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I worked at a high school in a relatively small (electrified) village in West Africa. After some months of working there I was telling my principal that I would

I worked at a high school in a relatively small (electrified) village in West Africa. After some months of working there I was telling my principal that I would keep in touch with my family by email, usually at a cyber cafe in a nearby city. To my surprise he told me I could just use the school computers, which I had never seen or heard of. "But don't tell any of the other teachers I let you do this." So he gave me the key to the one building in the school that was locked, which contained six (!) working computers that had been donated by some European organization, all with dial-up internet access. The room was also full of brand new textbooks, which the children didn't have access to. In fact, the room's only real purpose seemed to be as a home for a large colony of bats. When I asked the obvious question "why aren't you using any of this?!" the answer was that no one knew how to use the computers, and that they were waiting for an IT teacher to get transferred to the school. Eventually the students were given access to the books, though this seems to have been looked upon very skeptically because the administration wasn't sure how they were going to let the students use them in a way that they wouldn't end up ruining them (by getting them wet, writing in them, etc). It's important to understand that scenarios like this do occur and also how they work, if you're giving away free stuff to developing nations. My rule of thumb is that if you don't want to put any thought into how your donation is making the world a better place, it's probable that it either won't be used at all, or it will just be resold. The latter possibility at least in my mind is not so bad, but others may not be so happy about that outcome.

scoot 11y ago
Take a listen [1].You'll be amazed at the ingenuity. No teacher required! [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_educa...
- technomancy 11y ago
  The point stands that the administration is likely to get in the way of donated equipment being put to proper use by the children though.
nrao123 11y ago
This is common in India as well. Almost every village in India has a government school which provides free education. However, most of these schools have "less than stellar" facilities & infrastructure. However, some of the larger government schools, have computer & labs. But... Just as you mentioned, most of them are unused because they don't have a IT technician/lab instructor. I spoke to hundreds of government teachers & asked them the question of- why don't you just open the lab & let the students figure it out, the smarter/more responsive kids to tech can become the IT/Lab instructors? Almost- all of their response was about trust, if the kids will break it etc. I think it boiled down to control & trust.
- dec0dedab0de 11y ago
  Almost- all of their response was about trust, if the kids will break it etc. I think it boiled down to control & trust sounds more like fear to me.
- aaron695 11y ago
  Having worked in a first world school I was surprised by the lack of vandalism and theft. It did exist but was very minor. But this is still enough for a large body of students to destroy a small lab over a few years. But the main issue was game playing and entertainment. Kids will do what kids do everywhere, just play games when left to their own devices. If you're taking away from other time this becomes detrimental time. Here's a negative review on the hole in a wall scheme for instance - http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=mitra http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=mitra Not to say you can't design a system for kids to actually learn in unsupervised at a reasonable cost, just it's yet to happen.

scoot 11y ago

Take a listen [1].You'll be amazed at the ingenuity. No teacher required! [1] http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_education http://www.ted.com/talks/sugata_mitra_the_child_driven_educa...

technomancy 11y ago
The point stands that the administration is likely to get in the way of donated equipment being put to proper use by the children though.

nrao123 11y ago

This is common in India as well. Almost every village in India has a government school which provides free education. However, most of these schools have "less than stellar" facilities & infrastructure. However, some of the larger government schools, have computer & labs. But... Just as you mentioned, most of them are unused because they don't have a IT technician/lab instructor. I spoke to hundreds of government teachers & asked them the question of- why don't you just open the lab & let the students figure it out, the smarter/more responsive kids to tech can become the IT/Lab instructors? Almost- all of their response was about trust, if the kids will break it etc. I think it boiled down to control & trust.

dec0dedab0de 11y ago
Almost- all of their response was about trust, if the kids will break it etc. I think it boiled down to control & trust sounds more like fear to me.
aaron695 11y ago
Having worked in a first world school I was surprised by the lack of vandalism and theft. It did exist but was very minor. But this is still enough for a large body of students to destroy a small lab over a few years. But the main issue was game playing and entertainment. Kids will do what kids do everywhere, just play games when left to their own devices. If you're taking away from other time this becomes detrimental time. Here's a negative review on the hole in a wall scheme for instance - http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=mitra http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=mitra Not to say you can't design a system for kids to actually learn in unsupervised at a reasonable cost, just it's yet to happen.