{"id":897,"date":"2011-08-18T09:55:57","date_gmt":"2011-08-18T09:55:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsletter.alt.ac.uk\/?p=897"},"modified":"2011-08-18T09:55:57","modified_gmt":"2011-08-18T09:55:57","slug":"why-distribute-documents-in-ms-word-or-openoffice-for-an-international-audience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/altc.alt.ac.uk\/blog\/2011\/08\/why-distribute-documents-in-ms-word-or-openoffice-for-an-international-audience\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Distribute Documents in MS Word or OpenOffice for an International Audience?"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are many sophisticated ways to provide interactive content on the web; why would you consider publishing resources in MS Word 2003 or OpenOffice? The answer to this question depends on your intended audience.<\/p>\n

I have been working on international development projects in developing countries for 20+ years, primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia. Yes, I have noticed the need to provide clean drinking water, to improve sanitary conditions, to provide mosquito nets to prevent malaria (malaria kills more people in some parts of the world than HIV\/AIDS), to enable unproductive land to yield food for local use and export, to engage and employ youth, to develop the economy, and so forth. Yet in order to address these needs, one must have access to information and, preferably, access to educational opportunities facilitated by effective educators. Effective teachers need access to information beyond their communities. A great source of current information is presented at conferences and conference websites:<\/p>\n

\u201cMy interest is education and how we can use the technology to facilitate tourism education in our countries. The more I understand the technologies, the better I am able to make recommendations, develop programmes etc. that can help the institutions to reach the goal of offering both face-to-face and online courses\u2026What conferences would you recommend?\u201d
\n(Bonita Morgan, Caribbean Tourism Organization)<\/p>\n

If you are in a developing country, accessing an interactive online conference site for a long time can be costly and frustrating, especially as the internet bandwidth may be limited. Additionally the electrical power may be unreliable. While delivering a workshop for the National Institute of Open Schooling in New Delhi, India, the electrical power in my hotel went off seven times. Fortunately, the hotel had a back-up diesel generator, so I was not off-line for long, but I still had to re-boot the computer. In Sierra Leone, the power spiked several times within an hour and each time I had to re-boot the computer. I would just get online when the hotel computer would go off-line once again. Imagine this happening while you are viewing an extensive, interactive conference list online. You might also be frustrated, but those in the developing world persevere as the Internet is their window to the world.<\/p>\n

At least in the situations I described above electrical power and Internet connections were available. While conducting a study of teacher training via open and distance learning in Botswana in 2008, I noted that 300 of the 700 primary schools in Botswana were not connected to the electrical grid and few schools had Internet access. In Kenya in 2007, 80% of the primary schools and 35% of secondary schools were not connected to the power grid. Thus, teachers were not able to use computers in their schools unless they had access to batteries, wind power, or portable electrical generators. If teachers wanted access to the Internet, they went to an Internet caf\u00e9 when they travelled to town for \u201cmarket day\u201d. But this meant that they had to use their precious income to surf the net. In Sierra Leone in 2010, while working with educators at a teachers\u2019 college, I provided funds from my own pocket so that they could access the Internet. If, for example, you are a public school teacher in The Gambia, you earn about US$75 a month. But, you can spend $3 an hour accessing a very, very slow Internet connection at a local Internet caf\u00e9 (or $12-15 an hour at a western hotel that caters to tourists). Consequently, the time you can reasonably afford to be online is limited. Anything that will reduce your online time will be looked upon favourably. Thus, you avoid websites that require you to stay online for long periods of time or websites that require a large amount of bandwidth:<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if the infrastructure is somehow present, the operating cost has ensured that [the] internet remains out of reach from the bottom of the pyramid. Poor speed, erratic connection-drops, and pathetic electricity supply has buttressed the cause for no use of the internet even in the areas which are advanced in relative terms.\u201d
\n(Narayan, 2007, p. 3).<\/p>\n

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Since 1998, time permitting, I have produced a list of Educational Technology and Related Education Conferences<\/a> as a professional courtesy to inform people about the resources and expertise that may lie beyond their regular sphere of operation. If people have limited access to the web, they can save the conference list to their computer or print an MS Word or OpenOffice version of it, scan it for the events that peak their interests, mark only the events that they will seek additional information for, and then go back online. I have seen this being done in Kenya during a tea break. Instead of reading the newspaper, two teachers were looking at my conference list and discussing what event their principal might support. Others cut and paste the list and generate a list for their colleagues \u2013 even organizations such as the eLearning Industry Association of Victoria, Australia<\/a> review the conference list and make a shorten version suitable for their membership. In Australia, Europe, and North America, the ease of access and relatively inexpensive bandwidth make it possible for people to access interactive, high bandwidth conference lists, but this is not possible everywhere. However, copies of MS Word can be found everywhere. On the streets of Lagos, Nigeria and Hanoi, Vietnam, pirated copies sell for $10 (a relatively large amount of money for the locals, but a doable investment). Of course, the actual price depends on your bargaining prowess so you may be able to obtain a copy for $5 or less! MS Word is also being supplied on some versions of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) computers being shipped to Africa and South America, and MS Word and OpenOffice documents can be accessed by smartphones that seem to be more prevalent than computers in some parts of the world, including Africa.<\/p>\n

Many in developing nations cannot afford the travel, registration, and accommodation fees involved in attending the events presented in the conference list; but they can access the conference website during and after the conference. Many conference organizers post abstracts, full papers, and\/or audios\/videos of conference presentations. (Several educators may pool their financial resources and sit around a computer screen to watch a video.) Thus, educators can visit the conference virtually and may encounter information and contacts that would be useful in their work. Just by looking at the conference list they realize that there is a world beyond their doorstep. For those educators who live in countries, such as Zimbabwe, where professional development opportunities are scarce and the libraries may only contain donated books that are 25-40 years old, conference websites are a starting point as educators search for new teaching methods, management techniques, and learning resources.<\/p>\n

Recently, I received this message from one of my readers of the conference list:<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you very much for your usual selflessness in sharing information of this nature. It’s up to an individual to make use of this valuable resource”.<\/p>\n

Use of these resources will provide an individual with opportunities to diversify one\u2019s skills and knowledge without having to pay for them expensively. The beauty is an individual chooses when, what and where. It’s indeed a flexible way of learning and they can continue to do so for as long as desirable, i.e., life-long learning.<\/p>\n

I must admit I have become knowledgeable about issues in education, particularly in open and distance learning, through exploring Internet sites and conferences you constantly bring to my attention.\u201d
\n(Bethel Masauli, Malawi College of Distance Education)<\/p>\n

It should be noted that an MS Word version of the list is also helpful for those in developed countries. I received this message from an individual who works for a police force in Canada.<\/p>\n

“I saw your list on Tony’s (Karrer) site – I’m a ‘learning designer’. We’re in a pretty locked-down computer environment where only a select few have access to the Internet, and especially social networking\/blogging-type sites….so in the interest of sharing with my colleagues, I thought your Word version [of the conference list] would be good. I could have saved the HTML version from Tony’s blog, but then I’d have to edit, clean it up, etc. and hey, since you already had done that :)\u2026We can also cut and paste and make up our own list in Word.”<\/p>\n

So, for the foreseeable future, I will continue to distribute the educational technology conference list in MS Word 2003 and Open Office, and let others such as Stephen Downes, Avi Hyman, and Seb Schmoller distribute the list in a form that suits them. But, the simplest method may be best for the audience that needs access to resources the most \u2013 those educators in developing and emerging nations who want to be effective teachers and yearn to embrace new ideas and practices.<\/p>\n

While assembling the Educational Technology and Related Education Conference list, I have seen thousands of conference websites. Thus, I would like to pass on the suggestions below to conference organizers.<\/p>\n