet applications; they ensure the rapid transfer of new network services and applications to the broader Internet community; they provide a platform for sharing scientific (and other) applications and resources; they aggregate demand for bandwidth and thereby create “buying clubs,” drive down the cost of bandwidth; and they create social value by including communities outside their primary research university constituencies, like primary and secondary schools, libraries, museums, scientific and cultural institutions. In order to flourish, NRENs must focus on the technical dimensions of data networks and they must also attend to the human dimension, the creation of shareable expertise for support and collaboration across many fields of research and education.

Cyber - Bullying in the eyes of a Kenyan teacher.

CYBER BULLYING IN THE EYES OF A KENYAN TEACHER

This is a letter to a lead investigator on cyber-bullying Dr. Shaheen Shariff, a Professor at McGill University in Vancouver – Canada. The same can be seen in their website http://www.definetheline.ca/.

Dear Dr. Shaheen Shariff,

Greetings,

My name is Martin Mungai, I am secondary school teacher in a boys boarding school in Kenya – Nairobi School. I am currently in Japan, Hokkaido University of Education – Asahikawa Campus undertaking my studies in Education Technology with emphasis on Children and Information Media, under Prof. Ikuya MURATA.

In the course of my studies, I came across two of your books, Cyber Bullying; Issues and Solutions for the school, classroom and the home. And Confronting Cyber-bullying; What schools need to know to control misconduct and avoid legal consequences. I am due to make a presentation on Effects of Increased Internet accessibility to secondary school students in Kenya in August this year at Hiroshima University at a JSISE conference. I must say that your books were an eye opener into my area of study, indeed when I was coming to Japan, my motivation was driven by the need to do a research on Information technology in education having taught ICT and played the role of a systems administrator in Nairobi school for a period of close to 10 yrs. I was obviously aware of the challenges that are facing teachers, educators and administrators as well as parents in the fusion of ICT in education. I had already seen and experienced the gap in the areas of cyber-bullying and other Internet related anti-social behaviors being expressed by children in Kenyan schools.

Reading your book, Confronting cyber bullying, I could not help but draw parallels to the experiences that I have had both at first as a student and lately as a teacher. I noted with a lot of excitement that you actually went to a boarding school in Kenya! I went to a boys boarding high school (Thika High school) in the 90s and experienced bullying first hand and as you recount on your experiences in reading the book of Golding’s (1959) Lord of the flies about the tale of the ruthless Jack and the overweight Piggy, I boiled with excitement since a lot of what you said sounded just too familiar.

Again, teaching in Nairobi school has also brought me face to face with the conventional methods of bullying as well as the new version of cyber-bullying. Teaching ICT to the boys over the last couple of years, I have experienced completely new forms of bullying. I am well aware of the rapid advancement that has been in leaps and bounds in the technological field in computing and communication. Having had my 1^st exposure to computers in 1994, where Ms DOS was the best operating system, and monochrome displays was the best technology we had then, to the now fast Internet accessibility at your fingers on a cell phone. I have seen boys using 1.44mb floppy drives to save pornographic pictures to using 12gb flash memory drives where they can downloads volumes of pornographic videos which they proudly share. I have seen boys evolve from drawing a teacher in class, on the chalkboard, toilet walls and on pieces of paper, to using photoshop where they cleverly make and post on their facebook walls for their friends and the world to see through what you would call antiauthority cyber expression.

One of the driving factors in my studies is the fact that, Kenya is classified amongst the developing nations, yet modern ICT knows no boundaries. We in Kenya are however facing a huge challenge because unlike Japan, US, Canada and other first worlds we do not have solid structures on our legal systems to tenaciously and legally address these emerging issues.

My program here in Japan lasts one year after which, I hope to join another university where I can pursue further educational opportunities to help me advance in my area of study and research. I must say I am particularly impressed by your work and I hope that someday to meet and work with you some more on this very interesting area. I am looking forward to reading many more of your works.

Thank you very much for your patience.

Yours faithfully,

Martin Mungai

20.05.2011

Categories According to a Person's Relationship to Technology

Categories According to a Person's Relationship to Technology

It is important to note that there are other ways to sort people in these groups besides age. We can do so according to their attitudes towards and comprehension of modern digital technologies. Feeney (2010), Toledo, (2007) and others describe acontinuum of people's relationships to the digital world, which is not based on a person's date of birth but on their relationships, attitudes and practices in regard to digital technologies. Following are categories that differentiate people according to their comprehension, understanding and comfort with technology rather than their age.
Avoider The Luddites are true avoiders of modern technologies. They use landlines and avoid email and the Internet. The newspapers they like to read arrive via snail mail carrier, not via Internet server. Some of these ultimate avoiders are simply old digital immigrants who cannot relate to modern technology, and others are digital natives who some may call the "Neo-Luddites" who philosophically oppose the use of the Internet and other modern online technologies.
Minimalist Members of this group use technology reluctantly. They may be digital immigrant reluctant adopters or digital native minimalists. Minimalists have an email account and probably a Facebook profile (hard to avoid these days) but do not check them regularly. They have a cellphone, but do not need or desire to be online via the phone. No smartphones are necessary or wanted by this group. Like the avoiders, this group reads the newspaper in paper form.
Tourists These are the people who feel like visitors in the digital world. They pay attention to the 'local' or 'native' digital culture, learn its language, observe its rituals, and comprehend its complexities. This group keeps internal distance from technology even though they tend to use it appropriately and effectively, as needed, but not extensively. This is group stays internally non-digital in regard to preferences and values.
Enthusiastic or Eager Adopter This group has fun with technology! They enjoy the latest iPhone and talk about its features; the iPad is fascinating even if they don't have one. This group - if they do not own a new product themselves - is ready and excited to try out the product of a friend and enjoy the process. They participate in online discussions via Facebook, news sites, blogs or online education. They may write online content (a column, a blog) themselves. Members of this group check email and are online throughout the day, find technology interesting, have a smartphone, and are on Facebook. They get their news online, not via print.
Innovator Members of this group are not only enthusiastic, they work with technology to improve it. These are game developers, programmers, engineers, technology writers, professors, and (gasp) hackers. While hackers do not improve technology for the rest of us, they are affecting it, not just using it. Innovators build websites, create applications and perform other online creation functions for their fellow innovators.
Over-User or Addict As the name indicates, digital addicts are heavily dependent on technology to occupy their time. Millions of young people all over the world are in this group - many of them gamers. When digital immigrants are in this group, it is usually for gaming or porn, though it can be for social networking also. Members of this group are extremely protective of their "right" to be online, and will become upset, irate and even violent if technology is not available. This group is what many parents, educators and managers accuse average digital natives of being, but this is a mistake. Addicts include those whose physical, mental, emotional, educational, or occupational aspects of their lives are significantly, negatively affected by their excessive use of digital technologies. Examples of people in this group are gamers who play for 18 hours a day, missing school, work and home life. Other members of this group include porn addicts who do not have sex with their spouses in favor of indulging this online addiction.

Education Technology: A medium for improving Teaching and Learning in the classroom

Education Technology: A Medium for improving Teaching and Learning in the classroom.

Educational technology, especially computers and computer-related peripherals, have grown tremendously and have permeated all areas of our lives. It is incomprehensible that anyone today would argue that banks, hospitals, or any industry should use less technology. Most young people cannot understand arguments that schools should limit technology use. For them, use of the Internet, for example, plays a major role in their relationships with their friends, their families, and their schools. Teens and their parents generally think use of the Internet enhances the social life and academic work of teenagers:

The Internet is becoming an increasingly vital tool in our information society. More Kenyans are going online to conduct such day-to-day activities as education, business transactions, personal correspondence, research and information-gathering, job searches and lately social networking(SNS). Each year, being digitally connected becomes ever more critical to economic and educational advancement and community participation. Now that a large number of Kenyans regularly use the Internet to conduct daily activities, people who lack access to these tools are at a growing disadvantage. Therefore, raising the level of digital inclusion by increasing the number of Kenyans using the technology tools of the digital age is a vitally important national goal. (CCK statistical report(2011)

The very concept of the Internet would not be possible without technology. This is paralleled by the incredibly rapid growth of registered Internet users that likely would not be possible without this technology. Educational institutions with no computers would arouse suspicion about the completeness, accuracy and professionalism in the delivery of curriculum as information grows daily and much of that new information can only be found through the use of technology.  

From the beginning of the computer age, educational researchers and practitioners have told us that for technology use to be successful in our schools it needed to be closely tied to school reform. Glennan and Melmed (1995) wrote: "Technology without reform is likely to have little value: widespread reform without technology is probably impossible" (pp. xix–xx.). The unavoidable conclusion is that successful improvement of technology in education is of high importance to our future.  

Given the vital role of technology in today's world, Old methodologies were based on concept of the classroom as the ultimate place of knowledge transfer. The teacher played the role of being the source and transmitter of information and knowledge and the learners play the role of receivers. Based on this traditional approach, the teacher easily learns from his/her own experience. But now with rapid technological changes, very few teachers can teach from their own experience. This demands that the teachers have to meet the following;

1.       Have high level of initial knowledge and necessary experience in IT.

2.       Have the ability  to work as project team members and curriculum manager.

3.       Have the ability to organize project team works in such a way that all the students accept proposed conditions.

4.       Should be able to dynamically manage curriculum establishing and adopting criteria and flexibility in motivation principles oriented on the final results.