Interviews: Ask Senior Director Matt Keller About the Global Learning XPRIZE 31
The former Vice President of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Matt Keller is currently the Senior Director of the $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE. The competition challenges teams from around the world to develop open source software solutions that will allow children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic within a 18 month competition period. After 18 months a panel of judges will evaluate the projects and announce semi-finalists. Semi-finalists will have a month to tweak their projects and/or reconfigure their teams before the judges elect the top five finalist to proceed. Each of the five teams selected will receive $1 million to field test their ideas with the eventual winners receiving the Grand Prize of $10 million. The Global Learning XPRIZE is recruiting teams now through April 30, 2015. Matt has agreed to answer any questions you might have about the competition and the future of education in general. As usual, ask as many as you'd like, but please, one per post.
Why not just wait for a solution to emerge? (Score:1)
Tech is changing fast, and almost free tablets are coming. It can be argued that efforts to promote one solution eg. the iPad or this software actually detract from the spontaneous emergence of new ideas via the grassroots. See what happened with the OLPC ...
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If the goal is to come up with a free software solution for people who can't afford an education why charge $500 to register? Wouldn't this preclude people in these areas from competing? It seems to me that these people might have the best ideas of what might work since they live there.
teachers ? (Score:3)
Why can't the kids learn basic reading, writing and arithmetic from regular teachers ?
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In places where there's not a lot of money, teachers are cheap too. Probably cheaper than a computer. And you don't need high degrees to teach somebody how to read and write or do basic math. Basically, if you can do it, you can teach somebody else.
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they're CHEAP in many ways though.
in thailand it's not that uncommon that teacher drinks beer during schoolday - in class.
in semi-developed countries teachers are cheap but sometimes, if not often, not good at all. these are the same places where your grade depends on gifts.
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Actually teachers in developing countries don't cost much money. In a country with a median income of $500 a year, you can hire pretty good teachers for $1,000 a year.
I don't know if you could supply a class with laptops for $1,000.
Computer Cost and Support? (Score:2)
not everyone has the money to pay the teachers. Nor are there enough people educated to be teachers.
True enough but in that case how are they going to have the money to buy computers and have people educated enough to be able to support them and keep them running? Not to mention the electrical power to run them let alone a network connection. It seems to me that if they have what they need to purchase and keep running all these computers they probably have what they need to teach basic literacy and arithmetic without computers.
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Why can't the kids learn basic reading, writing and arithmetic from regular teachers ?
As it says in the youtube video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Dnn7NFQPbQ#t=52), the traditional model of education is not sustainable or scalable for those living in developing countries.
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the traditional model of education is not sustainable or scalable for those living in developing countries.
That's just an unfounded assertion. One teacher can easily educate 40 students, whether they are living in developing countries or not. After 10 years or so, these students can become teachers. For basic reading/writing/math you can do it even quicker. Sounds perfectly sustainable and scalable to me.
Has this ever worked before? (Score:5, Interesting)
Has this ever worked before? Has anyone ever shown that it's possible for children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic? And have they published their results in peer-reviewed journals?
I thought that most of the research found that computers weren't too useful in teaching basic reading, writing and arithmetic, even when students had assistance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10... [nytimes.com]
Inflating the Software Report Card
By TRIP GABRIEL and MATT RICHTEL
October 8, 2011
(United States Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse review of 10 major software products for teaching algebra and elementary and middle school math and reading found that 9 “did not have statistically significant effects on test scores.”)
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Has this ever worked before? Has anyone ever shown that it's possible for children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic? And have they published their results in peer-reviewed journals?
I thought that most of the research found that computers weren't too useful in teaching basic reading, writing and arithmetic, even when students had assistance.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10... [nytimes.com] Inflating the Software Report Card By TRIP GABRIEL and MATT RICHTEL October 8, 2011 (United States Department of Education's What Works Clearinghouse review of 10 major software products for teaching algebra and elementary and middle school math and reading found that 9 “did not have statistically significant effects on test scores.”)
Excellent question.
What is the major problem that limits children from learning from apps now? Most children in the US are glued to the iPad and I'm sure people have tried to create learning apps.
Is it lacking in apps and games, or lacking in content? Or, is it lacking in algorithms or just a charismatic personality for the students to learn from?
Also, how are app/content developers going to test their stuff against children in the developing world or children in general? Are there schools or organiza
If at first you don't succeed.... (Score:2)
The competition challenges teams from around the world to develop open source software solutions that will allow children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic.
It has been the geek's wet dream for at least the past ten years to take the teacher out of the grade school classroom --- which damn little evidence to show that he has was ever on the right track.
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...maybe you just suck.
The competition challenges teams from around the world to develop open source software solutions that will allow children in developing countries to teach themselves basic reading, writing and arithmetic.
It has been the geek's wet dream for at least the past ten years to take the teacher out of the grade school classroom --- which damn little evidence to show that he has was ever on the right track.
It's a standard trope on slashdot (and other geek sites) that teachers just discourage all the brilliant students from achieving their full awesomeness.
Breaking the Cycle of Hype (Score:3)
There is a cycle with technology in education.
Next technologies or approaches are develop. We are promised they will revolutionize education. The hype builds. Everyone shells out cash. Research kicks in. Research shows only small gains were made in small populations. Look the next great thing is here to save education.
This cycle has been going at least since the invention of the radio and likely before. What have you seen as Senior Director that gives you hope that we will eventually break free from this cycle and actually see significant gains in education?
Working with governments (Score:1)
Lots of these developing countries aren't known for being very stable or have issues with educating portions of their population (girls for example). Do you work directly with the governments in these developing areas? Do they seem enthusiastic to your goal?
Judges (Score:2)
Who is on the judging panel? Is it just educators or do you have people with other areas of expertise like economists, programmers, or people with specific knowledge of these developing areas?