I am not sure if I understand exactly what we are suppose to be posting here about alternative approaches but I’ll give it a shot. While reading through some of the links I recalled reading ( I think written by Thomas Friedman) about a very successful project where women in rural areas in India were given cameras and trained to be the village photographers. While trying to find more information on this I came across the following article: Jhunjhunwala, A., Ramachandran, A. & Bandyopadhyay, A., n-Logue: The Story of a Rural Service Provider in India , The Journal of Community Informatics, (2004), Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 30-38. retrieved from the internet Sept. 27, 2009

This article discusses how an organization called n-Logue that focuses on rural India, helped to establish internet kiosks through-out rural India. Kiosks, which cost less than $1000 to set up were financed by bank loans and were established by trained entrepreneurs in the villages- mostly women. Further tech support is provided by n-Logue. It was determined in the original business plan that these kiosks would need to make around $70 per month in order to break even. This amounts to about 7 or 8 cents per person per month which the authors felt was affordable and sustainable.

These kiosks provide an amazing variety of services in these communities from training children how to type, to providing farmers access to on-line veterinary services. Many of the kiosk owners also bought digital cameras so they have also become the village photographer. At the time of writing they were proposing to add internet banking services as well.

This article does not conclude how things are going, but the authors were very optimistic about the future. I think this is a really interesting idea and with over 6 000 000 villages in India has great potential.

Hi All,

Would anyone else prefer links from the blog to open in a new window? I prefer this personally rather than navigating back and forth between the blog and the link.

Cheers,

Jim

Market Focus – K-12
Type of Offering -Content- K- 12 Distance learning courses in both French and English. The courses are offered in print, online- synchronous and asynchronous or blended formats.
Who is the buyer – This product has a fairly wide market as it can be purchased by individual students, their parents, schools and school divisions who offer couses through outreach type programs.
Markets – This product is marketed world-wide to students who wished to take K-12 courses based on the Alberta curriculum.
Development of the Market -Because this program is offered in a variety of formats- print and on-line it is appropriate for many markets. A blended program is probably the most effective program so those areas which have no or poor assess to internet would be the least likely market.
Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning
-“There is already a well-developed learning system in the sector (e.g. instructor-led courses, teachers in schools, etc.) and learning technology has been fitted into the mix (e.g. to handle home schooling, to extend the reach of universities to rural communities, to handle upgrading of credentials for employees, etc.)”

One laptop per child posts the following as its mission statement:

Mission Statement: To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.

Personally I view OLPC as great starting point for e-learning as it provides the basic tool required to access the wired world.  I once helped ship books to Africa as part of a community service club.  It was time consuming heavy and costly.  The amount of knowledge that we sent was worth less then the cost of the books.  If one could access that information times 100 for only 100$ I think it would be well worth the cost.  Here is OLPC cubed, granted it doesn’t work that well.

Market Focus:

OLPC is focused on bringing learning to the poorest countries through the form of a laptop and the software and hardware that it contains.  The aim is the K-12 market, with the residuel efect of educating those that care for the children.

Type of Offering:

OLPC offers content and services.  The laptop is both hardware and software equipped and training and costume materials can be included.

Who is the Buyer:

So far the buyers have been at the national level including countries such as Nigeria and now Rawanda.  The Laptops have been bought on scale to the 100,000 range.

Global Market

The globe is the market, but specifically countries with high rates of poverty and low education.

Development of Market:

Market does not support Learning technologies.  The solution will be funded at national or international level.  The company tried a buy one give one laptop program.

Learning Technology Competing with other forms of Learning:

OLPC is advocating education.  I don not feel as if it views it self as in competition with other forms of education.

BainPOP Cubed

BrainPOP describes itself as a creator of animated curriculum-based content which helps to support students and educators through engaging materials.  BrainPOP offers lesson plans, video tutorials, quizs, games for most topics and curriculum componenets.

Here is sample video to get started…

Face 1: Market Focus

The market focus is the K-12 public school system.  BrainPOP offers curriculum connections from k-12 in Spanish and English.

Face 2: Types of Offerings

BrainPOP is a content developer that create the curriculum based activities that can be access once a subscription our licensing fee is paid.

Face 3: Who is the Buyer?

BrainPOP has done an excellent job in regard to addressing the various levels of purchasing.  By offering a variety of purchasing agreement BrainPOP access the level of learning bought for learner and learning bought centrally.  Here is a list of the option: school wide, district wide, media lab, classroom, home school, family, or a virtual subscription.

Face 4 – Global Markets

The United States of America and wired Anglophone countries are the primary global markets.  Although the content is offered in Spanish this is more for the Spanish speakers within the United States.  As for the content it is primarily American centric in that the social studies and history aspects are in coordination with American curriculum organizers.  The other aspects are more generally applicable and to offer a wide variety of topics to be explored.

Face 5 – Development of the Market

From my understanding of BrainPOP it would be situated within a market that supports export oriented learning and substitutions of imports.  The American curriculum would make it better suited than perhaps a British or Canadian company offering the same products, but could be used in both of those countries as well.

Face 6 – Learning Technology Competing with Other Forms of Learning

BrainPOP works well with a well-developed learning system.  In fact, BrainPOP is used as a way to reinforce the already exciting system and not replace it.

BrainPOP is a great resource I recommend trying a free trial….

I have many email addresses because of this feature…..

Noah

1.  INVESTING IN COUNTRIES IN AFRICA

http://www.ted.com/talks/andrew_mwenda_takes_a_new_look_at_africa.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/euvin_naidoo_on_investing_in_africa.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/ngozi_okonjo_iweala_on_doing_business_in_africa.html

2.  INVESTING IN INDIA

http://www.ted.com/talks/nandan_nilekani_s_ideas_for_india_s_future.html

3.  INVESTING IN AFGHANISTAN

http://www.ted.com/talks/iqbal_quadir_says_mobiles_fight_poverty.html

4.  INVESTING IN CAPITALISM, ENDING POVERTY, AND REVIEWING AID

http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_on_patient_capitalism.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_a_third_way_to_think_about_aid.html

http://www.ted.com/talks/jacqueline_novogratz_invests_in_ending_poverty.html

Enjoy!

Barrie