Good to see you comment on this. We did a piece on this through out group at Berkeley (though not as well read as yours!):

http://itidjournal.org/itid/article/view/325

Hope all else is fine, cheers – Joyojeet

The answer to the first part is clear- the choice of technology is an important aspect and instead of blindly adopting strategies that might have been successful elsewhere, governments and individual users need to clearly ascertain what are the most viable options for their specific context, keeping in mind both cost and effectiveness. We cannot pose the question of sustainability of ICT for Education as somehow reflected in the sustainability of the OLPC scheme. India has ample experiences to learn from in this context- the model of Public Call Offices (PCOs) in India was more viable than having individual telephone connections. While PC penetration in India remains abysmally low Cyber Cafés have mushroomed and provided a viable option for access to internet and computers. The sustainability of technology solutions might be determined through the market route or be based on the government’s priorities, since choosing any technology solution for government schools (poorly funded with very low fee levels) will not make any market sense and yet there is an imperative to provide access to ICTs to students of government schools. Be that as it may, there are many models in between pure play market based solutions and entirely government subsidized initiatives. The idea is to innovatively finance the optimum technology solution using government resources, private resources as well as public private partnerships.

The second is a more difficult question to tackle. It is pointed out quite often that there is no clear evidence that proves that technology applications in Education result in improved learning levels, better and more rapid learning etc. Yet quite apart from the lack of hard ‘evidence’ and a comforting cushion of data, the reality is that we live in an age where access to technology quite often might determine our life chances and our very ability to succeed in the current system. If not based on evidence then based on aspirations it is clear that access to computers and internet signifies a better learning environment with greater opportunities. It is telling that in a Survey being undertaken by my organization, PwC, on behalf of InfoDev on the use of ICTs for Education in India and South Asia- at the Policy level- almost all the developing countries in the South Asian region articulate the need for empowering their citizens with knowledge of ICTs so as to enable them to succeed in the emerging ‘knowledge’ society. To achieve this goal they work backwards to introducing ICTs in schools with a dual purpose- one to provide know how in ICT per se and the other to use ICTs to improve the teaching learning experience. This Survey is the third in a series of similar studies undertaken for the African and Caribbean region. http://www.infodev.org/en/Topic.4.html

Therefore, I do not agree with the line of thinking that a certain minimum level of education can be achieved without computers and technology, simply because in the past of human history that is how it was done. This line of thinking presupposes ‘development’ as a set trajectory: a series of steps countries and societies must necessarily take to reach an end state. The fact is that all societies and countries can only respond to all the stimuli, and marshal all the resources in their environment and determine the best way to reach a certain shared understanding of what it means to be ‘developed’. Developing countries struggling with unequal social and economic systems cannot afford to ignore the necessity of providing equal opportunity for access to technology, otherwise these same inequalities will be perpetuated indefinitely and developing countries will forever be playing catch up with the so called developed countries! The use of technology in some grassroots initiatives in India has proven that even if technology is cost intensive to begin with, in the long run it has benefits that precisely answer chronic problems specific to our developing country context- namely lack of transparency, leakage of funds, improper targeting of beneficiaries. In the specific case of education it might address- lack of trained teachers, lack of availability of high quality books, low student motivation to attend school etc. Of course all the caveats apply- namely pure technology driven initiatives do not succeed- pedagogical innovations are required, there needs to be a mindset change about the possibility offered by technology in education and extensive capacity building for potential users and facilitators in the system is required.

Also with only 16% of the allocated money actually reaching the needy, we need to also look at models where the end user/parent actually pays (the amount can be very very lesss, but volumes will make it up). There are private organisations that can adapt HLL type of rural business models and with parents paying the quality pressure will be on. I would propose a model of Affordable Quality Education For All, which is powered by technology.

I reproduce a mail that I sent to Dr. Negroponte on the futility of OLPC’s sales strategy -

” During my discussions with government officials, we have discussed OLPC in detail as one of the most promising alternatives to traditional computer labs that are being set up by government. Despite officials’ good acceptance of the product ( specially the solar power and the ruggedness), the discussions end with the non-vaibility of the product due to its ‘absurd’ price. You will realize that the absurdity here refers not to the price of an individual XO compared to a traditional PC/Laptop but to the total outlay needed to fund the project. Let me explain. Under Indian Government’s EFA program, each district in India ( total 600 districts) has approx $200K per year to spend on innovative projects to improve the quality of education. Each district also on an average has 500K children in age 6-14. Assuming a price of $250K after taxes per XO, the total CapEx needed to equip each child in each district is $ 125M. Needless to point that even after assuming that the entire budget goes for XO, the budgetary allocation is just 1/625 of what is needed by your organization. That’s not all. There are other socio-cultural issues working against the concept of a child owning a laptop. For many, it is a superfluous extravagance like buying a individual sedan when a shared bus would have done the job.
`
In summary – Despite addressing the Electricity issue( among host of others) which is the biggest bottleneck in rural India, XO has little traction in Indian government due to two concerns –
• high numbers  High Cost
• Elitist positioning of a child owning a expensive laptop when many don’t get to eat two meals a day

The question is, can these concerns be addressed without compromising on the strengths and pedagogy of XO ?

I believe, there is a way. One needs to answer honestly whether laptop is the ‘means’ or “an end’? If the former then all one needs to do is– make little changes to the form of XO ( without compromising on its 1 watt consumption) and make it functional like a stationary PC. Then pitch it as the only Electricity-independent alternative to regular desktops being bought by government for schools. Looking at the electricity shortage in most schools, the governments will have no choice but to change its tender specifications to include 1 watt consumption as one of the requirement. Do you see my point?

Even though the demand might be less at approx 10 XOs per school, look at the potential market size. The total number of government schools in India is close to 1.1 Mn. At 10 XOs per school, there are 11 Million XOs waiting to be sold with no competition at all. ”

I invite your comments.

Thanks

Well said. I might add that well-documented studies showing successful implementation methodologies are also necessary.

Yeah, that'll convince legislatures to fund the use of computers in education.

Like I've already written, computers have been used in education for over forty years. Somewhere in all that time there ought to be a brilliant success story or two don't you think?