Now I’m a teacher by my first trade, and a tech author second.  I’ve been spending the last few years teaching Literacy and Numeracy to the long-term unemployed who need better skills and qualifications in order to be able to get back into the workplace, or to those people who are already employed and need qualifications to progress their careers.  I’m very interested then in the use of technology as an educational aid and, if you’re interested, you can read an essay I wrote on the subject for my teaching qualification here where I talked about some of the issues and barriers for the use of technology in the classroom, including the legal, physical and mental barriers that some people need to overcome.

It’s always with great interest then that I read news stories about how the latest technology is being used in classrooms.  In the last year I’ve seen schools, mostly in the US, giving iPads to each student and writing custom apps for the platform to help improve learning in class; one particularly interesting app was using the tablet’s accelerometer with a special app that helped the students simulate earthquakes.  I’ve also seen the use of videoconferencing to enable schools to share teachers with specific expertise and to bring in experts from the worlds of business, science and society.

Why is it then, six years after the launch of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project that intended to create laptops for developing countries for only $99 that we don’t have schools rolling out laptops, netbooks or tablets to their students every year?  From the perspective of the technology companies this is an enormous market and opportunity; indeed Bloomberg are reporting today that Apple are bidding to sell 15 million iPads to schools in Turkey.

The single biggest barrier however is still price.  In order to make mobile devices that will appeal to the consumer and trample upon the competition, companies are still going for quality, brushed metals, high quality plastics and IPS panel screens.  What they’re not focusing on is the schools and colleges mass market where what’s required is ruggedness and affordability; after all these machines will be designed to only be used in educational establishments for their purposes.

Next week does see the launch of a new affordable Android tablet, the affectionately named (for anyone of a certain age in the UK anyway) AndyPad.  Starting at just £129 this is finally approaching the price levels that technology needs to be at to appeal to the huge volumes and limited budgets of schools worldwide, and of course some of the money can be saved elsewhere in providing cheaper eBooks instead of the traditional paper copies (while being more environmentally friendly into the bargain).

The fact remains though that back in 2005 when Nicholas Negroponte announced his plans to create a $99 educational laptop for the developing world the whole world got very excited.  Then companies like Microsoft decided that they wanted a piece of the action, muscled in and muddied the whole situation.  Now we don’t have any $99 laptops and there’s no immediate prospect that this will change.

It’s worth noting that some smaller companies have tried to release $99 tablets, certainly here in the UK, and all have so far been rubbish.  What must be needed then is the technological know-how and the manufacturing clout of a big name player.  Could Apple make a $99 iPad?  The company certainly makes enough money to subsidise such a device and it would sell in enormous volumes.  How economical that would be to a company with shareholders to pay though is up to Apple’s board to decide.

So I find it a pity that in what might turn out to be the ‘golden age’ of mobile computing that children are still being left out, especially the millions of them on low household incomes who still don’t have a computer at home.  It’s time I think for the technology companies to step up to this challenge and prove that $99 can still be achieved for the benefit of everyone.

The Khan Academy offers free educational videos on their site that stay true to that spirit. The team’s mission is to “deliver a world-class education to anyone anywhere”. For now, that’s more than 2100 educational videos with a strong emphasize on Math and Science. All lessons have been created by a single teacher, Mr. Kahn himself.

The videos on site are currently offered in English. The academy is looking for translators and teachers to offer videos in other languages.

All videos that I watched so far are easy to understand, even for users with little or even no experience on the subject. It is on the other hand important to follow the playlist on site, as the lessons may build up on each other. So, instead of starting with complex numbers you should probably start with simple equations or even at the very beginning, at basic addition and subtraction.

Most lessons have a playtime of around ten minutes. They are available for download right on the Khan Academy website. Next to the download are exercises which are only available for logged in users. Creating a user account is free on the other hand, and it is possible to link an existing Google or Facebook account with the service.

Exercises are individually selectable after log in, or directly on the video pages.

Basic exercises display a form on the page where the answer needs to be entered; More advanced challenges may display multiple choice answers and additional tools like a scratch pad. The site keeps track of your progress. Hints are available to help you solve a challenge.

One interesting feature are the badges that users can earn. They are very similar to game achievements and used for motivational purposes. Users can earn badges for correctly answering a set amount of problems in a row, completing a specific amount of exercises or archiving proficiency in a specific field.

Registered users can track their exercise and video watching progress on site, which is another benefit of becoming a member.

Teachers can make use of the videos and exercises on the Khan Academy as well. They can create classes which students can join. They then have the opportunity to watch their classes progress and achievements.

Here are some of the topics covered on the Khan Academy.

• Pre-algebra, Lessons that prepare for the Algebra courses. Teaches exponents, logarithm properties, scientific notation, fractions
• Algebra – Basic algebra to algebra II, includes equations, functions, complex numbers, conic sections and 180 worked examples.
• ck12.org Algebra 1 Examples
• Probability – Best watched after basic algebra
• Precalculus – Should be watched after finishing the Algebra playlist.
• Arithmetic – the most basic math playlist. Includes addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, decimals, percent.
• Banking and Money – Teaches how banks work and money is created. Additional but separate groups include Credit Crisis, Currency, Current Economics and Finance.
• Biology – Includes lessons on evolution, species, cells, cancer, viruses, bacteria, photosynthesis and cells.
• Calculus – Offers lessons on limits, integrals, integrals, Green’s theorem, gradients or polynomial approximation of functions.
• California Standards test Algebra and Geometry
• Chemistry – Atom theory, periodic table, kinetics, acid titration, pH, carbon 14 dating
• Organic Chemistry – Naming examples, Amine, Nucleophilicity, E1 and E2 Reactions
• Cosmology and Astronomy – Earth, Sun, Univers, Parsec definition, big bang introduction, plate tectonics
• Developmental Math – Whole Numbers, Laws, Mixed Numbers, Order of operations, exponents, fractions, integers, polynomials, units
• Differential Equations – Includes exact equations, integrating factors, undetermined coefficients, Laplace Transform, Theorems
• Geometry – Angles, Pythagorean Theorem, Triangles, Cylinder Volume, Heron’s Formula
• Trigonometry – Should be watched after Geometry lessons. Trigonometric functions, problems, polar coordinates
• History – US, French, Vietnam
• Linear Algebra – Matrices, vectors, vector spaces, transformations
• Physics – Includes lessons on motion, Newton’s Laws, Magnetism, Circuits, Fluids.
• Statistics – Will eventually cover all major topics of a first-year statistics course.

Some of the topics mentioned in this little overview may intimidate you. That should not be the case as everything builds up on each other. Plus, the explanation and teaching is really easy to understand and follow, and you can post questions on each video page that other users can answer to help you understand the concepts.

The videos can also be used to teach children those lessons, in addition to the lessons they have at school. This can be supplementary or in advance. It is best if an adult watches the videos with them, especially for the very young ones to be there in case additional explanations or help is needed.

You can watch all educational videos on the Khan Academy website. This site is highly recommended to everyone who wants to learn or refresh math or science. Could also be interesting for parents to keep up with their children’s school progress.

All the software products are either open source or freeware which have been added with permission of the author of the product. You might know most of the products already but it is still worth checking out for the occasional program that one does not know. Take a look at the list of software that has been included so far. Each contains a link to the developers homepage which is an alternative method to download them.

It is kinda strange that some games have made it into the final distribution, not sure about the motivation to add them to the package. It is nevertheless a great compilation, I found some tools that I have not heard about (yet) and which I will review once I find the time to do so.

Not all podcasts are like radio shows of course, some look much more like audio lessons, like university courses without the classes. And this is what I will be talking about now. I found a great website that has three large lists of links to websites that offer podcasts that teach you something. That something is either languages, cultur or university courses. It is up to you of course to decide what you want to learn and hear, just download all the podcasts you like and transfer them to your mp3 player. All podcasts are encoded in mp3 format which makes it possible to have even large lessons take up just some megabytes.

Let us take a look at the three possibilities:

Languages: Links to podcasts that teach you 14 languages including German, French and Japanese. Most of the courses are for beginners, I suggest you read the explanation at the website that compiled the list before you download the podcasts.

University Courses: A compilation of links to colleges and universities (US) that offer free podcasts of some of their lectures. You find a wide variety of courses such as law and social sciences.

Culture: Many links to interesting podcasts and even audio texts. Concentrates on art, pop culture and media. Great.