Distance Learning Technologies for Basic Education in Disadvantaged Areas
Report ID: TR-685-03Author: Li, Kai / Martonosi, Margaret / Krishnamurthy, Arvind / Wang, Randolph Y.
Date: 2003-12-00
Pages: 28
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Abstract:
Basic education plays a crucial role in uplifting disadvantaged areas from the grip of poverty. Traditional approaches centered around brick-and-mortar schools, however, may not easily meet the massive scalability needs of basic education in developing nations. In this document, we propose a digital technology-based distance learning project that serves to amplify the reach and productivity of teachers so that quality basic education can reach the disadvantaged children who have access to none today.
Our proposed effort utilizes an innovative blend of the ``high-tech'' and the ``low-tech.'' The low-tech includes approaches such as using the transportation of mobile storage devices via the postal system to provide high-bandwidth interaction without relying on a well-developed networking infrastructure. The high-tech approach seeks to exploit an integration of multiple types of communication channels (including both the Internet and storage devices carried by the postal system) in a peer-to-peer system that bridges the space and time gap among geographically distributed teachers and their students. If successful, we believe that the proposed effort will not only dramatically improve the basic education landscape, but also put in place a digital communication infrastructure that will serve the needs of a wider array of applications in health care, commerce, information dissemination, and entertainment. This joint research effort should also provide a real-world training ground for cutting-edge computer science and pedagogical research. We hope that the proposed effort will serve as a model for interdisciplinary and international cross-border collaboration.