Helping rural China...

1. Helping rural China...

2. AGE - project funded by • Cradle investment Programme CIP • MDeC Technopreneur Pre-seed FundBoth are Government grantsA project to close the digital divide between nations and rural / urban areas until now a big challenge globally.

3. AGE - Finalist in Stockholm Challenge 2008only Malaysian qualifier • A finalist in the Stockholm Challenge 2008“...was chosen as a finalist for its innovative ways of creating more or less paperless classrooms by the effective use of ICT in mass education and for finding new ways to extend education to remote areas and developing countries.”Ulla Skidén, Project Manager, Stockholm Challenge Full text/press release

4. Today’s problems with rural ICT in mass Education – local and globally • Current platforms to deliver contents - CDs / DVDs expensive not practical - Flash / Javas online broadband required Yes , both can be very elaborate and rich in presentations..but • Both are Rich men’s platforms trying to reach the poor men(those without broadband or CDs in cities and rural areas)There are just too many problems using these ! • AGE is a poor men’s platformable to reach the rich and poor men.AGE can reach the remotest areas in seconds of download for hours of animated instructions/usage through slow 56kps dial ups or mobile phones.

5. Connecting the entire nation<=> ……..to close the digital divides …………… • To bridge the digital divides, current efforts have been to lay out broadband services to rural areas. • Please consider these issues:-1. It takes time and lots of money to do so.2. Financial tsunami is coming… can we afford it? 3. Even if money is available, it still takes a long time to do it.4. Even if the broadband is laid out successfully, can it really work for nationwide ICT in education? - What would happen, if the whole country logs in at exactly 8 a.m. ? - Will the server freeze? Like in the case of a DDOS attack? So while you are hoping for the “broadband solution”, the unconnected remains unconnected for a long time… even if you have the money.

6. The missing link in ICT in mass Education – local and globally Reasons for problems in adoption of ICT in Mass Education to reach out to everyone – rural and urban. 1. Paper - universal – everybody 2. MISSING LINK - AGE - animated multimedia – not so rich but relevant - AGE provides that link but requires computers That allows all electronic media of transmission Diskettes, pen drives, CDs, dial ups, broadband, mobile phones, satellites 3. CDs/DVDs limited to reachable areas - very rich big sized 4. Flash/Java limited to broadband areas – smaller and nice AGE complements all other platforms and do not replace any Every platform has its usefulness and strengths

7. Practical Tech Not High Tech Quote:"In my nearly 14 years of writing about information and communications technology (ICT), I have never come across an ICT company which adopted as sensible and common sense approach to technology“ unquoteSurf Malaysia magazine September, 2008Charles F Moreira  Senior WriterMobile Worldsee article

8. What AGE does.1.Easy availability of Contents to all Digital communities AGE solves this problem. It makes it easy to reach anyone, anywhere, anytime and in the mostdifficult situations. AGE modules are so small that it takes seconds ofdownloads for hours of usage through a slow dial up or mobile phone!

9. 2. Empowering teachers to the next level. To empower teachers from Paper / blackboard to ---> Digital Classrooms ---> Digital Tutorials and HomeworkEntire homework cycle video => generate contents => students use =>collate answers = > into Spreadsheets. All paperless for free and instantly ! Try Authorware, Directors etc are too expensiveWe don’t think teachers can afford up to US$3,000/stationAGE – US$50-00 per year, given free to schools. Specially made for simple use for any teacher

10. 3. Paperless Homework for a greener world 1 child go paperless is nothing 1 million children going paperless is significant( Uplifts teachers to the next level for FREE ). 5 million children.. That is awesome! School bag of the future All homework papers  School bag of tomorrow. 5 years of contents !

11. 4. Nationwide data collation of students’ performances made easy. Entire homework cycle video => generate contents => students use =>collate answers = > into Spreadsheets. All students’ performance data collected are in digital spreadsheets instantly ! Millions of children’s score sheets is now available anytime and anywhere This allows teachers to collate the data into Spreadsheets. This electronic spreadsheets’ data in turn be centralised and analysed by the State or central headquarters . This powerful capabilities allow the country to take corrective measures to students’ strengths and weaknesses for the ENTIRE COUNTRY!

12. What we have done so far.... Contents list • Preschools – multi languages Chinese, Malay and English • Primary schools UPSR English revisions/tutorials/model tests • Lower Secondary PMREnglish tutorials/model tests • Chinese Mandarinbasic hanyu pinyin tutorials for International students, basic conversation and words. Primary schools exercises • Additional MathsSPM Tutorials/model tests Forms4/5 O levels • > 400 E-books- instant home libraryAesops' fables, children stories, Novels, Sci-fi, Poems, Plays, Adventure stories, Short stories, Miscellaneous stories. • Plus many more to come !

13. The Proofs - Running AGE modules...Seconds of downloads hours of usage – small sized filesCan mix AGE with other platformse.g. with Power point , browser etc Note: if you want to run AGE here, you must first have installed AGE tools to the computer. For convenience run videos. 4 stroke enginesRun 4 strokes engine in using AGE (73k)See folder<=only if AGE has been installed Additional Mathematics O level videoRun AGE- additional Mathssee folder<= only if AGE has been installed Learn Chinese with sound and interactions videoRun AGE- Chinese sampleSee folder<=only if AGE has been installed Learning English through Anti-smoking campaign video (or anti-drug, anti-AIDs?)Run Anti-smoking moduleSee Folder<=only if AGE has been installed Create instant Digital Homework( 3 minutes or less)videoRun in AGE<=only if AGE has been installed Display non AGE high resolution graphics in power point or in standard IE browser ===> User can then mix AGE with these platforms. This PowerPoint page is about 300Kbytes. Compare AGE’s much more info - only 73Kbytes

14. Other free software included All links here are valid only if the software had been installed first • Free Wordweb dictionary Very useful when looking up for words. Beats any paperbased dictionaries. Run Wordweb(valid if installed) • Speakonia – Text to speech software This assists students how to pronounce any word...based on Microsoft Speech engine. Speakonia Text-to-speech • Irfanview graphic programsfor teachers to convert and maintain their graphics. • AGE text based Dictionaries/translators English, English<Malay, English<Malay>Chinese with sound support. Scientific terms for Malay<>English plus many more to …………come. Run AGE dictionary

15. Support materials provided free for teachers • Extra supporting materials continuously supplied free for registered teachers/users! • Thousands of Graphics • Templates • Background patternsfor easy creation of modules.

16. AGE can reach out to all under the most extreme conditions • Zone 1 – a. urban and suburban with broadbandmost systems catering to this category only. b. urban and suburban without broadband • Zone 2 - rural with dial ups with direct land line • Zone 3 - rural with satellite links with electricity • Zone 4 – rural no links and electricity near to telecenterUsing a pen drive students copy contents from telecenter and return to village • Zone 5 - rural areas without any link or electricity (middleof nowhere but within postal service) • Zone 1 to 3 … AGE easily reach • Zone 4 and 5. Use a simple pen drive to deliver entire year’s contents. No need to access real time. Use solar power with ULPC (ultra low cost PCs). 1 pen drive can contain the entire requirements from standard to Form 5. No running cost.

17. How AGE helps out of reachTelecenters` • Currently Telecenters with slow satellite links or dial up links cannot get access to good multimedia contents Good for emails or general browsingTime based would cost money • With AGE, people can come to telecenters, study or access other facitilies good interactive multimedia modules that are designed for Malaysians. When time is up they can take the entire contents good enough for 1 or more years home.A thumb drive is all that is needed to take contents to and from tele-centers.

18. How AGE helps Telecenters` • Currently people come to telecenters to study or access to other facilities. When time is up they go home. • With AGE, people can come to telecenters, study or access other facitilies. When time is up they can take the entire contents good enough for 1 or more years home. • A thumb drive is all that is needed.

19. Allows easy analysis of students’ score data • AGE allows government to collect very usefulstudents’ score data. • Collate scores locally and nationallyScore sheets of each students all around from the most remote to well connected city telecenters. • Collate from all telecenters These can then be easily transferred to HQ for remedial steps.This important capabilities will go a long way to create an effective students remedial initiatives. These can be done nationally as often as are neededunlike before this has been expensive and slow to do so.

20. What is required to run AGE • AGE Educator module to read all AGE modules • AGE E-workbook generator for teachers • Old or new PCs .. Cheap ULPCs • Cheap solar power …for low powered ULPC • Delivery… any way available in the market. No need broadband.

21. Other countries... • Our next stop the world...China , Pakistan, Africa, India, IndonesiaFREE for their schools as well for 1 year(or more if they contribute to our contents base) … all developing countries where the digital divides are most pronounced

22. Collaborative activities • With Microsoft Malaysia Using AGE contents for their refurbishedcomputers installed with WinXPs special package for our armed forces personnel earning less than RM1,500 per month. Where AGEwould be standard content installed… PCs Pentium 4refurbished to International stdWin XP Pro, Microsoft office 2003After Malaysia, project Asia Pacific countries

23. Looking for international partners… China Bangladesh Pakistan Nigeria

24. Meetings with Embassies and High Commission officials of different countries Azerbaijan Bangladesh India Sri Lanka

25. Meetings with Embassies and High Commission officials of different countries Swaziland Tanzania Ghana Fiji

26. Development of contents for Malaysian Schools • We are currently inviting partners to develop more contents for local schools Other modules and subjects besides what we already have are to be developed and distributed for free or sale Modules developed may also be sold globally to our other partners in other countries.

27. Systems requirements for AGE AGE runs on WinXPs and below. (Vista not supported)Hardware: PC486 or aboveIdeal will be Ultra Low Cost PCs (ULPCs)running WinXPsRuns under DOS/Windows environments. Vista/Windows 7 or Linux versionexpected to be released in mid 2010

28. For more developments... • Log in to our web site and find more about our developments....www.paperlesshomework.com • Help us spread the word and raise money for your school or charity or yourself while doing it!Contact me for 1 to 1 talk.Email:paperlesshomework@yahoo.com Facebook: paperlesshomeworkSkype : paperlesshomework