by Neha Mehta
Male Students Enjoying the Mobile Devices
Female Students with Mobile Devices
We visited the teachers at Nangwanda Secondary School in Newala last week so we could begin to understand how they teach their students and what issues they face in that process. Some of the issues they face here are startling: large class sizes ranging from 45-75 students each; limited number of teachers, only 13 teachers available to teach a school of over 600 students; minimal access to textbooks; and lack of reliable electricity. In fact, we ourselves lost power last night when preparing for the week’s sessions but were lucky enough to find a generator to charge our laptops, ad hoc servers, and mobile phones. It would have been interesting conducting a mobile technology workshop without any mobile devices!
Today, we began our 9-day project of two workshops per day consisting of 65 to 75 students each. The students ranged from grades 8 through 9. The wonder and excitement plastered their faces as we handed each group their phone were alone worth the 19-hour flight here from the US. Within the first 20 minutes and with a good measure of trial and error, they had a reasonable grasp of the mechanical functions of the phone that many of us take for granted such as: how to turn the phone on; unlock it by swiping their finger across the screen; use the camera to take pictures; and type words in the text box using the on-screen keyboard. It was remarkable to watch how quickly students began to learn how to use the phones, especially since most of them have never seen a touch-screen smartphone before in their lives.
After the workshop, when asked if she had fun today one of the students replied softly, “We have had a lot of fun because today we learned things we did not know before.”
by Neha Mehta
What impact can education have on a country, a city, a village, a family, a child? And what impact can an educated child have on their family, their village, their city, their country, and the world? These are some of the questions Blackboard seeks to ask, understand, and answer through Project Activate.
Partnering with Seeds of Empowerment, a non-profit organization developed through Stanford University, Blackboard is spending 2 weeks in rural Tanzania to understand the educational imperatives in a region very different from that shaped our beginnings. We will work with 140 students in grades 8-9 in Newala, a rural town in the Mtwara region of southern Tanzania, to introduce them to different mediums of learning technology. Our goal is simple and may sound familiar: To significantly improve students’ education experience through the use of easily accessible mobile devices and applications.
Students in Tanzania
Students Participating in Project Activate 2012
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by Chad Kainz
It is a question often asked during budget season and all too often, it crops up during a conversation that involves the learning management system. I know, I’ve been there and provided an answer to one of my former provosts. But upon further reflection, did I answer his real question?
As a former head of academic computing, I sought answers to the provost’s value question in data. I tracked adoption and utilization of all services I could measure, and not just the LMS. I cross-correlated computing lab logins with LMS traffic, media classroom use with electronic reserves, bandwidth consumption with faculty digital media support volume, and so on. What the data provided was a sense of return on investment: quantifiable measures that reflected short-to-medium benefit. But in terms of value, the data didn’t get to the heart of my provost’s question. (more…)
by Joanna Brooks
Internships have always been viewed as a great way for students to put concepts learned in class into practice and develop practical skills that cannot be taught in a classroom. However, what was once viewed as a nice-to-have is now becoming an integral step towards achieving post-graduate success. More and more employers say that having real-world experience on your resume is crucial to getting a job in today’s ever competitive job market.
Consider these staggering statistics:
- According to a recent study for Michigan State University, ninety percent of new hires will have had work-related experiences prior to entering the workforce and some companies said that they would not even consider a candidate who lacked internship experience.
- In the National Association of Colleges and Employers Job Outlook 2010 survey, more than 75% of employers said they prefer candidates with relevant work experience while 16% said they prefer any type of work experience, relevant or not. (more…)
by Katie Drossos
“These kids that are digital natives – we just need to meet them where they’re at, and the reality is technology is where they’re at.”
Marc Ecko, fashion designer, entrepreneur, and founder of Sweat Equity Education (SEE), an education innovation organization, is working at the intersection of education, workforce development, and entrepreneurship. At SEE, Marc uses the technology that excites kids today and combines it with real-world projects that teach real-world skills. SEE is focused on re-engaging and re-invigorating at-risk students and young adults to help set them on a path for success – in school, in the workplace, or in launching their own businesses.
I had the pleasure of meeting Marc in his New York City office:
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