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?