Ad-free Web 2.0 services for education, do we need that?

Wetpaint is an interesting platform to start your own online community website. It provides a set of great features, such as: wiki, video, photo, discussion board, membership, etc. coming in a package, where we can easily customize for our own purposes.

Webpaint is not only good for entertainment purposes, but also for education purposes. Teachers can easily manage their courses on their Webpaint websites. Using Webpaint is like using a simple web 2.0 Moodle or Blackboard platform.

Yet, one of the current major concerns of using Webpaint for education is their policy on Google advertisements. Their services are still “free”, but as users, you have to bear with uncontrolled Google ads on your free websites. Although I personally have not experienced any ”inappropriate” ads on my websites, I often come across some “irrelevant” ads on others and mine. In addition, having commercial ads on the education websites can sometimes be annoying.

Before August 2009, they offered completely free advertisement services, but apparently they also need to make money at some point to survive. Off course, if you don’t want the Google ads, you can have them removed from your websites for US$20/month. US$20/month for removing ads on a website can be insignificant for some people, but at the same time it can be a burden for those who pay less for their monthly Internet service.

The Rising of Home-based e-Learning

Going to school everyday has widely become a norm for getting an education, especially a basic education. Although homeschooling has become more and more popular, the mindset of most people about schooling is still about physical existence and learning activities inside the school building. Especially in Asia, it is often unacceptable if the children only stay and study from home.

I recently read an interesting article about the plan of many schools in Singapore to organize e-learning activities should the Influenza A (H1N1) outbreak worsens.

This is a superb initiative considering the possibilities of having your kids infected to the H1N1 virus from their friends or teachers during their time at theschool. With this scheme, no children will be left behind in their learning activities whether they are sick or well.

My concern is the readiness of the children, teachers, parents and school system to handle with this matter. Although several schools have already employed ICT in their learning activities and the general ICT literacy level has been increasing these days, there are still a lot of stakeholders involved, who might not have got their hands comfortable yet with e-Learning system and ideas.

I presume those schools will take into consideration the system that they are going to use, the methods of delivering the lessons, the activities to engage students in learning, the ICT literacy of the students, teachers and especially parents, who will be sitting next to their children and helping them in their learning process day-to-day.

ICT for tertiary education in Indonesia

Graduates who can utilise their knowledge and contribute to their community is the result of a successful education. The success requires a combination of several factors, such as active and positive participation from educational staff and students, the organisational maturity of educational institution and the practice of suitable educational methodologies.

In some highly-populated developing countries, such as Indonesia, tertiary, undergraduate and postgraduate education may become an exclusive, and often expensive experience for many people. Public educational institutions, which are usually subsidized by government, often fail to accommodate all prospective students due to insufficient capacity. In addition, the alternative of enrolling in a private educational institution is often hampered by high tuition fees.

From the stand point of educational organisations, the ratio of educational staff to students is often very low, due to the stagnant growth in the number of educational staff. This condition often results in more tasks and responsibilities for the educational staff and less opportunities to update and improve their skills and knowledge.

In Indonesia, the use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Universitas terbuka (Open University) has opened up some potential educational opportunities, such as:
● Acquiring, updating and improving skills and knowledge while earning a living
● Distance education
● Cooperation with some other educational institutions
● Multidisciplinary knowledge sharing and building

In developing countries, such as Indonesia, the main prohibitive factors for this approach include the followings:
● Lack of sufficient infrastructure
● Low quality educational materials
● Untrained human resources

Mobile Learning (m-Learning)

For the past few years, during my work in the field of mobile learning (m-Learning), people frequently asked about the meaning of mobile learning, how it is different from the usual educational practices and also its comparison with e-learning.

The answer has never been simple.

During the Internet boom era, people started to talk about e-Learning. e-Learning is a process of learning, which is not limited to physical places, due to the possibility of having virtual presence. Tutors and students could be present in different physical places while participating in a learning process. Learning materials are usually available in the forms of electronic documents and multimedia.

Nonetheless, e-Learning has never been a hit in developing countries, mostly due to the limited infrastructure for accessing the Internet.

Mobile learning is about to change this state of affairs.

Most people in any part of the world regardless of age, socio-economical status and background are the loyal users of mobile technology, in particular mobile phones. It is often more convenient for people in developing countries, such as Indonesia, to access mobile features than the Internet through fixed and often costly infrastructure.

In mobile learning, mobility is a key aspect. Learning activities are no longer limited to physical classroom interaction. With a high degree of mobility, mobile learning process is more apparent as some socio-cultural activities than a learning process based on text-books and experts (teachers, lecturers or tutors).

Consequently, mobile interaction should support learning activities that are more contextual than the usual classroom or e-Learning practices.

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools, such as mobile phones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and tablet PCs, should play an important role in a framework that supports learning activities. For example, the use of Push-to-talk (PTT) service could make group communication in learning easier.

With all the mobile learning potentials in the horizon, it is difficult to ignore that mobile telecommunication service cost and mobile usability remain the main barriers of mobile learning.