One Laptop per Child: Spreading Education Through Technology

By: Jon Durden

Computers and Internet access are modern conveniences that many of Western nations take for granted, but almost impossible to obtain in developing economies. One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has a plan to change that. OLPC is an organization dedicated to giving laptops to children in developing nations who might otherwise never experience such technology.

This device is more than just a laptop, it is both an e-reader and a gaming platform. The screen actually flips backwards and turns the laptop into a tablet. While in tablet mode, the screen switches to monochrome-mode, which makes it easy to read in direct sunlight and reduces its power consumption. A directional-pad and buttons located on either side of the screen may be used to flip pages, or they may be used to play video games while the device is in tablet-mode.

These laptops are more than just a cool toy—providing low-cost computers means providing access to education. OLPC has already delivered laptops to several countries, despite being only a few years old. Over two million laptops have been donated to several countries, such as: India, Paraguay, Madagascar, Nepal, Kenya, Afganistan, Uganda, and more. OLPC is connecting youth to the Internet and showing them a greater world.

Sierra Express Media (SEM) gives a real-world example regarding the benefits of providing these laptops to women of Uganda. In Uganda, women are largely ignored by the educational system. According to SEM: “Giving the little children the opportunity to see what their counterparts in other parts of the world are capable of achieving, via the Internet, should be enough of an incentive to make real progress.” By exposing them to a world where women are able to receive an education and become successful, they have the ability to realize their true potential.

The goal of the Global Text Project is to provide free textbooks to everyone in the world. These textbooks are available online, so without initiatives like OLPC our reach would be limited by a country's ability to access the Internet. The XO laptop will not only grant students access to our resources, but it will allow them to read the other digital material, should printing be too expensive or unavailable. Through our combined efforts, we have come one step closer to our goal of providing access to education around the world.

Resources:

http://one.laptop.org/

http://www.sierraexpressmedia.com/archives/19647

Jon Durden is s a junior at the University of Georgia. He is studying New Media and working towards an B.A. in English.

Keeping OER Accountable

By: Rebecca Arnall

In any worthwhile enterprise, accountability is crucial. Open Education Resources, or OER, should be no exception. With the growing mass of resources available through OER, it is becoming more important that a standard of reliability be enforced. While most of the Global Text Project's textbooks have been previously published and/or peer-reviewed, this is not always the case with OER materials. Some questions that need to be addressed are: how can a reader know whether the open education resources they choose are current (is the country of Czechoslovakia in the text?), who has created the resource, and has it been peer-reviewed before publishing?

Though currently no such thing exists, a possible solution is to establish an overarching accreditation system for OER resources. I am not sure exactly how this would happen, yet as more and more OER organizations collaborate with one another, the idea is becoming more of a reality.

One such collaborator is the Community College Consortium for Open Educational Resources (CCCOER).Teaming up with College Open Textbooks, the organization provides its own accreditation system, complete with over 150 institutions in 16 states (see: CCCOER members list ). Their strategy is: “providing training for instructors adopting open resources, peer reviews of open textbooks, and mentoring online professional networks that provide support to authors who open their resources.” With a continuing emphasis on quality resources and peer-reviews, this organization has created a network of academics that can help identify textbooks and provides guidelines for others to produce reliable resources.

According to a UNESCO forum that was held in May 2010, there was discussion about acquiring some kind of auditing or accrediting systems like this since 2004. Although helpful ideas were presented in these forums, (read the summary report here: UNESCO forum) there has been no implementation.

Of course, there is no easy solution to this situation. Any new development will take time, but it is certainly a problem worth reflecting upon.

Rebecca Arnall is a sophomore at the University of Georgia. She working towards her B.A. in English and is an active member of the Demostenian Literary Society.

Questioning eligibility for US federal OER funding

By Jon Durden with Marisa Drexel

In the US, the government just made a huge commitment to the OER community. The US Department of Labor announced a solicitation for grant applications that will award two billion dollars in US federal funding to OER programs working to improve higher education.

The Department of Labor's solicitation in Section III. A., states, “Eligible institutions are institutions of higher education as defined in Section 102 of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1002) which offer programs that can be completed in not more than 2 years.”

This grant solicitation is a sign that the government has decided to embrace open textbooks. However, I am concerned that limiting funding to community colleges may not fully utilize the whole OER community. Some four-year institutions have OER programs already in place. The Global Text Project working through the University of Georgia is such an example. Other institutions also maintain resources like OpenCourseWare and digital repositories. Are two-year institutions going to build programs from the ground up when there are strong foundations or programs already housed at four-year institutions?

In the grant solicitation, eligibility is available for “consortia” to work with two-year institutions, but that generates even more questions in my head. Will the OER community be able to work together effectively enough so that program development will not be redundant and the money will not be wasted? Or, are eligibility demands stifling the effectiveness of government money?

At present, it just seems unfortunate to know that UGA's Global Text Project cannot immediately participate. Maybe we will find out more collaboration soon.

Regardless of my own queries and GTP's interests, a government pledge like this is truly commendable. It aligns with the Global Text Project's goal to make textbooks available to everyone. If this sort of funding model initiates more interest and the promotion of OER (in the US and around the world), in the future everyone will have better access to higher education.

For more information see:

Department of Labor's news release (http://www.dol.gov/opa/media/press/eta/eta20101436.htm),

Jan. 20, 2011 Creative Commons blog that included PDF program announcement (https://creativecommons.org/weblog/entry/26100)

Jon Durden is a junior at the University of Georgia. He is studying New Media and working towards an B.A. in English.

The impact of GTP on me

By Desiree White

Global Text Project's work is beneficial to those who cannot afford an education and I could tell you all about the pleasant feelings associated with making a difference in someone else's life, but I know you've heard that before. Instead, I want to tell you about what its like to be a twenty-something graduating into a globally depressed economy and what impact the Global Text Project has had.

I took on this internship with Global Text Project due to personal interests in the Open Education movement and technology. While I enjoy working with GTP and working with the production staff to put out more and more textbooks for use, I'd honestly never considered working in the publishing industry.

Although I have a semester left, my chance of getting a job initially seemed grim. I have bolstered myself by double majoring, but neither of my majors are in high demand. As graduation nears, nothing short of ongoing waves of semi-latent panic attacks persisted until I made a rather startling discovery.

As I started looking into ads for jobs in editorial or publishing industries, I was pleasantly surprised to find myself quite prepared. Many entry level positions wanted a BA, preferably in English (Check!), computer skills (as the current computer dork among the editorial assistants, check!), and at least a year of editorial experience (CHECK! I'll have a year and a half when I graduate). Suddenly the future doesn't seem so bleak, especially given that my year of editorial experience involves textbooks–and not just any textbooks! These are used internationally. That's a definite edge over a yearbook or a local paper or magazine because it adheres to higher standards of correct information and standardized formatting.

In addition, its a grand slam on the community service front because our books are free for anyone and downloaded all over the world. Between working with the social media and tracking the locations of people involved for a marketing project, I can list a plethora of places associated with GTP. I owe GTP so much for calming some of these coming-of-age fears and I can't wait to see what next semester brings as a production manager.

Look out publishing industry, here I come!

Goodbye to GTP! (an intern looking forward)

Do you worry that you wont find enough opportunities to intern as an English major? I certainly did, but luckily I stumbled upon an amazing project, which began my short but important internship as an editorial assistant. I first became involved with the Global Text Project the spring of my sophomore year. Fortunately for me, the Global Text Project was piloting an internship program for university students. I was so proud after I was accepted into the program since I was quite young and inexperienced. For 2 semesters, I worked with Marisa Drexel and three other interns. For each of us, it was the first semester working with the project. We quickly learned each others working habits and perfected our ability to function as a team. The intimate setting and close connections I have made with the other interns helped me learn how to be a better leader and a better collaborator.

This small yet motivated group accomplished so much within a year. The most important lesson I have learned while interning at the Global Text Project is that you cannot be just a leader or solely a follower. At GTP, we work so intimately that it is almost impossible to sit back and fade into the background, which is why this project is so unique in what it offers interns. Every intern's opinion matters, and everyday each of us must be willing to give 110 per cent to complete all of our assignments. Some days one of us needs a helping hand, and someone's initiative to step in and give assistance allows the project to stay on track. You never know if you will be the person to help or the one who needs help, but no matter what we work together to finish the job. This atmosphere of team work and constant collaboration becomes contagious within the project. We lift each other up so we have nowhere else to go but forward.

Now, I myself am moving forward to intern with a literary agency. Working with the Global Text Project has opened up new opportunities for me and has helped me grow in multiple aspects. I do not think I could have achieved the literary internship without my experience at Global Text. An internship with this project does more then just resume-building, it teaches young students how to work and succeed within a real office environment. I owe so much to the project, and specifically to Marisa Drexel, our intern supervisor. She went above and beyond to teach us so much about future careers and expectations. Thanks Global Text! I hope I gave back to the project as much as it gave to me!

Edit the world

By Kristyna Mauch

Editors improve everything, or so my teacher told me while taking a journalism class at the University of Georgia. It wasn't long until I realized my teacher was right.

Many times I have walked by signs and other public advertisements and caught errors. To me, a misspelling here or a misuse of grammar there completely compromises the sign's message, even the company's reputation. The fact that I noticed these small but careless errors gave me the idea that I needed to do something about it. I needed to improve what the world reads everyday. To reach this sizable goal, I have been working to improve my own editing skills knowing that anyone can be reading with a skeptical eye, like mine.

However, this journey to improvement has comically hindered my ability to enjoy some of the little things in life. Love letters lose their enchantment if a word is misspelled. Chick-fil-A advertisements (the southern-based US fast food restaurant where cartoon cows advertise eating “mor” chicken) never cease to annoy me, and my need to constantly edit makes reading for pleasure much less pleasurable.

Nevertheless my joy for putting words together, outweighs the heavy burden of others' written indiscretions. You see, I recognize changing the world through editing is a hard burden to bear, but somebody's got to do it! That is why I spent the last year working with the Global Text Project.

Interning as an editorial assistant with the project, I not only trained to become a better editor, I learned about higher education around the world. I learned not to take my education for granted and more importantly I learned to give back. Working with textbooks everyday that will give others the opportunity to work towards a college education makes giving my time and talents all worth while.

The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) says: “The more you know the more you grow.” Giving people the tools to educate themselves to create a better world is a valuable endeavor. I'll be graduating from the University of Georgia this December and soon be using my talents elsewhere, but I know I have made a worldwide impact from the small Global Text Project office at UGA. I am honored to be part of a grass roots effort to create education free to all.

As for myself, editing online textbooks is just the beginning. I hope to continue to improve this world, one editorial error at a time.

Looking forward to 2011

By Tessa Greenleaf

The University of Georgia is all a blur with the onslaught of finals and the conclusion of yet another semester in Athens. Students are gearing up for the holidays as classes are winding down, but here at Global Text Project we are just getting ready to start a new year.

Although the rest of campus may be settling in for the winter, Global Text has been working hard to set up next semester's training schedule for our new interns. The past few weeks we have hosted an information session about internships at GTP, accepted and reviewed student resumés, and conducted interviews for new positions in the office. All that hard work gave us three new interns who will begin office hours in January of this coming year.

This past year has been a whirlwind of a learning experience for me at GTP. Although I have learned a great deal about the world of electronic publication, the most valuable lessons have been those that taught me about working in leadership as well as group positions. Our team on campus is a close-knit group of interns who work together in very close quarters–literally, you should see our office. Every day we come in to work is one more day we have to learn to work together as a team rather than as individuals.

As we embark on training new interns for next semester the importance of teamwork grows with each passing day. Scheduling training sessions and around five student schedules is no easy feat, so we all have to be a bit flexible when it comes to managing our time. Despite the difficulties of organizing five schedules, I am excited to begin working with our new interns, showing them the ropes of GTP and teaching them the importance of what we do here.

More than a textbook publisher, Global Text Project is an initiative that is based on teamwork and collaboration from every aspect of the project. As interns we have to work with one another in order to meet textbook deadlines just as textbook authors must work with us in order to publish their books. GTP is all about teamwork. As we welcome our new interns, I look forward to getting to know them and learn how they will contribute to the project not only as individuals but as a part of a new team of interns. As individuals we all work differently, and it is always interesting and exciting to see how group dynamics change when new people are introduced into the equation. For the first time there will be three tiers of workers in the GTP office: the associate editor, production managers, and student interns. This will be a new and exciting dynamic in the office, one I am looking forward to experiencing.

This coming semester marks the beginning of my work with a fellow intern as we become production managers. As production managers we will be overseeing training and organizing work schedules for the newly hired student interns. No longer will we merely be showing up for our shifts in the office, we will now be responsible for delegating assignments to other people. Our workloads will be different from the ones we have had this past year, and I think I speak for the both of us when I say that we are thrilled to be able to be a part of training a part of the next generation of GTP workers.

On behalf of Global Text Project, happy holidays! See you next year.