I am grateful for the opportunity to learn in this participatory, dialogue-based course.
I did more work for this class than all my others combined. This class offered very hands-on learning that was immediately applicable to my personal, academic, and career goals and plans.
What did I learn that I will put to work for me?
* Do the literature review early on and extensively (this includes emailing/talking to experts).
* Identify a critical question of which I'm prepared to become an expert in that key area.
* Research the donor/organization well and only proceed with a match.
* "Do Budget first," Wiley said. (Before narrative, justification, resumes, methodologies.)
* Work with team regularly. (Sort out roles, responsibilities, expectations.) Carve & share work.
* Have that crucial conversation. (Kicking people off the team.)
* If I hadn't had this class, I would not have: met with Aaron, met with ORCA, met with Dean Young, collaborated intimately with 4 professors, nor submitted the grant proposal to 3ie.
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Thursday, December 3, 2009
3 Dec 2009: FUNNEL & OTHER PARTS
DESCRIPTION OF OC4D INTERVENTION
Eliminating various forms of poverty is directly linked to improving opportunities for education in the developing world (UNDP, 2009). Despite this, over a billion people are still denied educational opportunity (OECD, 2009).
Rural poverty is exacerbated by significant obstacles (geographic, political, economic) which impede dissemination of information (HLCIT, 2009). If made accessible, this relevant knowledge could save millions and drastically improve well-being (WHO, 2009). 21st century Information Communication Technologies (ICT) add fresh insights to improving such crises.
Open Content for Development (OC4D) is designed to close this gap between rural people and access to critical information for improved problem solving. OC4D is a repository of open (non-commercial, shareable, localizable) educational resources (OER) containing basic education tools created by locals for locals in developing countries.
ProLiteracy Worldwide (PLW) facilitated South-South mentoring and focus group discussions during 1990-2000 in order to aggregate the most important critical content tools from sites facing similar dilemmas. OC4D seeks to increase access to relevant content for problem solving in developing countries by bolstering capacity of non-formal educators through localizable OER made available through existing rural technology centres.
OC4D builds on the OER principles to enable strategic, scalable and sustainable return-on-investment by: encouraging governments and philanthropists to freely release all funded content into the public domain; support NGOs to share content openly with each other; encourage educational institutions and research organizations to share content openly.
OC4D will sustain communities through a participatory, continuously growing, digital library akin to Wikipedia.
OC4D is the product of ProLiteracy in partnership with the Community Development Network (based in Oxford, UK). OC4D was piloted Summer 2009; the beta launch of OC4D is slated for May 2010 in Nepal. A second iteration is now in process with technical support from the OER Foundation (funded by Hewlett Foundation), WikiEducator, Community Development Network and Brigham Young University.
OC4D Components:
OC4D provides a localized content base freely available to the public. Key topics include: infectious diseases, health/hygiene, HIV/AIDS education, micro-enterprise, environmental conservation, and conflict resolution.
OC4D is built from this quality content (grassroots lesson-plans, codes, dialogue triggers, clarifying content) harvested from ProLiteracy Worldwide’s 70 partner NGOs located in 50 countries of Asia, Nepal, Latin America and Middle East.
Training tools (text/audio/video) are also available to build capacity of literacy facilitators and other change agents (e.g. health workers, agriculture extension agents, microloan officers) so they can better localize and share knowledge.
The content repository and training tools are available online and offline (flashdrives, CDs) for communities where connectivity is unreliable or nonexistent. OC4D will be advertised by facilitators and managers of rural telecentres to encourage use by teachers and learners across Nepal.
======
EVALUATION QUESTIONS
The central research question is: How does openness impact access to knowledge in Himalayan villages?
By these terms we mean:
Open = freely available, localizable, shareable
Access = available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable (Right to Education principles)
Knowledge = information easily understood and applied in daily problem solving
In general, this evaluation seeks to understand what impact the OC4D program might have in rural Himalayan villages that would not have occurred without the OC4D intervention with particular regard to:
(a) access to information through the OC4D interface (Component I)?
(b) capacity-building of non-formal educators through the OC4D program (Component II)?
(c) localization of OC4D content for improved problem solving in rural villages (Component III)?
Component I: Does the intervention improve access to educational information users need to solve local problems? Success indicators would include changes in terms of the following outcomes: quantity of hits on OC4D site, time on informational pages, demographics of user, frequency of use, and the breadth/depth of use.
Component II: Does the intervention enhance professional development for non-formal educators? Success indicators would include the degree to which the intervention improves: teacher ability to find relevant content and help participants find relevant content, teacher’s knowledge of how to use OC4D, and the ability of teachers to teach in a manner tailored for those whom they serve.
Component III: Does OC4D increase the amount of localized materials for improved problem solving? Success indicators would include the: relevance of content found to problems in community, availability of content users need for problem-solving, content matches congruent with user’s needs, and the degree to which OC4D changes knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour.
=====
SUMMARY
One of the best ways to overcome poverty is to increase and improve opportunities for education. However, accessing quality information in remote area of the world like those found in Nepal can be a challenge. While 21st century Information Communication Tools (ICTs) have accelerated the ability of Nepalese villagers to overcome some development setbacks, they still face considerable difficulty accessing the information they need to improve their situation. Many Nepalese can only access this critical information by trekking to remote information centres.
In an effort to improve access to information for the Nepalese people, the Nepal Government’s High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) and Community Development Network (CDN), propose that this study occur in tandem with the beta launch of the Open Content for Development (OC4D) initiative in May 2010.
This prospective study will be conducted in partnership with researchers from Nepal’s Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development, (CERID), and experts at Brigham Young University (Access to Knowledge Initiative, A2K). This five year counterfactual study will track the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Himalayan communities.
The OC4D initiative builds upon the nascent Open Educational Resources (OER) movement and emphasizes access to critical content focused on improving problem solving in developing countries. If deemed viable after the beta launch in Nepal, this high-quality but low-cost and fiscally scale-able model will be launched regionally and globally to the public and to ProLiteracy’s 75 NGO partners in 50 countries worldwide.
This impact evaluation will be the first of its kind assessing impact of OER in developing countries. This comprehensive mixed-method study will assess the viability of OC4D to increase access to relevant content for problem solving in remote villages. This prospective study will assess impact of OC4D to build capacity of non-formal teachers (e.g. literacy facilitators, health workers, agricultural agents, microloan officers) to better do their jobs.
Deliberately designed impact studies such as this can provide exactly the standard of evidence needed to advocate effectively with governments and donor agencies about the best ways to invest scarce resources in OER. Given the lack of evidence on OER programs in developing countries, this evaluation will set a benchmark in understanding what changes (in access, improved behaviour, and localizability) are afforded through OER that would not have occurred
without the OER intervention. Finally, it will illuminate unintended effects that OER have on intervention communities (in terms of social norms, cultural capital, economic opportunities, well-being, health behaviours, and education trends).
=====
JUSTIFICATION
To our knowledge, this evaluation is the first prospective impact evaluation of OER to be conducted in Nepal. Possibly the most important justification for this project is the pilot study and needs analysis conducted by Brigham Young University (BYU) and Community Development Network (CDN) in Nepal from May to August 2009. Based on recommendations from stakeholders in Nepal and situation analysis reports (CDN, 2008; CDN, 2009) this type of project is not only viable but important to improving access to information need in many areas of Nepal.
Although OER is believed to benefit individuals in developing countries, extension of tools like OC4D to lower-level learners is still limited (Hewlett, 2007). Many predict that OER will afford great educational benefit in areas where resources are scarce; to date, however, developing countries consume very little of OER offerings (MIT, 2009).
Education professionals may be aware that free and open source principles can benefit education, but there has been no systematic nor comprehensive approach to map and transfer those principles, or to develop new educational models and scenarios around them. The European Union-funded FLOSSCom project pioneered the first research of the open source landscape from an educational point of view, but “further research and work still remains to be done” (Välimäki, 2009).
If OER tools hold potential to revolutionize access to education in developing countries, then it is imperative to find out what impact OER have in such environments and why.
HLCIT designed rural telecentres to increase access to information for 85% of Nepalese living in remote villages where educational materials are often nonexistent (HLCIT, 2007). Since 2004, CDN has supported HLCIT in building capacity of rural information-technology centres. During this time, we have learned of the critical need for content in these centres.
Based on research conducted by HLCIT (2009), sustainability of telecentres is directly linked to mechanisms which enable access to quality content. Furthermore, OER trends indicate that sharing content openly enables strategic, scalable and sustainable return-on-investment (Hewlett, 2009). For these reasons, HLCIT and CDN partnered with ProLiteracy to develop OC4D for use in Himalayan telecentres.
The empirical evidence on the effects of OER on the life of learners in Nepal is scarce (Bhattarai, 2009; Pun, 2009). This innovative model of OER, Open Content for Development (OC4D), launched within the Himalayan context, provides important opportunities for learning the viability and cost-effectiveness of OER programs to improve access to localized content that supports problem solving in rural areas.
This study would also constitutes an opportunity for developing capacity in-country for the use of impact evaluation methods as well as bolstering ability for conducting mixed-method counterfactual assessments in the growing field of Information Comunication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). A substantial portion of this grant proposal is reserved for building capacity of graduate and undergraduate research assistants (local and international) to contribute to data collection and analysis through mentoring by evaluation experts from Nepal, India, UK, and USA.
For these reasons, Nepal’s ICT policy-making body, HLCIT, recommends the study of OC4D to bolster ICT policy directives. This is a formative time for policy development in Nepal since the new government initialized just last year (2008). This timely ex-ante study will capture baseline data from both treatment and control groups in advance of the OC4D launch, allowing for a counterfactual impact study that may inform the viability of OER in developing countries.
=====
EVALUATION DESIGN
This impact evaluation of the Open Content for Development (OC4D) project will be a collaborative effort between the High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT), the Community Development Network (CDN), Brigham Young University (BYU), and Nepal’s Centre for Educational Research, Innovation and Development (CERID).
As explained in the section outlining the evaluation questions, the primary purpose for the evaluation will be to better understand what impact the OC4D program might have in Himalayan villages that would not have occurred without the OC4D intervention with particular regard to:
(a) access to information through the OC4D interface
(b) capacity-building of non-formal educators through the OC4D program, and
(c) localization of OC4D content for improved problem solving in rural villages of Nepal.
Based on recommendations from stakeholders in Nepal during pre-intervention analyses and situation analysis reports (CDN, 2008; CDN, 2009), a 5-year longitudinal study is proposed starting in May 2010.
This evaluation will use a quasi- experimental, mixed-method counterfactual design; however, the evaluation design and specific activities will be responsive to needs of the evaluation effort; modifications to the design in subsequent years may be implemented based on evaluation findings, data collection needs, and recommendations from evaluation partners.
During the first year of the project we plan to collect baseline data for all 200 telecentres in Nepal. This will be used to create comparison groups at 50 sites (25 in the intervention group and 25 in the control group). A stratified purposive sampling technique will be employed to ensure the comparison groups are similar based on important community characteristics (e.g., socio economic status, location, internet access, location). Matched sites fitting the conditions for comparison will be randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treatment sites will be provided with OC4D resources and training. The evaluation will focus on any attributable impact receiving the OC4D intervention might have (including any social, gender, and environmental impacts) based on the evaluation criteria (i.e., increased access, capacity-building, value of localized content).
An OC4D pilot study was conducted previously at 10 sites in Nepal as part of an exploratory preliminary needs assessment. The OC4D beta launch is scheduled for May 2010, at this time a 3 year ramp-up exposure to the OC4D intervention will be initiated at the selected intervention sites. Formative analysis, impact analysis will be conducted during this time. A summative evaluation and formal dissemination of findings will be provided during the last year of the
evaluation.
Various aspects of the project implementation and effectiveness will be evaluated through participant surveys, site visit observations, interviews, and case studies. The access to information question will be studied using surveys, observations, and interviews. The evaluation will track awareness, usage, and utility levels related to access of information.
The capacity-building of local non-formal educations at designated telecentres will be explored through observations, interviews, surveys. The value of localized content for improved problem solving will be determined through surveys, interviews, and case studies.
Case studies will be specifically designed to follow any causal chain that might exist for individuals as they access information and use it to solve problems. These measures of impacts will help us determine best practices, what works or what does not work, as well as an understanding of why and where it works. The design is also intended to generate evidence to guide successful scale-up of OER programs. Details of the data collection activities are provided in the data collection section.
Evaluation efforts will be coordinated by CDN/CERID evaluation specialists but local data collection administrators will be utilized as much as possible. Training and support of data collection contractors will be provided by affiliated partners and will be continuously supported on the ground by CERID. Quality control of activities is a main priority of ProLiteracy’s OER program.
ProLiteracy will register expenditures made in the program and provide a detailed control of its budget. All this data will be routinely analyzed by ProLiteracy staff for the quality control of its program and providing quick feedback for decision-makers. This data will enable us to estimate costs under different circumstances based on number of learners who attend telecentre training sessions in order to inform advocacy efforts with the government and eventual scale-up of the program’s interventions.
Data collected from surveys will be statistically analyzed for the purpose of comparative, profile, and descriptive analyses (e.g., uncovering systematic differences, trends) across and within the entire group and identifiable sub-groups of participants. When appropriate, descriptive statistics and analysis of variance techniques for non-parametric data will be utilized to uncover any predictive insights, group profiles, and group differences.
Qualitative methods will be used to analyze and present data from site visit observations and interviews. This will include information regarding unintended outcomes. Content analysis of qualitative data will be conducted using open coding and axial coding. Open coding
entails the initial breakdown of text into discrete conceptual categories that identify a particular phenomenon. Axial coding systematically links categories to causal conditions, context, action/interaction strategies, and consequences and is used to determine emergent themes.
=====
DATA COLLECTION
Will the research proposed in this application produce new datasets? Yes
Indicate how existing datasets have been reviewed and state why currently available datasets are inadequate for the proposed research.
Because OER is a nascent field, virtually no datasets have been collected on the use of this type of project in developing countries and nothing exists of this nature in Nepal.
No other impact evaluations of non-formal education OER programs were identified in the region. Primary data collection for this evaluation is necessary to achieve geographic coverage of the program areas across Nepal, and to synchronize the timing of data collection with program operations.
The research team conducted a thorough review of the existing literature and available datasets prior to participating in the ProLiteracy OER impact evaluation in Nepal (May-August 2009). These preliminary pre-intervention analyses suggested a need for this project. In addition, the research team has conducted extensive interviews with HLCIT, NITC, Ministry of Science
and Technology, MOES, UNESCO, UNDP and donor agencies operating in Nepal to determine availability of data sources.
All the following datasets have been reviewed: All existing data housed by HLCIT regarding Nepal’s community information initiatives including Community Learning Centres (CLC), Community TeleCentre Report (CTR), Community Library Report (CLR), UNESCO’s Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) Report, Asia Pacific Information Network (APIN) Regional and Country Reports, Nepalese National Statistics Institute (INE), UNDP Regional and Country Reports, Demographic and Health Survey of Nepal (DHS), Non-Formal Education Report (NFE), Analysis of Poverty and Social Impact of Nepal (PSIN), Survey of Poverty and Gender at the Nepalese Provinces (IPGP) and the Nepalese Agrarian Survey (NAS).
Many of the pre-tested questions of these surveys will be adapted for use in this impact evaluation we are proposing; however, no suitable options of existing databases were identified for during the preliminary needs analysis evaluation. None of these databases had the local detailed coverage at the operating districts in Nepal needed for the evaluation, nor the necessary
measures to access the impact of OER types of interventions on the non-formal educational dissemination and other processes for finding information relevant to problem-solving.
Describe the design of data collection (instruments, sample design, size, timing)
Impact Evaluation Strategy:
Starting in May 2010, ProLiteracy plans to formally launch its OC4D programme in Nepal. Concurrent with this, the following impact evaluation strategies will be employed:
TeleCentre Community Sample:
Nepal currently has 200 TeleCentre sites across the country in various locals. The evaluation will use information collected about telecentre communities as well as ProLiteracy monitoring data to create a characteristics database of Nepal’s telecentres. A stratified purposive sampling technique will be employed to select 50 similar communities that will be the focus of this study.
Potential characteristics for consideration might include socio-economic status, location, internet access, and geographic location. Matched sites fitting the conditions established for comparison will be randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment group will include 25 TeleCentre communities. The control group will include 25 similar telecentres
communities. Treatment sites will be provided with OC4D resources and training. Control group sites will only receive existing telecentres services.
Community Household Sample:
Within each of the 50 communities, a random sample of 40 households with learners between the ages 18 and 35 years will be included in household survey. A total of 2000 community household surveys (1000 in treatment communities and 1000 in control communities) will be collected annually. This annual survey is intended to provide a longitudinal look at changes in
levels of awareness and use of telecentres for the various communities.
TeleCentre Regular Users Sample:
All regular telecentre users will be asked to provide survey feedback bi-annually in June and December of each year.
In addition the manager of each of the telecentres and at least one of the non-formal education teacher (or change agent facilitators) will be interviewed bi-annually.
Instruments:
Surveys. Two types of survey will be utilized: a household survey and a regular users survey. The household survey will gather demographic information as well as telecenter awareness and usage levels. This will be used to determine changes in community trends. The regular users survey will also collect demographic data as well as evidence of general telecentre usage and value. OC4D treatment sites will also gather evidence regarding the use and value of the OC4D informational database.
Interview and observation
Interview and observation protocols and procedures will be established. Training of data collection administrators will also be conducted to ensure consistency of data collection efforts.
Case Studies
At each of the telecenters, one case study will be conducted to follow regular users from information access to utilization of the data retrieved for problem solving.
Implementation and Timing
OC4D implementation will begin in May 2010. Resources and training will be provided at each of the training centres at this time. Household surveys will be conducted annually in June. Regular users surveys, observations, and interviews will be conducted in June and December of each year. Monthly usage data will be collected by site facilitators. Case studies will begin in the
third year of the project.
We expect final impact evaluation results and dissemination activities including meetings with key stakeholders in the Nepalese government, other regional governments, as well as publication of peer reviewed articles to be published in several international journals by the end of 2015.
Eliminating various forms of poverty is directly linked to improving opportunities for education in the developing world (UNDP, 2009). Despite this, over a billion people are still denied educational opportunity (OECD, 2009).
Rural poverty is exacerbated by significant obstacles (geographic, political, economic) which impede dissemination of information (HLCIT, 2009). If made accessible, this relevant knowledge could save millions and drastically improve well-being (WHO, 2009). 21st century Information Communication Technologies (ICT) add fresh insights to improving such crises.
Open Content for Development (OC4D) is designed to close this gap between rural people and access to critical information for improved problem solving. OC4D is a repository of open (non-commercial, shareable, localizable) educational resources (OER) containing basic education tools created by locals for locals in developing countries.
ProLiteracy Worldwide (PLW) facilitated South-South mentoring and focus group discussions during 1990-2000 in order to aggregate the most important critical content tools from sites facing similar dilemmas. OC4D seeks to increase access to relevant content for problem solving in developing countries by bolstering capacity of non-formal educators through localizable OER made available through existing rural technology centres.
OC4D builds on the OER principles to enable strategic, scalable and sustainable return-on-investment by: encouraging governments and philanthropists to freely release all funded content into the public domain; support NGOs to share content openly with each other; encourage educational institutions and research organizations to share content openly.
OC4D will sustain communities through a participatory, continuously growing, digital library akin to Wikipedia.
OC4D is the product of ProLiteracy in partnership with the Community Development Network (based in Oxford, UK). OC4D was piloted Summer 2009; the beta launch of OC4D is slated for May 2010 in Nepal. A second iteration is now in process with technical support from the OER Foundation (funded by Hewlett Foundation), WikiEducator, Community Development Network and Brigham Young University.
OC4D Components:
OC4D provides a localized content base freely available to the public. Key topics include: infectious diseases, health/hygiene, HIV/AIDS education, micro-enterprise, environmental conservation, and conflict resolution.
OC4D is built from this quality content (grassroots lesson-plans, codes, dialogue triggers, clarifying content) harvested from ProLiteracy Worldwide’s 70 partner NGOs located in 50 countries of Asia, Nepal, Latin America and Middle East.
Training tools (text/audio/video) are also available to build capacity of literacy facilitators and other change agents (e.g. health workers, agriculture extension agents, microloan officers) so they can better localize and share knowledge.
The content repository and training tools are available online and offline (flashdrives, CDs) for communities where connectivity is unreliable or nonexistent. OC4D will be advertised by facilitators and managers of rural telecentres to encourage use by teachers and learners across Nepal.
======
EVALUATION QUESTIONS
The central research question is: How does openness impact access to knowledge in Himalayan villages?
By these terms we mean:
Open = freely available, localizable, shareable
Access = available, accessible, acceptable and adaptable (Right to Education principles)
Knowledge = information easily understood and applied in daily problem solving
In general, this evaluation seeks to understand what impact the OC4D program might have in rural Himalayan villages that would not have occurred without the OC4D intervention with particular regard to:
(a) access to information through the OC4D interface (Component I)?
(b) capacity-building of non-formal educators through the OC4D program (Component II)?
(c) localization of OC4D content for improved problem solving in rural villages (Component III)?
Component I: Does the intervention improve access to educational information users need to solve local problems? Success indicators would include changes in terms of the following outcomes: quantity of hits on OC4D site, time on informational pages, demographics of user, frequency of use, and the breadth/depth of use.
Component II: Does the intervention enhance professional development for non-formal educators? Success indicators would include the degree to which the intervention improves: teacher ability to find relevant content and help participants find relevant content, teacher’s knowledge of how to use OC4D, and the ability of teachers to teach in a manner tailored for those whom they serve.
Component III: Does OC4D increase the amount of localized materials for improved problem solving? Success indicators would include the: relevance of content found to problems in community, availability of content users need for problem-solving, content matches congruent with user’s needs, and the degree to which OC4D changes knowledge, attitudes, and behaviour.
=====
SUMMARY
One of the best ways to overcome poverty is to increase and improve opportunities for education. However, accessing quality information in remote area of the world like those found in Nepal can be a challenge. While 21st century Information Communication Tools (ICTs) have accelerated the ability of Nepalese villagers to overcome some development setbacks, they still face considerable difficulty accessing the information they need to improve their situation. Many Nepalese can only access this critical information by trekking to remote information centres.
In an effort to improve access to information for the Nepalese people, the Nepal Government’s High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT) and Community Development Network (CDN), propose that this study occur in tandem with the beta launch of the Open Content for Development (OC4D) initiative in May 2010.
This prospective study will be conducted in partnership with researchers from Nepal’s Research Centre for Educational Innovation and Development, (CERID), and experts at Brigham Young University (Access to Knowledge Initiative, A2K). This five year counterfactual study will track the impact of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Himalayan communities.
The OC4D initiative builds upon the nascent Open Educational Resources (OER) movement and emphasizes access to critical content focused on improving problem solving in developing countries. If deemed viable after the beta launch in Nepal, this high-quality but low-cost and fiscally scale-able model will be launched regionally and globally to the public and to ProLiteracy’s 75 NGO partners in 50 countries worldwide.
This impact evaluation will be the first of its kind assessing impact of OER in developing countries. This comprehensive mixed-method study will assess the viability of OC4D to increase access to relevant content for problem solving in remote villages. This prospective study will assess impact of OC4D to build capacity of non-formal teachers (e.g. literacy facilitators, health workers, agricultural agents, microloan officers) to better do their jobs.
Deliberately designed impact studies such as this can provide exactly the standard of evidence needed to advocate effectively with governments and donor agencies about the best ways to invest scarce resources in OER. Given the lack of evidence on OER programs in developing countries, this evaluation will set a benchmark in understanding what changes (in access, improved behaviour, and localizability) are afforded through OER that would not have occurred
without the OER intervention. Finally, it will illuminate unintended effects that OER have on intervention communities (in terms of social norms, cultural capital, economic opportunities, well-being, health behaviours, and education trends).
=====
JUSTIFICATION
To our knowledge, this evaluation is the first prospective impact evaluation of OER to be conducted in Nepal. Possibly the most important justification for this project is the pilot study and needs analysis conducted by Brigham Young University (BYU) and Community Development Network (CDN) in Nepal from May to August 2009. Based on recommendations from stakeholders in Nepal and situation analysis reports (CDN, 2008; CDN, 2009) this type of project is not only viable but important to improving access to information need in many areas of Nepal.
Although OER is believed to benefit individuals in developing countries, extension of tools like OC4D to lower-level learners is still limited (Hewlett, 2007). Many predict that OER will afford great educational benefit in areas where resources are scarce; to date, however, developing countries consume very little of OER offerings (MIT, 2009).
Education professionals may be aware that free and open source principles can benefit education, but there has been no systematic nor comprehensive approach to map and transfer those principles, or to develop new educational models and scenarios around them. The European Union-funded FLOSSCom project pioneered the first research of the open source landscape from an educational point of view, but “further research and work still remains to be done” (Välimäki, 2009).
If OER tools hold potential to revolutionize access to education in developing countries, then it is imperative to find out what impact OER have in such environments and why.
HLCIT designed rural telecentres to increase access to information for 85% of Nepalese living in remote villages where educational materials are often nonexistent (HLCIT, 2007). Since 2004, CDN has supported HLCIT in building capacity of rural information-technology centres. During this time, we have learned of the critical need for content in these centres.
Based on research conducted by HLCIT (2009), sustainability of telecentres is directly linked to mechanisms which enable access to quality content. Furthermore, OER trends indicate that sharing content openly enables strategic, scalable and sustainable return-on-investment (Hewlett, 2009). For these reasons, HLCIT and CDN partnered with ProLiteracy to develop OC4D for use in Himalayan telecentres.
The empirical evidence on the effects of OER on the life of learners in Nepal is scarce (Bhattarai, 2009; Pun, 2009). This innovative model of OER, Open Content for Development (OC4D), launched within the Himalayan context, provides important opportunities for learning the viability and cost-effectiveness of OER programs to improve access to localized content that supports problem solving in rural areas.
This study would also constitutes an opportunity for developing capacity in-country for the use of impact evaluation methods as well as bolstering ability for conducting mixed-method counterfactual assessments in the growing field of Information Comunication Technologies for Development (ICT4D). A substantial portion of this grant proposal is reserved for building capacity of graduate and undergraduate research assistants (local and international) to contribute to data collection and analysis through mentoring by evaluation experts from Nepal, India, UK, and USA.
For these reasons, Nepal’s ICT policy-making body, HLCIT, recommends the study of OC4D to bolster ICT policy directives. This is a formative time for policy development in Nepal since the new government initialized just last year (2008). This timely ex-ante study will capture baseline data from both treatment and control groups in advance of the OC4D launch, allowing for a counterfactual impact study that may inform the viability of OER in developing countries.
=====
EVALUATION DESIGN
This impact evaluation of the Open Content for Development (OC4D) project will be a collaborative effort between the High Level Commission for Information Technology (HLCIT), the Community Development Network (CDN), Brigham Young University (BYU), and Nepal’s Centre for Educational Research, Innovation and Development (CERID).
As explained in the section outlining the evaluation questions, the primary purpose for the evaluation will be to better understand what impact the OC4D program might have in Himalayan villages that would not have occurred without the OC4D intervention with particular regard to:
(a) access to information through the OC4D interface
(b) capacity-building of non-formal educators through the OC4D program, and
(c) localization of OC4D content for improved problem solving in rural villages of Nepal.
Based on recommendations from stakeholders in Nepal during pre-intervention analyses and situation analysis reports (CDN, 2008; CDN, 2009), a 5-year longitudinal study is proposed starting in May 2010.
This evaluation will use a quasi- experimental, mixed-method counterfactual design; however, the evaluation design and specific activities will be responsive to needs of the evaluation effort; modifications to the design in subsequent years may be implemented based on evaluation findings, data collection needs, and recommendations from evaluation partners.
During the first year of the project we plan to collect baseline data for all 200 telecentres in Nepal. This will be used to create comparison groups at 50 sites (25 in the intervention group and 25 in the control group). A stratified purposive sampling technique will be employed to ensure the comparison groups are similar based on important community characteristics (e.g., socio economic status, location, internet access, location). Matched sites fitting the conditions for comparison will be randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treatment sites will be provided with OC4D resources and training. The evaluation will focus on any attributable impact receiving the OC4D intervention might have (including any social, gender, and environmental impacts) based on the evaluation criteria (i.e., increased access, capacity-building, value of localized content).
An OC4D pilot study was conducted previously at 10 sites in Nepal as part of an exploratory preliminary needs assessment. The OC4D beta launch is scheduled for May 2010, at this time a 3 year ramp-up exposure to the OC4D intervention will be initiated at the selected intervention sites. Formative analysis, impact analysis will be conducted during this time. A summative evaluation and formal dissemination of findings will be provided during the last year of the
evaluation.
Various aspects of the project implementation and effectiveness will be evaluated through participant surveys, site visit observations, interviews, and case studies. The access to information question will be studied using surveys, observations, and interviews. The evaluation will track awareness, usage, and utility levels related to access of information.
The capacity-building of local non-formal educations at designated telecentres will be explored through observations, interviews, surveys. The value of localized content for improved problem solving will be determined through surveys, interviews, and case studies.
Case studies will be specifically designed to follow any causal chain that might exist for individuals as they access information and use it to solve problems. These measures of impacts will help us determine best practices, what works or what does not work, as well as an understanding of why and where it works. The design is also intended to generate evidence to guide successful scale-up of OER programs. Details of the data collection activities are provided in the data collection section.
Evaluation efforts will be coordinated by CDN/CERID evaluation specialists but local data collection administrators will be utilized as much as possible. Training and support of data collection contractors will be provided by affiliated partners and will be continuously supported on the ground by CERID. Quality control of activities is a main priority of ProLiteracy’s OER program.
ProLiteracy will register expenditures made in the program and provide a detailed control of its budget. All this data will be routinely analyzed by ProLiteracy staff for the quality control of its program and providing quick feedback for decision-makers. This data will enable us to estimate costs under different circumstances based on number of learners who attend telecentre training sessions in order to inform advocacy efforts with the government and eventual scale-up of the program’s interventions.
Data collected from surveys will be statistically analyzed for the purpose of comparative, profile, and descriptive analyses (e.g., uncovering systematic differences, trends) across and within the entire group and identifiable sub-groups of participants. When appropriate, descriptive statistics and analysis of variance techniques for non-parametric data will be utilized to uncover any predictive insights, group profiles, and group differences.
Qualitative methods will be used to analyze and present data from site visit observations and interviews. This will include information regarding unintended outcomes. Content analysis of qualitative data will be conducted using open coding and axial coding. Open coding
entails the initial breakdown of text into discrete conceptual categories that identify a particular phenomenon. Axial coding systematically links categories to causal conditions, context, action/interaction strategies, and consequences and is used to determine emergent themes.
=====
DATA COLLECTION
Will the research proposed in this application produce new datasets? Yes
Indicate how existing datasets have been reviewed and state why currently available datasets are inadequate for the proposed research.
Because OER is a nascent field, virtually no datasets have been collected on the use of this type of project in developing countries and nothing exists of this nature in Nepal.
No other impact evaluations of non-formal education OER programs were identified in the region. Primary data collection for this evaluation is necessary to achieve geographic coverage of the program areas across Nepal, and to synchronize the timing of data collection with program operations.
The research team conducted a thorough review of the existing literature and available datasets prior to participating in the ProLiteracy OER impact evaluation in Nepal (May-August 2009). These preliminary pre-intervention analyses suggested a need for this project. In addition, the research team has conducted extensive interviews with HLCIT, NITC, Ministry of Science
and Technology, MOES, UNESCO, UNDP and donor agencies operating in Nepal to determine availability of data sources.
All the following datasets have been reviewed: All existing data housed by HLCIT regarding Nepal’s community information initiatives including Community Learning Centres (CLC), Community TeleCentre Report (CTR), Community Library Report (CLR), UNESCO’s Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) Report, Asia Pacific Information Network (APIN) Regional and Country Reports, Nepalese National Statistics Institute (INE), UNDP Regional and Country Reports, Demographic and Health Survey of Nepal (DHS), Non-Formal Education Report (NFE), Analysis of Poverty and Social Impact of Nepal (PSIN), Survey of Poverty and Gender at the Nepalese Provinces (IPGP) and the Nepalese Agrarian Survey (NAS).
Many of the pre-tested questions of these surveys will be adapted for use in this impact evaluation we are proposing; however, no suitable options of existing databases were identified for during the preliminary needs analysis evaluation. None of these databases had the local detailed coverage at the operating districts in Nepal needed for the evaluation, nor the necessary
measures to access the impact of OER types of interventions on the non-formal educational dissemination and other processes for finding information relevant to problem-solving.
Describe the design of data collection (instruments, sample design, size, timing)
Impact Evaluation Strategy:
Starting in May 2010, ProLiteracy plans to formally launch its OC4D programme in Nepal. Concurrent with this, the following impact evaluation strategies will be employed:
TeleCentre Community Sample:
Nepal currently has 200 TeleCentre sites across the country in various locals. The evaluation will use information collected about telecentre communities as well as ProLiteracy monitoring data to create a characteristics database of Nepal’s telecentres. A stratified purposive sampling technique will be employed to select 50 similar communities that will be the focus of this study.
Potential characteristics for consideration might include socio-economic status, location, internet access, and geographic location. Matched sites fitting the conditions established for comparison will be randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. The treatment group will include 25 TeleCentre communities. The control group will include 25 similar telecentres
communities. Treatment sites will be provided with OC4D resources and training. Control group sites will only receive existing telecentres services.
Community Household Sample:
Within each of the 50 communities, a random sample of 40 households with learners between the ages 18 and 35 years will be included in household survey. A total of 2000 community household surveys (1000 in treatment communities and 1000 in control communities) will be collected annually. This annual survey is intended to provide a longitudinal look at changes in
levels of awareness and use of telecentres for the various communities.
TeleCentre Regular Users Sample:
All regular telecentre users will be asked to provide survey feedback bi-annually in June and December of each year.
In addition the manager of each of the telecentres and at least one of the non-formal education teacher (or change agent facilitators) will be interviewed bi-annually.
Instruments:
Surveys. Two types of survey will be utilized: a household survey and a regular users survey. The household survey will gather demographic information as well as telecenter awareness and usage levels. This will be used to determine changes in community trends. The regular users survey will also collect demographic data as well as evidence of general telecentre usage and value. OC4D treatment sites will also gather evidence regarding the use and value of the OC4D informational database.
Interview and observation
Interview and observation protocols and procedures will be established. Training of data collection administrators will also be conducted to ensure consistency of data collection efforts.
Case Studies
At each of the telecenters, one case study will be conducted to follow regular users from information access to utilization of the data retrieved for problem solving.
Implementation and Timing
OC4D implementation will begin in May 2010. Resources and training will be provided at each of the training centres at this time. Household surveys will be conducted annually in June. Regular users surveys, observations, and interviews will be conducted in June and December of each year. Monthly usage data will be collected by site facilitators. Case studies will begin in the
third year of the project.
We expect final impact evaluation results and dissemination activities including meetings with key stakeholders in the Nepalese government, other regional governments, as well as publication of peer reviewed articles to be published in several international journals by the end of 2015.
3 Dec 2009: What is this all for?
* "If you're working on something that can be solved in your lifetime, you're working on something too small."
* Your dissertation is not your "magnum opus" (life's work).
* The best dissertation is a done dissertation.
* Your dissertation is not your "magnum opus" (life's work).
* The best dissertation is a done dissertation.
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
10 Nov 2009: Managing People
We all are capable of what matters most
Netflix Management
Loyalty is Good
- Loyalty is good as a stabilizer
- But, unlimited loyalty to a shrinking firm, or to an ineffective employee, is not what we are about
- Hard work is not directly relevant - it's about effectiveness (not effort) even though effectiveness is harder to assess than effort
Netflix Management
Loyalty is Good
- Loyalty is good as a stabilizer
- But, unlimited loyalty to a shrinking firm, or to an ineffective employee, is not what we are about
- Hard work is not directly relevant - it's about effectiveness (not effort) even though effectiveness is harder to assess than effort
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
3 Nov 2009: "I Love Technology..." (Isaku quoting Kip)
BASECAMP
Web-based tools for managing projects ($20/mo or so)
http://basecamphq.com
List of web-based tools
Web-based tools for managing projects ($20/mo or so)
http://basecamphq.com
List of web-based tools
Thursday, October 29, 2009
29 Oct 2009: Crucial Conversations
"Give me a lever long enough ... and I shall move the world." - Archimedes
If I have an issue, do I want someone to tell me about it?
- Yes, in the right way.
- In the right setting.
Why don't you tell someone their trousers are undone?
- We may be afraid - the other person's attitude is challenging
- Past experience may inform a resistance to doing this
What are the costs of not taking on a crucial conversation
- parking lot veto (watercooler veto)
Everyone (93%) workes with an untouchable - someone dishonest, incompetent, bullying, conniving
- More than half say he's done if or more than 4 years
- They damage moreale, hurt customers, sap productivity
- Fewer than 1 in 8 are willing to talk about it
- 44% say they put in only effort required
- 75% say they could be more effective
Silence Fails
Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution
* 150+ hrs of observation
Results
- Fact-Free Planning
- AWOL sponsors (need to check in regularly and often)
- Skirting
- Project Chicken (escalate and see who flinches first - choosing a whipping boy)
- Team Failures
- overbudget
- missed deadlines
- poor quality of functionality
- damaged morale
- no work-life balance
Wbat if people deal wit the crucial confrontation?
- cut dollar impact
- reduce cost savings
Leadership Skill
1) What results do you want that you're not getting?
2) What crucial conversation is ot being held or not being held well that perpetuates your problem?
When emotions kick in, you're unlikely to do your best.
As soon as a conversation changes, the motive changes. (No longer about project, but about winning the conversation - I'm going to dominate you!)
Identify:
1) What do I want for myself?
2) What do I want for the other person?
3) What do I want for our relationship?
What do I want to be better or different after this conversation.
We see facts and interpret them with a narrative (tell ourselves a story).
We generate an emotional response to our story - and act accordingly.
People see our reactions to emotions that are caused by a story not understood by the other.
Thoughts are electrical, but emotions are chemical.
Emotions have a shorter half life.
Identify if things aren't working and say, "Can we talk about this in 20 minutes?"
"The measure of success is not whether or not you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year
- John Duluth
"What you can't communicate runs your life." - Dr. Robert Anthony
"Don't trade the possibility of an uncomfortable conversation for the certainty of bad relationshipas and results."
We are left to deal with the most complex and challenging conversations of our lives with the same set of skills we would use to deal with a salivating predator. (Blood leaver our brain and goes somewhere else when we're frustrated.)
Start with the Heart
- Learn to look (make it safe, master my stories)
- State my path (explore others' paths, move to action)
So what happened today?
- look for more facts to build a more complete story
- the more mutual respect, more shared goals, the safer we all feel
If someone said something that wasn't true, we should try to understand why someone would think that and understand their point of view. (Joseph Smith)
Name the game and take away the power the other peson is using against you.
Motives that Kill Dialogue
- save face
- look good
- keep the peace (artificial stability/remedy)
- avoid conflict
- win
- be right
- punish
If you're trying to deal with "the hog" through external controls, you never solve the problem.
Why do I need to identify my motive?
The motive you can't see controls oyu
you aren't that good an actor
If you can see it, you can't fix it
Questions provoke the brain
Learn to look for silence and violence
silence, withdrawng, avoiding, masking, DIALOGUE, controlling, labeling, attacking, violence
The sooner you notice you're not
IT IS AS HARD TO SEE ONESELF AS TO LOOK BACKWARDS WITHOUT TRUNING AROUND.
Present facts, not opinions
State motives
People never become definsive about what you're saying. People become definsive because of why they think you're saing it.
You know I care about your goals
You know that I care about you.
With enough safety you can talk about anything.
If safety is at risk, don't water down the content,
Can one person who disagrees respectfully make it safe for the entire group?
19/20 yes!
You cannot run away from a weakness. You must fight it out. Why not now, where you stand?
All my life I've wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.: Search for signs of Intelligent life inthe Universe
If I can change, it will improve the relationship.
a lot of evidence shows that if 1 changes, then the relationship improves
The Bonds that Make us Free
if each person wakes up each morning with an anxious concern for the other, then you're going to get good places. (Pres. Hinckley)
If I have an issue, do I want someone to tell me about it?
- Yes, in the right way.
- In the right setting.
Why don't you tell someone their trousers are undone?
- We may be afraid - the other person's attitude is challenging
- Past experience may inform a resistance to doing this
What are the costs of not taking on a crucial conversation
- parking lot veto (watercooler veto)
Everyone (93%) workes with an untouchable - someone dishonest, incompetent, bullying, conniving
- More than half say he's done if or more than 4 years
- They damage moreale, hurt customers, sap productivity
- Fewer than 1 in 8 are willing to talk about it
- 44% say they put in only effort required
- 75% say they could be more effective
Silence Fails
Five Crucial Conversations for Flawless Execution
* 150+ hrs of observation
Results
- Fact-Free Planning
- AWOL sponsors (need to check in regularly and often)
- Skirting
- Project Chicken (escalate and see who flinches first - choosing a whipping boy)
- Team Failures
- overbudget
- missed deadlines
- poor quality of functionality
- damaged morale
- no work-life balance
Wbat if people deal wit the crucial confrontation?
- cut dollar impact
- reduce cost savings
Leadership Skill
1) What results do you want that you're not getting?
2) What crucial conversation is ot being held or not being held well that perpetuates your problem?
When emotions kick in, you're unlikely to do your best.
As soon as a conversation changes, the motive changes. (No longer about project, but about winning the conversation - I'm going to dominate you!)
Identify:
1) What do I want for myself?
2) What do I want for the other person?
3) What do I want for our relationship?
What do I want to be better or different after this conversation.
We see facts and interpret them with a narrative (tell ourselves a story).
We generate an emotional response to our story - and act accordingly.
People see our reactions to emotions that are caused by a story not understood by the other.
Thoughts are electrical, but emotions are chemical.
Emotions have a shorter half life.
Identify if things aren't working and say, "Can we talk about this in 20 minutes?"
"The measure of success is not whether or not you have a tough problem to deal with, but whether it's the same problem you had last year
- John Duluth
"What you can't communicate runs your life." - Dr. Robert Anthony
"Don't trade the possibility of an uncomfortable conversation for the certainty of bad relationshipas and results."
We are left to deal with the most complex and challenging conversations of our lives with the same set of skills we would use to deal with a salivating predator. (Blood leaver our brain and goes somewhere else when we're frustrated.)
Start with the Heart
- Learn to look (make it safe, master my stories)
- State my path (explore others' paths, move to action)
So what happened today?
- look for more facts to build a more complete story
- the more mutual respect, more shared goals, the safer we all feel
If someone said something that wasn't true, we should try to understand why someone would think that and understand their point of view. (Joseph Smith)
Name the game and take away the power the other peson is using against you.
Motives that Kill Dialogue
- save face
- look good
- keep the peace (artificial stability/remedy)
- avoid conflict
- win
- be right
- punish
If you're trying to deal with "the hog" through external controls, you never solve the problem.
Why do I need to identify my motive?
The motive you can't see controls oyu
you aren't that good an actor
If you can see it, you can't fix it
Questions provoke the brain
Learn to look for silence and violence
silence, withdrawng, avoiding, masking, DIALOGUE, controlling, labeling, attacking, violence
The sooner you notice you're not
IT IS AS HARD TO SEE ONESELF AS TO LOOK BACKWARDS WITHOUT TRUNING AROUND.
Present facts, not opinions
State motives
People never become definsive about what you're saying. People become definsive because of why they think you're saing it.
You know I care about your goals
You know that I care about you.
With enough safety you can talk about anything.
If safety is at risk, don't water down the content,
Can one person who disagrees respectfully make it safe for the entire group?
19/20 yes!
You cannot run away from a weakness. You must fight it out. Why not now, where you stand?
All my life I've wanted to be somebody. Now I see that I should have been more specific.: Search for signs of Intelligent life inthe Universe
If I can change, it will improve the relationship.
a lot of evidence shows that if 1 changes, then the relationship improves
The Bonds that Make us Free
if each person wakes up each morning with an anxious concern for the other, then you're going to get good places. (Pres. Hinckley)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
22 Oct 2009: Continuing the Budget Discussion
F&A Federal Administration - 42%
70% of F&A stays at top Bridge funding
30% of F&A goes to college
10% of college funds goes to department
any left over funds go to the PI
F&A at BYU stays at the top (VP for Research)
Some gets channeled in several different colleges
Different colleges decide what departments to help and within depts which professors to support
The mission of BYU is undergraduate teaching
BYU Emphasis on student mentoring
2 avenues: faculty funding mentoring ($500) and student funding ($1500)
Fast lane NSF
Cover Sheet
Table of Contents
References Cited
Budget (Including Justification)
Facilities (In Kind goods and what the facility offers you)
PI CoPI Info (Put in system by Grants Administrator at BYU)
suggested Reviewers
Project Summary
Project Description
Bio Sketch
Facilities
Current and Pending
Supplementary Docs (Evidence)
Deviation Authorization (Money can't be spent in certain ways)
Additional Single Copy
Resubmission details - reviewer
There are different categories:
Gifts cannot have F&A attached
Research accounts are all separated
Grant Manager (name them by name)
Name the name and salary and qualifications
70% of F&A stays at top Bridge funding
30% of F&A goes to college
10% of college funds goes to department
any left over funds go to the PI
F&A at BYU stays at the top (VP for Research)
Some gets channeled in several different colleges
Different colleges decide what departments to help and within depts which professors to support
The mission of BYU is undergraduate teaching
BYU Emphasis on student mentoring
2 avenues: faculty funding mentoring ($500) and student funding ($1500)
Fast lane NSF
Cover Sheet
Table of Contents
References Cited
Budget (Including Justification)
Facilities (In Kind goods and what the facility offers you)
PI CoPI Info (Put in system by Grants Administrator at BYU)
suggested Reviewers
Project Summary
Project Description
Bio Sketch
Facilities
Current and Pending
Supplementary Docs (Evidence)
Deviation Authorization (Money can't be spent in certain ways)
Additional Single Copy
Resubmission details - reviewer
There are different categories:
Gifts cannot have F&A attached
Research accounts are all separated
Grant Manager (name them by name)
Name the name and salary and qualifications
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
Grant Timeline Revisited
- Meet with grant writing team at Department of Education of McKay School
- Talk with IRB (and find out timeline)
- Email Manohar & phone
- Email Mulmiji
- Email Mahabir Pun
- Get HLCIT update
- Submit funding proposal to Erika
- Run proposal by Erika Feinauer
- Run proposal by Randy Davies
- Run proposal by David Wiley
- Question
- Narrative
- Lit Review (Spencer)
- Budget
- F&A Indirect Costs
- Evaluation
- CV (Tiffany, Wiley, Davies, Manohar, Mahabir)
- Talk with IRB (and find out timeline)
- Email Manohar & phone
- Email Mulmiji
- Email Mahabir Pun
- Get HLCIT update
- Submit funding proposal to Erika
- Run proposal by Erika Feinauer
- Run proposal by Randy Davies
- Run proposal by David Wiley
- Question
- Narrative
- Lit Review (Spencer)
- Budget
- F&A Indirect Costs
- Evaluation
- CV (Tiffany, Wiley, Davies, Manohar, Mahabir)
20 Oct 2009: Aaron Popham: Grants & University System Details
Government Grants
Any federal contract would have to go through www.grants.gov (searchable, key word search)
Federal Registration: any entity or action that is passed through govt is recorded in registry
RFPs and RFAs (Federal Registry Announcement & Dept Description of that information)
Federal Registry is best place to find details about funding grants.
NSF website has a nice engine for investigating RFAs www.nsf.gov (get number and search on grants.gov)
National Department of Education
Go to State Govt website and search for grants. You need to know someone in order to be alerted.
IRIS database (Illinois Research Institute System) - BYU pays for a subscription
All university grants need to go through approval process of department and university first
All grants that have work with human subjects need approval of IRB
30-60 days is release of announcement of RFP
Grant writing is different than scholarly writing
Need for scholarly support
Write to a distinct set of criteria (which means different language)
A faculty member that tries to go it alone may leave out essential nuances of the grant lingo
BYU's F&A On Campus Indirect Cost is 50% Off-Campus Indirect costs is 28% (>120 days away)
Budget
Personnel
Benefits
Capital Equipment >$5,000 per item
Supplies <$5,000 per item
Travel (Air tickets, food, hotel)
Stipend (Training for participation, subsistence allowance)
Contractual (consultants)
F&A (Facilitites and Administration)
BYU uses a modified indirect costs (BYU only takes FA on the first $25K of the total of all contractual work); there is no F&A on stipend. Put as much into contractual embed travel costs in the contractual agreement.
Division at BYU dedicated to grant disbursement
Any federal contract would have to go through www.grants.gov (searchable, key word search)
Federal Registration: any entity or action that is passed through govt is recorded in registry
RFPs and RFAs (Federal Registry Announcement & Dept Description of that information)
Federal Registry is best place to find details about funding grants.
NSF website has a nice engine for investigating RFAs www.nsf.gov (get number and search on grants.gov)
National Department of Education
Go to State Govt website and search for grants. You need to know someone in order to be alerted.
IRIS database (Illinois Research Institute System) - BYU pays for a subscription
All university grants need to go through approval process of department and university first
All grants that have work with human subjects need approval of IRB
30-60 days is release of announcement of RFP
Grant writing is different than scholarly writing
Need for scholarly support
Write to a distinct set of criteria (which means different language)
A faculty member that tries to go it alone may leave out essential nuances of the grant lingo
BYU's F&A On Campus Indirect Cost is 50% Off-Campus Indirect costs is 28% (>120 days away)
Budget
Personnel
Benefits
Capital Equipment >$5,000 per item
Supplies <$5,000 per item
Travel (Air tickets, food, hotel)
Stipend (Training for participation, subsistence allowance)
Contractual (consultants)
F&A (Facilitites and Administration)
BYU uses a modified indirect costs (BYU only takes FA on the first $25K of the total of all contractual work); there is no F&A on stipend. Put as much into contractual embed travel costs in the contractual agreement.
Division at BYU dedicated to grant disbursement
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
13 Oct 2009: CV Preparation
C.V
Most recent first (reverse chronological)
2 page abbreviated
Presentations - up to 5
Publications - up to 5
list of recent collaborators
Name
Contact Info
Education (Degrees & Process)
Profile
Publications
Other Writings
Employment
Presentations
Memberships (Current and Recent)
Skills? (provide context for reader)
Grants
Awards
Teaching
Service
Leadership
Languages
Research Agenda & Interests (current)
Cover Letter
Objective
Names of References
Most recent first (reverse chronological)
2 page abbreviated
Presentations - up to 5
Publications - up to 5
list of recent collaborators
Name
Contact Info
Education (Degrees & Process)
Profile
Publications
Other Writings
Employment
Presentations
Memberships (Current and Recent)
Skills? (provide context for reader)
Grants
Awards
Teaching
Service
Leadership
Languages
Research Agenda & Interests (current)
Cover Letter
Objective
Names of References
Thursday, October 8, 2009
8 Oct 2009: Gaining confidence in writing
Ether 12:23-25
- the Gentiles will mock at these things
- our weakness in writing
- awkwardness of our hands
- when we write we behold our weakness
- my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness
- i give unto men weakness that they may become strong
Literature Reviews
- key words
- establishing credibility
- marching down the
- choosing the write key words for searching for docs and for RFPs:
scaling up
sustainable
open
developing countries
Nepal
Himalayas
education
OER
open education
- read and refer to what is already written by program officer and/or key authors by RFP
- key question/point is the starting point for the upside-down funnel whereby we open it again.
- appropriate humility is part of credibility
- if my approach is already "the best" approach, what is the point of my research?
- i'll learn more if i present it as a possible solution to the question.
- spell out where you searched and how you show that there are holes in the research
- i searched 23 key words in 16 databases and there is very little published in this areas
- different kinds of information have different kind of half life
- balance: stuff that's current & what is seminal (foundational to the effort)
- email faculty to get 2-3 seminal articles related to the work that you're doing
Rachel Windham through library
Search:
Google (cast the new widely)
Google Scholar (cited by - see how many times)
David Wiley 2002 (learning objects)
ERIC
ProQuest
WilsonWeb
Scopus
IT Forum
ELDIS
tictocs.ac.uk
Upload file to google docs
OER, literacy, developing countries
* Make sure nobody else has done it
* Make sure that you build off what has gone before
* Starting from scratch is the #1 problem
- help people believe that this problem is important and that we really do need to solve it
- the goal of the lit review is to convince them that I am the right person to do this study ( i know what i'm doing and i know what has and hasn't been done)
- for a proposal, you only get 1-2 pages for the lit review
* if we are creating new things, we may have to use new names
* reappropriate old terms
IRRODL (Wiley) new issue Nov 2009
Ask David for this link
THE TEAM
Establishing Credibility
Being able to find a useful question gives credibility
Successful tour of literature
Names of people who will do the work
Grantwriting is never a blind process
-Vitas of people
-Things not default
Vita
- Conferences
- Articles
Get key people according to skills and key words cited
literacy
developing countries
quant (Erika)
qual
software
design
Nepal
- the Gentiles will mock at these things
- our weakness in writing
- awkwardness of our hands
- when we write we behold our weakness
- my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness
- i give unto men weakness that they may become strong
Literature Reviews
- key words
- establishing credibility
- marching down the
- choosing the write key words for searching for docs and for RFPs:
scaling up
sustainable
open
developing countries
Nepal
Himalayas
education
OER
open education
- read and refer to what is already written by program officer and/or key authors by RFP
- key question/point is the starting point for the upside-down funnel whereby we open it again.
- appropriate humility is part of credibility
- if my approach is already "the best" approach, what is the point of my research?
- i'll learn more if i present it as a possible solution to the question.
- spell out where you searched and how you show that there are holes in the research
- i searched 23 key words in 16 databases and there is very little published in this areas
- different kinds of information have different kind of half life
- balance: stuff that's current & what is seminal (foundational to the effort)
- email faculty to get 2-3 seminal articles related to the work that you're doing
Rachel Windham through library
Search:
Google (cast the new widely)
Google Scholar (cited by - see how many times)
David Wiley 2002 (learning objects)
ERIC
ProQuest
WilsonWeb
Scopus
IT Forum
ELDIS
tictocs.ac.uk
Upload file to google docs
OER, literacy, developing countries
* Make sure nobody else has done it
* Make sure that you build off what has gone before
* Starting from scratch is the #1 problem
- help people believe that this problem is important and that we really do need to solve it
- the goal of the lit review is to convince them that I am the right person to do this study ( i know what i'm doing and i know what has and hasn't been done)
- for a proposal, you only get 1-2 pages for the lit review
* if we are creating new things, we may have to use new names
* reappropriate old terms
IRRODL (Wiley) new issue Nov 2009
Ask David for this link
THE TEAM
Establishing Credibility
Being able to find a useful question gives credibility
Successful tour of literature
Names of people who will do the work
Grantwriting is never a blind process
-Vitas of people
-Things not default
Vita
- Conferences
- Articles
Get key people according to skills and key words cited
literacy
developing countries
quant (Erika)
qual
software
design
Nepal
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
6 Oct 2009: Lit Reviews & Grants
SO WHAT? WHY DO I CARE?
scope and sequence.
choosing the right blocks, but arranging them the right way and filing in the mortar (story) the best way possible.
Lit review is also a narrative (it mirrors & scales the outline I posed in my one page intro)
Write for an intelligent non-specialist; your spouse should be able to read it.
more nepal.
more focus.
i should know more about my topic than anyone else in the world.
Get to the hook quicker.
Entice, tantalize the reader.
Prepare the reader for the main point earlier; everything builds to the main point.
Avoid filler
Make the intro 1 page; keep it concise.
Include only what relates.
Embed everything in context.
The world's knowledge is a public good.
How do we sustain giving things away for free and take it to scale?
WHAT IS MY CADENCE?
direction, inevitability, progression toward the last (pinnacle) chord
lit review follows this same orchestration (outline) of points
strategic planning and editing, find the right quotes, give appropriate commentary
commentary on what is missing
avoid "no literature exists on this" - unless you can show your search and why you never found it
(transparency, terms, databases) - explain process fully
Pres. Kim Clark's forum address
If you feel personally tied to the topic, take on a less formal voice.
Add more personal.
Focus more on the hook.
Justin Johansen: next Weds 8am, 351
Open courseware for BYU Independent Study pays for itself
Rich Sudweeks: Research Synthesis
USU Open Courseware Lit Review course
ocw.usu.edu
Create a story with the lit review
Find a narrower topic to find relevant articles/books for my lit review
Why?
Support your argument.
Create context
Establish timing on the stage.
Provide validity.
Show that you are informed/qualified.
Show where the holes are.
Demonstrate that you fill a gap.
Critically evaluate existing work. (So what?)
Make purposive choice under constraint.
Clear organization is not necessarily clear argument. Need a narrative.
Keep it interesting.
What is the story?
100,000 literate Pakistani women, but no libraries or reading material to continue:
"What about us?"
If I don't care, why should the reader care?
Researcher subjectivity.
Life impact map.
Depending on audience & what am I accomplishing?
Oct 27 (Kennedy Center)
Three cups of Tea
scope and sequence.
choosing the right blocks, but arranging them the right way and filing in the mortar (story) the best way possible.
Lit review is also a narrative (it mirrors & scales the outline I posed in my one page intro)
Write for an intelligent non-specialist; your spouse should be able to read it.
more nepal.
more focus.
i should know more about my topic than anyone else in the world.
Get to the hook quicker.
Entice, tantalize the reader.
Prepare the reader for the main point earlier; everything builds to the main point.
Avoid filler
Make the intro 1 page; keep it concise.
Include only what relates.
Embed everything in context.
The world's knowledge is a public good.
How do we sustain giving things away for free and take it to scale?
WHAT IS MY CADENCE?
direction, inevitability, progression toward the last (pinnacle) chord
lit review follows this same orchestration (outline) of points
strategic planning and editing, find the right quotes, give appropriate commentary
commentary on what is missing
avoid "no literature exists on this" - unless you can show your search and why you never found it
(transparency, terms, databases) - explain process fully
Pres. Kim Clark's forum address
If you feel personally tied to the topic, take on a less formal voice.
Add more personal.
Focus more on the hook.
Justin Johansen: next Weds 8am, 351
Open courseware for BYU Independent Study pays for itself
Rich Sudweeks: Research Synthesis
USU Open Courseware Lit Review course
ocw.usu.edu
Create a story with the lit review
Find a narrower topic to find relevant articles/books for my lit review
Why?
Support your argument.
Create context
Establish timing on the stage.
Provide validity.
Show that you are informed/qualified.
Show where the holes are.
Demonstrate that you fill a gap.
Critically evaluate existing work. (So what?)
Make purposive choice under constraint.
Clear organization is not necessarily clear argument. Need a narrative.
Keep it interesting.
What is the story?
100,000 literate Pakistani women, but no libraries or reading material to continue:
"What about us?"
If I don't care, why should the reader care?
Researcher subjectivity.
Life impact map.
Depending on audience & what am I accomplishing?
Oct 27 (Kennedy Center)
Three cups of Tea
Thursday, October 1, 2009
1 Oct 2009: Funneling & Sharpening my Introduction
A very large ship can be benefited very much by a very small helm.
Mutual purpose and mutual respect will guide "crucial conversation" - core of donor relatnshp?
Thoughts:
- Don't constrain yourself with false limitations
- Design: making purposive choice under constraint
- Writing a dissertation, proposal, grant is a HAIKU
- Precision is an increasingly lost art
- The onus is on ME to do the work, not to expect others to do it
- Control the scope (avoid scope creep - getting bigger and bigger)
- Get good quotes, current research, verify all references
- What are the indicators, what is the baseline and how far do you think you'll move it?
- It must be measurable - child mortality/unemployment THEN and NOW (what caused it?)
- Anecdote is the singular form of data - need quantity
Funnel Thought Process & Sharpening
1) reading helps eliminate poverty and increases quality of life
2) but 1m+ people don't have access to ed opportunity or reading materials
3) even after participating in literacy classes, accessing reading tools is difficult
4) reading materials are too expensive & dissemination is hampered in hard-to reach areas
5) need increased access to quality content to revolutionize ed in rural developing countries
6) are OC4D tools an effective means to increase content in rural developing countries
7) focus on ProLiteracy materials tailored at change agents in Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal
QUESTION:
What impact do OC4D tools have on access to critical content
targeted at lower-literates in Himalayan villages?
Although education is a human right, over one billion adults are still illiterate. (World Bank, 2009) Eliminating various forms of poverty in the developing world (economic, social, physical, spiritual) is directly linked to improving opportunities for education (UNESCO, 2009). Increasing access to educational opportunity in developing countries requires a continuous focus at removing obstacles (political, geographic, social) that stand in the way of the right to education (Tomsasevski, 2006).
Improving education in rural developing countries is most likely to be achieved through a holistic approach with concerted focus on sustainable and context-sensitive literacy programming conducted by locals for locals with particular regard to tailored content collection and dissemination (REFLECT, 2007). Research reveals that local literacy facilitators and change agents desire to develop skills that allow them to access and tailor educational tools through knowledge, creativity and freedom (Chambers, 2000; Curtis, 2990; Freire, 1977).
There are many in developing countries who lack an education only because they lack access to educational opportunity. Accessing reading tools is difficult because they are too expensive to buy and libraries are nonexistent. Dissemination of educational material is hampered in hard-to reach areas because of government bureaucracies, inefficient management systems, and geographical barriers. Instruction is hampered because local teachers and facilitators don't have access to new and relevant information to support learning. (Aga Khan Pakistan, 2006)
Even in communities where literacy programs have been supported by outside donors, inadequate attention has been given to these questions: “How do we sustain momentum after funding dies? How do we cultivate environments that can ensure lifelong literacy progress?” (World Education, 2006)
The OER movement focuses on increasing access to freely available educational tools free of charge. OER aims to expand and realize the right to education for all learners; but most tools are targeted at higher education learners with highly specialized information and in technical formats. There is little, if any, content available in simplified formats tailored for lower-literate people, available in local languages focused on problems related to international development.
Although OER has been lauded as the means for revolutionizing educational opportunity in developing countries (Abelson, Brown and Lerman), very little has been done for lower-literate learners in rural context. There is discussion about ways that OER players may build capacity in developing countries for effective use of OER, extension of these tools to lower-literate groups is nascent at best and nonexistent at worst.
Abelson, Brown, Lerman: "We expect OCW to be of particular value in devleoping countries that are trying to expand their higher education systems rapidly. These countries have disproportionately young populations, and their college instructors often have limited teaching experience., high teach loads, and limitd exposure to the curricula at top-flight universities (p.14)
The Open Content for Development (OC4D) initiative builds upon the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement (Hewlett, 2007) a more specific focus on lower-literate learners in rural developing countries. These context-sensitive tools focus on "literacy for social change" principles and content driven to solve problems faced by two-thirds of the world's population (e.g. agriculture, conflict resolution, environmental conservation, health/hygiene, human rights, HIV/AIDS prevention).
6) are OC4D tools an effective means to increase content in rural developing countries (Nepal)?
ProLiteracy Worldwide (PLW), an international NGO based in New York, supports a global network of over 130 NGO partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. These partners are connected through the use of ProLiteracy’s FAMA pedagogy anchored in participatory dialogue.
Although these partners share the same theoretical approach of “literacy for social change” (Curtis, 1990), they have not been connected to one another except through ProLiteracy Headquarters in New York (Anderson, 2009).
PLW has facilitated the aggregating of critical content tools from several sites that face similar dilemmas (e.g. AIDS prevention, infectious disease, environmental conservation, health/hygiene, micro-enterprise, and conflict resolution).
PLW has sometimes facilitated the sharing of content between partners and has often funded the localization of critical content developed in one region in order to increase utility and effectiveness in other regions.
PLW has also occasionally assisted in the dissemination of critical content through local partners according to specific donor objectives (e.g. AIDS awareness and family planning).
However, the majority of accessing, localizing and sharing of critical content between ProLiteracy Partners around the world has depended on funding from external donor organizations.
Sustainability of literacy programming at the macro and micro levels depends upon availability, affordability, and accessibility of appropriate content tailored (linguistically and culturally) for lower-literates and tethered to real-world issues.
Building from ProLiteracy’s partner base is an effective way to work within an existing structure to bolster the expansion of educational opportunity through access to open content tailored for the neediest learners.
Although many predict that OER is a panacea that will afford great educational benefit in areas where resources are scarce, limited research has been done in lower-literate rural environments. If these tools have the potential to revolutionize access to the right to education in developing countries, then it is imperative to find out what impact OER has in such environments and why.
Answering these questions will expand the focus of the OER movement toward the billion people across the world who are currently deprived the right to education. Are OC4D tools an effective means for sustaining access to quality learning materials for lower-literates in developing country contexts, particularly in the hard-to-reach rural villages of Nepal?
Mutual purpose and mutual respect will guide "crucial conversation" - core of donor relatnshp?
Thoughts:
- Don't constrain yourself with false limitations
- Design: making purposive choice under constraint
- Writing a dissertation, proposal, grant is a HAIKU
- Precision is an increasingly lost art
- The onus is on ME to do the work, not to expect others to do it
- Control the scope (avoid scope creep - getting bigger and bigger)
- Get good quotes, current research, verify all references
- What are the indicators, what is the baseline and how far do you think you'll move it?
- It must be measurable - child mortality/unemployment THEN and NOW (what caused it?)
- Anecdote is the singular form of data - need quantity
Funnel Thought Process & Sharpening
1) reading helps eliminate poverty and increases quality of life
2) but 1m+ people don't have access to ed opportunity or reading materials
3) even after participating in literacy classes, accessing reading tools is difficult
4) reading materials are too expensive & dissemination is hampered in hard-to reach areas
5) need increased access to quality content to revolutionize ed in rural developing countries
6) are OC4D tools an effective means to increase content in rural developing countries
7) focus on ProLiteracy materials tailored at change agents in Himalayan Kingdom of Nepal
QUESTION:
What impact do OC4D tools have on access to critical content
targeted at lower-literates in Himalayan villages?
Although education is a human right, over one billion adults are still illiterate. (World Bank, 2009) Eliminating various forms of poverty in the developing world (economic, social, physical, spiritual) is directly linked to improving opportunities for education (UNESCO, 2009). Increasing access to educational opportunity in developing countries requires a continuous focus at removing obstacles (political, geographic, social) that stand in the way of the right to education (Tomsasevski, 2006).
Improving education in rural developing countries is most likely to be achieved through a holistic approach with concerted focus on sustainable and context-sensitive literacy programming conducted by locals for locals with particular regard to tailored content collection and dissemination (REFLECT, 2007). Research reveals that local literacy facilitators and change agents desire to develop skills that allow them to access and tailor educational tools through knowledge, creativity and freedom (Chambers, 2000; Curtis, 2990; Freire, 1977).
There are many in developing countries who lack an education only because they lack access to educational opportunity. Accessing reading tools is difficult because they are too expensive to buy and libraries are nonexistent. Dissemination of educational material is hampered in hard-to reach areas because of government bureaucracies, inefficient management systems, and geographical barriers. Instruction is hampered because local teachers and facilitators don't have access to new and relevant information to support learning. (Aga Khan Pakistan, 2006)
Even in communities where literacy programs have been supported by outside donors, inadequate attention has been given to these questions: “How do we sustain momentum after funding dies? How do we cultivate environments that can ensure lifelong literacy progress?” (World Education, 2006)
The OER movement focuses on increasing access to freely available educational tools free of charge. OER aims to expand and realize the right to education for all learners; but most tools are targeted at higher education learners with highly specialized information and in technical formats. There is little, if any, content available in simplified formats tailored for lower-literate people, available in local languages focused on problems related to international development.
Although OER has been lauded as the means for revolutionizing educational opportunity in developing countries (Abelson, Brown and Lerman), very little has been done for lower-literate learners in rural context. There is discussion about ways that OER players may build capacity in developing countries for effective use of OER, extension of these tools to lower-literate groups is nascent at best and nonexistent at worst.
Abelson, Brown, Lerman: "We expect OCW to be of particular value in devleoping countries that are trying to expand their higher education systems rapidly. These countries have disproportionately young populations, and their college instructors often have limited teaching experience., high teach loads, and limitd exposure to the curricula at top-flight universities (p.14)
The Open Content for Development (OC4D) initiative builds upon the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement (Hewlett, 2007) a more specific focus on lower-literate learners in rural developing countries. These context-sensitive tools focus on "literacy for social change" principles and content driven to solve problems faced by two-thirds of the world's population (e.g. agriculture, conflict resolution, environmental conservation, health/hygiene, human rights, HIV/AIDS prevention).
6) are OC4D tools an effective means to increase content in rural developing countries (Nepal)?
ProLiteracy Worldwide (PLW), an international NGO based in New York, supports a global network of over 130 NGO partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. These partners are connected through the use of ProLiteracy’s FAMA pedagogy anchored in participatory dialogue.
Although these partners share the same theoretical approach of “literacy for social change” (Curtis, 1990), they have not been connected to one another except through ProLiteracy Headquarters in New York (Anderson, 2009).
PLW has facilitated the aggregating of critical content tools from several sites that face similar dilemmas (e.g. AIDS prevention, infectious disease, environmental conservation, health/hygiene, micro-enterprise, and conflict resolution).
PLW has sometimes facilitated the sharing of content between partners and has often funded the localization of critical content developed in one region in order to increase utility and effectiveness in other regions.
PLW has also occasionally assisted in the dissemination of critical content through local partners according to specific donor objectives (e.g. AIDS awareness and family planning).
However, the majority of accessing, localizing and sharing of critical content between ProLiteracy Partners around the world has depended on funding from external donor organizations.
Sustainability of literacy programming at the macro and micro levels depends upon availability, affordability, and accessibility of appropriate content tailored (linguistically and culturally) for lower-literates and tethered to real-world issues.
Building from ProLiteracy’s partner base is an effective way to work within an existing structure to bolster the expansion of educational opportunity through access to open content tailored for the neediest learners.
Although many predict that OER is a panacea that will afford great educational benefit in areas where resources are scarce, limited research has been done in lower-literate rural environments. If these tools have the potential to revolutionize access to the right to education in developing countries, then it is imperative to find out what impact OER has in such environments and why.
Answering these questions will expand the focus of the OER movement toward the billion people across the world who are currently deprived the right to education. Are OC4D tools an effective means for sustaining access to quality learning materials for lower-literates in developing country contexts, particularly in the hard-to-reach rural villages of Nepal?
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Introduction to my grant
Central Question:
What impact do OC4D tools have on access to critical content
targeted at lower-literates in Himalayan villages?
Eliminating various forms of poverty in the developing world (economic, social, physical, spiritual) is directly linked to improving opportunities for education (UNESCO, 2009). However, effectively disseminating information in developing countries requires a continuous focus at removing obstacles that stand in the way of the right to education (Tomsasevski, 2006).
This is most likely to be achieved through a holistic approach with concerted focus on sustainable and context-sensitive literacy programming conducted by locals for locals with particular regard to tailored content collection and dissemination (REFLECT, 2007).
Research reveals that local literacy facilitators and change agents desire to develop skills that allow them to advance knowledge, creativity and freedom (Chambers, 2000; Curtis, 2990; Freire, 1977). Furthermore, inadequate attention has been given to these questions: “How do we sustain momentum after funding dies? How do we cultivate environments that can ensure lifelong literacy progress?” (World Education, 2006)
ProLiteracy Worldwide (PLW), an international NGO based in New York, supports a global network of over 130 NGO partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. These partners are connected through the use of ProLiteracy’s FAMA pedagogy anchored in participatory dialogue.
Although these partners share the same theoretical approach of “literacy for social change” (Curtis, 1990), they have not been connected to one another except through ProLiteracy Headquarters in New York (Anderson, 2009).
PLW has facilitated the aggregating of critical content tools from several sites that face similar dilemmas (e.g. AIDS prevention, infectious disease, environmental conservation, health/hygiene, micro-enterprise, and conflict resolution).
PLW has sometimes facilitated the sharing of content between partners and has often funded the localization of critical content developed in one region in order to increase utility and effectiveness in other regions.
PLW has also occasionally assisted in the dissemination of critical content through local partners according to specific donor objectives (e.g. AIDS awareness and family planning).
However, the majority of accessing, localizing and sharing of critical content between ProLiteracy Partners around the world has depended on funding from external donor organizations.
Sustainability of literacy programming at the macro and micro levels depends upon availability, affordability, and accessibility of appropriate content tailored (linguistically and culturally) for lower-literates and tethered to real-world issues.
The Open Content for Development (OC4D) initiative builds upon the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement (Hewlett, 2007) that aims to expand and realize the right to education for all learners. Although there is discussion about ways that OER players may build capacity in developing countries for effective use of OER, extension of these tools to lower-literate groups is nascent at best and nonexistent at worst.
Building from ProLiteracy’s partner base is an effective way to work within an existing structure to bolster the expansion of educational opportunity through access to open content tailored for the neediest learners.
Although many predict that OER is a panacea that will afford great educational benefit in areas where resources are scarce, limited research has been done in lower-literate rural environments. If these tools have the potential to revolutionize access to the right to education in developing countries, then it is imperative to find out what impact OER has in such environments and why.
Answering these questions will expand the focus of the OER movement toward the billion people across the world who are currently deprived the right to education. Are OC4D tools an effective means for sustaining access to quality learning materials for neo-literates in developing country contexts, particularly in the hard-to-reach rural villages of Nepal?
TIMELINE OF ACTIVITIES
I. Design Class (Fall 2009)
(a) Design OC4D portal
• All ProLiteracy manuals (start with English, Nepali, Spanish etc.)
• Accessed by 130+ partner NGOs in developing world
• Asia, Africa, Latin America, Carribbean, Middle East
(b) Design toolkit for OC4D
• Hand-holding tips on accessing, localizing, disseminating content
• Literacy facilitators & YMRC Managers
• Change agents (health workers, ag extension agents, loan officers)
II. Evaluation Project (December 12-22, 2009)
(a) Conduct a pilot study in Sankhu Village to find out viability of OC4D
• evaluation: determine the merit or worth of the design for OC4D tools
• viability: is there a demand (YMRC stakeholders)? Is it user-friendly?
• lower-literates: people without formal education or limited education
• Himalayan villages: limited access to reading material / ed opportunity
(b) Instruments for Evaluation
• Survey, interviews, focus group discussion
• What seems to work? What doesn’t seem to work?
III. Dissertation (April 15 – June 30, 2010)
a. Conduct a larger study in 10 YMRC sites to find out viability of OC4D design
• All YMRC sites that are partnered with CDN
• Youth Summit training in Kathmandu (training, exposure)
• Visits to field sites and exploration of how / if / why OC4D is used.
b. Is OER useful? Does this increase capacity of the facilitators?
c. Formative evaluation: Are these tools desired? Are they useful?
IV. 3IE Funding Proposal (International Initiative Impact Evaluation) Nov 27,09
(a) What is the impact of OER for increasing access to critical content in rural Himalayan telecenters?
• Content is key! Why get connected if there’s nothing useful there?
• Manohar, Mahabir, Karma, TMUC
(b) Conversations with 3IE
• Approved in April 2009 for PPG (could go for open or thematic window)
• Met with Director and others in Jun 2009 in Delhi (post-Nepal trip)
• Funded by Hewlett Fdn, Gates Fdn, DFID
• Conversation with Ron (Program Officer): working with Manohar (HLCIT) – approach is better if nationwide study, longer-term study, could be university
• “Long studies with an ex ante evaluation design, starting with the collection of baseline data and eventual collection of endline data to conduct impact analysis of interventions of relevance to the theme and associated enduring questions. Such studies will usually take place over 3-5 years. The costs of these studies will depend on the extent of the data collection requirements, but are expected to be in the range US$ 0.5 – US$ 1.0 million.”
What impact do OC4D tools have on access to critical content
targeted at lower-literates in Himalayan villages?
Eliminating various forms of poverty in the developing world (economic, social, physical, spiritual) is directly linked to improving opportunities for education (UNESCO, 2009). However, effectively disseminating information in developing countries requires a continuous focus at removing obstacles that stand in the way of the right to education (Tomsasevski, 2006).
This is most likely to be achieved through a holistic approach with concerted focus on sustainable and context-sensitive literacy programming conducted by locals for locals with particular regard to tailored content collection and dissemination (REFLECT, 2007).
Research reveals that local literacy facilitators and change agents desire to develop skills that allow them to advance knowledge, creativity and freedom (Chambers, 2000; Curtis, 2990; Freire, 1977). Furthermore, inadequate attention has been given to these questions: “How do we sustain momentum after funding dies? How do we cultivate environments that can ensure lifelong literacy progress?” (World Education, 2006)
ProLiteracy Worldwide (PLW), an international NGO based in New York, supports a global network of over 130 NGO partners in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. These partners are connected through the use of ProLiteracy’s FAMA pedagogy anchored in participatory dialogue.
Although these partners share the same theoretical approach of “literacy for social change” (Curtis, 1990), they have not been connected to one another except through ProLiteracy Headquarters in New York (Anderson, 2009).
PLW has facilitated the aggregating of critical content tools from several sites that face similar dilemmas (e.g. AIDS prevention, infectious disease, environmental conservation, health/hygiene, micro-enterprise, and conflict resolution).
PLW has sometimes facilitated the sharing of content between partners and has often funded the localization of critical content developed in one region in order to increase utility and effectiveness in other regions.
PLW has also occasionally assisted in the dissemination of critical content through local partners according to specific donor objectives (e.g. AIDS awareness and family planning).
However, the majority of accessing, localizing and sharing of critical content between ProLiteracy Partners around the world has depended on funding from external donor organizations.
Sustainability of literacy programming at the macro and micro levels depends upon availability, affordability, and accessibility of appropriate content tailored (linguistically and culturally) for lower-literates and tethered to real-world issues.
The Open Content for Development (OC4D) initiative builds upon the Open Educational Resources (OER) movement (Hewlett, 2007) that aims to expand and realize the right to education for all learners. Although there is discussion about ways that OER players may build capacity in developing countries for effective use of OER, extension of these tools to lower-literate groups is nascent at best and nonexistent at worst.
Building from ProLiteracy’s partner base is an effective way to work within an existing structure to bolster the expansion of educational opportunity through access to open content tailored for the neediest learners.
Although many predict that OER is a panacea that will afford great educational benefit in areas where resources are scarce, limited research has been done in lower-literate rural environments. If these tools have the potential to revolutionize access to the right to education in developing countries, then it is imperative to find out what impact OER has in such environments and why.
Answering these questions will expand the focus of the OER movement toward the billion people across the world who are currently deprived the right to education. Are OC4D tools an effective means for sustaining access to quality learning materials for neo-literates in developing country contexts, particularly in the hard-to-reach rural villages of Nepal?
TIMELINE OF ACTIVITIES
I. Design Class (Fall 2009)
(a) Design OC4D portal
• All ProLiteracy manuals (start with English, Nepali, Spanish etc.)
• Accessed by 130+ partner NGOs in developing world
• Asia, Africa, Latin America, Carribbean, Middle East
(b) Design toolkit for OC4D
• Hand-holding tips on accessing, localizing, disseminating content
• Literacy facilitators & YMRC Managers
• Change agents (health workers, ag extension agents, loan officers)
II. Evaluation Project (December 12-22, 2009)
(a) Conduct a pilot study in Sankhu Village to find out viability of OC4D
• evaluation: determine the merit or worth of the design for OC4D tools
• viability: is there a demand (YMRC stakeholders)? Is it user-friendly?
• lower-literates: people without formal education or limited education
• Himalayan villages: limited access to reading material / ed opportunity
(b) Instruments for Evaluation
• Survey, interviews, focus group discussion
• What seems to work? What doesn’t seem to work?
III. Dissertation (April 15 – June 30, 2010)
a. Conduct a larger study in 10 YMRC sites to find out viability of OC4D design
• All YMRC sites that are partnered with CDN
• Youth Summit training in Kathmandu (training, exposure)
• Visits to field sites and exploration of how / if / why OC4D is used.
b. Is OER useful? Does this increase capacity of the facilitators?
c. Formative evaluation: Are these tools desired? Are they useful?
IV. 3IE Funding Proposal (International Initiative Impact Evaluation) Nov 27,09
(a) What is the impact of OER for increasing access to critical content in rural Himalayan telecenters?
• Content is key! Why get connected if there’s nothing useful there?
• Manohar, Mahabir, Karma, TMUC
(b) Conversations with 3IE
• Approved in April 2009 for PPG (could go for open or thematic window)
• Met with Director and others in Jun 2009 in Delhi (post-Nepal trip)
• Funded by Hewlett Fdn, Gates Fdn, DFID
• Conversation with Ron (Program Officer): working with Manohar (HLCIT) – approach is better if nationwide study, longer-term study, could be university
• “Long studies with an ex ante evaluation design, starting with the collection of baseline data and eventual collection of endline data to conduct impact analysis of interventions of relevance to the theme and associated enduring questions. Such studies will usually take place over 3-5 years. The costs of these studies will depend on the extent of the data collection requirements, but are expected to be in the range US$ 0.5 – US$ 1.0 million.”
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
29 Sept 2009: Writing the Introduction
DC 123: 16-17
- A very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm
- Cheerfully do all that lie in our power
- Take the path of least resistance in order to survive the storm
Introduction is the small helm; this sets the scene
Question drives the introduction
If you get the right question, everything will flow
Patterning and foreshadowing = flow, support (evidence), confidence
The research question is the last note of your introduction
It should build, it should work & clearly conclude with the question that you're asking
What makes bad movies bad?
- too predictable
- too trite
- didn't end "right"
- no climax
- no novelty
- too repetitive
- unmet expectations
What makes good movies good?
- well-written
- dialogue
- delivery (acting)
- timing / pacing
- classic
- timelessness
- danger / tension
- resolution
- passion
How does this relate to writing a grant or dissertation?
- believable
- pertinent, important, relevant
- timing and pacing
- urgency
- placement of tension (people are dying)
- passion (metered? bridled?)
Funnel Technique
- open up by "hanging on the cliff" - set the hook and keep the tension
- start general and taper down - direction downward - to the central question
- discussion of global issues down toward the local issue
- what about leading out with the chorus?
- keep people turning pages with the momentum
- too much tension without some pause/resolve doesn't keep people either
"The most needy kids don't learn to read."
Why don't they read? I want to know!
- A very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm
- Cheerfully do all that lie in our power
- Take the path of least resistance in order to survive the storm
Introduction is the small helm; this sets the scene
Question drives the introduction
If you get the right question, everything will flow
Patterning and foreshadowing = flow, support (evidence), confidence
The research question is the last note of your introduction
It should build, it should work & clearly conclude with the question that you're asking
What makes bad movies bad?
- too predictable
- too trite
- didn't end "right"
- no climax
- no novelty
- too repetitive
- unmet expectations
What makes good movies good?
- well-written
- dialogue
- delivery (acting)
- timing / pacing
- classic
- timelessness
- danger / tension
- resolution
- passion
How does this relate to writing a grant or dissertation?
- believable
- pertinent, important, relevant
- timing and pacing
- urgency
- placement of tension (people are dying)
- passion (metered? bridled?)
Funnel Technique
- open up by "hanging on the cliff" - set the hook and keep the tension
- start general and taper down - direction downward - to the central question
- discussion of global issues down toward the local issue
- what about leading out with the chorus?
- keep people turning pages with the momentum
- too much tension without some pause/resolve doesn't keep people either
"The most needy kids don't learn to read."
Why don't they read? I want to know!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
24 Sept 2009: Guidelines for a Prospectus
- We need to avoid isolationism and focus on collaboration - build on what has gone before.
- Einstein needed Newton before him & had to build from there.
- As we pray for the spirit, we'll get direction for line by line support.
- Literature review is critical - will help us to figure out our unique niche & build from best books.
- How does what I do build and go further - "unto him that receiveth, I will give more"
Example: ice-delivery vs. refrigeration unit in each home (ice-box) - although they were best suited to help the public achieve this goal, they were limited in their vision, so other people did it.
Disrupting Class
Horner Christensen
Lit Review
- Einstein needed Newton before him & had to build from there.
- As we pray for the spirit, we'll get direction for line by line support.
- Literature review is critical - will help us to figure out our unique niche & build from best books.
- How does what I do build and go further - "unto him that receiveth, I will give more"
Example: ice-delivery vs. refrigeration unit in each home (ice-box) - although they were best suited to help the public achieve this goal, they were limited in their vision, so other people did it.
Disrupting Class
Horner Christensen
Lit Review
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
22 Sept 2009: Exploring the RFP
2 Nephi 28
We learn line upon line, precept upon precept.
Knowledge is accelerated and exponential.
As we learn, it becomes easier to do something "not that the nature of the thing has changed, but our capacity to do has increased." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
In tandem with funding, as we learn principles and are grounded in goodness, we will increase our ability to achieve.
We learn line upon line, precept upon precept.
Knowledge is accelerated and exponential.
As we learn, it becomes easier to do something "not that the nature of the thing has changed, but our capacity to do has increased." (Ralph Waldo Emerson)
In tandem with funding, as we learn principles and are grounded in goodness, we will increase our ability to achieve.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
17 Sept 2009: Finding My Partner
Don't sell your soul for funding
Especially if strings are attached that betray your own integrity
FUNDER: donor who has goals that they want met and think you'll help them achieve that
PARTNER: how do we define this and what roles/responsibilities does this convey
STAKEHOLDERS: those that give supplies (funds), those that receive supplies (funds)
Guy Kawasaki: The Shopping Mall Test
The Art of the Start
- Choose carefully those with whom you want to work
- Choose people who work well with each other
- Could be potentially good to get people with different views
CONTRACT: we'll give this money for these deliverables and if you don't deliver we won't pay
GRANT: based on trust, we'll give you this to do what you say you'll do or something like that
NSF: High-Risk and High-Reward topics
- Consider F&A (Facilities & Administration)
- Consider intellectual property of the work you do
- Prepare the grant and send it to ORCA (Office of Research and Creative Arts)
- Check out the IRB requirements
- There is no F&A on a gift
- All grants and contracts have 45% lopped off the top
- Spencer Dissertation Fellowship comes directly to you
Clarify my question
Check out class notes on IPT-like Projects
University has someone looking for grants (Aaron McKay School Rep for RFPs)
The best way to get access is through networking
Search: private foundations, grants, gifts, endowments
don't search RFP term (mostly government contracts)
Department of Education
Kellogg
Sloan
MacArthur
Hewlett
Especially if strings are attached that betray your own integrity
FUNDER: donor who has goals that they want met and think you'll help them achieve that
PARTNER: how do we define this and what roles/responsibilities does this convey
STAKEHOLDERS: those that give supplies (funds), those that receive supplies (funds)
Guy Kawasaki: The Shopping Mall Test
The Art of the Start
- Choose carefully those with whom you want to work
- Choose people who work well with each other
- Could be potentially good to get people with different views
CONTRACT: we'll give this money for these deliverables and if you don't deliver we won't pay
GRANT: based on trust, we'll give you this to do what you say you'll do or something like that
NSF: High-Risk and High-Reward topics
- Consider F&A (Facilities & Administration)
- Consider intellectual property of the work you do
- Prepare the grant and send it to ORCA (Office of Research and Creative Arts)
- Check out the IRB requirements
- There is no F&A on a gift
- All grants and contracts have 45% lopped off the top
- Spencer Dissertation Fellowship comes directly to you
Clarify my question
Check out class notes on IPT-like Projects
University has someone looking for grants (Aaron McKay School Rep for RFPs)
The best way to get access is through networking
Search: private foundations, grants, gifts, endowments
don't search RFP term (mostly government contracts)
Department of Education
Kellogg
Sloan
MacArthur
Hewlett
How can I find a mentor?
Many students are surprised at how eager professors can be to work on projects with them. Knock on some office doors and find out if you can help on research that your professor is already doing, or find a professor who is interested in your project and work out a plan to accomplish something together.
Talk to your department about which professors are interested in mentoring. Look for professors who share academic interests -- you may have taken a class or two from them – and approach them about mentoring an ORCA project.
How can I increase my chances of receiving a grant?
- Find the right mentor: Look for a mentor now. Talk to professors about their research and seek those who share your academic interests. Look for someone who is interested in your ideas. Don’t try to find a mentor at the last minute.
- Start your proposal early: Write and edit several drafts of your proposal. Don’t throw your proposal together the night before it’s due.
- Build a professional relationship with your mentor: meet with your mentor frequently to discuss your project before you submit your application, but don’t expect them to do everything for you.
How can I make my proposal better?
Start your proposal early and seek your mentor’s advice, criticism and guidance.
ORCA offers free proposal writing workshops to students interested in applying for a grant.
Click here to signup for a writing workshop.
Click here to download a PowerPoint presentation from the workshop.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
15 Sept 2009: Exploring my Question (My Weakness?)
Ether 12:27
- My weakness may become strong
- My question may become strong?
- My passion may help weak things become strong
- If I become humble, I can become stronger at fulfilling my passion & making others strong
- My passion is my weakness and my strength; find harmony with my passion
- Brigham Young said that our challenge is to stand on the line (not fall short of it or go over it)
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
11 day exposure of black space (size of
11,000 galaxies in this photo
YouTube
Goals
* Find/Create Significant impact
* Make recommendations for moving forward
* Validity of the study (Avoid contamination of data)
* design is purposive constraint
Refining the Question
What (possibilities) are afforded by (localized open content, digitized and freely available) educational (tools, training (toolkits)) for (sustaining) (literacy) in (developing) (countries)?
What (possibilities) are afforded by (localized open content, digitized and freely available) educational (tools, training (toolkits)) for (sustaining) (literacy) in (developing) (countries)?
What is the impact (are the outcomes) of open educational resources for sustaining literacy in developing countries?
What are the (outcomes) of (open educational resources) for (sustaining) (literacy) in (rural) (areas)?
What is the impact of OER for increasing (access) to (quality) (localized) (content) in (rural) (Himalayan villages)?
Does access always lead to change?
- collect baseline of all involved centers - see what they are using for content now
- collect data after intervention (1 year or 5 years?) to see how their access changes
- control group
- intervention group
- how long of a period of affection by the intervention?
- what's my key variable for checking out
- What are my assumptions?
"resilient in the face of data" (proving what you want regardless of your findings)
Research says: "Properly designed" learning environments help people learn better.
* "properly designed" - leveraging the affordances of the environment appropriately
* Categorize the affordances of one approach.
* Which affordances are different with different variables?
* How can those differences be used to the learner's advantage?
What (impact) do (OER) have on (accessing), (localizing), and (sharing) (educational materials) in (rural) (developing) (areas)?
How does (OC4D) (improve) (access) to (localized) (educational) (content) in (developing) (countries)?
Q: Am I assuming that OC4D will be used??
Q: How long will I have to wait for OC4D to be deployed?
Q: Even after OC4D is deployed, how long will I have to wait to see impact?
Q: What is a user-friendly design of OC4D for increasing access to localized educational materials in developing countries?
Q: Impact of YMRC instead of OER?
MetaAnalysis:
US Dept of Ed (online ed is more effective than face-to-face) - key variable = time on task
* Beloit College: Mindset Test
- My weakness may become strong
- My question may become strong?
- My passion may help weak things become strong
- If I become humble, I can become stronger at fulfilling my passion & making others strong
- My passion is my weakness and my strength; find harmony with my passion
- Brigham Young said that our challenge is to stand on the line (not fall short of it or go over it)
Hubble Ultra Deep Field
11 day exposure of black space (size of
11,000 galaxies in this photo
YouTube
Goals
* Find/Create Significant impact
* Make recommendations for moving forward
* Validity of the study (Avoid contamination of data)
* design is purposive constraint
Refining the Question
What (possibilities) are afforded by (localized open content, digitized and freely available) educational (tools, training (toolkits)) for (sustaining) (literacy) in (developing) (countries)?
What (possibilities) are afforded by (localized open content, digitized and freely available) educational (tools, training (toolkits)) for (sustaining) (literacy) in (developing) (countries)?
What is the impact (are the outcomes) of open educational resources for sustaining literacy in developing countries?
What are the (outcomes) of (open educational resources) for (sustaining) (literacy) in (rural) (areas)?
What is the impact of OER for increasing (access) to (quality) (localized) (content) in (rural) (Himalayan villages)?
Does access always lead to change?
- collect baseline of all involved centers - see what they are using for content now
- collect data after intervention (1 year or 5 years?) to see how their access changes
- control group
- intervention group
- how long of a period of affection by the intervention?
- what's my key variable for checking out
- What are my assumptions?
"resilient in the face of data" (proving what you want regardless of your findings)
Research says: "Properly designed" learning environments help people learn better.
* "properly designed" - leveraging the affordances of the environment appropriately
* Categorize the affordances of one approach.
* Which affordances are different with different variables?
* How can those differences be used to the learner's advantage?
What (impact) do (OER) have on (accessing), (localizing), and (sharing) (educational materials) in (rural) (developing) (areas)?
How does (OC4D) (improve) (access) to (localized) (educational) (content) in (developing) (countries)?
Q: Am I assuming that OC4D will be used??
Q: How long will I have to wait for OC4D to be deployed?
Q: Even after OC4D is deployed, how long will I have to wait to see impact?
Q: What is a user-friendly design of OC4D for increasing access to localized educational materials in developing countries?
Q: Impact of YMRC instead of OER?
MetaAnalysis:
US Dept of Ed (online ed is more effective than face-to-face) - key variable = time on task
* Beloit College: Mindset Test
Thursday, September 10, 2009
10 Sept 2009: My Passion is "The Question"
Spring-Boarding from My Passion to My Question:
Read the Tootle Train book
TOPIC
How do we sustain the light of literacy? How do we help newly-literate learners continue to self-learn? What scaffolding is needed? How do we continue progressing once funding is finished (in a low-cost, low-maintenance manner)?
What possibilities are afforded by open content, digitized and freely available educational tools, training (toolkits) for localization for sustaining literacy in developing countries?
COMMUNITIES I WANT TO SERVE
- youth-managed resource centers
- community multimedia centers
- literacy buddy program
- family reading program
- reading corners in personal homes
- mobile mentors on bicycles
- women's literacy groups
- microcredit borrowers groups
- female community health volunters
- rural health clinics
- agricultural cooperatives
REALITIES RIGHT NOW
- there is a severe need for content
- we have groups who are ready to use the tools
- tech is there but limited (issues with bandwidth/electricity/training/experts)
- it would take a lot of time if I try to evaluate the impact of open content
- Manohar: inventory of what is the current context for accessing/sharing/localizing content
- 3IE: baseline of current context regarding content & 5-year impact of OC4D in rural areas?
(baseline, intervention, control group)
WHAT IS RESEARCHABLE RIGHT NOW?
- what is a useful interface [design] for disseminating OC4D - especially focus on ProLiteracy?
- what necessary tools (toolkit) build capacity for change agents to access/share/localize OC4D
- what benefits/obstacles are faced when incorporating OC4D into rural tech centers?
WHAT IS MY FOCUS?
- OC4D interface (portal) design
- OC4D toolkit to help change agents use tools
- OC4D tools themselves?
- accessing, localizing, sharing content
- only accessing content?
- only localizing content?
- only sharing content?
PROCESS
- substitute variables
- look at synonyms
- phrases / terms that have baggage (be careful and conscious about politics of word choices)
- look at subtleties / nuances of language and concepts (esp. history / professional debate)
- zoom in and zoom out on the issue
- clarify what you are asking
- clarify what you are not looking for
- clarify what methods
- clarify what units of measure
QUESTIONS
- How do (open content) (literacy) (tools) increase (sustainability) of (literacy) (programs)?
- How does (OC4D) increase (access) to (knowledge) in (rural) (communities)?
KARL FISCH: The Fisch Bowl (What if?)
Read the Tootle Train book
TOPIC
How do we sustain the light of literacy? How do we help newly-literate learners continue to self-learn? What scaffolding is needed? How do we continue progressing once funding is finished (in a low-cost, low-maintenance manner)?
What possibilities are afforded by open content, digitized and freely available educational tools, training (toolkits) for localization for sustaining literacy in developing countries?
COMMUNITIES I WANT TO SERVE
- youth-managed resource centers
- community multimedia centers
- literacy buddy program
- family reading program
- reading corners in personal homes
- mobile mentors on bicycles
- women's literacy groups
- microcredit borrowers groups
- female community health volunters
- rural health clinics
- agricultural cooperatives
REALITIES RIGHT NOW
- there is a severe need for content
- we have groups who are ready to use the tools
- tech is there but limited (issues with bandwidth/electricity/training/experts)
- it would take a lot of time if I try to evaluate the impact of open content
- Manohar: inventory of what is the current context for accessing/sharing/localizing content
- 3IE: baseline of current context regarding content & 5-year impact of OC4D in rural areas?
(baseline, intervention, control group)
WHAT IS RESEARCHABLE RIGHT NOW?
- what is a useful interface [design] for disseminating OC4D - especially focus on ProLiteracy?
- what necessary tools (toolkit) build capacity for change agents to access/share/localize OC4D
- what benefits/obstacles are faced when incorporating OC4D into rural tech centers?
WHAT IS MY FOCUS?
- OC4D interface (portal) design
- OC4D toolkit to help change agents use tools
- OC4D tools themselves?
- accessing, localizing, sharing content
- only accessing content?
- only localizing content?
- only sharing content?
PROCESS
- substitute variables
- look at synonyms
- phrases / terms that have baggage (be careful and conscious about politics of word choices)
- look at subtleties / nuances of language and concepts (esp. history / professional debate)
- zoom in and zoom out on the issue
- clarify what you are asking
- clarify what you are not looking for
- clarify what methods
- clarify what units of measure
QUESTIONS
- How do (open content) (literacy) (tools) increase (sustainability) of (literacy) (programs)?
- How does (OC4D) increase (access) to (knowledge) in (rural) (communities)?
KARL FISCH: The Fisch Bowl (What if?)
9 Sept 2009: Knowledge is Radiance
KNOWLEDGE IS RADIANCE
Light is “something that makes things visible or affords illumination. It is radiant energy, a spark, a flame. Beyond its literal meaning, it refers to spiritual illumination or awareness, or enLIGHTenment. Three primary properties of light are intensity (or brightness), frequency (or wavelength), and polarization (or direction). Light exhibits properties of both waves and particles. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics. Light is associated with heat, with speed, and communications.
I like the idea of light. It is powerful. My friend, Ryan, does doctoral research with sunlight in Cambodia. Everywhere in the world, thousands die daily from water-borne diseases. They are struggling to get clean water to people to prevent the spread of cholera and other deadly disease. Ryan is working with a team of Swiss scientists to find alternative methods to purify water for people to drink.
Water purifiers are expensive; chemicals can be dangerous. They are now finding that if you paint a black strip on a cheap plastic water bottle, then you can ATTRACT sunlight. After water sits in the sunlight for several hours, it becomes totally purified – better than any man-made chemical combination, or man-made instrument to purify water. Sunlight is no discriminator of persons. It’s free to all of His children – to benefit (or burn) us.
The Light of Christ is like sunlight. Just as sunlight is a natural disinfectant, the Spirit of Christ can cleanse our spirits. There is no darkness in sunlight. Darkness is subject unto it. The sun can be hidden by clouds or by the rotation of the earth, but the clouds will disappear, and the earth will complete its turning. This Light of Christ, which gives life, is within you. The evil one – Satan – will try to obscure it. It can be so clouded with confusion so far as to convince you that it does not exist.
Elder James E. Talmage (1862–1933) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that Light is the Spirit of Christ and the “divine essence” by which the Godhead operates upon people and in nature. (See Articles of Faith, 12th edition (1924), 488, note 3.)
Joseph Smith taught that light is something we seek and we acquire according to obedience: “He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. Light is glory, intelligence, knowledge and truth. (D&C 93:28, 36).
The scriptures teach us that the Light of Christ is the divine energy, power, or influence that proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things. The Light of Christ "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space." Light is in all things, giveth life to all things, and is the law by which all things are governed."
Joseph Smith went to great lengths to try to describe the light the Living Christ:
“His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun.” Christ is the light, the life, and the hope of the world.
A powerful metaphor of this is the light of sun above – which creates photosynthesis. EVERYTHING grows because of sunlight. We live because of light – literally.
HOW DOES LIGHT HELP ME PURSUE MY PASSION?
Alma wrote of hearts being changed and souls being “illuminated by the light of the everlasting word” (Alma 5:7). He also described the “discernible” nature of light in the following passage: “O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good” (Alma 32:35).
Many of the world’s great leaders, scientists, artists, and philosophers have been blessed by the influence of the Light of Christ. In 1978 the First Presidency stated that great religious leaders “such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as the philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light … to enlighten whole nations.” 4 (. Statement of the First Presidency, 15 February 1978.)
President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1970) wrote: “Those who make these discoveries are inspired of God or they would never make them. The Lord gave inspiration to Edison, to Franklin, to Morse, to Whitney and to all of the inventors and discoverers, and through their inspiration they obtained the necessary knowledge and were able to manufacture and invent as they have done for the benefit of the world. Without the help of the Lord they would have been just as helpless as the people were in other ages.” 5 (Doctrines of Salvation, compiled by Bruce R. McConkie, 3 volumes (1954–56), 1:147.)
========
WE ARE LIGHTED & DESIGNED TO SHINE
This thirstiness for light, this craving for brightness, is not random. It is “IN” us. God made man in his own image to be stewards over His other creations (Genesis 1:26 -27; Gospel Principles, p.9). We come from the light. We are commanded to kindle our light – to not put it “under a bushel.”
Because we are made in His image (Moses 6:9), we know that God has a body that looks like ours. We have God’s DNA. And, similar to knowing who are parents and ancestors are, people want to know where we came from.
Before I left Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts held a rendezvous of Gaugain’s famous paintings from Tahiti. This French artist’s masterpiece asks the pivotal questions of humanity: D'où venons-nous ? Qui sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ? “Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?”
As basic as these questions are, they have baffled the world’s philosophers for millennia. For me, knowing that “God is Light” gives me an anchor. Being a child of God gives me an identity as a child of light. Witnessing His light helps me start to grasp my own light. I am more confident in my ability to do good, to become intelligent, and to be happy, because, as my Father, God is more good, more intelligent and more happy than I am. I believe that He cares about my life and He wants me to gain knowledge and make choices that prepare me to return and live with Him.
Being a child of God is no small thing. There is a spark in us. We are sons and daughters of light. (Nibley, 272). James E Faust spoke about this godliness in us as believing blood. He said: “Believing Blood flows from the heart and into the blood vessels... It’s in you.”
As we cultivate our relationship with God, we sense his closeness to us. In Rwanda, the people have a phrase, “Imana irigwa ahandi igatah iRwanda.” It means, “God spends the day all over the world making miracles, but He comes to sleep with us here in Rwanda.” As we try to get closer to Christ, He also gets closer to us. We feel Him all around us. His light contributes to our light and vice-versa. This is glory. It is glorious.
Light is “something that makes things visible or affords illumination. It is radiant energy, a spark, a flame. Beyond its literal meaning, it refers to spiritual illumination or awareness, or enLIGHTenment. Three primary properties of light are intensity (or brightness), frequency (or wavelength), and polarization (or direction). Light exhibits properties of both waves and particles. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics. Light is associated with heat, with speed, and communications.
I like the idea of light. It is powerful. My friend, Ryan, does doctoral research with sunlight in Cambodia. Everywhere in the world, thousands die daily from water-borne diseases. They are struggling to get clean water to people to prevent the spread of cholera and other deadly disease. Ryan is working with a team of Swiss scientists to find alternative methods to purify water for people to drink.
Water purifiers are expensive; chemicals can be dangerous. They are now finding that if you paint a black strip on a cheap plastic water bottle, then you can ATTRACT sunlight. After water sits in the sunlight for several hours, it becomes totally purified – better than any man-made chemical combination, or man-made instrument to purify water. Sunlight is no discriminator of persons. It’s free to all of His children – to benefit (or burn) us.
The Light of Christ is like sunlight. Just as sunlight is a natural disinfectant, the Spirit of Christ can cleanse our spirits. There is no darkness in sunlight. Darkness is subject unto it. The sun can be hidden by clouds or by the rotation of the earth, but the clouds will disappear, and the earth will complete its turning. This Light of Christ, which gives life, is within you. The evil one – Satan – will try to obscure it. It can be so clouded with confusion so far as to convince you that it does not exist.
Elder James E. Talmage (1862–1933) of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles taught that Light is the Spirit of Christ and the “divine essence” by which the Godhead operates upon people and in nature. (See Articles of Faith, 12th edition (1924), 488, note 3.)
Joseph Smith taught that light is something we seek and we acquire according to obedience: “He that keepeth his commandments receiveth truth and light, until he is glorified in truth and knoweth all things. Light is glory, intelligence, knowledge and truth. (D&C 93:28, 36).
The scriptures teach us that the Light of Christ is the divine energy, power, or influence that proceeds from God through Christ and gives life and light to all things. The Light of Christ "proceedeth forth from the presence of God to fill the immensity of space." Light is in all things, giveth life to all things, and is the law by which all things are governed."
Joseph Smith went to great lengths to try to describe the light the Living Christ:
“His eyes were as a flame of fire; the hair of his head was white like the pure snow; his countenance shone above the brightness of the sun.” Christ is the light, the life, and the hope of the world.
A powerful metaphor of this is the light of sun above – which creates photosynthesis. EVERYTHING grows because of sunlight. We live because of light – literally.
HOW DOES LIGHT HELP ME PURSUE MY PASSION?
Alma wrote of hearts being changed and souls being “illuminated by the light of the everlasting word” (Alma 5:7). He also described the “discernible” nature of light in the following passage: “O then, is not this real? I say unto you, Yea, because it is light; and whatsoever is light, is good, because it is discernible, therefore ye must know that it is good” (Alma 32:35).
Many of the world’s great leaders, scientists, artists, and philosophers have been blessed by the influence of the Light of Christ. In 1978 the First Presidency stated that great religious leaders “such as Mohammed, Confucius, and the Reformers, as well as the philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and others, received a portion of God’s light … to enlighten whole nations.” 4 (. Statement of the First Presidency, 15 February 1978.)
President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876–1970) wrote: “Those who make these discoveries are inspired of God or they would never make them. The Lord gave inspiration to Edison, to Franklin, to Morse, to Whitney and to all of the inventors and discoverers, and through their inspiration they obtained the necessary knowledge and were able to manufacture and invent as they have done for the benefit of the world. Without the help of the Lord they would have been just as helpless as the people were in other ages.” 5 (Doctrines of Salvation, compiled by Bruce R. McConkie, 3 volumes (1954–56), 1:147.)
========
WE ARE LIGHTED & DESIGNED TO SHINE
This thirstiness for light, this craving for brightness, is not random. It is “IN” us. God made man in his own image to be stewards over His other creations (Genesis 1:26 -27; Gospel Principles, p.9). We come from the light. We are commanded to kindle our light – to not put it “under a bushel.”
Because we are made in His image (Moses 6:9), we know that God has a body that looks like ours. We have God’s DNA. And, similar to knowing who are parents and ancestors are, people want to know where we came from.
Before I left Boston, the Museum of Fine Arts held a rendezvous of Gaugain’s famous paintings from Tahiti. This French artist’s masterpiece asks the pivotal questions of humanity: D'où venons-nous ? Qui sommes-nous ? Où allons-nous ? “Where did we come from? Who are we? Where are we going?”
As basic as these questions are, they have baffled the world’s philosophers for millennia. For me, knowing that “God is Light” gives me an anchor. Being a child of God gives me an identity as a child of light. Witnessing His light helps me start to grasp my own light. I am more confident in my ability to do good, to become intelligent, and to be happy, because, as my Father, God is more good, more intelligent and more happy than I am. I believe that He cares about my life and He wants me to gain knowledge and make choices that prepare me to return and live with Him.
Being a child of God is no small thing. There is a spark in us. We are sons and daughters of light. (Nibley, 272). James E Faust spoke about this godliness in us as believing blood. He said: “Believing Blood flows from the heart and into the blood vessels... It’s in you.”
As we cultivate our relationship with God, we sense his closeness to us. In Rwanda, the people have a phrase, “Imana irigwa ahandi igatah iRwanda.” It means, “God spends the day all over the world making miracles, but He comes to sleep with us here in Rwanda.” As we try to get closer to Christ, He also gets closer to us. We feel Him all around us. His light contributes to our light and vice-versa. This is glory. It is glorious.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
10 Sept 2009: Kindling my passion for LIGHT
How can I cultivate my passion for LIGHT?
James Marrie said, “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.”
David O. Mckay echoed this concept: “Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other man. He cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, this constant weakening or strengthening of others. Man cannot evade the responsibility by merely saying that it is an unconscious influence.
This radiation …comes from what a person really is, not from what he pretends to be. … Life is a state of radiation and absorption. To exist is to radiate. To exist is to be the recipient of radiation.” (16 May 1948)
At Women’s Conference, Elder Uchtdorf identified another way that we can cultivate our personal light. He encouraged all of us to be CREATORS. With the light that is IN us, we are prepared with powerful potential to emulate our Heavenly Parents - the most creative people of the entire universe!
========
Our Heavenly Father wants us to know him. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ in order to open the way for us to progress. He has prepared a way to share light and knowledge by prophets so that we can all personally learn truth and develop a relationship with Him through SCRIPTURES.
It is a blessing to have the words of God available for us to read – to own personal copies of the scriptures, to read in our own homes, in our own language. God has allowed intense illumination at this time. My dad has gotten my whole family to read “Fire in the Bones,” a book about William Tyndale.
As a child in England during 1580, Tyndale only heard the words of God through a Catholic priest reading in Latin. Tyndale went to Oxford to learn English and Greek and Hebrew so that he could translate the Bible into the English tongue.
He believed that truth – and LIGHT - should not be kept in the hands of a few, but that a common ploughboy may have as deep a knowledge and relationship with God as the clergy man. People who read the first copies of the Bible in English were killed. It was treason to read the Bible in anything but Latin.
It was still the DARK ages – and, besides, Catholic priests and indulgences were no longer necessary if people started connecting with God directly. Tyndale himself was caught and burned at the stake for translating the Bible.
Today we have free access to this light. We can freely own and read a Bible. Do I honor this light and knowledge?
Another powerful way that I cultivate my personal light is through PRAYER. Prayer is a principle of power, but it sometimes takes courage to pray.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve seen several of my friends leave the church. One friend, a returned missionary, said he doesn’t believe God will really answer his prayers. He wonders if God even cares. He finally agreed that, at the very least, prayer is an outward expression of humility. It’s a real form of submission. Hymn 172 expresses the hopes of the prayerful soul: “Let [my] prayers find access to thee, In thy Holy Courts above.”
But, I KNOW that, when I pray on my knees and out loud, I feel the world around me pause. I feel an alignment with the universe. I feel God listening to me. Sometimes, in the thick of a hard time in life, I offer a simple prayer, “Heavenly Father, do you know who I am? Heavenly Father, do you care about me?” I ask Him, and then I wait for an answer.
I have felt His response as a rush of LIGHT. That light communicates with my soul and spreads feelings of love, of warmth, of energy. I know my Heavenly Father knows me because of a lightness in my soul – the heaviness disappears when there is light; the cloudiness disappears when there is light.
========
I believe we can also cultivate our light through BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE. I have never much liked the popular church art or pop music. I learn more about God when I look into the eyes of other people. One late night I was walking through the underground tunnel of Downtown Crossing all alone. It had been a hard day and I was hating my job and hating Boston.
An echo down the corridor grew louder as I walked, “Jesus on the mainline. Pick it up and tell Him what you want.” A toothless musician was smiling at me and playing the guitar: “Jesus on the mainline. Go on and tell Him what you want.” I burst into tears, sat down by him, and we sang together. I felt closer to God because I felt love for this Alabama homeless man. He recognized and testified of Jesus Christ’s role in helping us connect to our Heavenly Father.
God communicates with us through light – which is manifested through His Holy Spirit. When light enters us, we experience feelings of joy, peace, clarity, calmness, security, direction, confidence, and love. The spirit in us resonates with the spirit of God through raw connections with God’s creations – people, plants, even places.
God is in the sunrise over the Atlantic. In South Africa, Desmond Tutu calls this the “spirit of Ubuntu.” My humanity is tied together in your humanity. Together we strengthen and lift each other to God.
Not long before he passed away, I heard President Faust speak in a Stake Conference for the east coast region. He taught about “believing blood.” Because we emanate from light, we are wired to be attracted to it. The blood which pumps through our veins is believing blood filled with Godly energy.
We are all deserving of God’s love. We are all worthy to inherit the blessings He has for us.
Talmage notes, “We will inherit according to our willingness to receive, enjoy and utilize.” Because God respects our agency, He lets us choose to come unto Him. If we desire to be close to God, He will be there. We can choose light or darkness.
We are commanded to kindle and to share our light. Ancient scriptures teach of an eternal principle called “the spark.” Once we have light (or knowledge), we are commanded to share it.
Adam and Eve were commanded to teach all their posterity about the Kingdom of Light and the Worlds of Light – also referred to as “the land of brightness.”
=======
I know the power of the light. Becoming a mother is a daunting task. I pray daily for guidance – for illumination – of how to act, particularly of how to balance my time. I am strengthened by the innate goodness and brightness of this innocent soul.
Our son, Timshel, is drawn to light. He can find it, wherever he is. Whenever he awakes, his first instinct is to look to the light. Timshel is truly an ambassador of light, “trailing clouds of glory.” He radiates light, he illuminates our world, he kindles kindness and love.
Whatsoever thing is light is of God. Where there is sunshine, where there is brightness, where there is warmth, where there is illumination. (Moroni 7:12) Whatsoever is light is good. (Alma 32.35) This is universal knowledge. In his inauguration speech, Mandela said: “It is not our darkness, but our light that frightens us.”
Father in Heaven has promised, “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24). It is my prayer that each of us will heed Mormon’s invitation to understand and obey that light within, to “search diligently in the light of Christ … and lay hold upon every good thing” (Moro. 7:19).
“Namaste,” they say in India. “Namaste,” they say in Nepal. “Namaste,” literally means, “I salute the light in you that is also in me.” A billion people daily acknowledge the light in all of us that connects us to our Creator. “Namaste” I say to you today.
Let us celebrate the Son of God and his light. Let His light and knowledge that He lives kindle a brighter light in each of us. Let us recognize our potential as children of God and beings of light. Let us radiate our corner of the world. Let us kindle lightning as we build the Kingdom of God with our own passions and creativity.
James Marrie said, “Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.”
David O. Mckay echoed this concept: “Every man has an atmosphere which is affecting every other man. He cannot escape for one moment from this radiation of his character, this constant weakening or strengthening of others. Man cannot evade the responsibility by merely saying that it is an unconscious influence.
This radiation …comes from what a person really is, not from what he pretends to be. … Life is a state of radiation and absorption. To exist is to radiate. To exist is to be the recipient of radiation.” (16 May 1948)
At Women’s Conference, Elder Uchtdorf identified another way that we can cultivate our personal light. He encouraged all of us to be CREATORS. With the light that is IN us, we are prepared with powerful potential to emulate our Heavenly Parents - the most creative people of the entire universe!
========
Our Heavenly Father wants us to know him. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ in order to open the way for us to progress. He has prepared a way to share light and knowledge by prophets so that we can all personally learn truth and develop a relationship with Him through SCRIPTURES.
It is a blessing to have the words of God available for us to read – to own personal copies of the scriptures, to read in our own homes, in our own language. God has allowed intense illumination at this time. My dad has gotten my whole family to read “Fire in the Bones,” a book about William Tyndale.
As a child in England during 1580, Tyndale only heard the words of God through a Catholic priest reading in Latin. Tyndale went to Oxford to learn English and Greek and Hebrew so that he could translate the Bible into the English tongue.
He believed that truth – and LIGHT - should not be kept in the hands of a few, but that a common ploughboy may have as deep a knowledge and relationship with God as the clergy man. People who read the first copies of the Bible in English were killed. It was treason to read the Bible in anything but Latin.
It was still the DARK ages – and, besides, Catholic priests and indulgences were no longer necessary if people started connecting with God directly. Tyndale himself was caught and burned at the stake for translating the Bible.
Today we have free access to this light. We can freely own and read a Bible. Do I honor this light and knowledge?
Another powerful way that I cultivate my personal light is through PRAYER. Prayer is a principle of power, but it sometimes takes courage to pray.
As I’ve grown older, I’ve seen several of my friends leave the church. One friend, a returned missionary, said he doesn’t believe God will really answer his prayers. He wonders if God even cares. He finally agreed that, at the very least, prayer is an outward expression of humility. It’s a real form of submission. Hymn 172 expresses the hopes of the prayerful soul: “Let [my] prayers find access to thee, In thy Holy Courts above.”
But, I KNOW that, when I pray on my knees and out loud, I feel the world around me pause. I feel an alignment with the universe. I feel God listening to me. Sometimes, in the thick of a hard time in life, I offer a simple prayer, “Heavenly Father, do you know who I am? Heavenly Father, do you care about me?” I ask Him, and then I wait for an answer.
I have felt His response as a rush of LIGHT. That light communicates with my soul and spreads feelings of love, of warmth, of energy. I know my Heavenly Father knows me because of a lightness in my soul – the heaviness disappears when there is light; the cloudiness disappears when there is light.
========
I believe we can also cultivate our light through BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS WITH PEOPLE. I have never much liked the popular church art or pop music. I learn more about God when I look into the eyes of other people. One late night I was walking through the underground tunnel of Downtown Crossing all alone. It had been a hard day and I was hating my job and hating Boston.
An echo down the corridor grew louder as I walked, “Jesus on the mainline. Pick it up and tell Him what you want.” A toothless musician was smiling at me and playing the guitar: “Jesus on the mainline. Go on and tell Him what you want.” I burst into tears, sat down by him, and we sang together. I felt closer to God because I felt love for this Alabama homeless man. He recognized and testified of Jesus Christ’s role in helping us connect to our Heavenly Father.
God communicates with us through light – which is manifested through His Holy Spirit. When light enters us, we experience feelings of joy, peace, clarity, calmness, security, direction, confidence, and love. The spirit in us resonates with the spirit of God through raw connections with God’s creations – people, plants, even places.
God is in the sunrise over the Atlantic. In South Africa, Desmond Tutu calls this the “spirit of Ubuntu.” My humanity is tied together in your humanity. Together we strengthen and lift each other to God.
Not long before he passed away, I heard President Faust speak in a Stake Conference for the east coast region. He taught about “believing blood.” Because we emanate from light, we are wired to be attracted to it. The blood which pumps through our veins is believing blood filled with Godly energy.
We are all deserving of God’s love. We are all worthy to inherit the blessings He has for us.
Talmage notes, “We will inherit according to our willingness to receive, enjoy and utilize.” Because God respects our agency, He lets us choose to come unto Him. If we desire to be close to God, He will be there. We can choose light or darkness.
We are commanded to kindle and to share our light. Ancient scriptures teach of an eternal principle called “the spark.” Once we have light (or knowledge), we are commanded to share it.
Adam and Eve were commanded to teach all their posterity about the Kingdom of Light and the Worlds of Light – also referred to as “the land of brightness.”
=======
I know the power of the light. Becoming a mother is a daunting task. I pray daily for guidance – for illumination – of how to act, particularly of how to balance my time. I am strengthened by the innate goodness and brightness of this innocent soul.
Our son, Timshel, is drawn to light. He can find it, wherever he is. Whenever he awakes, his first instinct is to look to the light. Timshel is truly an ambassador of light, “trailing clouds of glory.” He radiates light, he illuminates our world, he kindles kindness and love.
Whatsoever thing is light is of God. Where there is sunshine, where there is brightness, where there is warmth, where there is illumination. (Moroni 7:12) Whatsoever is light is good. (Alma 32.35) This is universal knowledge. In his inauguration speech, Mandela said: “It is not our darkness, but our light that frightens us.”
Father in Heaven has promised, “That which is of God is light; and he that receiveth light, and continueth in God, receiveth more light; and that light groweth brighter and brighter until the perfect day” (D&C 50:24). It is my prayer that each of us will heed Mormon’s invitation to understand and obey that light within, to “search diligently in the light of Christ … and lay hold upon every good thing” (Moro. 7:19).
“Namaste,” they say in India. “Namaste,” they say in Nepal. “Namaste,” literally means, “I salute the light in you that is also in me.” A billion people daily acknowledge the light in all of us that connects us to our Creator. “Namaste” I say to you today.
Let us celebrate the Son of God and his light. Let His light and knowledge that He lives kindle a brighter light in each of us. Let us recognize our potential as children of God and beings of light. Let us radiate our corner of the world. Let us kindle lightning as we build the Kingdom of God with our own passions and creativity.
10 Sep 2009: Shower Test = Light of Literacy
"Be passionate, Tiffany. But, be patient." My dad's words pierced my 20 year-old soul. I eagerly stood on the threshold of embracing the wide world around me. I was heading to Uganda for a year to teach in a rural village. Dad saw my enthusiasm, but knew keenly of a personal pinch I felt wrestling with the choice to put in mission papers before pursuing my passion in Kampala.
I received my mission call to the Philippines shortly after postponing my Sub-Saharan adventure. I thought for sure I'd be speaking French in Cote d'Ivoire since I'd offered Africa on the altar. Turns out, the Lord found Filipinos to be the best fit for my personal mentors as I encountered rural poverty, rife illiteracy, and rampant socio-economic degradation.
I opened my eyes wide and inhaled all that life afforded me in those humid tropical islands. I loved the intimate conversations shared in tiny hovels. I loved the wrinkles and calluses of salt-of-the-earth rice farmers. I loved the smiles that peeled across cautious faces when they heard me speak Tagalog and found out that I was sleeping in their neighborhood.
With all the beauty that came in this resource-rich environment, I was stung with a soulful pain when I confronted the inequalities of my reality and others I met. This period was a personal crucible that burned a chasm of consciousness within me as I also questioned "Why?"
The most gripping issue that affected me and still preoccupies my shower thoughts is Lita - the vibrant, hard-working mother of four who tirelessly trekked into Dagupan for LDS church services, but could never read the scriptures that we shared or that were taught by others. I saw the transformation that came when she felt fear for reading. I saw the slavery she experiences by relying on others to interpret what is read. I saw the damnation that comes when educational limitations prevent her from participating in the community, in her kids' school, in her world.
During that period of life, I was pierced by scriptural endorsement of literacy: the contrast of the warlike people of Omni who had not brought records with them and their language was corrupted in contrast to the peaceful people of Mosiah who were taught to read and write in the language of their father in fulfillment of commandment (Mosiah 1:1-4).
I take courage and counsel - indeed, I am passionate - about the scripture, "In the beginning was the Word." (John 1:1)
Perhaps the biggest personal discovery I've had is this:
- God gave me passion and talents
- I get to explore these opportunities
- I am here to build the kingdom: D&C 88: 78, 79, 80
- By pursuing my mission and my talents, I am building the Kingdom of God
- I must choose how to proportion my time as a wife, a mother, a student, a neighbor, a teacher
- I will consecrate all that I create and all that I gain (intellectually, economically, socially etc.)
Communities where I see this need for access to learning tools:
- youth-managed resource centers
- community multimedia centers
- literacy buddy program
- family reading program
- reading corners in personal homes
- mobile mentors on bicycles
- women's literacy groups
- microcredit borrowers groups
- female community health volunters
- rural health clinics
=====
Himalayan Wisdom:
After 5 plane rides, a 12-hour truck-ride, a nighttime canoe-ride, and a long trek uphill, I arrived to a remote Himalayan village. It was pitch black outside, but inside a small community center I saw 40 women huddled around 4 dim kerosene lanterns trying to read. A facilitator stood nearby holding her lantern up to a piece of broken slate. Her brilliant white chalk cut the darkness with words.
I learned that women studied at nighttime because their husbands only allowed them to study after first caring for the housework, cattle, farm, and children. The next day we worked with villagers to install solar panels on the top of their community center.
We worked with a small committee but had 40 supervisors. By evening, we had over 100 people watching the solar installation. By sundown, the entire village gathered to watch the first electrification of this rural village.
On the count of three, the sun’s energy filtered through the solar panels to the battery, through simple wire, to 4 basic fluorescent bulbs. Out of the pitch black, 4 different hands turned on 4 different switches and eradicated all darkness from the literacy center.
The villagers cheered, clapped, and many cried. Dances of celebration commenced after speeches from village elders and community dignitaries.
Finally, a woman from the literacy class spoke: “This light is powerful,” she said. “But, the light of literacy is the true light of this group!”
========
LITERACY IS ILLUMINATION
I know that literacy is empowerment. It is the greatest tool to keep alive the spark of testimony and to eliminate inactivity. I know that knowledge illuminates minds to see possibilities.
Literacy kindles a light that empowers children of God with access to human rights, healthcare, and income-generation.
For the last 12 years, I have worked on literacy programs in rural poor countries. I have seen light ignited in illiterate souls as they learn to read written text. As they kindle knowledge, I have seen minds and souls illuminated with understanding.
But, how do we sustain the light of literacy? How do we continue progressing once funding is finished? These questions haunt me. I would like to explore answers to these questions through possibilities of open content, digitized and freely available tools, training for localization. I'm not sure of particulars, but I know these general ideas trigger my passion to rise.
========
I received my mission call to the Philippines shortly after postponing my Sub-Saharan adventure. I thought for sure I'd be speaking French in Cote d'Ivoire since I'd offered Africa on the altar. Turns out, the Lord found Filipinos to be the best fit for my personal mentors as I encountered rural poverty, rife illiteracy, and rampant socio-economic degradation.
I opened my eyes wide and inhaled all that life afforded me in those humid tropical islands. I loved the intimate conversations shared in tiny hovels. I loved the wrinkles and calluses of salt-of-the-earth rice farmers. I loved the smiles that peeled across cautious faces when they heard me speak Tagalog and found out that I was sleeping in their neighborhood.
With all the beauty that came in this resource-rich environment, I was stung with a soulful pain when I confronted the inequalities of my reality and others I met. This period was a personal crucible that burned a chasm of consciousness within me as I also questioned "Why?"
The most gripping issue that affected me and still preoccupies my shower thoughts is Lita - the vibrant, hard-working mother of four who tirelessly trekked into Dagupan for LDS church services, but could never read the scriptures that we shared or that were taught by others. I saw the transformation that came when she felt fear for reading. I saw the slavery she experiences by relying on others to interpret what is read. I saw the damnation that comes when educational limitations prevent her from participating in the community, in her kids' school, in her world.
During that period of life, I was pierced by scriptural endorsement of literacy: the contrast of the warlike people of Omni who had not brought records with them and their language was corrupted in contrast to the peaceful people of Mosiah who were taught to read and write in the language of their father in fulfillment of commandment (Mosiah 1:1-4).
I take courage and counsel - indeed, I am passionate - about the scripture, "In the beginning was the Word." (John 1:1)
Perhaps the biggest personal discovery I've had is this:
- God gave me passion and talents
- I get to explore these opportunities
- I am here to build the kingdom: D&C 88: 78, 79, 80
- By pursuing my mission and my talents, I am building the Kingdom of God
- I must choose how to proportion my time as a wife, a mother, a student, a neighbor, a teacher
- I will consecrate all that I create and all that I gain (intellectually, economically, socially etc.)
Communities where I see this need for access to learning tools:
- youth-managed resource centers
- community multimedia centers
- literacy buddy program
- family reading program
- reading corners in personal homes
- mobile mentors on bicycles
- women's literacy groups
- microcredit borrowers groups
- female community health volunters
- rural health clinics
=====
Himalayan Wisdom:
After 5 plane rides, a 12-hour truck-ride, a nighttime canoe-ride, and a long trek uphill, I arrived to a remote Himalayan village. It was pitch black outside, but inside a small community center I saw 40 women huddled around 4 dim kerosene lanterns trying to read. A facilitator stood nearby holding her lantern up to a piece of broken slate. Her brilliant white chalk cut the darkness with words.
I learned that women studied at nighttime because their husbands only allowed them to study after first caring for the housework, cattle, farm, and children. The next day we worked with villagers to install solar panels on the top of their community center.
We worked with a small committee but had 40 supervisors. By evening, we had over 100 people watching the solar installation. By sundown, the entire village gathered to watch the first electrification of this rural village.
On the count of three, the sun’s energy filtered through the solar panels to the battery, through simple wire, to 4 basic fluorescent bulbs. Out of the pitch black, 4 different hands turned on 4 different switches and eradicated all darkness from the literacy center.
The villagers cheered, clapped, and many cried. Dances of celebration commenced after speeches from village elders and community dignitaries.
Finally, a woman from the literacy class spoke: “This light is powerful,” she said. “But, the light of literacy is the true light of this group!”
========
LITERACY IS ILLUMINATION
I know that literacy is empowerment. It is the greatest tool to keep alive the spark of testimony and to eliminate inactivity. I know that knowledge illuminates minds to see possibilities.
Literacy kindles a light that empowers children of God with access to human rights, healthcare, and income-generation.
For the last 12 years, I have worked on literacy programs in rural poor countries. I have seen light ignited in illiterate souls as they learn to read written text. As they kindle knowledge, I have seen minds and souls illuminated with understanding.
But, how do we sustain the light of literacy? How do we continue progressing once funding is finished? These questions haunt me. I would like to explore answers to these questions through possibilities of open content, digitized and freely available tools, training for localization. I'm not sure of particulars, but I know these general ideas trigger my passion to rise.
========
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
7 Sep 2009 Finding My Passion & Finding Balance
FINDING MY PASSION (D&C 123:12-15)
- waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness ...
- with great earnestness (zeal) ... let no man count them as small things...
- there is much which lieth in futurity ...
- let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power...
- a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm
My take-away:
- Balancing is enigmatic; I think it is more about proportioning
- Context and timing influence what is my right proportioning
- I am committed to consecrating the works fostered by my passion.
- Considering the opportunity cost I embrace for this program, I am compelled to learn and share more (to bring to pass light)
- In an era where so much information is available, how do we identify quality? (those things pertaining to futurity)
- finding peace with the competition with "bachelor status"
- what about bridling my passion? (finding peace with the passion and with other things)
Chronicle of Higher Ed: "Teach Naked"
The Way of a Disciple
Elder Uchtdorf
"People run from one new idea to the next, hoping to find something that will answer the burning questions of their souls. They get caught up in the excitement of looking for something new. But inevitably, the flame of each new theory fades, only to be replaced by another “new and improved” solution that promises to do what the others before could not.
=======
* Processing power doubles each month and pricing halves each month (computational power and intelligence are different) (by 2020, there will be a machine with capacity as human brain)
* Until we know that a patient has malaria, we treat the symptoms (fever, diarrhea)
* Be a disciple scholar: "Knowledge without integrity is dangerous and deadly; integrity and knowledge is weak and useless." - Samuel Johnson
Dr. Inouye: "You have the Holy Ghost ... you've got to be big!"
Kamidana: curio (Japanese) where you leave offerings, burn incense, pictures of ancestors - LDS people still keep their ancestors and offer incense but not to their Gods. The irony of blending our spirituality with our paganistic cultural traits.
Homework for next time:
What is the balance (proper healthy relationship) between a professional passion and a personal passion (e.g. how do we proportion our work/family/church/life?)
The Shower Test:
When your hands are busy and your brain is not, where do your thoughts go? When nobody is requiring you to think about this field, what do you think about? (Nani cutting rice in Pakistan; how am I also illiterate?)
* Nani (Pakistan) - 7 grand-daughters
* Nanila (Pakistan) - "only Allah"
* Lita (Philippines) - "let the children read"
* Granny (Zimbabwe) - "this child is suffering from AIDS"
* Sylvia (South Africa) - amandla o mama!
* Sabira (Pakistan) - "now I will never marry; I have slandered my name"
* Tanzeela (Pakistan) - "because she taught my wife and she taught me ... taxi"
* Luchno (Thailand) - "we suffer thrice: once when we find out about AIDS, second when we care for our dying husbands, third, when we care for our dying selves."
- waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness ...
- with great earnestness (zeal) ... let no man count them as small things...
- there is much which lieth in futurity ...
- let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power...
- a very large ship is benefited very much by a very small helm in the time of a storm
My take-away:
- Balancing is enigmatic; I think it is more about proportioning
- Context and timing influence what is my right proportioning
- I am committed to consecrating the works fostered by my passion.
- Considering the opportunity cost I embrace for this program, I am compelled to learn and share more (to bring to pass light)
- In an era where so much information is available, how do we identify quality? (those things pertaining to futurity)
- finding peace with the competition with "bachelor status"
- what about bridling my passion? (finding peace with the passion and with other things)
Chronicle of Higher Ed: "Teach Naked"
The Way of a Disciple
Elder Uchtdorf
"People run from one new idea to the next, hoping to find something that will answer the burning questions of their souls. They get caught up in the excitement of looking for something new. But inevitably, the flame of each new theory fades, only to be replaced by another “new and improved” solution that promises to do what the others before could not.
It’s not that these worldly options don’t contain elements of truth—many of them do. Nevertheless, they all fall short of the lasting change we seek in our lives. After the excitement wears off, the hollowness remains as we look for the next new idea to unlock the secrets of happiness.
In contrast, the gospel of Jesus Christ has the answers to all of our problems. The gospel is not a secret. It is not complicated or hidden. It can unlock the door to true happiness. It is not someone’s theory or proposition. It does not come from man at all. It springs from the pure and everlasting waters of the Creator of the universe, who knows truths we cannot even begin to comprehend. And with that knowledge, He has given us the gospel—a divine gift, the ultimate formula for happiness and success."
The more we fill our hearts and minds with the message of the risen Christ, the greater our desire is to follow Him and live His teachings. This, in turn, causes our faith to grow and allows the light of Christ to illuminate our hearts. As it does, we recognize the imperfections in our lives, and we desire to be cleansed of the depressing burdens of sin. We yearn for freedom from guilt, and this inspires us to repent.
Discipleship is a journey. We need the refining lessons of the journey to craft our character and purify our hearts. By patiently walking in the path of discipleship, we demonstrate to ourselves the measure of our faith and our willingness to accept God’s will rather than ours.
It is not enough merely to speak of Jesus Christ or proclaim that we are His disciples. It is not enough to surround ourselves with symbols of our religion. Discipleship is not a spectator sport. We cannot expect to experience the blessings of faith by standing inactive on the sidelines...=======
* Processing power doubles each month and pricing halves each month (computational power and intelligence are different) (by 2020, there will be a machine with capacity as human brain)
* Until we know that a patient has malaria, we treat the symptoms (fever, diarrhea)
* Be a disciple scholar: "Knowledge without integrity is dangerous and deadly; integrity and knowledge is weak and useless." - Samuel Johnson
Dr. Inouye: "You have the Holy Ghost ... you've got to be big!"
Kamidana: curio (Japanese) where you leave offerings, burn incense, pictures of ancestors - LDS people still keep their ancestors and offer incense but not to their Gods. The irony of blending our spirituality with our paganistic cultural traits.
Homework for next time:
What is the balance (proper healthy relationship) between a professional passion and a personal passion (e.g. how do we proportion our work/family/church/life?)
The Shower Test:
When your hands are busy and your brain is not, where do your thoughts go? When nobody is requiring you to think about this field, what do you think about? (Nani cutting rice in Pakistan; how am I also illiterate?)
* Nani (Pakistan) - 7 grand-daughters
* Nanila (Pakistan) - "only Allah"
* Lita (Philippines) - "let the children read"
* Granny (Zimbabwe) - "this child is suffering from AIDS"
* Sylvia (South Africa) - amandla o mama!
* Sabira (Pakistan) - "now I will never marry; I have slandered my name"
* Tanzeela (Pakistan) - "because she taught my wife and she taught me ... taxi"
* Luchno (Thailand) - "we suffer thrice: once when we find out about AIDS, second when we care for our dying husbands, third, when we care for our dying selves."
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