OER ACHIEVEMENTS, CHALLENGES, AND NEW OPPORTUNITIES
expensive, are offered with affordable pay-per-use service models, and offer immediate livelihood and welfare benefits. But the utility of voice, the appeal of digital photography and video, and widespread illiteracy or semi-literacy favor phones as well. As a result, close to 2.5 billion people in developing countries will own a mobile phone within five years, and a larger number will have shared access to a phone, a potential “market” for massification of education in both school and non-school contexts.
Phones are evolving technologically as well, gaining e-mail, web-browsing, video, and Wi-Fi or other broadband Internet access capabilities. Within five years, the typical mobile phone is likely to have the processing power of today’s PC. Thus for the vast majority of people in developing countries, their PC and Internet access device will be a mobile phone, a handheld computer or a hybrid of these devices, such as the new Apple iPhone, whose high-profile marketing efforts and design qualities are likely to spur momentum, competition, and a great deal of attention. At the moment, this phone–PC convergence is concentrated on high-end users and high prices, but that is likely to change well within five years, driven in part by the huge volume of potential users in developing countries.
Hence it is important for Hewlett to consider how this platform, with its emphasis on voice, images, video, and interactive short messaging, can serve the needs of education. How should the commercial approach translate to this new platform? Should broadband phones function simply as a source of connectivity for traditional classroom curricula, or can they play a broader role, enabling more interactive educational approaches? How can industry take advantage of the widespread use of mobile phones to deliver educational resources—including language training and courses in basic technical skills such as accounting, outside the classroom environment—enabling a wider group of people to upgrade their employability?
We encourage the reader to also read the paper by Hammond in the Appendix, “The Realities of Information and Communication Technology in Developing Region and Implications for OER Initiatives.”
3.2.4 Rich Media, Virtual Environments, and Gaming
Students growing up digital approach learning quite differently from prior generations. Yes, their attention span is limited, but their multitasking capabilities allow them to switch contexts nearly instantly. They are comfortable with jumping into a situation or a topic not knowing ahead of time what they need to know to succeed. In that sense, they expect to discover or uncover knowledge as they explore a domain. They don’t expect to be told by an authority to read a manual. Sink or swim is their coin of the day. Although this sounds chaotic, they use social resources and the Net to navigate their way through a complex situation. They learn from and with their peers as much as
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