The situation today
The problems with
current technologies used in education are the obsessions with
beauty and sophistications of software, with the result that all
contents delivered today to students around the world are large
sized bulky modules. In order to deliver these modules to the
end users current commonly used platforms are offline CDs/DVDs
or online through Flash/Java etc.
The problems with current available platforms
The problems with these platforms, they are too
impractical and expensive to reach out to the rural poor or
remote areas to which lie the success or failures of ICT in mass
Education in every country on Earth.
The CDs/DVDs are too expensive to produce on a large scale and
the logistics to send these contents riding on this
platform nationwide are just impractical - even in developed
countries.
The only other current
alternative is the use of flash/Java online systems which are
very popularly used by most online education providers today.
Yes, such systems are fast and widely used and able to reach
those with good Internet broadband connections far and
wide. Dial ups using such systems are however problematic and
costly for prolonged use.
The question starts to crop up
is "Do rural areas in developing countries have good and
widespread broadband in city or rural areas? Even if they do
have broadband, can such systems be fast enough if the entire
student population log in at once? The answer is no. The speed
of access has proven to be very slow indeed as has happened in
certain countries.
UNESCO missing
the 2015 EFA target
Further evidence, is the known fact
that UNESCO may miss their target date for Education for all (EFA)
by the year 2015. This failure is not because of the people nor
the money but rather the use of rich men's platforms trying to
reach the poor men. EFA is about empowering the poor and hence
surely their objective would be impossible to achieve no matter
how much efforts and fund are put into the project. We have seen
many countries failed precisely because of these factors.
Is there any other more practical
platform?
So at the end of the day, both available options are not
practical platforms for delivery of digital educational
contents. What then is the solution? AGE is one such
able to provide a solution
AGE is a good and practical
solution
Yes, there is a platform to enable ICT
in mass education to be effected successfully. This is by using
our simple platform
AGE (acronym for All Genius Educator).
AGE is able to
able to send animated modules, very suitable for
understanding subjects quickly rather than plain html texts, to
almost every part of the country in seconds without broadband.
The modules downloaded, in seconds, can then be redistributed in
diskettes or pen drives to all in the area without the need for
Internet to run.
AGE is the culmination of 10 years of research and development
to find a solution to such inhibitions encountered from the days
Internet was introduce to this day-
bandwidth limitations.
It downloads AGE modules in seconds and runs offline. There is
no need for broadband anytime. It runs anywhere anytime. Even
the most remote areas with solar panels or hand cranked
computers can get run AGE easily. Refurbished legacy computers
too can run easily with minimum RAMs so long as the computer
runs Windows 9X or WinXPs.
AGE is able to create very small
sized modules that within seconds through a low speed dial
up, is able to deliver animated multimedia modules for
hours/days of usage.
What is the
secret?
AGE do sacrifice
some aspect of properties like reduced colors graphics, using
even legacy OS (like DOS) features to enable many space savings
features that resulted in a DOS/Windows platform to allow
animated multimedia modules to be delivered through slow speed
modems in seconds. AGE delivers in low kilobytes while others
deliver in megabytes.
AGE needs only seconds to download for hours of usage, others
hours of downloads seconds of usage.
Use in most remote
areas
With this capability, even the most remote areas can easily
have access to fully animated multimedia modules anytime and
anywhere at very low running costs. They can make use of simple
dial ups Internet links without having to incur huge costs. This
is because AGE modules need only seconds to download, and runs
offline for the entire community where AGE can be copied freely
and run offline. The cost is only a few seconds of the Internet
connection fees. As for the computers, even in areas without
electricity, the XO
(OLPCs
installed with WinXPs) computers with crank shaft
using muscle power can run the machines. These are extreme
examples to show AGE can reach out to anyone at minimal cost and
thus make any attempts to connect their entire nation a
possibility.
if one can reach out to the most remote, cities and other less
remote areas would be no problem.
So for the first time, implementing uniform ICT in mass
Education is now possible.
Students can
bring home their homework
When modules can be so easily copied
to pen drives or diskettes, such modules can be taken home and
completed by all students with ease. There is no technology
limitations since even diskettes can be used on legacy
computers. Such arrangements using current state of art software
are difficult and most often impossible. Students cannot bring
home their homework digitally easily.
Teachers are empowered digitally
without massive training in ICT
Teachers would be able to have access to commonly
produced modules and exchanged very easily using AGE E-workbook
generator provided freely to schools.
Other Benefits
Above are only a few of the massive number of benefits for users
of AGE. For more information on who benefits from using AGE
click
here
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