Our global village

When I reflect on my recent visit to the Gambia, and on other trips to poor countries, I tend to gain some real perspective on my life. I'm left asking what will the future hold for the Gambian children in this picture? How many will survive to adulthood, have happy lives and achieve their dreams? None for sure, will have any of the opportunities I had when I was their age.

I can't help but feel extremely privileged to come from a part of the world where electricity, water and gas are all piped to my home, and where education is free for all children up to the age of 18.

Even healthcare (we pay our taxes) is free at the point of delivery to all British citizens (and of course to anyone else who is visiting the UK and gets taken ill) courtesy of the National Health Service. Hell, I even have broadband wifi in my house, and enough to feed and clothe my entire family. I'm very, very fortunate indeed. I have always been affected by the following scenario, ever since I first heard it several years ago. If you want some perspective on your life, read on....

If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

Our village would be populated by 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific


51 would be male, 49 would be female
82 would be non-white; 18 would be white
67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian
80 would live in substandard housing
67 would be unable to read
50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation
33 would be without access to a safe water supply
39 would lack access to improved sanitation
24 would not have any electricity (and of the 76 that do have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)
7 people would have access to the Internet
1 would have a college education
1 would have HIV
2 would be near birth; 1 near death
5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens

33 would be receiving (and trying to live on) only 3% of the income of “the village”

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Learning without limits

The 5th Plymouth e-Learning Conference is just around the corner, but there's still time to register at the early bird rate (until 5th March). The theme for this year's event is 'Learning without Limits' - anytime, anyplace learning. The conference will address the growing number of contexts in which learning can take place, and how technology is playing its role. PeLC10 will take place on April 8-9, 2010 in the iconic Roland Levinsky Building on the main University of Plymouth campus. We will focus on the challenges and opportunities brought by formal and informal learning, social networks and personal technologies, mobile learning and innovative on-campus education, virtual and real teaching & learning scenarios, and how teachers and learners are harnessing the power and potential of new and emerging technologies. Our two keynote speakers are Josie Fraser and Donald Clark - the conference website holds further details of costs, joining instructions etc.

I have been ploughing through the review comments over the past few days, and looking at some of the fascinating paper proposals, workshops, demonstrations and debate abstracts. Topics include: emerging learning technologies, classroom learning technology such as Interactive Whiteboards, personal learning environments, new pedagogies and practices, mobile learning, voting systems, 'Twitter is Dead' (what, surely some mistake here?? - Ed), collaborative content management, teaching in Second Life, using e-portfolios, a wide rage of Web 2.0 tools, Social Networking in education, Digital Literacy, Digital Identity, and a host of other e-learning topics. There will be about 70 papers, workshops and other presentations throughout the conference, more than enough to captivate even the most demanding of conference goers.

Our conference dinner will once again be held on Thursday evening in the National Marine Aquarium, in spectacular surroundings, with a backdrop of shark tanks in the Atlantic Reef. There are only 110 places for this event, and tickets are going fast, so book as soon as you can! As part of the evening, there will be welcome drinks, a bar open until late, goodie bag, and an all evening exclusive run of the entire aquarium - one of the largest in Europe. Other featured activities during the conference include demonstrations of the University of Plymouth's Immersive Vision Cinema and Virtual Dentistry/Medicine displays. There are also fringe events planned and as usual, the Pelican Fringe Website for you to join with live streaming from the event.

Already delegates from over a dozen countries have registered for the conference, and most will be attending for both days (above is a picture of delegates registering on day one of PeLC09). We hope to see you at the conference, which if it's anything like last year's event, will be memorable, stimulating and exciting.

What price education?

Derek Bok once said: "If you think education is expensive, you ought to try ignorance." Yes, education is expensive, but in spending public money on teacher training, salaries, professional updates, school and university buildings, technology and learning resources, we are investing into the future wellbeing of our own society. My recent trip to the Gambia, one of Africa's poorest and smallest countries, showed me that failing to invest in quality education can be disasterous, and that ignorance is indeed costly on a number of levels.

State funded education in the Gambia covers only lower basic (primary) education. You may have read in a previous post that the government only supplies the buildings, the teachers and the chalk. Anything else must be paid for by parents. They need basic things like pencils and exercise books. I used an old shirt to clean the blackboard during a lesson because their was no board cleaner. The walls need educational posters. Coloured chalk, crayons, text books. All of these are relatively inexpensive to us. To the Gambians they are luxuries. When a child reaches the age of 11, if his parents do not have enough money (and that would be quite a high percentage), that child has to leave formal education. But what can they do next?

I saw many young teenagers simply hanging around on street corners, kicking their heels, trying to earn a living any way they could, selling small items, panhandling, dodging the traffic, living off their wits. Some are lucky enough to go out working on the flimsy fishing boats, but this is a very dangerous occupation. Many of the young girls we saw were tasked to look after their younger siblings. I saw one 6 or 7 year old girl carrying a new-born baby around, tied onto her back with a cloth.

Several times we were approached out on the streets by young men who tried to glue themselves to us in the hope of relieving us of some of our cash. We witnessed the 'Bumsters' working the scene - young males who wait for female travellers to pass their way who they then follow remorselessly in the hope of earning a little money for their 'services' rendered. This is just one of the many humiliating occupations young people can fall into, and believe me, there are some even worse. Unemployment is high in the Gambia, but it would be a mistake to blame this solely on a lack of education. The economic circumstances largely dictate the number of jobs available. It does seem sensible though, to conclude that if the standard of education was higher, and there was more opportunity for children to stay in school for free until they at least reached the end of their teens, that they would be so much better off. It is also inescapable that any society's wealth relies greatly on the standard of its education provision.

So what price education? Well, above is my idea of what this month's National Geographic magazine should be featuring. Yes, it's one of my own pictures, taken of a young girl in the Gambia last week (original here), and the magazine cover is one I created myself, but I hope I have made my point. We all need to care more about how the children of the world are being educated. To my mind, we should invest as much in education as we can afford, because failing our children in their formative years is storing up a shed load of trouble for the future. Let's hope the world wakes up to this fact, stands side by side with the poor nations of the planet and invests more in their future, and in their richest natural resource - their youth.

Very basic school

This is a continuation of the story of my recent visit to the Gambia. The previous blog post was entitled Gambia Maybe Time.

On day 3 we took our students to visit the Mandinari Lower Basic (primary) School, which is located out in the countryside along the banks of the river Gambia. We arrived in our minibuses on a sandy compound, with low tin roofed buildings on two sides, and were greeted by the smiling teaching staff. The school was founded in 1964, a year before Gambia's independence. We were informed that there are 783 children on roll, assigned into 19 classes. Because there were only 15 classrooms and the same number of teachers, school hours go on until 6pm each evening, to accommodate all the pupils. I was appalled to hear that 4 teachers were absent that day due to Malaria sickness. As a result some classes were doubled up, with 50-60 children in each small room. English is the language by which all lessons are taught, and maths and English are the main subjects on the timetable, with other subjects including the Koran, science and physical education.

We went in groups of 3 or 4 into the classrooms and took the lessons. We saw right away that the children were very bright and inquisitive. They stared long at our white faces and strange clothing as we sang songs, read them stories and told them about England and the children there. These children come from an oral culture, with a focus on story telling and music, so when it came to singing, they were almost deafening. They sang and danced enthusiastically for us, and then crowded in on us as we were leaving, simply wanting to touch us.

I noticed that during their lunch break, the children only had one place to sit away from the searingly hot sunshine - under the shade of a large mango tree around the rear of the school buildings. I mentioned to the deputy head teacher that we could provide them with some more trees, and even do a planting and watering ceremony for them complete with dancing and drums. He loved the idea and so next time I am there, I plan to buy some saplings and some fencing, and do just that. In a few years time, younger children in that community will hopefully be able to enjoy some more shade from the sun.

The school is typical of many in the Gambia, with no electricity and only very basic learning resources, and where the only toilet facilities are located in tin shacks at the rear of the school, consisting of holes in the floor over a large cesspool. In the heat the fumes and flies are sickening, and the conditions extremely unhealthy, but somehow they cope with it day to day. We also noticed that apart from the chalk and blackboard, they had very few other resources - a few books and little else. Some of the children had exercise books and pencils, but many more did not. There was also no provision for those with special needs. I promised the maths teacher I spoke to that next time we visit, we will bring him some exercise books, pencils and solar powered calculators. They are the best solution I can think of to try to improve the conditions in the school.

Anyone working in a school in the UK will find it hard to understand the huge gulf that separates their school from those in the poorest countries of the world, where even coloured chalk or a new exercise book are luxuries. We have a long way to go.

Gambia Maybe Time

I learnt this week that GMT stands for 'Gambia Maybe Time' - and that about sums up life in the Gambia. Everything is done at an amble, and no-one really concerns themselves too much about time keeping. Perhaps we in the West could learn something from that. We landed at Banjul International Airport in the late afternoon in 36 degrees of heat, and were set upon by hordes of locals outside the airport, all wanting to take our bags and earn a little money in tips. Gambia is one of the smallest and poorest nations in Africa, and everyone has an angle. You can't blame them for trying. And my angle? I was in Gambia with 5 colleagues and 30 student teachers from the University of Plymouth, on a comparative study tour.

On day 2 we took a bush taxi into the centre of Serekunda, one of the largest cities in the Gambia. Bush taxis (tanka tanka) are haphazard, arriving when they arrive, and are usually battered, poorly maintained old mini-buses. They stop for people on demand anywhere, anytime, and squeeze as many inside as they can, including their baskets, chickens, goats etc, into the space that is available before driving off in a cloud of black fumes. We travelled for 20 minutes, and payed the princely sum of 5 dulasi for the priveledge - about 15 pence.

Nothing prepares you for what you see, hear (and smell) on the streets. The dangers don't come from the people, who are usually very friendly and welcoming. Rather, it's the maze of open sewerage channels and lack of hygiene that challenge most visitors (don't have ice in your drink and avoid salad). I will never forget the colour and richness of the market places, where traders can set up anywhere, usually shoulder to shoulder, to do business. At night-time, there are no street lights. The only light comes from open fires, car headlights and the occasional trader who happens to have a lamp connected to a car battery. The pungent, mingled smells of livestock, kerosene and meat cooking on open fires continually assail the nostrils, and the dust and heat are ever present.

It's easy to open up conversations with local people. They will do it for you. Anyone who looks like they are visiting is approached, and they then try to find out as much about you as they can so they can attempt to obtain your e-mail address, an unwanted mobile phone, or a handout of some kind. On my first day in Serekunda, one guy glued himself to me and tenaciously followed us around for half hour, until we decided to invite him to sit down and have a drink with us. During the conversation, we talked about religion (Moslems and Christians live side by side in harmony and intermarry freely), politics, local customs and culture, and of course education. My new friend, Al Fusainey Janh (pictured above), told me that many of the schools in Gambia don't have electricity, let alone computers. The Gambian government provide the school building, the teachers and the chalk. Any thing else has to be funded by parents, and most are too poor to do so. Most people who wish to use the Internet go to a telecenter or Internet cafe. Many people have mobile phones, but they are mainly used for talking and text, because few have the capability to browse the Internet.

In tomorrow's post on this blog I will give an account of our visit to a rural primary school, what we saw, and my conversations with the teachers and children.

For more pictures see my Flickr Photoset

Microblogging downunder

I've been working with Graham Attwell (@grahamattwell) Johannes Magenheim and Wolfgang Reinhardt (@wollepb) on a workshop proposal recently. It's a one day workshop on microblogging which we have called MicroECoP and we hope it will create a lot of interest. The workshop will take place on 24 September, during the IFIP World Computer Congress in Brisbane, Australia this September. We are currently assembling an impressive list of Twitterati who will serve as our advisory editorial board, and the call for papers is now open.

So, here's the deal. If you have any interest in Twitter, Plurk, Tumblr or any other online short messaging tool, please visit the site and then think about putting in a paper, demonstration or workshop for the event. It promises to be lively, informative and inspirational. The official hastag will be: #microecop. And of course, it will take place in the spectacular surrounds of beautiful Brisbane in the Australian springtime. We hope to see you there!

Related posts:

CfP: Workshop MicroECoP (Wolfgang Reinhardt)

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Good sport

The subject I hated most at school was Physical Education. You know -sports. Having to strip down to shorts and a vest when there was six inches of snow on the ground and the temperature was below zero. I remember shivering with my breath clouding around me, as we waited outside for 'Sir' to emerge in his nice warm tracksuit and blow his whistle so we could all set off on our weekly 6 mile run. He would go and have a cup of tea, and we would slog up and down a muddy hillside for an hour. In the winter it was cross country running and rugby football. In the summer it was cricket. And cross country running.

The subjects I loved most at school were Art and Music. Because I was a boy (and the last time I looked I still am) I was allowed to do all 3 sciences, but only one out of music and art. For the girls, it was compulsory for them to do both Art and Music, but they were only allowed to do 2 sciences. How unfair was that? These were in the days before the National Curriculum, when each school could decide its own rules.

I actually figured it out for myself in my penultimate year. I realised that music was scheduled at the same time on a Thursday morning as PE. I talked privately to the music teacher, a liberal American guy who was very cool with the idea of me sitting in the back during his lessons. So I mitched off from PE and attended music instead. I was marked absent for 2 full years, and no-one batted an eyelid. I suspect they knew all along what I was doing, and as long as I was in school, no-one seemed to mind. I wasn't being a truant. I was just being selectively extra-curricular.

On Friday I visited South Dartmoor Community College to find out how they using ICT in their subject teaching. I had meetings with both the head of PE and the Advanced Skills Teacher for Art - my least and most favourite subjects. Both teachers, within the confines of their respective subjects, were driving an innovative and creative ICT agenda. In Art, the students were involved in a number of start-stop animation and photography projects, and amongst other things were also discovering the joys of light painting. In PE, the teachers were using a number of advanced software packages and Flip style cameras to capture and playback students' athletic performances. The strobe effect in Dartfish for example was being used to capture and display multiple images of dancing, gymnastic, bowling and jumping sports to show students how they could improve their performances. Both subject areas are benefiting greatly from these ICT uses at South Dartmoor, and they have other very interesting projects involving their Moodle VLE also. It was clear to see how all of these uses of technology were having an impact on the quality of learning.

I left the school reflecting on how far secondary education has come since I was at school. If they'd had ICT tools like that when I was at school, I would definitely have turned up to a few more PE lessons.

Related posts:

South Dartmoor School (Bernhard Standl)

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Just a game?

I met with some very impressive young people yesterday during my visit to a local secondary school. I was visiting Saltash.Net Community School with one of my Austrian research colleagues to see how the school is using e-learning approaches and harnessing Web 2.0 tools. In my opinion, Saltash is one of the most innovative schools in the country, which is underlined by the amount of national awards it has been given recently. Around the table at lunch, in the Headteacher's office, we sat eating pizza and drinking fruit juice with five year 10 students. The talk inevitably turned to internet games (I actually initiated this part of the conversation) and suddenly the students because very animated. They enthused over Farmville, the Sims and other long games and talked about how much they enjoyed playing them.

I asked them what they actually learned from playing games such as Farmville. They didn't miss a beat. One bright young lad said that he learned how to organise his time and make better schedules to plough ground, sow seeds and reap crops. 'If you don't time it perfectly, your crops die' he said. Another student said that to organise her time and calculate how much she was earning and spending on Farmville, she used a spreadsheet alongside the game. This taught her how to plan for expenditure and calculate how much she could expand her farm next time. I think she is also learning how to integrate tools together to amplify her learning. Time management, organisation, planning - these are clearly very important skills that can be applied to formal learning activities.

The teachers in the room were clearly interested in these views and I could see them trying to work out how to capitalise on the affordances of these popular games in the classroom. In other words, they were interested in taking the power and attraction of informal learning tools and harnessing or leveraging them within formal learning contexts. It's the Holy Grail of education - and it's not easy.

I read a very interesting blog post entitled 10 things I learned from Farmville about real life farming which included such gems as 'looking after your neighbours' - that is, collaborative working. I'm sure there are a huge number of transferrable life skills children can acquire tacitly from games like Farmville and The Sims, including planning, time management, problem solving and coping with disappointment. Such games are often maligned by some teachers and parents as a 'waste of time' and children do, if allowed, play for long periods of time on such games. But doesn't that tell us something about the power of these tools to engage, enthrall and educate? How can we harness this power in the classroom - that is the question...

Related posts:

The Professor, the Pizza and Farmville (Dan Roberts)

Saltash School (Bernhard Standl)

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Taking steps

It's jolly decent of the IGI Global folks to promote my blog and academic profile right here on their home page. Several of my chapters have appeared in recent IGI books, and I'm getting some visitor traffic from their website direct to my blog now. They have an acceptable (won't scare the kids or evoke emetic responses) picture of me up on their site, and a nice resume of my academic activities. I would like to point out one thing however. My workplace - the University of Plymouth - is not located in the USA, it's in England.

When I went to the USA for a trip about 10 years ago, a young lad asked me where I was from. I said 'Plymouth.' 'Gee', he replied, 'is your home town named after the one we have in Minnesota?' 'Er...', I said, slightly nonplussed, 'I think Plymouth, England was first by one or two years...'

Look, if you're ever in my neighbourhood, I will take you to the very spot where the Pilgrim Fathers set sail for the New World in the Mayflower in 1620. Well I would, if I was of the female variety. (It's no more than a mile away from where I'm sat typing this. It's in the ladies toilet of a Barbican pub about 30 metres back from the so called Mayflower Steps). The picture above is of the fake steps, which were put there to thrill the tourists. They can't possibly be the original steps, because back in the time of the Mayflower, the water was several metres back from where it is today. All that remains of the original steps (so I am told) is a flagstone on the floor of the ladies lavatory in the Admiral MacBride pub.

See? You get an education coming to this site! Oh, and by the way.... this is my 500th blogpost. Ain't I the busy one, huh?

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