Educational tools to support youth learning and development with the GSM Shield

Had another meeting with Dr. Robbin Chapman, this time with the focus on how to implement strategies to introduce the GSM shield into the educational system. Our focus is on educational institution for ages 13years and older in developing communities. In particular, in many countries there is a 1-2year gap in which a high school graduate must wait before entering college. During that time those students have trouble finding jobs, or maintaining their academics, and more.

The purpose of focusing on education with the GSM shield is to enable early adoption and learning of a new low-cost technology, on par with developed nations. This will ensure that developing communities and emerging markets can participate in the innovation and creation of new technologies, simultaneously with their peers in advance markets. Education allows access to the GSM shield in ways that are relevant and appropriate for the learning community.

There are some key methodologies to consider when building a curriculum to support learning and creating with the GSM shield, such as those listed below:

• Learning should be very visual at first in order to get past/minimize any language barriers
• Eg. videos can be used to show students what can be done with the shield
• Select 1 or 2 specific example that would directly be used for the community
• Use the examples to show the students specifically how to operate the technology.
• Determine what the needs of the community are in relationship with the children
• Address the barries, such as women/girls learning technology
• Determine what types of communication is important and what is the etiquette for it

During the implementation of the GSM shield educational framework, it is important to devise methods that include the community in the learning and sharing process. More specifically, the material being taught should be visible to the community, and tangible. This can be achieved through community technological fairs, parent teach meetings at the schools, and so forth.There should be a learning and sharing process that can be described by concentric circles. In the center is the students, then the next circle is the parents, the next circle include the teachers and NGO-type agencies. The final concentric circle is the community. There should be an extra layer of engagement between parents and students (their children), so that parents have the ability to learn about the GSM shield and its capabilities, with their children. 

One of the leading methods of teaching technology and creative sharing is a model called Pearls of Wisdom: technology for intentional reflection and learning in constructionist cooperatives (video description), developed by Dr. Robbin Chapman in the MIT Media Lab and EECS department. The Pearls of Wisdom (PoW) software has been successfully implemented world-wide as a part of the teaching and learning framework at the Intel Computer Clubhouses, and several other institutions. 

A large part of the PoW framework is that children use "pearls" to capture and share projects that they are working on in a way that enables other children to replicate the projects. A pearl is an integrated software with, video, comments, web pages, and more for a project. A pearl can be enhanced to be relevant and easy to use for a specific community. It can include analytics to show how the pearl is being used by community members. 

We propose using the PoW method for introducing the GSM shield to academic institutions in developing communities. There are also greater potential uses for the PoW as network to communicate with specific groups, including new mothers.