Anya Kamenetz latest column from nprEd talks the tiny nations of Trinidad and Tobego contracting with Coursera and Kahn to offer a lot of online learning. Kudos to Margot for link.
A new pioneer has just planted its flag on the ed-tech frontier: the country of Trinidad and Tobago. Its government this week announced the creation of a “national knowledge network” to promote free online learning in partnership with Khan Academy and Coursera.
So, what’s really new here? Well, this Trinidad and Tobago effort takes the level of coordination up a notch. Their focus is on connecting MOOC-powered learning to jobs. Graduates from Learning Hub programs will receive a government-issued certificate of participation from knowledge.tt. They’ll also be eligible for an internship program with more than 400 participating employers.
Hints here of what’s going to happen in the rest of the world with Ed Tech, which is relatively so much more “economical”, and brings top learning possibilities to poor areas that previously simply couldn’t provide them.
Yes, US could fall behind in this too; note how our broadband access is behind many other countries. Our educational results are also not in the top tier. Both could get worse, depending on regulatory support for net neutrality and affordable access, and broad based support of online learning potentials here.
And let’s face it, such important issues do not get addressed in a political or economic vacuum.