CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – fall 2010 – Thirteenth Event

Analysis Engines

Monday, December 6, 2010

Presenter: Mike Whalen – University of Minnesota Software Engineering Center

During the most recent colloquium Mike Whalen, a professor and researcher at the Software Engineering Center spoke about the need to debug or look for errors within programs through a more holistic and comprehensive approach. While traditional debugging will detect many flaws, so flaws are hard to differentiate from properly written code. During his lecture he decided not to talk specifically about medical devices. He currently receives support from NASA, the Air Force, Lockheed as well as other major corporations.

One of the first issues that Dr. Whalen addressed was an in-depth overview regarding how software is traditionally developed. He outlined the following parts in the design: concept formation, requirements specification, design, implementation, integration, system. Within traditional software developing a large portion of the costs are allocated to testing, where the unit test, the integration test, and the system test can account for up to 75% of the budget.

A reason for the high costs of testing is that when that it can be as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack. In addition emerging software size and complexity has increased over time. Sometimes the problem with an application may be a simple number improperly entered, a simply line of code with an improper conception. A particularly devastating example was what happened to Zune players built before 2008 which all became bricks as a result of an error within the initialization code after December 31, 2008.  Beneath is a description of the code and its malfunction.

Year = originyear; /* = 1980 */

While (days > 365) {

If (isleapyear(year)) {

If (days > 366) {          (((((if changed to days > 365) — it would not crash, but it is still incorrect))))

Days -= 366;

Year += 1;

}

} else {

Days -= 365;

Year += 1;

What are some ways in which testing can be improved? Testing even using a rigorous structural coverage metric such as MCDC , is very unlikely to catch this bug. Using MCDC + boundary value testing would likely catch it. What can be done is to change the process? Modify the concept formation -> (Requirements / analysis [properties]) -> Model / code -> object code -> integration -> system ->. Symbolic evaluation may also provide paths through the code. If you work with programs with loops – how do you know when you should stop looping? Symbolic evaluation does not do termination.

[P ^ B ^ t = z] S [P ^ t < z] / [P] while B do S done [⌐B ^ P]

Invariant Generation, Hoare logic / weakest precondition reasoning require loop invariants. Transition Relations describe behavior of systems by describing changes of variable values across a series of computational steps. Many things can be model in this manner. Can model lots of things this way: hardware, comm. protocols, dataflow languages, state machines, system architectures, programs (with some caveats), and more. Commercial vendors also use these tools.

Temporal logic (TL) is often used for model reasoning. TL describes the evolution of the model from some current state. There have been many different variants. CTL (computational temporal logic) describes the evolution of a tree of traces (views the world (its nodes) as a tree). LTL (linear temporal logic) describes the evolution of individual paths. (views the world (its nodes) as a line)

Model checkers were a breakthrough technology of the 1990s. There are several different types of Model Checkers. They are easy to use but they have limitations.  How do they work? Even small models include millions of states. Symbolic Model Checking improves on Model Checkers. The main idea was to represent sets of system states symbolically as Boolean propositions. Each proposition describes a characteristic function for a set of states. Illustrating what is possible, Dr. Whale provided an example.  While many individuals play and struggle solving Sudokus Empty Sudoku board has 9^81 = ~10^77 possible states. To solve them and any other Sudoku, Dr. Whalen applied the concepts of Model Checkers. The short program he wrote solved a hard Sudoku in one or two seconds. The concept was also used for the ADGS 2100 Adaptive Display and Guidance System – Checked 573 properties and found 98 errors in early design models. Dr. Whalen’s lectures provide an insight about the need for changes within the field of software engineering and the need for software to be tested by different methods to increase the reliability of the software and diminish the time that needs to be allocated to efficiently allocate time and resources. It has been a pleasure to listen to and learn from the CSCI colloquium series. Thank you!

ICT and the Digital Divide – A Participatory Solution with a Dominican Flavor

December 6, 2010

The Digital Divides – The Ownership of Knowledge in the 21^st Century

The “digital divide,” a term coined in the late 20th century, highlights the growing disparity in access to information and communication technologies (ICTs) between and within countries (Norris, 2001; Compaine, 2001; Warschauer, 2003).  This concept, its meaning, and its implications for states across the world have been topics of widespread research and debate since the beginning of the 21^st century (OECD, 2000; Attewell, 2001; Goldfarb & Prince, 2007; Katz, 2008; Trucano, 2005; Mar, 2004; Chapman & Mahlck, 2004). Within the United States and abroad, public libraries and public computing centers have attempted to diminish the gap between technology haves and have-nots, yet many still lack access to computers, broadband Internet, and even mobile phones (Krebeck, 2010; InfoDev, 2010; The Economist, 2010; The Economist, 2005; Richardson et al., 2000). In addition, while the use of mobile phones is growing; smart phones remain inaccessible for the majority of individuals in developing countries. It is unclear whether reducing these inequalities will help countries to “develop” and “modernize” or whether it will increase reliance on imports, and promote capital flight while perpetuating global inequities. Despite the promise of ICT, various studies of programs implemented in OECD states and LDCs found the initiatives had a debatable impact, obtaining only marginally positive results (Trucano, 2005). Studies surrounding the overall costs of ICT programs are also limited and only 10 to 15% of the total cost of ownership is attributed to the initial set up of the program (ibid).

Warschauer (2003) criticized the discourse of the “digital divide” and contended that the term should not be seen as a binary conception. He argued that such a notion “can even be patronizing because it fails to value the social resources that diverse groups bring to the table” (pg 7). The relationship between different groups of people and technologies vary and the development of a new technology does not by definition imply a benefit to the society. While Warschauer (2003) reminds us that technology is not a panacea, the material realities of ICTs extend beyond the discourse and its semantics (Peet & Hartwick, 2009). Unequal access to ICTs helps to perpetuate the economic differences between the core and periphery states, as the periphery continues to be dependent on the industries and products developed as a result of the knowledge accumulated by the core (Peet & Hartwick, 2009).

One of the primary reasons for the difficulties faced by poorer states in catching up with richer states has been the rapid, usually exponential, rate of innovation in technology through improvements in circuit technology. Since 1965, Moore’s law, or the exponential rate of technological innovation, continues to be supported by quantitative studies (Schaller, 1997; Kurzweil, 2005). Countries have increased their access to technology worldwide, yet the “divide” is a dynamic concept that changes as new technologies develop. ICT programs traditionally include radio, television, personal computers, the Internet or sharing of materials through a network, and mobile phone technology (Trucano, 2005).

In a study of 179 countries, Norris (2001) illustrated that there were three main “digital divides”, one between countries, or a “global divide”, one between social classes, or a “social divide,” and one between those who use resources and those that do not, or a “democratic divide.” Access to ICTs could be categorized in a different number of ways, and Norris’ categories highlight some of the differing implications of the “divide” depending on how it is conceptualized. It is also important to note that, similar to the use of the term “globalization,” the division between “information haves” and the “have-nots” is not a new concept; rather modern technologies have accentuated historical trends (Friedman, 2007; Sheppard et al., 2009; Compaine, 2001).

ICTs allow people to connect instantaneously worldwide, flattening certain aspects of international trade and communication (Friedman, 2007). Individuals can now find information about a large number of subjects without going to a library. Technology has transformed society, and it will continue to do so for years to come, and at a very fast pace. As such, Friedman (2007), along with other writers (Steinmueller, 2001; Friedman, 2007; Norris, 2001), has encouraged countries to invest in ICTs. To some, such investments are seen as a “stage” or objective to be met for a country to modernize and develop.

The rapid growth of ICT industries and their implications for states have led to transformational changes in society (Moravec, 2009). The first Apple personal computer, Apple Lisa, was released in 1984, the Internet was created in 1990 by Tim Berners-Lee, and the first mobile phone was developed by Motorola in 1974. Within just a few decades, mobile phone subscriptions extended from 12.4 million in 1990 to 4.6 billion by 2009, the Internet has reached most places in the world, and “research firm Gartner, Inc., predicts that there will be 2 billion computers in use worldwide by the year 2014” (Katz, 2008; Heeks, 2008; ITU, 2010). Facebook, a social network site which launched only in 2004, already has an estimated value of over 30 billion dollars (Hardy, 2010).

In some fields, ICTs have brought very positive changes, such as improvements in disability learning tools, distance education tools, long distance communications, and media creation. In various areas of the world citizens are becoming amateur reporters, recording and blogging about events that repressive governments attempt to censor (Diamond, 2010). Yet despite a large number of positive possibilities, some of these technologies are still used principally for entertainment purposes, and their potential for societal transformation and development has not been fully utilized. As long as states remain primarily importers of technology, rather than developers and producers, ICTs will perpetuate inequality. When the technologies are fully appropriated and the local population not only modifies and improves on the technology, but generates new technologies, the “digital divide” and knowledge dependency will diminish. To reduce inequality, education policy experts should focus on increasing access to Open Education Resources (OER) rather than simply attempting to “catch up” with richer societies by emulating their current use of ICTs (Downes, 2007).

The proper use of ICTs could help bridge the knowledge and information gap, and aid in achieving a “new stage” of development. States could leapfrog past other states through a not yet developed, advanced system of online education which builds and intertwines aspects of Open Education Resources such as OpenCourseWare, Open Source Software, Open Books, Open Access Journals, Creative Commons licenses, and the cumulative creations made through Open Resource Economics (Jonestone, 2005; Downes, 2007; Benkler, 2008). By following Ted Berners-Lee’s call to “raw data now” and taking advantage of free materials such as YouTube EDU, ITunes U, and Connexions, as well as the future development of more open and freely accessible universities, poor states could use the Internet to perhaps eventually provide higher education for all, lifelong learning for all, and possibly reduce the costs of obtaining a high quality higher education degree (UNESCO, 2009; Faber, 2002; Lubas et al., 2004; Baraniuk, 2006; Berners-Lee, 2009).

By using ICTs to create a more open and equitable society, and increase the local development of knowledge, states could move towards the development of “critical consciousness” and create their own path toward the future (Freire, 1974).  The growing use of technologies will also allow for the strengthening of local voices. ICTs are increasingly allowing its users to “rip”, “copy”, “reuse”, “mix”, and “burn” (Baraniuk, 2006). As Napster and peer-to-peer sharing transformed the Music industry, OER may transform our understanding of education. In his recent book, The Tower and The Cloud, Richard Katz (2008) wondered: “if a 300-year-old institution like Encyclopedia Britannica [could] be threatened in five years by Wikipedia, [could] other aggregators of expertise (aka colleges and universities) be similarly challenged?” (Katz, 2008).

Yet, more than a challenge, OER offers an alternative. OER can help local communities preserve their documents, materials, and extend the reach of their limited human capital through initiatives such as HP Brain Gain, the African Virtual University OER initiative, and other programs which focus on increasing access to education for all. Rice University Connexions initiative of freely accessible textbook materials allows for the customization of chapters, free digital access to quality educational resources, and printing of cheaper materials (Connexions, 2006).

This essay will address how the Dominican Republic (D.R.) is attempting to reduce the digital divide through the use of ICT, in particular through the building of Community Technology Centers (CTCs) across the country and through the use of OERs. Yet while the D.R. has invested significant amounts of money on the development of ICT technologies, limited improvements in their public primary and secondary education may result in ICT benefiting primarily a certain sector of the population, while the poorest members of society continue to be excluded from the best schools and ICT technology. This essay overviews the educational system in the D.R., recent ICT developments, and policies that could be implemented to ensure that current investment in ICT reduces rather than increase inequalities.

The Dominican Republic – Rapid but Limited Growth – ICT for Education

With 10% of the population receiving close to 40% of the country’s GNP in 2007 (San Roman, 2009), the high level of inequality in the D.R. raises questions as to whether expenditure on ICT, rather than on improving the quality of the primary and secondary education levels, represents the best way for the country to increase equality while improving its economic outlook. Yet, as technology plays an ever increasing role in modern society, it could also be argued that in order to leapfrog into the future, the D.R. needs to prepare its workers for the increasingly knowledge and innovation driven nature of the economy (Moravec, 2008; Davison et al, 2000), attempting not to imitate the west, but develop in its own style. With a limited tradition of research and innovation, the D.R. could invest in the development of OER to not only increase access to quality education material for all, but also to promote innovative and more constructive ways of teaching and learning. However, without an increased investment in education, present reforms will likely have a limited impact within the poorest sectors of the population.

The high level of inequalities in the D.R. dates back to the colonial era. Despite governmental efforts, the educational system and economic system developed by European colonists made increasing economic prosperity and reducing inequality a difficult challenge for former colonies to overcome (Bulmer-Thomas, 1994). The D.R. and neighboring Haiti had in place a plantation system in which only a small number of whites, constantly fearful of a revolt, controlled a much larger black slave population, who were constantly monitored and whose education was not encouraged (Moya Pons, 1992). As argued by Rodney (1972), the colonizers were fearful of educating slaves as it would make them more difficult to control. Out of up to 400,000 “taino” natives that inhabited Hispaniola when it was “discovered” by Columbus in 1492 only 3,000 remained by 1519 (Ibid. p. 29). Most of the natives died from epidemics as well as from the harsh treatment to which they were subjected by the colonists.

To continue the economic production and “development” of the island, the Spanish crown quickly began to import slaves from Africa and organized the island’s economy along various agricultural plantations. According to local documents, by 1546, black slaves accounted for around 12,000 individuals and were controlled by a white population of only 5,000 (Ibid. p. 34). While over time most of the population intermarried, and 84% of the population considers themselves mixed or of African ancestry, vestiges of the colonial system remain (CIA, 2010).

Just a few decades ago, in 1937, the then Dictator of the D.R,. Rafael Leonidas Trujillo (1930-1961), ordered the massacre of over 15,000 Haitians for having migrated to the D.R. without authorization. It is believed that many Dominicans with darker skin, and who resembled Haitians, also lost their lives. Trujillo’s government encouraged Europeans to migrate and open businesses with the aim of increasing the business sector as well as whitening the Dominican society. As a consequence, to this day, the poorest citizens of the D.R. are often of Haitian origin and tend to be of darker skin than wealthier families (Prado, 2009; Lozano, 2008; Murray, 2005; Lilon, 1999).

Recent demographic trends as well as a transition to a service economy have also increased the challenges faced by the government in fostering development. In recent years, the Dominican economy has transformed from a primarily agricultural economy to a service economy. Primarily through the growth of tourism, the service industry has grown to over 66% of GDP. This change has been beneficial to the D.R.’s economy, which has grown steadily since the 1980s, having an average economic growth rate of 5.43% from 2007 to 2009 and a Per Capita GDP of $8,300 (CIA, 2010). Free trade policies have led to the improvement of aggregate economic statistics for most Latin America countries, including the D.R.(UN Millennium Project, 2005). However, in 2008, 42% of the population lived below the poverty line (World Bank, 2008). In 2007, 11.2% of the population continued to live with less than a dollar a day (UNESCO, 2010), and the country had an unemployment rate of 14.9% (CIA, 2010).

Rapid urbanization and population growth has contributed to the government’s difficulties in developing the human resources needed to deal with the demands for new skills from the changing economy (OECD, 2008). While in 1950 the D.R. had a population of 2.134 million, of which 23.8% were urban dwellers, by 2010 the population had increased to 10.169 million inhabitants, with 68.54% living in urban areas (CEPAL, 2010). Similar to other developing countries that rapidly urbanized, the D.R. was faced with a complicated development challenge, a challenge that could be best met over time by empowering individuals to be creative and critical thinkers through a student-centered, progressive and competitive education system.

Previous governments attempted to increase both quality and access to primary and secondary education through a number of reforms (OECD, 2008, p. 92). In 1992, the country approved a major education reform through a 10 Year Plan (Plan Decenal) which promoted: 1) modernizing the educational structure, 2) the introduction of new technologies, 3) the promotion of literacy, 4) strengthening vocational education, 5) increased investment in education and 6) increasing community involvement (p. 104). The government programs yielded various positive results. Among them, the literacy rate increased steadily from 60.8% in 1980 to 70% in 1990, 78.5% in 2000, and 81.6% in 2008 (World Bank, 2010). Through Plan Decenal, the proportion of children between 6 and 17 that were attending school increased from 71.3% in 1991 to 86.4% in 2002 (p. 10).

However, despite moderate success in some areas, several indicators remain below expectations. By 2008, the average enrollment rate for Latin America and the Caribbean in secondary school was 94%, while in the D.R. enrollment was only 80%. The literacy rate remains below the regional average of 91% at 88.2% and total public spending on education (% of GDP) is low, at a level of 2.2% in 2007, compared to a world average of 4.6% in 2006 (World Bank, 2010). Primary education enrollment rate is also lower than the regional average at 104% compared to 116%. In addition, according to a 2001 assessment of education throughout Latin America  by PREALC, urban children in the D.R. performed worst, and rural children only outperformed children in Bolivia and Peru, for whom Spanish is often a second language (Murray, 2005). The limited quality of the public education system has led to the rapid growth of private education institutions. While there were only 24 private schools in 1961, there were at least 2,500 by the year 2000 (Murray, 2005).

In recent years, however, the despite the implementation of the second Plan Decenal (2008-2018), the government has not substantially increased its education expenditure, instead focusing to a large extent on increasing access to ICT technologies for the general population. The government’s investments in ICT technologies recently resulted in the First Lady of the D.R. receiving the World Information Society Award in 2007 from the United Nations. She was honored for her contributions to building a more equitable and inclusive society by empowering Dominican families to improve their living standards through access to ICTs at Community Technology Centers (CTCs) (Cedeño Fernández, 2007). However, it is hard to assess to what degree these technologies are reducing inequalities and influencing primary and secondary education.

Other recent technological initiatives include the establishment of the Technological Institute of the Americas, (ITLA) founded in 2000, the Dominican Telecommunication Institute (INDOTEL), established in 1998, the Cyberpark of Santo Domingo, founded in 2001, and the new Network Access Point (NAP) of the Caribbean built in 2008 (INTEC, 2010; INDOTEL, 2010; PSCD, 2010; Dominican Today, 2008; ITLA, 2010).

The increased investment and emphasis on ICT development has contributed to the rapid expansion of Internet use in the D.R. in recent years, increasing from 183.687 Internet accounts in 2006 to 508.603 Internet accounts by June 2010.  Based on the average users per Internet connection, INDOTEL believes that 33% of Dominicans, or 3,214,371 people, had access to the Internet by June 2010 (INDOTEL, 2010). The D.R. has a cell phone use rate of 0.91 cellular phones per person (INDOTEL, 2010), and mobile phone coverage is increasing in rural areas. In addition, through the rural connectivity program, INDOTEL hopes to bring broadband access to every town with over 300 inhabitants by 2012 (San Roman, 2009; INDOTEL, 2010). The telecommunications industry has grown by over 15% annually between 1997 and 2004 with most of the traffic from the D.R. is destined for the United States (Stern, 2006). With 1 million, or 9%, of Dominicans living outside the country, most of them in the United States, the D.R. received 3.477 billion dollars in remittances in 2009 (World Bank, 2010). Remittances are not only a major source of foreign revenue but they have also fueled the growing development of ICT as families are in favor of investing to increase communication with their loved ones.

Regarding ICT and education, the government has promoted ICT through CTCs, the Educando.edu.do online community, Red-Wan, Virtual Areas for Education (AVES), and OER and software development at ITLA (ITLA, 2010; Khelladi, 2003) The most popular initiative in ICT for Education has been the CTCs. CTCs originated from the Costa Rican Little Intelligent Communities (LINCOS) initiative which was built in partnership with the MIT.  The project innovative approach of using decommissioned shipping containers to house computer labs proved enticing to donors (Granqvist, 2003; Granqvist, 2005; MIT, 2001).

This model was appealing to donors, but it was perceived as foreign, temporal, and inconvenient to Dominican users. LINCOS originated in Costa Rica, but it was exported soon after to the D.R. where it was subsequently modified. Granqvist (2005) argued that the lack of participation by the community in the planning stage of the program resulted in designers ignoring the fact that the containers felt hot and crowded, and that some of the software and manuals, including the operating system, were on some occasions not in Spanish (Granqvist, 2005). The container model was dropped and replaced with a traditional building during the Hipolito Mejia administration (2000-2004), and it was further modified during the second presidency of Leonel Fernandez (2004-2008) to also include meeting rooms and a radio station (Prado, 2009). They are also hoping to include libraries and other educational materials within the CTCs. Working in collaboration with the Technological Institute of Monterrey, a pioneer in virtual education and OER, the CTCs include a variety of educational software and material (ibid).

Originally, most of the software and manuals were in English and they were limited in quantity and scope, yet that has increasingly changed as the initiative has developed (Granqvist, 2005). By the spring of 2009, there were 49 operational CTCs (Prado, 2009) and the Office of the First Lady has set a goal of building 135 CTCs in the upcoming years (Cedeño de Fernández, 2005). Comprehensively, the ICTs for Education initiatives in the D.R. are slowly bridging the digital divide. More and more individuals are obtaining access to advanced technologies, in doing so, the D.R. is meeting the the last Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 8-8f, which promotes increasing access to telephone lines, cellular subscriptions, and Internet use per 100 population (UNDP, 2010). The likelihood that OER and other educational technology tools will improve over time and the constructionist nature of their design allow for individuals who were previously unable to study to have the opportunity to learn how to use computers, operate a radio, learn how to read, as well as use the educational software within the computer. Such resources provide a one of a kind opportunity for the individuals that have access to these newly built centers (Lozano P., 2007).

However, are the centers visited by a large percentage of the population? Who visits them? Prado’s (2009) study showed that, despite being located in rural areas where there is a higher poverty rate than in the cities (54.1% live under the poverty line),  most of the users of the three CTCs she surveyed had a higher level of education than the average population (World Bank, 2010; World Bank, 2008; Prado, 2009). According to Prado (2009) , 61.5% of the CTC users in the locations she studied had completed high school, a level which is significantly higher than the national average in 2004 of 40%. In addition, 12.8% of the CTC users had a university degree, in comparison to the 3% nationwide enrollment rate in higher education in 2008 (pg 80).

Therefore, are these ICTs programs reducing or increasing the digital divide? Being unable to find a job with computer or IT skills in rural areas, individuals who become competent in ICT are likely to migrate to the cities. ICT also do not seem to be targeting individuals of Haitian descent. Prado’s (2009) studied showed that, as a result of anti-haitianismo, individuals were hesitant to label themselves as Haitian or of Haitian descent (Prado, 2009). Similar to previous studies mentioned within the InfoDev’s ICT Knowledge Map (Trucano, 2005), studies of the D.R. and the effectiveness of ICT are not supported by education outcomes data. After modifying the LINCOS project and increasing the participatory element of the CTC establishment process, individuals appear to be more supportive of the project (Prado, 2009; Granqvist, 2005) yet the initiative appears to be serving only a limited number of individuals, at high operating costs.

While CTCs and increased broadband access, as well as the introduction of educational programs through mobile phones, could, in the future, extinguish the digital divide and promote lifelong learning, current international indicators show that the D.R. public education system is failing to meet the MDG for universal primary education, while only a few students are benefiting from their ICT initiative. As such, the D.R. could pursue two courses of action; either increase, and perhaps as much as triple, the budget allocated to public education in an attempt to better national results, and/or increase access to ICT for every individual in the country by joining the OLPC initiative and providing every single child with a laptop and CTCs in all communities. In order to leapfrog and properly meet the challenges facing the D.R. in the 21^st century, a much greater national emphasis needs to be given to all areas of education, not just ICT. This effort should be linked to the national Dominican identity, by promoting athletic activities such as baseball, and music education after school programs similar to Venezuela’s “El Sistema”, but with a bachata or merengue emphasis. While there have been noticeable improvements during the past decades, the D.R. continues to lag behind in educational achievements compared to other Latin American countries (Murray, 2005). ICT development and reducing the digital divide are part of the solution, but to fully reduce the inequality that have plagued the D.R. since the colonial years, a greater expenditure on education and improved relationships with Haiti would be beneficial.

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OECD. (2008). Reviews of National Policies for Education. Paris: OECD.

Peet, R., & Hartwick, E. (2009). Theories of Development: Contentions, Arguments, Alternatives. New York: The Guilford Press.

Prado, P. (2009). Bridging Digital Poverty: Adoption of Information and Communication Technologies at Community Technology Centers in the Dominican Republic. Miami: University of Miami.

PSCD. (2010). About PCSD. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from PCSD – Parque Cibernetico de Santo Domingo: http://www.pcsd.com.do/English/about-pcsd.html

Sachs, J. (2005). The End of Poverty. New York: Penguin Press.

San Roman, E. (2009). Bringing Broadband Access to Rural Areas – The Dominican Experience. Santo Domingo: International Telecommunication Union.

Stern, P. A. (2006). Promoting Investment in Information and Communication Technologies in the Caribbean. Washington D.C.: Inter-American Development Bank.

UN Millennium Project. (2005). Investing in Development: A Practical Plan to Achieve the Millennium Development Goals. London: Earthscan.

UNDP. (2010). Goal 8: A global partnership for development. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from United Nations Development Programme – Millennium Development Goals: http://www.undp.org/mdg/goal8.shtml

UNESCO. (2010). UIS STATISTICS IN BRIEF – Education in Dominican Republic. New York: UNESCO.

World Bank. (2008, September). Dominican Republic at a Glance. Retrieved November 30, 2010, from World Bank: http://devdata.worldbank.org

World Bank. (2010). Dominican Republic Indicators. Retrieved December 4, 2010, from The World Bank: http://data.worldbank.org/country/dominican-republic

World Bank. (2010). Migration and Remittances – the Dominican Republic. Washington D.C.: World Bank.

World Bank. (2010). World dataBank: Dominican Republic. Retrieved from World Bank: http://data.worldbank.org/country/dominican-republic

References: Dominican Republic

December 4, 2010

Dominican Republic: Reviews of National Policies for Education (2008). In Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Ed.),. Paris: OECD.

Cinderella or cyberella?: Empowering women in the knowledge society (2006). In Huyer S. (Ed.),. Bloomfield, CT: Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, Inc.

Informe nacional de desarrollo humano: República Dominicana 2005: Hacia una inserción mundial incluyente y renovada (2005). In United Nations Development Programme (Ed.),. Santo Domingo: Santo Domingo: Oficina de Desarrollo Humano, PNUD.

Educación dominicana y construcción del conocimiento (2000). In Alvarez J. L., lic (Ed.),. Santo Domingo, R.D.: Santo Domingo, R.D.: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo.

Organization matters: Agency problems in health and education in Latin America (1998). In Inter-American Development Bank (Ed.), . Washington, DC : Baltimore : Distributed by the Johns Hopkins University Press: Washington, DC : Inter-American Development Bank ; Baltimore : Distributed by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

De, l. R. (2003). In Ruiz Gutiérrez M. (Ed.), Educación, Tecnología y Sociedad. Santo Domingo: Santo Domingo: Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo.

Lozano, W., 1950-. (2005). La paradoja de las migraciones: El estado dominicano frente a la inmigración haitiana. Santo Domingo: Santo Domingo: Editorial UNIBE: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales: Servicio Jesuita de Refugiados y Migrantes.

Montás, J. T. (2008). Hacia dónde vamos: Reflexiones sobre el desarrollo dominicano. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Editora Alfa & Omega.

Moya Pons, F., 1944-. (2008). La otra historia dominicana. Santo Domingo, RD: Santo Domingo, RD: Librería La Trinitaria.

Murray, G. F. (2005). El colegio y la escuela: Antropología de la educación en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Fondo para el Financiamiento de la Microempresa, Inc. (FONDOMICRO).

 Summaries

Dominican Republic: Reviews of National Policies for Education (2008). In Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (Ed.),. Paris: OECD.

Reforms of education, training and human resource development are integral parts of a market economy. The Dominican Republic has made progress in all these areas since reform began in the 1990s. The challenge for the State Secretariat for Education (SEE), the State Secretariat for Higher Education, Science and Technology (SEECyT) and the National Institute for Technical-Vocational Training (INFOTEP) has been to promote and support changes that meet the needs of both the new economy and society and the interests of all young people and adults, in the face of a shortage of financial and human resources.

This book gives a brief overview of regional issues and the history of education in the Dominican Republic and describes the development of education in the country over the past 15 years. It presents and analysis of the education system, identifying key directions for the reinforcement of the reforms in light of the challenges encountered by officials, communities, enterprises, educators, parents and students under very dynamic conditions. It concludes with a set of key recommendations concerning the structure of the system and its labour market relevance; access and equity; financing; governance and management; internationalization; and research, development and innovation. This review will be very useful for both Dominican professionals and their international counterparts. This review is part of the OECD’s ongoing co-operation with non-members economies around the world.

Cinderella or cyberella? : Empowering women in the knowledge society (2006). In Huyer S. (Ed.),. Bloomfield, CT: Bloomfield, CT : Kumarian Press, Inc.

Cinderella or Cyberella: what is the future for women in the knowledge society? Cyberella is fluent in the uses of technology, comfortable using and designing computer technology, and working in virtual spaces. Cinderella works in the basement of the knowledge society with little opportunity to reap its benefits. Cyberellas in countries around the world are using ICTs in creative ways to improve their lives: Women mobile phone operators in Bangladesh help other women get information on registering their land, opening a business, or obtaining a tax certificate. Poor women in Guatemala are learning to repair computers and set up their own ICT-enabled businesses. Teenage girls in Mauritania are using ICTs to information information about sexuality and HIV/AIDS that their society will not discuss. All of these women are Cyberellas who are finding and using information and technologies that were previously inaccessible to them.

As the world is spinning in an orbit increasingly shared by knowledge and technology, women to benefit from it equally and participate in it actively from positions of independence, choice, capabilities, and action. This book looks at how ICTs can be important tools for gender equality and women’s empowerment in both society and work, particularly for poor women in developing countries. The focus is not on technology but rather on women’s empowerment in the context of a gendered world and how ICTs can make the most effective contributions to it. The book looks at women’s social and economic empowerment as supported by ICTs and based in gender and development theory. To arrive at full empowerment in the knowledge society, Cinderella needs to become Cyberella. Each essay in the collection depicts ways in ICTs provide opportunities for women to improve their incomes, gain awareness of their rights, and improve their own and their families’ well-being. Illustrative case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, show the global possibilities for women’s empowerment through ICTs.

Informe nacional de desarrollo humano: República dominicana 2005: Hacia una inserción mundial incluyente y renovada (2005). In United Nations Development Programme (Ed.),. Santo Domingo: Santo Domingo: Oficino de Desarrollo Humano, PNUD.

El Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano de 2005 analiza la forma de inserción de la economía y la sociedad dominicanas al proceso de globalización actual. En términos generales se reconoce que ha habido progreso social, no obstante éste no ha sido de la magnitud que se podría esperar, dado el crecimiento económico promedio anual de República Dominicana en los últimos 50 años. En este período, el crecimiento del ingreso ha sido ejemplar: el más alto de América Latina y el Caribe, y menos volátil que el promedio regional. A pesar de ello, el país ha mostrado un insuficiente avance en términos de desarrollo humano, menos de lo que avanzó el mundo y por debajo del promedio de los países de la región.

Este informe concluye que República Dominicana se ha insertado en la dinámica mundial de una manera que es social, económica e institucionalmente excluyente, con un modelo que es insostenible en el mediano plazo.

Para el Informe Nacional de Desarrollo Humano la causa principal de la pobreza dominicana y del bajo desarrollo humano relativo no es la falta de financiamiento y de recursos económicos, sino el escaso compromiso con el progreso colectivo del liderazgo nacional político y empresarial durante las últimas décadas y la ausencia de un pacto social, de participación, de solidaridad y de empoderamiento de los sectores mayoritarios de la sociedad dominicana.                                                                                                                

Educación dominicana y construcción del conocimiento (2000). In Alvarez J. L.,lic (Ed.),. Santo Domingo, R.D.: Santo Domingo, R.D.: Instituto Tecnológico de Santo Domingo.

La publicación de los diferentes trabajos de la Comisión de Construcción de Conocimientos de la Consulta Nacional del Plan Decenal de Educación, es una contribución a la reflexión sobre la problemática educativa dominicana y, específicamente, sobre una experiencia concreta contemporánea referida a la reforma del sistema educativo nacional.

No es posible negar hoy el aporte de estos trabajos y el impacto metodológico de ellos dentro del proceso que se conoció con la dominación genérica de “Plan Decenal”. Aun más, su actualidad es innegable, en la medida en que puede valorarse una problemática educativa caracterizada por cuestiones de fondo (curriculares, de gestión y participación), aun al parecer no superadas.

Construcción de conocimientos, aprendizaje significativo, estrategias de transformación de sujetos (en singular y plural), redefinición de las relaciones entre sociedad política y sociedad civil, sentido de los procesos, intervención pedagógica y animación sociocultural, política y cultura, son temáticas abiertas al dialogo y el intercambio. Esta publicación recupera esos textos elaborados y producidos entre abril y noviembre de 1993 con esa exclusiva intención. Un aporte para una reflexión, algo del antes cercano para el hoy urgente y el futuro mejor.

Organization matters: Agency problems in health and education in Latin America (1998). In Inter-American Development Bank (Ed.), . Washington, DC : Baltimore : Distributed by the Johns Hopkins University Press: Washington, DC : Inter-American Development Bank ; Baltimore : Distributed by the Johns Hopkins University Press.

This edited volume consists of six country case studies and an introductory chapter by William Savedoff. Its intent is to redirect the debate on social service delivery in Latin America towards issues of incentives and accountability in organizations. Ultimately, it seeks to “[demonstrate] the ways that differences in organization affect performance, creating incentives and accountability mechanisms that impact on education and health conditions” (p. 4). A less ambitious goal might have been to simply acquaint readers with the many innovative approaches to education and health reform in Latin America, and perhaps spur empirical research in this neglected area. In this it succeeds admirably. There are three chapters on education in Chile, Brazil, and Venezuela, and three on the health systems of the Dominican Republic, Chile, and Uruguay. Each presents a wealth of institutional background and descriptive data (I focus this review on the education case studies).

When authors make empirical inferences concerning the relation of organization to outcomes, the volume is somewhat weaker. Cristián Aedo compares the achievement of students in public and private schools in Chile, where a voucher-type system has functioned since 1980. Data are aggregated to the school level (as in other studies of Chile). The chapter’s sample includes 866 schools, apparently chosen because they are not missing any data. But the original data set for 1994 includes over 4000 schools. We are left guessing as to how this might bias results. He concludes that some private schools — mostly religious or operated by large businesses — are more effective than public schools, while non-religious private schools are equally effective. Aedo acknowledges that selection bias could be a serious problem and reports some attempt to model it. But almost no details of data or methods are given, and the correction inspires little confidence. The chapter does not report descriptive statistics (including the standard deviation of the dependent variable) so it is difficult to assess whether effects are large or small in magnitude.

De, l. R. (2003). In Ruiz Gutiérrez M. (Ed.), Educacion, Tecnologia y Sociedad. Santo Domingo: Santo Domingo: Fundación Global Democracia y Desarrollo.

Es obvio que sin desarrollo educativo es tarea imposible la de producir un crecimiento socioeconómico que sirva de sostén al desarrollo general del país. Esta obra hace un análisis de la situación educativa dominicana, sus problemas y perspectivas, y un examen minucioso de los planes de desarrollo educativo en otras latitudes, a fin de que de ambos conocimientos surjan propuestas válidas encaminadas a fortalecer en el presente y el futuro de la educación Nacional.

La colección Pensamiento Contemporáneo publica un conjunto de textos relacionados con la incidencia del pensamiento, las ideas y las diversas formas de reflexión sobre el mundo contemporáneo. De esa manera, criterios y conceptos vinculados con la política, el Estado, la economía, lo social y lo cultural, encuentran acogida dentro de esta serie. El interés de la colección Pensamiento Contemporáneo es de contribuir a abrir nuevos de la diversidad y la complejidad de un mundo en permanente mutación. 

Lozano, W., 1950-. (2005). La paradoja de las migraciones: El estado dominicano frente a la inmigración haitiana. Santo Domingo: Santo Domingo: Editorial UNIBE: Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales: Servicio Jesuita de Refugiados y Migrantes.

En Republica Dominicana las migraciones internacionales se definen como una paradoja: como economía atrae a jornaleros a jornaleros haitianos a quienes contrata por muy bajos salarios, como sociedad y orden político los excluye; como nación expulsa mano de obra a Estados Unidos y Europa, como economía la atrae a través de las remesas que miles de nacionales envían al país. Pero la inmigración haitiana es hoy un eje central de la economía y mercado laboral dominicanos. Ciertamente, la Republica Dominicana no puede asumir la responsabilidad de la grave crisis de la nación haitiana, pero tampoco debe hacerse de la vista gorda y olvidar los esfuerzos de cooperación insular y los compromisos internacionales que como Estado tiene con la comunidad mundial. La recuperación de Haití no se podrá realizar sin la cooperación de países como los Estados Unidos, Francia y Canadá. Por otro lado, Republica Dominicana no puede obviar sus responsabilidades condenando a una suerte de exclusión social perpetua a miles de personas nacidas en el país, cuyos padres son o tienen un origen haitiano. Sin una acción responsable del Estado que reconozca los derechos de que están dotadas esas personas y sin una política coherente y firme de freno y combate a la inmigración ilegal, Republica Dominicana no podrá enfrentar con éxito los problemas de la inmigración haitiana. La Paradoja de las Migraciones discute con responsabilidad, espíritu crítico y penetrante agudeza analítica, estos problemas, proponiendo formulas innovadoras a fin de que el Estado Dominicano enfrente los problemas de la inmigración en una perspectiva nacional eficaz de cara a las tareas del desarrollo, pero también respetuosa de los derechos humanos.

Montás, J. T. (2008). Hacia dónde vamos: Reflexiones sobre el desarrollo dominicano. Santo Domingo, Repúblic Dominicana: Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Editora Alfa & Omega.

Juan Temistocles Montas abre la interrogante en este libro de hacia dónde va la Republica Dominicana y cuáles son las exigencias para la construcción de un país prospero, equitativo y gobernable. El autor plantea el dilema a que se enfrenta la Republica Dominicana indicando que por una parte su desarrollo depende de una inserción competitiva en el mercado mundial ya que pensar hoy en el desarrollo al margen del sistema capitalista resulta una ilusión; pero, por otra parte, Montas reconoce que ese proceso puede profundizar aun mas las ya graves desigualdades sociales en el interior de la sociedad dominicana, dificultando la cohesión social mínima que se requiere para hablar de una sociedad como un colectivo. Frente a ese dilema, el autor señala que el gran desafió que la Republica Dominicana tiene por delante es hacer compatible la integración a la economía mundial con la integración social. Y frente a ese desafió el peor error que se pudiera cometer es reducir los problemas de Republica Dominicana a mas Estado a menos Estado, o circunscribirlo a mas Mercado o menos Mercado. Abordar el desarrollo dominicano conlleva superar la visión dualista y sistemáticamente conflictiva entre Mercado y Estado hacia una concepción que otorgue espacio a la complementariedad entre ambas instituciones.

Moya Pons, F., 1944-. (2008). La otra historia dominicana. Santo Domingo, RD: Santo Domingo, RD: Librería La Trinitaria.

La Otra Historia Dominicana, título que ya se insinuaba en Haití y la República Dominicana: otra historia (1979) y en la columna de la Revisa Rumbo: La Historia tiene otra Historia,  recopila decenas de artículos repartidos en 17 capítulos y apéndices, publicados originalmente en Rumbo, entre 1994 y el  año 2000; una agenda para los nuevos historiadores dominicanos, especialmente para los jóvenes egresados de la Escuela de Historia  y las decenas de profesionales que están cursando la Maestría en Historia impartida por la Universidad Autónoma de Santo Domingo.

Este nuevo aporte del Profesor Moya Pons ayuda a aclarar el sendero que habrá de transitar el novel investigador si en verdad quiere revalorizar su profesión de historiador, comenzando a desentrañar “la otra historia”, aquella de los que nunca tuvieron voz, las minorías, grupos étnicos que integraron la identidad del dominicano, el aporte histórico de la juventud, las mujeres, los marginados y excluidos del disfrute de los bienes de producción, así como la historia de los pueblos, barrios y provincias.

Existe un interés permanente del autor en llegar hasta sectores donde se desconoce la historia dominicana—esto justifica la publicación de La Otra Historia—con palabras sencillas y hasta provocativas plantea la necesidad de “algo” que lleve hasta el “seno del pueblo la noción de los que somos” y ese algo, dice él, no puede ser otra cosa que la educación permanente de los dominicanos sobre sí mismo, no puede ser otra cosa que la enseñanza permanente de nuestra propia historia desde los primeros años de la vida escolar hasta los últimos grados de la enseñanza superior” de no ser  así, “no está lejos el día en que los dominicanos prefieran dejar de  ser los que son  para acogerse a los dictados de otras potencias con culturas bien definidas”.

La intención, que va quedando clara en la medida que leemos La Otra Historia Dominicana,  es la búsqueda de lo que fuimos como pueblo, de dónde venimos, cómo se ha formado el pueblo dominicano, el surgimiento del criollo y todo lo que significó para la construcción de una identidad que se desarrolló en un espacio, una parte de la isla de Santo Domingo, con sus pueblos, economías, enfermedades, caminos y carreteras, cambios, modernización y globalización hasta tocar interesantes aspectos relacionados con la dictadura de Trujillo y un poco después de 1961 con su Revolución de  Abril, literatura dominicana y otros interesantes temas imposibles de tocar en este breve escrito.

Murray, G. F. (2005). El colegio y la escuela: Antropología de la educación en la República Dominicana. Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Santo Domingo, República Dominicana: Fondo para el Financiamiento de la Microempresa, Inc. (FONDOMICRO).

El Colegio y la Escuela: Antropología de la Educación en la Republica Dominicana coloca el colegio privado dentro del contexto de la evolución general de la educación dominicana durante los últimos 50 anos, y examina su estructura y funciones dentro del sistema educativo nacional.

Al definir y analizar los desempeños de esta empresa privada, el autor ofrece a los estudiosos del tema aspectos que no se habían considerado anteriormente, a la vez que reivindica el papel del colegio privado y su lógica económica dentro del esquema de generación de ingresos y reinversión de ganancias.

Este libro resulta necesariamente controversial y polémico, puesto que la educación dominicana ha venido sufriendo una dinámica venido  sufriendo una dinámica de conflictos políticos a raíz de la caída de la dictadura de Trujillo, que el autor analiza para explicar el colapso de la educación pública así como el surgimiento y proliferación de colegios privados como el surgimiento y proliferación de colegios privados como una alternativa de calidad frente a una escuela pública cada vez más deteriorada y deficiente.

El Dr. Murray ha optado por la utilización de un lenguaje semicoloquial en numerosos pasajes de esta obra, para acercar el objeto de su estudio al lector no especializado. Como el mismo reconoce, la escogencia de un estilo y un lenguaje conlleva una carga ideológica y cultural que, en este caso, aleja al autor de la neutralidad pero, aun cuando el toma partido a favor de una educación de calidad y critica fuertemente el deterioro del sistema educación, el uso de los datos empíricos refleja siempre una incontestable objetividad.

Meeting with Dr. Doering (November 29 – 3:00 pm),

We met on Monday. I discussed my interest in completing a certificate in Online Learning, I also discussed my interest in Adventure Learning and how I could help with his future trip to Latin America, both in Argentina and my home country of Venezuela. He elaborated on the various courses offered by the program and how I would be a good fit for it. Apart from this we also discussed more mundane subjects such as the Twin Cities and how could is the polar region in comparison to Minneapolis. We decided to meet again at the December 10 celebration for Geothentic so that I could meet the rest of the team at Learning Technologies including the instructor for the class I will be taking next semester on Online Learning Communities.

iPad Research Questions Themes

CEHD Research Team

12/03/10

The Student Experience

• How did the use of the iPad affect student interest and engagement?
• Qualitative:  What was the student experience using iPads in classes?
• How are students using iPads in and out of class?
• How much time do students spend using their iPads for different purposes (social networking, studying, gathering material)?
• How does the possession of the iPad influence the perceived and actual accumulation of cultural capital for all students? Students of Color?
• How does it impact positioning in the classroom?
• How does the possession and ability to use the iPad promote a feeling of importance and capacity for students? How does this transfer into other academic contexts?
• Were there any differences in student learning among different student population groups?  (ex; perhaps access to this technology serves as advantage for historically disadvantaged student groups such as first-generation, low income groups)
• How did the students learn to use the iPads?

Apps

• Which iPad apps are most popular with students?
• Which iPad apps are most popular with faculty?

eTexts vs Traditional Texts

• Do students prefer e-books to traditional textbooks?  Why?  What factors do they consider when making a decision?

The use of iPads (and other PEDs) in the Classroom

• Do Personal Electronic Devices in the classroom enhance, detract, or have no impact on students’ ability to focus during class?
• Did the use of ipads enhance academic learning or serve as a distraction?

iPads vs Laptops

• Do students prefer to use iPads or laptops?
• Do students use the iPads in different places and in different ways than their laptops (if they have one)?
• In what ways does the tactile use of the human hand for much of the interaction with the iPad differ, if any, from using a mouse and keyboard?
• Are the often single task focused apps a different and useful experience than using traditionally installed software packages on laptop and desktop computers?

Considerations

Need to extend studies beyond Spring semester?

Methods mentioned

• Surveys
• Individual interviews
• Focus group interviews
• The best design would be to randomly assign students to an electronic or traditional text and then see which group performs better on quizzes, but this isn’t possible.
• Randomly use electronic and conventional ways of reporting the results of student discussion and assess students attitudes towards these strategies
• Student journals
• Narrative and interpretive approaches

EXPLORING AND COMPARING PARTICIPATION IN INTER/NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT DISCOURSE AND PRACTICE

December 2, 2010

Group discussion:  What conclusions do you draw about the potential and the limitations of ‘participation as practice’ by comparing these three case studies?

• Lis argues that the lack of numbers makes it difficult to argue that it does make a difference. Having a wide spectrum of participation, it is hard to tell how they are successful.
• Participation is not just one thing. They were using similar designs and methods in their research, but participation was not the same across regions.
• Participation is strongly rooted in the history of the site and people’s perception. Context matters!

U-Lead Global Programs – GYLCE Argentina

December 1, 2010

1 – Academic content of this course and how it relates to the chosen country

The Global Youth Leadership and Community Engagement (GYLCE) course explores the prosocial, active roles that young people play in advancing their communities and the broader society. The course explores the history, purposes, and structures of youth engagement, leadership, and empowerment work across the globe.  Perhaps the most robust approaches to youth engagement are found in Latin America, most notably in Argentina.  Argentina operates a program in solidaria for youth through their aprendizaje-servicio initiative within the Ministry of Education. All secondary school students are required to complete a community-based project that advances an important social cause. Students in GYLCE will participate in a four-week trip to Argentina to explore further the concepts and theories of youth leadership discussed in the course. They will also apply and see in practice the theories they explored during the spring semester through their direct involvement in service-learning projects in Argentina. Argentina’s robust style of service learning emphasizes youth empowerment and social justice. For a more detailed description of the course please review the attached course syllabus.

2 – Preliminary list of excursions and cultural visits

Students in the course will engage in a variety of educational experiences in Buenos Aires and other cities and towns, mostly through their work on service-learning projects with Argentine secondary school and university students. In Buenos Aires, the students will take part in:  6 lessons that will explore the theory and practice of service-learning in Argentina (12 hours);  4 lessons of survival Spanish (8 hours); and observational site visits and hands on service-learning activities with schools and universities in Buenos Aires (32 hours).  In addition, students will engage in additional site visits outside Buenos Aires (3 days) to observe different approaches to youth engagement.  GYLCE students will also attend the 14^th Annual International Service-learning Seminar at Buenos Aires University Law School (August 24^th-25^th) (16 hours); this event showcases the service-learning work and accomplishments of young people throughout Latin America. Students will also have the opportunity for additional optional educational excursions located in other areas of the country, including but not limited to the Argentine regions of Cordova, Tucuman and Bariloche.

3 – Draft syllabus for the first week that reflects a combination of academic content and excursions 

Week 1: Monday, August 1 to Sunday, August 7

(6 Hours in Class – 8 Hours in Community-Based Service-Learning Activities)

• Monday (8/2/2011) – (2 hours) – Orientation of Argentina, the educational system, the history and theory of solidaria and aprendizaje-servicio.
• Wednesday (8/4/2011) – (2 hours) – Getting to know Buenos Aires. Survival tips and information on getting around Buenos Aires.
• Friday (8/6/2011) – (2 hours) – Survival Spanish
• Field – (8 hours) – Exploring youth as change agents. Students work with youth as the youth conduct an academic service-learning activity in the community.

4 – Assessment of student performance in the class (e.g. journaling, readings, group projects, presentations, papers)

At the end of the educational excursion in Argentina, students will submit a comparative analysis paper (10 to 12 pages) in which they explore critical issues of global youth engagement in the context of three countries (the U.S., Argentina and another country of their choice). Students will conduct a presentation of their papers to each each other in the Fall semester at the University of Minnesota. Students post their papers on Moodle prior to their presentations to allow classmates to read and review each other’s work. During the summer, students will receive 2 points for attendance per class session for a possible total of 26 attendance points (over the four weeks in Argentina). They will receive 1 point per hour of community engagement practice for a possible total of 32 points, as well as up to 40 points for the final analysis comparative paper written at the end of the summer session. In addition to these points, the students’ experience in Argentina will serve as a foundation for their final fall session paper which will be constructed from the synthesis of the material studied during the spring session, their learning abroad experience, their independent research, and feedback from their classmates as each student compares and contrasts three different countries and service learning schemes. Their final comparative study will include both a paper and a presentation. A maximum of 244 points can be earned for the course, including points earned during the pre-Argentina course sessions and assignments at the University of Minnesota as well as post-Argentina presentations.  Students who earn 228 points or above receive an A.

5 – Instructor’s academic qualifications related to this course topic, international experience, language skills, and group leadership experience.

Professor Andrew Furco, associate professor in the department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development and also serves as the University’s associate vice president for public engagement. His work focuses on exploring the ways in which community-engaged practices affect teaching, learning, and schooling. A former middle and high school teacher and administrator, his research interests span all levels of education.  For 14 years he served as director of the Service-Learning Research and Development Center at UC Berkeley, where he also served on the faculty in the School of Education. While at Berkeley, he led more than 20 national and international studies on various issues concerning student community engagement and service-learning. This research has continued at the University of Minnesota through his role as director of the University’s International Center for Research on Community Engagement (ICRCE).  ICRCE is part of several international projects focused on a broad of issues pertaining to the practice and study of community engagement in primary, secondary, and tertiary (higher) education. Currently, Professor Furco co-chairs the UNESCO International Values Education Research Consortium, which is composed of researchers from eight countries who are exploring universal values through national and transnational studies. He is also a member of the Council of Engagement and Outreach for the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU), which works to advance the role of community engagement at public higher education institutions His publications include the books, Service-Learning:  The Essence of the Pedagogy (2001) and Service-Learning Through a Multidisciplinary Len (2002), which explore the research outcomes of various approaches to service-learning. In 2003, he received the award for Outstanding Contributions to Service-Learning Research from the International Association for Research on Service-Learning and Community Engagement (IARSLCE). He has participated in several conferences and projects in Argentina and Latin America since 1996. For more information about Professor Furco’s work and qualifications, visit http://www.cehd.umn.edu/edpa/people/Furco.html).

Professor Furco will be assisted in Argentina by Alfonso Sintjago, a PhD student at the University of Minnesota. Mr. Sintjago holds a masters degree in Latin American Studies, was born in and has taken previous trips to Latin America. As a previous collegiate swimmer, swimming coach and middle school teacher, he has taken or been part of various travelling abroad student groups. He is native Spanish speaker with a BA in Spanish and has taught Spanish at the High School and Middle school levels.

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Attached is the rest of the syllabus, which includes a course outline.  The course outline for this six-credit course is divided into three parts: (1) the pre-Argentina summer course session topics and assignments; (2) the Argentina summer session topics and assignments; and the fall semester session presentations. By extending the class through the summer and into the fall, students will be able to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of global youth leadership and community engagement. In Argentina, students will also be led by a group of CLAYSS (Latin American Center for Leader and Solidarity Service) instructors including Professor Maria Nieves Tapia, the founder and academic director of CLAYSS, and part time advisor to the National Service-learning Program at Argentina’s Ministry of Education. She is a well known researcher and professor of history in Argentina. She has focused her career on researching and advocating youth empowerment and service-learning, and was one of the founders of Argentina’s national solidaria service-learning initiative  (http://www.clayss.org.ar/institucional/pnt.htm).

CSCI 8970 – Colloquium Series – Fall 2010 – Twelve Event
The Exaflop/s: Why and How

Monday, November 29, 2010

Presenter: David Keyes, KAUST and Columbia University

Dr. Keyes lecture focused on Exaflops and the fourth paradigm, a movement towards meta-tags and improved classification of data. He began by showing what the increased accumulation of data has meant for the oil industry. They can now better solve an inverse problem or perform data assimilation, combine multiple complex models and quantify uncertainty. Through the GigaPOWERS Impact program, they went from a Mega-Cell to a Giga-Cell which helped find more oil patches. Oil companies are vast, with dozens of reservoirs “upstream” and many refineries and transportation systems “downstream”. Yet while the simulator is only a small piece of their puzzle and is already heavily taxing their computers. As a consequence, how should such computer resources be managed? Data is increasingly too complex for a self-contained, self-consistent theory. In addition, while simulations are useful, data mining is appearing to be more useful.

Through IESP road mapping they listed 19 candidates for exascale applications including magnetically confined fusion, molecular dynamics, climate, combustion, aerodynamics, among other areas. There needs to be improvement in various areas such as finding dominant resources, improving memory bandwidth, flop/s per byte of storage, I/O versus computation (the big bottle neck), communication versus computation and synchronization. When using core algorithms they obtained what they expected. After this review of his research, David explored the progress of high-end scientific computing.. Some exascale considerations include applications, architectures and algorithms

For the purposes of the presentation he focused on Algorithms. He argued that according to an algorithmicist, applications are given (as function of time), architectures are also a given (as function of time), yet algorithms and software must be adapted or created to bridge to hostile architectures for the sake of the complex applications (Important as Moore’s law moves from speed-based to concurrency-based, due to power considerations).

Tracking the third paradigm progress and looking at previous Gordon Bell Prize winners for “peak performance”, he showed how from 1998 to 2010, gflops grew from 1.0 during 1988 to 1020 during 1998. In a short amount of time there has been a trillion fold improvements and as such many recent reports ride the “bell curve” for simulation. Yet as such, how are problems like these solved at the petascale today? Currently science uses Newton (Nonlinear solver) -Krylov (accelerator) -Schur (preconditioner) -Schwarz (preconditioner) : a solver “workhorse”. Workhorse innards: Krylov-Schwarz. Yet, what will first “general purpose” exaflop/s machines look like? His lab is currently thinking about 2018. There are many paths beyond today’s CMOS silicon-based logic. Earliest and most significant post-CMOS device improvement may be carbon nanotube memory, but not in 10 years.

Dr. Keyes sees two paths from peta- to exa-. One is the IBM: BlueGene successor and the other one is the GigaHz KiloCore MegaNoe system. The need for improvement is necessary. Currently, one of these computers could use the power of a town of 14,000 at an OECD country. Yet there are various hard to solve hurdles. Hurdle #1 – memory bandwidth eats up the entire power budget. Hurdle #2 – memory capacity eats up the entire fiscal budget. Hurdle #3 – power requires slower clocks and greater concurrency. As such the need for a draconian reduction required in power per flop and per byte will make computing and copying data less reliable. Despite the negative aspects of this, it is a necessary engineering tradeoff. The present consensus path to exascale is thousand-fold many core, Processors are cheap

Evolution of parallel programming models” strong scaling within a node through the use of shared memory or distributed memory. There is a need for hybrid programming model for a full application: petascale bio-electro-magnetics. Current hybrid programming models not enough. There must be an evolution of parallel programming models: breaking the synchrony stronghold. While there is a history of asynchronous methods, they have not been prevalent since we know we can make different things additive without destroying the properties of the algorithms. However, hybrid programming models are once again a hot topic and they will be the topic of discussion at the next ICERM -2011 conference which will focus on asynchronous programming.

As we move from Peta to exa for algorithms. There are things we should to do for exascale will help us at petascale and terascale, this include, reducing memory requirements and memory traffic, exploiting hybrid and less synchronous parallel programming models, and co-design of hardware and software (for, e.g., power management) Some major challenges that stay the same in peta to exa such as poor scaling of collectives due to internode latency and poor performance of SpMV due to shared intranode bandwidth.

When discussing the path for scaling up applications, he argued that weak scale applications up to distributed memory limits while strong scale applications need to go beyond this. The workflow must be scaled and a co-design process should be staged. Currently, few high end computers come with required software enabling technologies. As such, having overviewed the current state of affairs, Dr. Keyes argued that the current situation is dire but is not much different than it was after sputnik was launched as Kennedy challenged the nation before in 1962 and US scientist had a deadline of seven years, they once again have this deadline. Will we be up to the challenge? I certainly hope so!

Mobile Learning

November 23, 2010

The use of mobile phones has greatly increased in recent years. Within just a few decades, mobile phone subscriptions expanded from 12.4 million in 1990 to an expected 4.6 billion by 2009. As more an more people switch to multimedia phones, individuals across the world will increasingly be able to access information through their mobile phone. Along with this, they may have access to augmented reality applications such as Google Goggles which provides the user with additional data about anything they are seeing with their phone, as well as many other augmented reality applications (link below). The possibilities for M-learning will likely improve as the processing power of mobile phones increases. Apart from learning, programs such as the Grameen Phone program have helped to increase connectivity and raise household income in Bangladesh. More and more universities in the United States are adding mobile apps to their range of educational output. Mobile phones also allow users to access the Internet and, therefore, free informal learning content. A mobile learning case study of South Africa is described below.

“Being cheaper and easier to access than traditional Internet connections, mobile phones tend to be turned into learning tools in many contexts in Africa. By 2009, 28% of the Continent’s population had a mobile phone subscription. In South Africa, where literacy rates are low, the Shuttleworth Foundation has started a major m-learning campaign to encourage reading and writing amongst school children and young adults. The logic behind the approach is obvious: While South African teenagers don’t have access to books, they do have cell phones – about ninety percent of those living in urban areas are connected. In the Shuttleworth Foundation’s effort, called the m4Lit project, a teen mystery story was published in English and in isiXhosa on a mobisite (www.kontax.mobi), as well as on South Africa’s most popular mobile instant messaging platform, MXit. Steve Vosloo from Shuttleworth Foundation explains, “In the first three months of publication, over 12,000 teens read the whole story on their phones. A total of 30,000 people have read the full story.” – excerpt from

http://www.infodev.org/en/Article.551.html

M-learning Africa –  http://www.elearning-africa.com/newsportal/english/category_mobile.php
Augmented Reality I-Phone Apps – http://www.iphoneness.com/iphone-apps/best-augmented-reality-iphone-applications/
TED Talk – Iqbal Quadir sayd mobiles fight povery – http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/iqbal_quadir_says_mobiles_fight_poverty.html
M-Learning.org – http://www.m-learning.org/

Open Education Resources (Handout)

November 23, 2010

Modern technologies have allowed for the increased access to free informal and educational material. TED talks, Podcasts, RSA animated lectures, PBS online, Hulu, YouTube EDU channels, and ITunes U material are ways in which everyone can benefit and learn about creative ideas, thus encouraging lifelong learning.Today, everyone with access to the Internet can generate or contribute to the collective building of knowledge through wikis including Wikipedia, Fotopedia and online education groups (Nings, Grouply). Anyone with an internet connection has access to highly informative blogs and free newspapers including the New York Times, BBC, CNN, and the Guardian. In addition, various universities have increased the publication of their class materials freely to the online world.

Through MIT OpenCourseWare and its expansion to over 120 universities through the OpenCourseWare Consortium, thousands of classes have published their materials online including syllabi, readings, and video lectures. Many have opened forums for discussion and created group learning activities through programs such as OpenStudy and Nixty. Through OpenCourseWare, the use of Creative Commons licensing, and Open Source Software, an ever increasing array of materials with high levels of educational content are freely available to anyone with access to the Internet. In addition, many of these materials are currently being translated into various languages. Through Connexions, a Rice University OER initiative, individuals can “rip”, “copy”, “reuse”, “mix”, and “burn” high quality education material and create their own textbooks. These textbooks cost only a fraction of the price of traditional textbooks.  Other freely available material such as Open Source Software, Open Books, Open Access Journals could significantly impact the cost of an individual’s education. How can these and other Open Education Resources transform education for developing countries? Could they contribute to the development of a high quality low cost education system?

OpenCourseWare Consortium – http://www.ocwconsortium.org/
Connexions Consortium – http://cnxconsortium.org/
Linux – http://www.linux.org/
List of Linux Distributions – Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_distributions
Sourceforge – Open Source Software Directory – http://sourceforge.net/
Bill Gates on OCW – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfvxfkBVLqQ
OECD – Open Education Resources – http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/35/7/38654317.pdf

Integration of Technology in the Classroom (Handout)

November 23, 2010

Traditional classrooms provider an interactive environment where students can socialize and construct a learning setting with their peers. Throughout modern history, classrooms have been the traditional location for instruction. However, as technology increasingly impacts life outside and inside the classroom, it is important for students to be familiar with modern technologies.

Hardware such as a laptops, smartboards and projectors and software such as Powerpoint, Photoshop, Scratch, Skype, and Prezi are increasingly used within the classroom. Blended learning continues to grow as traditional classrooms incorporate online components including learning management systems such as Moodle, Edu 2.0, and Blackboard, among others. Other classrooms have experimented with tools such as podcasts, blogs, and the use of virtual environments such as Second Life.

The level of integration of technology within the traditional classroom varies depending on the project from the use of a basic Powerpoint presentation to one laptop per child initiatives or an algorithm based personalized curriculum. As technologies improve at an exponential rate, how can developing countries reduce the digital divide? Should developing countries be concerned with purchasing equipment and products such as Microsoft Mouse Mischief (multi-mouse presentations and games), Smartboards, Projectors, Powerpoint (or Prezi) Presentations and other software, or is the introduction of technology increasing dependency?

Department of New York City – School of One Initiative: http://schools.nyc.gov/community/innovation/SchoolofOne/default.htm
Mouse Mischief Program – http://www.microsoft.com/multipoint/mouse-mischief/
One Laptop Per Child Initiative: http://www.laptop.org/en/
Exploring ICT and Learning in Developing Countries: www.edutechdebate.org
Compare Learning Management Systems (LMS) – http://edutools.info/item_list.jsp?pj=4