I’m currently in India, having arrived in Bombay last night after a long flight from Sydney. I’m here as at the request of the Commonwealth of Learning to participate in a conference on Open Schooling.
This morning my taxi driver took me on an extended tour of the city (Bombay) on the way to the airport. The photograph to the left is of a part of the old city, and is where generations of families have been washing clothes for a living. I was particularly interested to see this as it was shown on the plane as part of the travelogue they show you before you land.
The photograph to the right is of the resort in Goa, on the West Coast of India, that is the venue for the conference, hosted by the National Institute for Open Schooling. The conference officially begins tomorrow (Sunday over here) – but already I have spoken to some interesting people from other parts of India who are involved in open schooling projects. They are especially interested in the model of the virtual learning network and operation of the video conferencing clusters that we have been establishing in NZ.
Goa itself is an interesting place. A small, Portugese settlement, it is very advanced in terms of what is happening with technology, with such things as the Goa Schools Computers Project , a community based project which is attempting to improve the levels of computer literacy and computer access to students in Goa through the use of donated computers.
More to come…!