Detailed Notes:  3.4 -- Curriculum/Education

Attendees:
Chris Pal (CP)
Carl Eicher (CE)
L. Van Crowder (LC)
Suresh Babu (SB)
Margaret Ngwira (MN)
Althula Perera (AP)
Baseema Banoo (BB)
E.A. Heinrichs (EH)
Willis Kosura (W)
Margaret Kboma (MK)
Mary Ochs (MO)
Dwight Allen (DA)
Lakshmi Murthy (LM)
Roy Steiner (RS)
Gracian Chimwaza (GC)
Janet McCue (JM)

GC -- discussion of format and meeting guidelines -- how can we steer the session to identify two highest-priority areas?  We've identified some examples, but maybe we can identify some further examples and then hone in on some high-priority focii.

JM -- In other words, what are the holes in the information change?  Shall we use the whiteboard?

GC -- We should come up with two solutions that we think are of primary importance

LC -- Should we treat the issue of distance learning raised by Ken?  (that distance learning is a dangerous idea, due to struggling African universities)

MK -- It appeared that he was being cautious and careful.  We cannot try to build capacity in Africa and simultaneously work on models that might throw those institutions into risky situations.

GC -- The issue is that there's no silver bullet.  We need lots of different approaches.  

LC -- I have a fund. belief that ICTs bring major solutions, but there is this issue that if you do not build on other systems, you'll be working in a vacuum.

WK -- We have to choose between investing in distance learning or infrastructure.  Because the latter is a prerequisite.

MN -- I've worked with IT for a long time in lots of diverse ways.  Internet skills training is very important, because having the technology is not the same as effectively using it.  

SB -- Distance Learning is not always an internet-based thing.  We can still do dist. learning without internet connectivity.  Already, in Africa, we have a course offered on eLearning.  It is on writing good proposals.  400 students are from Africa.  Not all of them finished the course.  At least 200 of the Africans submitted their assignments.  If you're going to be ready in 2 years, the content needs to be ready, too. 

MN - we need content, infrastructure and training.  all are important.

LC -- We need to be careful about determining what content is going to be deemed appropriate.  Who is the expert that's going to certify the content?  Content needs to be validated.

GC -- I want to hear Chris.

CP -- Distance learning does not have to be an online course.  We should focus on content and how it's packaged.  High quality content materials are of primary importance.  It's not necessarily part of a course -- just something that's educational in nature.  Does dist. learning devalue the quality of African education?  It's location specific.  Content must be relevant to specific populations.

GC -- There are many means to deliver the content, but I have heard nothing of feedback.  How do we determine what is appropriate content?

CP -- In Mali, a farmer owns the modes.  If the farmer does not disseminate, it's probably not working.  It needs to be pased through the filter of the smallholders.

GC -- The smallholders are the ones who are not involved in organizations but are still farmers.

LC -- It seems to me that when we talk about curricula, we still need to recognize that there is a need to determine what extension agents are going to teach farmers.  In general, they don't know much about the teaching of adult.  They arrive with messages that they deliver in various ways.  Seldom has their education exposed them to good methods for adult learning.  One of the things I've found is that when you're dealing with extension agents, you need to focus on the ways in which they're delivering the content.  

MN -- There is a majhor gap in the literature on adult learning.

GC -- So, we are focussing now on the extension.  How do we get these guys to understand the right ways to teach the farmers?  In terms of return on investment, that's another issue.  I was hoping that we.

LC -- We need to look at how we're training extension agents.  ext. agents are educators.  We need to invest in their educational capabilities.  New infusion of knowledge is necessary to keep the extension system productive.  System has to continue their knowledge building.

JM -- When we met earlier, we all resonated with Willis' stucture that started with interaction with farmers and ended up with whether or not students can get jobs (accountability).  Can this be replicated?  Second, can we work on farmers' field schools?  If FFS is not the answer, what other model can we come up with?

LC -- The reason FFS works is because they're built on sound educational models.  IPM plus good education principles was all it was.  It was magic, but that's all it was.  Somebody considered the ways in which adults learn.

CP -- Willis, are there in the field models in place right now at your program?  That seems like it may work for both these goals.

WK -- If an extension officer comes to school here, he can take the knowledge he learned and apply it again in the field.

CE -- Asia has just gone through 10 years of extension reform.  That chapter is now closed, because financial sustainability is their achilles heel.  It cost 20% more than before, and it couldn't continue.  That's why FFS has exploded.  What would be valuable is to conduct major studies on FFS to see if they are economically sustainable.

LC -- Has to be comparative study.

CE -- Any kind of intervention should learn from the Asian experience, and have some independent assessments of FFS's sustainability

MK -- As an extension model, FFS farmers have been unable to transfer their knowledge to others.

LC -- Why don't farmers share information with other farmers is dependent on lots of different things.  If you organize it for that...

GC -- The reason why it doesn't get to the other farmers is because those involved in farmer schools only tell their friends.  How can we do it differently?

EH -- Women share info and men don't.  

LC -- FFS that have been successful are those that have been farmer-facilitated -- not extension-based.  It's not natural to do that, so there needs to be an incentive program built in.  They should be rewarded for training other farmers.  It should not end.  It needs to be backed up by a system of scientists and extension.

SB -- Regardless, if you do not have the content flow of current information, it will fail.

GC -- so, relevant and current information is important.

SB -- That is where the whole thinking about World Ag Info is relevant.  How can you get that info and make it useable by farmers and still allow it to be modified and kept current?

GC -- There is an issue of translation as well as the simplifying of language.  It needs to go from digital to audio.  That's where technology comes in.

AP -- Because of the breakdown of the extension services, we are going to invite the farmers to our university.  They will tell us what they need from us, and we will put that into our curriculum.  We can't change the title of the course, but we can change the content.  It's a two-way thing.  The farmers have input, and then we can use all the tech at hand.  Then, the students can convert it in different ways, use it, and get formative feedback based on the effectiveness of these diverse methods.  

MK -- Where are the extension workers in this whole chain?  In southern Africa, harambe (coming together) could function as a strategic way to bring organizations together.  Cultural reality could be a springboard for this type of change.

GC -- They will come together for lots of stuff -- burial societies and lots of other types of things.  Spin-offs are possible.

SB -- It still seems that research universities are the proper place to train extension officers, and we have not discussed this.  How can we get the content modularized in easy, useful ways for extension people to disseminate in various ways and adapted to different types of content, depending on their needs.  Portal-based extension programs might be a way for extension agents to become connected to the right information.  That way, they can get their message across to lots of farmer organizations.  Working with Cornell and MSU, we are trying to develop partnerships (CGIAR) between developed and developing universities to exchange information.

GC -- Let's talk about content delivery, and then let's talk about languages.  In Africa, this gets super-complicated.

SB -- We need to optimize according to ecological zones.  Content should be created with the markets in mind.  If you do it that way, you can reach out to more farmer organizations.  Content should be conceptualized accordingly.

MN -- Ag. libraries should be retooled and refined so that they can be useful.  Foundations are into that sort of thing, so this may be useful.

LC -- At the end of the day, we're talking about a very pluralistic network.

MN -- TV is coming on strong, and there is a niche there probably.

CP -- Automated translation systems are not too bad.  they need to be cleaned up, but for the smaller language, we could collect data for automating this translation process.  As a part of a project, if the people in charge have a translation component, the information collected could be catalogued and later go toward automated translation.

GC -- The Bible will be a good way to start.

CP -- What we're talking about is adding a component to Willis' model.

JM -- I think we were talking about replication, but now we are talking about augmentation.

SB -- When we conducted a huge needs analysis, we found that some faculty were excellent but most were weak.  The idea was to put together all the excellent faculty to put together an excellent curriculum.  But good content is still an issue.  How can we get new, high quality content?  How can this content be applied to the global level without any intellectual property issues?  Quality of the content is suspect, and we need to establish this before we can replicate.  How can we hold content accountable and develop content that will work around the world?  We need a sort of umbrella approach for content development.  

GC -- (Discussion of several programs) Can we review what we have?

BB -- I am going to keep this in edit mode.

MN -- Can in depth study of T/V and FFS be based on dissertations?  

LC -- Sure, so long as they are academic and comparative, they can be anything.