Finding the time to write and post these blogs is proving tricky! I wanted to write something of a follow-up to my previous post on the interesting UK-based Medical Diagnostics company, who developed a simple and cheap widget for rural African villagers to self-diagnose their HIV immunity levels.
Answers to the former category of binary learning tests would simply inform the curious educational ‘patient’ that, no, they didn’t have the recall or hard knowledge about solving quadratic equations or William the Conqueror but it wouldn’t necessarily tell them why they couldn’t remember or why these particular facts or skills are relevant or important. Answers to the latter kind of question could be interesting to read but there would be so many it is hard to imagine how a cheap and self-administered diagnostic tool would realistically cover them all.
In some sense, most villagers who carry a mobile phone do have access to a widget with great processing power and educational potential. What is clever about the medical diagnostic widget is that the fool-proof but complicated blood-based chemical tests that happen within the white plastic box, tell the patient simply 'Treat' or 'Don't Treat'. This basically means 'get to hospital ASAP' or 'don't worry, you've got a bit more time to live'. Brutal, but effective.
Some series of quick-fire tests (maybe subsidised phone calls with a volunteer teacher or coach, maybe some response SMS texts that test basic literacy or basic arithmetic) could potentially serve the same function: if you can't answer this, or read this, or compute this within a certain time threshold - GET YOURSELF TO SCHOOL/COLLEGE/SKILLS TRAINING.
The problem I now see is that the motivational pressure that is at work within the medical diagnostic isn't quite so acute when applied in the educational self-testing; people failing the educational diagnostic don't have impending death to focus their immediate actions on getting to a school. What might be needed would be some accompanying information that conveys to the educational 'patient' all the benefits that accrue when you remain in school - e.g. how much more income they might make, how much better their livelihood skills would be (these already seem too trite and theoretical, and not as punchy as 'you're about to die!'). Accurate diagnosis followed by quick remedial cognitive results might yield better results. This is how the 'master-a-skill-get-a-reward-by-gaining-access-to-a-new-level' pyschology underpinning certain computer games operates - and it effectively keeps gamers playing for hours! This could in effect be turned into some form of conditional cash transfer scheme - paying students via the mobile phone as they progress through more and more sophisticated levels of competencies. 10 cents for every series of 10 Maths questions you get right in a row. 1 full dollar if you get 100 questions right, and can show sustained competency on a similar test 3 months later...maybe even a real book gets posted to you when you complete all levels!
I haven't figured this one out yet. I do sense there will be something out there to do with technology and self-study and appropriate motivational structures that could shift the dial somehow to tackle the enormous drop-out rates across SSA. Any suggestions please do comment and let me know your thoughts...
The concept of patients ‘lost to care’ which their device helps reduce is the equivalent in the education sector of student
‘drop-outs’ - except I suspect the consequences of not receiving medicine are
probably more threatening in the short-term and result in more fatalities.
Meeting these two gents has got me wondering: what would the
educational equivalent of this immunity diagnostic test be? Could one imagine a
widget that would allow self-administered diagnosis for learning deficiencies?
Would it have the same impact?
One problem I can immediately identify with my own whimsical educational widget is that learning is not binary, and while there are aspects of cognition that lend themselves to either/or diagnostics (can you resolve a quadratic equation or can’t you? Do you or do you not remember who invaded England in 1066? Can you or can you not change a spark plug or a nappy in under twenty seconds?) the more interesting questions are open-ended and to do with forming critical connections, reapplying theories and what is loosely called creativity (e.g. what were the causes of the second world war? How would you predict the winner of the next election? Are the Millennium Development Goals helpful or harmful? etc).
One problem I can immediately identify with my own whimsical educational widget is that learning is not binary, and while there are aspects of cognition that lend themselves to either/or diagnostics (can you resolve a quadratic equation or can’t you? Do you or do you not remember who invaded England in 1066? Can you or can you not change a spark plug or a nappy in under twenty seconds?) the more interesting questions are open-ended and to do with forming critical connections, reapplying theories and what is loosely called creativity (e.g. what were the causes of the second world war? How would you predict the winner of the next election? Are the Millennium Development Goals helpful or harmful? etc).
Answers to the former category of binary learning tests would simply inform the curious educational ‘patient’ that, no, they didn’t have the recall or hard knowledge about solving quadratic equations or William the Conqueror but it wouldn’t necessarily tell them why they couldn’t remember or why these particular facts or skills are relevant or important. Answers to the latter kind of question could be interesting to read but there would be so many it is hard to imagine how a cheap and self-administered diagnostic tool would realistically cover them all.
In some sense, most villagers who carry a mobile phone do have access to a widget with great processing power and educational potential. What is clever about the medical diagnostic widget is that the fool-proof but complicated blood-based chemical tests that happen within the white plastic box, tell the patient simply 'Treat' or 'Don't Treat'. This basically means 'get to hospital ASAP' or 'don't worry, you've got a bit more time to live'. Brutal, but effective.
Some series of quick-fire tests (maybe subsidised phone calls with a volunteer teacher or coach, maybe some response SMS texts that test basic literacy or basic arithmetic) could potentially serve the same function: if you can't answer this, or read this, or compute this within a certain time threshold - GET YOURSELF TO SCHOOL/COLLEGE/SKILLS TRAINING.
The problem I now see is that the motivational pressure that is at work within the medical diagnostic isn't quite so acute when applied in the educational self-testing; people failing the educational diagnostic don't have impending death to focus their immediate actions on getting to a school. What might be needed would be some accompanying information that conveys to the educational 'patient' all the benefits that accrue when you remain in school - e.g. how much more income they might make, how much better their livelihood skills would be (these already seem too trite and theoretical, and not as punchy as 'you're about to die!'). Accurate diagnosis followed by quick remedial cognitive results might yield better results. This is how the 'master-a-skill-get-a-reward-by-gaining-access-to-a-new-level' pyschology underpinning certain computer games operates - and it effectively keeps gamers playing for hours! This could in effect be turned into some form of conditional cash transfer scheme - paying students via the mobile phone as they progress through more and more sophisticated levels of competencies. 10 cents for every series of 10 Maths questions you get right in a row. 1 full dollar if you get 100 questions right, and can show sustained competency on a similar test 3 months later...maybe even a real book gets posted to you when you complete all levels!
I haven't figured this one out yet. I do sense there will be something out there to do with technology and self-study and appropriate motivational structures that could shift the dial somehow to tackle the enormous drop-out rates across SSA. Any suggestions please do comment and let me know your thoughts...
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