The OLE team is working closely with Ministry officials to develop a pilot project for introducing the Shuttleworth  k-12 open source courseware to Rwanda.   This will include adapting the Shuttleworth curriculum content for local Rwandan conditions and standards, preparing teachers to use the courseware effectively, providing ongoing in-service support for the teachers in their schools and assessing the effectiveness of this approach in improving the quality of basic education in Rwanda.

Rwanda is deeply committed to employing Information and Communications Technologies (ICT’s) in virtually every aspect of their society and economy.  The long awaited SeaCom undersea fiber optic cable was placed into operation in Kenya this past week.  It connects East and South Africa to the rest of the world by a huge highspeed Internet link.  In Rwanda the SeaCom cable will be connected to a fiber optic network that is being laid throughout the country.   The government has announced that it will provide every school in the country with a broadband connection in the next two years.   They have said they intend to become “the Singapore” of Africa.

“I am extraordinarily impressed with the strength of the commitment in Rwanda to major improvements in basic education,” said Dr. Rowe.  “It is impressive how much the country has changed in the past few years, especially given the violence that ravaged the country just a few years ago.  The mood here combines a sense optimism with a determination to implement their ideas quickly and effectively.  Nearly half of the population is under 20 years of age, making their education a cruciald part of Rwanda’s future.”

OLE Rwanda is seeking the support of the government for this project with the understanding that they will expand it significantly if there is evidence that it is a cost-effective approach.  The OLE International team will return later this week, via Dubai, to North America.

Modeled after Consumer Reports, each innovation in the Review will include a narrative report describing the innovation, its demonstrations and the outcomes from those demonstrations.  Each review will highlight the evidence that a given innovation is effective for a given purpose in a given setting.  Reviews will include overall approaches to learning, specific subject matter course materials and information and computer technologies that are appropriate for basic learning.

A key feature will be a summary template with standardized ratings covering several dimensions of the innovation including results related to students, teachers, parents, community and the nation. This will enable users to compare the relative effectiveness of different innovations.   Each review will also provide an estimate of the total cost per student and the scalability of the innovation.

Rabi Kamacharya, Executive Director of OLE Nepal, opened the meeting by describing in some detail their current pilot project.   OLE Nepal is conducting a demonstration project in two rural Nepalese schools where they have provided the 130 students in the third and sixth grades personal laptops that they use in school and take home with them every day. Rabi reported that one of the biggest surprises of the pilot was the fact that, so far, over the nine months of the pilot, none of the laptops had been lost or stolen and few have experienced any technical failures. Both schools have been provided access to the Internet, which greatly enhances the value of the laptops.

Rabi reported that, in addition to the students, the teachers, parents and elders of both villages are highly enthusiastic about the pilot and have offered to invest some of their own village funds to expand the program to more of their children. The students bring their laptops to school every morning and place them in a recharging dock OLE Nepal designed and built.   School attendance is up and they expect to see improved scores on the standard tests that will be given next March at the end of the school year.  They expect improvements to be especially marked in English where, for the first time, teachers and students can hear and understand oral English as native English speakers speak it.  OLE Nepal is busy developing more curricula for the primary grades in cooperation with the government’s national Curriculum Development Center and is exploring ways to expand the program next year to more schools.    The Danish IT Society, the Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) and private foundations are supporting OLE Nepal.

Leaders attending the meeting included Rabi Kamacharya (Nepal), Jacques Murinda (Rwanda), Mariel Feliz (Dominican Republic), Jean Saint Vil (Haiti), Yama Ploskonka and Claudia Munoz-Reyes (Bolivia).  Members from OLE International included Robyn Gordon (Regional Coordinator), Joseph Rappa (Chief Education Officer), James Krzywicki (Chief Operations Officer), Tom Coats (Development), Christopher Rowe (Technology) and Richard Rowe.  They used Skype audio conferencing as a low cost way to share their experiences and learning.  Each of the OLE Center leaders submitted a written report on their Center’s status and plans, using a GoogleDoc wiki that was set up for that purpose.  That enabled the meeting to focus on discussions among the leaders about matters arising from those materials.  Subsequent reports here will summarize the developments of other OLE Centers.

At the end of the meeting the OLE leaders said they found the meeting of great value and expressed the desire to have additional such meetings on a regular basis.  They also asked OLE International to plan a face-to-face OLE Leaders’ meeting as early as possible in 2009.  Plans for such a meeting are underway, subject to our finding sufficient funding for such a meeting.    [submitted by RRRowe]

The conference takes place annually with the goal of developing eLearning capacities in Africa. It is the largest gathering of eLearning and distance education professionals in Africa. In 2007 the event attracted 1046 participants from 88 countries. eLearning Africa enables participants to develop multinational and cross-industry contacts and partnerships.

Read more about the conference at http://elearning-africa.com/

On Tuesday, April 8 Director Feliz Peralta met with the Mayor and school Administrators in Lawrence to discuss the development of the OLE Dominican Republic program. The Director of the City Music program at Berklee College of Music also attended and expressed great interest in establishing a City Music program in the Dominican Republic that would be associated with the OLE initiative.

Additional contacts with both the City of Lawrence and the Dominican Republic are scheduled for early in May, leading to a public presentation to the Lawrence School Committee. A memorandum of agreement has already been signed by Superintendent Laboy. As a result of the meeting, Director Feliz Peralta is collecting and forwarding the Dominican Republic’s Educational Standards and Assessments, and discussing the possibility identifying an OLE Board of Directors as well as approaching several notable leaders in Santo Domingo who may serve as the national OLE Executive Director. Due to ongoing activities in the Dominican Republic and the strong support of Ambassador Santana Silvestre, the likelihood of establishing a board and identifying a local director is high.

The Dominican Republic OLE will benefit from work currently being done in OLE Nepal. There is great interest in using laptop computers as a platform for connecting teachers and learners in at least four urban areas around the country: Santo Domingo, Santiago, Puerto Plata, and one other location. Each of these project sites would coordinate through OLE to develop, apply, evaluate and share educational programs, applications, activities and results.

The interest and potential involvement of Berklee College, through its City Music program, is an additional attractive element that could result in a national program akin to the Cultural Digital Hot Spots being developed in Brazil by Minister of Culture Gilberto Gil. This combination of existing elements, people and activities of mutual interest with the support of national and local officials at the highest level gives OLE Dominican Republic the potential to be a highly successful site and a springboard for future OLE activities throughout Central and South America.

Joe Rappa, Consultant and Regional Coordinator, Latin America