[LINK] Online education

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

> "Revolution Hits the Universities"
> 
> Imagine how this might change U.S. foreign aid. 
> 
> For relatively little money, the U.S. could rent space in an Egyptian 
> village, install 24 computers and high-speed satellite Internet access,
> hire a local teacher as a facilitator, and invite in any Egyptian who
> wanted to take online courses with the best professors in the world, 
> subtitled in Arabic. 


"New initiative to provide free, open access, high-quality education 
materials in Arabic, with a focus on science and technology."

By George Moon, 4th February 2013 <http://www.nature.com/news/>


The outgoing US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, last week launched a 
project that will lower obstacles to scientific education for Arabic-
speaking people across the world.

In one of her last acts as America's top diplomat, Clinton launched the 
Open Book Project (OBP), which will make high-quality educational 
resources freely available online and in the Arabic language.

The OBP – a joint initiative between the Arab League Educational, 
Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO) and the US State 
Department – will focus mainly on science and technology.

Clinton said that the architects of the project hoped that by broadening 
access to information, people precluded from information by poverty or 
distance would be more likely to benefit. 

"Our hope is to lower geographic, economic, and even gender-based 
barriers to learning," she said at the project's launch in Washington.

Open educational resources (OER) can be accessed by anyone connected to 
the Internet. The content can be text, multimedia or audio-visual. 

The most notable come from universities, such as the Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology's (MIT) Open Courseware and also not-for-profit 
organisations, like the online education site, Khan Academy.

Materials in the programme will be released under an open licence, 
meaning creators or copyright holders are allowing it to be adapted and 
reused. Under this arrangement materials can be freely downloaded, 
printed and distributed.

The deputy assistant secretary for press and public diplomacy in the Near 
Eastern Affairs Bureau, Richard Schmierer, says the project was set up to 
respond to calls from students in the Arab world. "They have often noted 
concerns about the cost, quality, and availability of textbooks, and 
especially the fact that very few texts are available in science and 
technology fields," he says. "This programme addresses these concerns 
directly."

The OBP material, Schmierer explains, will only be available online 
initially but there are plans for distribution in other media.

Challenges

Richard Rowe, director of the Open Learning Exchange who has established 
OER initiatives in Rwanda, Ghana and Nepal, says the traditional Arabic 
publishing industry may raise concerns about threats posed to its 
survival by free access.

"At first, the reaction seems to be that this is 'a nice thing'," Rowe 
says. "But now, as it seems to be taking hold and has the potential to 
affect the traditional publishing industry, resistance is growing to the 
idea that certain kinds of learning resources should be freely available."

However, regardless of resistance from publishers or potential cultural 
barriers, the fate of such initiatives will ultimately be determined by 
political will, he says. "That decision will be heavily influenced, not 
so much by the social benefits of this approach but by who speaks with 
whom in the hallways of governments."
--

Cheers,
Stephen