Current Status - January 2012 - A not-for-profit project
The software is offered freely in support to organizations or associations with an education project which goal is to reduce considerably the current rate of illiteracy in their area and/or to develop literacy or language courses for children of all ages or adults within the next 3 to 5 years.
Are you not getting the results you were expecting with your current program?
- If you are not satisfied with your current results, maybe it’s time to consider new approaches. Learning Now v1 is designed to keep students entertained while learning, and to help educators build modern interactive multimedia content.
- Consider simply using this tool as an additional support to your current teaching methods and programs while adjusting to new features and testing your new methodology.
- Use your resources to offer an individual, adaptable and autononmous formation to those who need more support.
Learning Now v1 is fully customizable and can be adjusted to reflect all your pertinent needs.
This tool is designed for children, adolescents and young adults already exposed to technology and off track traditional education. It can also be used for adults and elders.
In order to receive a free copy of Learning Now v1 and our full support, you must have one or more computers, or be willing to apply for free computers to build a community network. If you have computers in idle most of the time, you must use them to provide education to all children in need. Maximize the use of your equipment and change your teaching approach.
The deployement of the software and the creation of the content requires low budget and can be achieved with the support of creative community members, and a team of educators with wild ideas and commitment to new methodologies!
Training in high-tech
The software can be used in support to various high tech educational programs to help and train people with talent to edit and format photos or create all types of designs and files (audio and video) in order to help with the production of multimedia resources more typical to your region and culture.
If your team is already familiarized with Adobe Flash, and counts with a few local designers, you should contact the author immediately.
Software can be installed on single computers or on a broadband Internet or Intranet Network.
- While using Learning Now v1, you agree to offer free training courses to your community and train the proper team to technically manage the project.
- Using Learning Now v1, you have the goal to offer free courses and presentations to all members of your community.
- While using Learning Now v1, you agree to share your material and content with other users running similar projects in all 5 continents.
Deployment of software requires the formation of a team of educators that will work on the creation and integration of the content of the courses to be developed. Designers might be needed to create new modules.
The type of support provided by the author of the software will be defined per individual case, according to the size of the project and the technical requirements.
Learning Now v1 is not exclusively targeted to Africans or West Indians, and can be deployed in any environment and culture worldwide, including Europe and North America.
United Nations Literacy Decade, Strategic Framework Symposium January 26-28, 2009.
Experts mapped out three major objectives which will guide literacy promotion for the remaining years of the UN Literacy Decade, tackle the challenge of raising literacy rates worldwide and give new opportunities to 776 million illiterate adults and 75 million out-of-school children." Sixty experts from five continents gathered at UNESCO, Paris to discuss a strategic action framework for the second half of the UNLD. Over three days, 26 – 28 January, specialists from government, civil society, the private sector and multilateral organizations debated what strategies and actions will be needed to make the objectives reality." The Consultation agreed on three main thrusts: mobilizing stronger political commitment to literacy; reinforcing effective programme delivery; and harnessing new resources for literacy."
Speaking at the High-Level Symposium which opened the Technical Consultation, Mr André Luiz de Figueredo Lázaro, Vice-Minister of Education of Brazil, called on participants to ensure that illiterate people ‘are not cast adrift’ and appealed to governments everywhere to deliver on promises of literacy and basic education for all." Participants concluded with an emphasis on the need for urgent action on literacy so that no one is excluded from the knowledge society of the twenty-first century." [UNESCO reference here]
Extract from the EFA Global monitoring report - 2002: "Is the world on track?"
"This Report re-confirms the diagnosis of the World Education Forum that almost one-third of the world’s population live in countries where achieving the EFA goals remains a dream rather than a realistic proposition, unless a strong and concerted effort is made. High-risk countries are found primarily in South and West Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Arab States and North Africa. The populous countries of East Asia and the Pacific are making some progress but will not achieve EFA without an intensified effort, while a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe, with a rich education tradition, are in jeopardy of falling back from goals that had been attained."
Explore the various current reports from the UNESCO and you will see that the situation is far from improving.
"When I see that there is a billion of people who need basic education, and a billion of people who are undernourished, while another billion eat too much, I become enraged. None of the big companies are acting. They only think of profits. UNESCO is spending more money to produce reports that real solutions. That is why I am committed to this project and I've been working alone for a few years. To change the world, it takes a personal commitment. It's my belief. " Fabrice Menoyot.
The EPA estimates that 29.9 million desktops and 12 million laptops were discarded in 2007. That's over 112,000 computers discarded per day! See full report.
Learning Now v1 and the author have been featured on various media outled. Find below a brief list of references.
- Short article (February 2007) about the project - UNESCO portal (software known as "Easy Skanking").
- Short note about Literacy according to EFA
- About the Literacy Course included here.
- Bluefields goes high tech - JamaicaObserver.com (might no longer be online).
- Bluefields Bay residents get 'free' computer classes - JamaicaObserver.com (might no longer be online).
- About the Literacy Course included here.
- Read more about the possibilities here
For more detailed information about this new interactive educational tool, its features and its potential, open Learning Now Help Book. Go also to Tech Info.
"Direct testing of literacy suggests that the global challenge is much greater than the conventional numbers, based on indirect assessments, would indicate, and that it affects both developed and developing countries." [Extract of the Global Monitoring Report of EFA.]