M-learning, or mobile learning, is a form of distance education where learners use portable devices such as mobile phones to learn anywhere and anytime. The portability that mobile devices provide allows for learning anywhere, hence the term "mobile" in "mobile learning." M-learning devices include computers, MP3 players, mobile phones, and tablets. M-learning can be an important part of informal learning.
Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology.
Globaloria is an online learning platform oriented to K-12 curricula to teach students to design, prototype, and code educational web/mobile games and simulations with industry-standard technology as a means of learning content and creative innovation skills. Globaloria was developed in 2006 by Idit Harel as a project of the World Wide Workshop Foundation with the stated mission of providing all primary and secondary school students in the U.S. with STEM and computing education opportunities. Globaloria is noteworthy among MOOCs as it is based in constructionist learning theory and Harel's research in the MIT Media Lab.
Iqbal Z. Quadir is an entrepreneur and promoter of the role of entrepreneurship and innovations in creating prosperity in low-income countries. He has taught at Harvard Kennedy School and at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the brother of Kamal Quadir.
Embrace is a non profit organization which provided low-cost incubators to prevent neonatal deaths in rural areas in developing countries. The organization was developed in 2008 during the multidisciplinary Entrepreneurial Design For Extreme Affordability course at Stanford University by group members Jane Chen, Linus Liang, Rahul Panicker, Razmig Hovaghimian, and Naganand Murty.
M-PESA is a mobile phone-based money transfer service, payments and micro-financing service, launched in 2007 by Vodafone and Safaricom, the largest mobile network operator in Kenya. It has since expanded to Tanzania, Mozambique, DRC, Lesotho, Ghana, Egypt, Afghanistan, and South Africa. The rollouts in India, Romania, and Albania were terminated amid low market uptake. M-PESA allows users to deposit, withdraw, transfer money, pay for goods and services, access credit and savings, all with a mobile device.
Paul Kim is currently a Korean-American Chief Technology Officer and Associate Dean at the Stanford Graduate School of Education and has held this position since 2001.
A massive open online course or an open online course is an online course aimed at unlimited participation and open access via the Web. In addition to traditional course materials, such as filmed lectures, readings, and problem sets, many MOOCs provide interactive courses with user forums or social media discussions to support community interactions among students, professors, and teaching assistants (TAs), as well as immediate feedback to quick quizzes and assignments. MOOCs are a widely researched development in distance education, first introduced in 2008, that emerged as a popular mode of learning in 2012, a year called the "Year of the MOOC".
Coursera Inc. is a U.S.-based massive open online course provider founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller. Coursera works with universities and other organizations to offer online courses, certifications, and degrees in a variety of subjects. In 2021 it was estimated that about 150 universities offered more than 4,000 courses through Coursera.
edX is an American massive open online course (MOOC) provider created by Harvard and MIT. It hosts online university-level courses in a wide range of disciplines to a worldwide student body, including some courses at no charge. It also conducts research into learning based on how people use its platform. edX runs on the free Open edX open-source software platform. 2U is the parent company, with edX operating as its global online learning platform and primary brand for products and services.
Frugal innovation or frugal engineering is the process of reducing the complexity and cost of a good and its production. Usually this refers to removing nonessential features from a durable good, such as a car or telephone, in order to sell it in developing countries. Designing products for such countries may also call for an increase in durability and, when selling the products, reliance on unconventional distribution channels. When trying to sell to so-called "overlooked consumers", firms hope volume will offset razor-thin profit margins. Globalization and rising incomes in developing countries may also drive frugal innovation. Such services and products need not be of inferior quality but must be provided cheaply. While frugal innovation has been associated with good-enough performance, in some sectors such as in healthcare, frugal innovation must offer maximum performance without compromising on quality.
Nicholas Carl Martin is an American technologist, entrepreneur, and educator best known for founding the international organization TechChange. Martin has delivered a number of speeches at the United Nations, the United States Department of State, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) on the role of technology in international development, online learning, capacity building and m-learning. His work with TechChange has been profiled by the New York Times, Fast Company, Forbes, and the Economist. Martin has also written numerous pieces on e-learning, m-learning, and m-health for multiple organisations, including the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Stanford Social Innovation Review, The Guardian, and Dowser.org.
Christopher Fabian is a technologist who works for UNICEF. He founded technology and finance initiatives in both the public and private sector, including the creation in 2006, of UNICEF's Innovation Unit.
Treehouse or (Teamtreehouse) is an online technology school that offers beginner to advanced courses in web design, web development, mobile development and game development. Its courses are aimed at beginners looking to learn computer coding skills for a career in the tech industry.
ALISON is an Irish online education platform for higher education that provides certificate courses and accredited diploma courses. It was founded on 21 April 2007 in Galway, Ireland, by Irish social entrepreneur Mike Feerick.
Rahul Alex Panicker is a technology leader and entrepreneur, formerly Chief Innovation Officer at the Wadhwani Institute for Artificial Intelligence, and best known as the President and Co-founder of Embrace Innovations and Embrace, a social enterprise startup that aims to help premature and low-birth-weight babies, through a low-cost infant warmer.
Embrace Innovations is an India-based social enterprise, that develops disruptive healthcare technologies focused on reducing infant and maternal deaths in emerging markets. It is part of a "hybrid" organisational structure that includes Embrace, a 501(c)(3) non-profit, and Embrace Innovations, a for-profit social enterprise.
The relationship between education and technology has become a defining feature of modern development, fueled by the rapid growth of internet connectivity and mobile penetration. Our world is now interconnected, with approximately 40% of the global population utilising the internet, a figure that continues to rise at an astonishing pace. While internet connectivity varies across countries and regions, the number of households with internet access in the global South has surpassed those in the global North. Additionally, over 70% of mobile telephone subscriptions worldwide are now found in the global South. It is projected that within the next twenty years, five billion people will transition from having no connectivity to enjoying full access.
Educational technology in sub-Saharan Africa refers to the promotion, development and use of information and communication technologies (ICT), m-learning, media, and other technological tools to improve aspects of education in sub-Saharan Africa. Since the 1960s, various information and communication technologies have aroused strong interest in sub-Saharan Africa as a way of increasing access to education, and enhancing its quality and fairness.
