In April of this year, I wrote the following in the Educational technology Debate post eReaders will transform the developing world – in and outside the classroom: “If Worldreader’s experience so far is any guide, e-readers are set to transform the developing world, both in – and outside the classroom. But this change won’t be […]

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While you stand there smugly surveying your sea of shiny computers in your state-of-the-art school computer centre, please spare a thought for the billion or so people who never made it to school, or who dropped out after a year or two or three, and never even learned to read and write.  Most of them […]

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D is for desktop. L is for laptop. M is for mobile. E is for expensive! For the time being, traditional technologies are too expensive and complicated to implement in scale, while also allowing sufficient funding for teacher training and learning materials development. Desktops in school computer rooms require a dedicated, secure classroom that would […]

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One of the great struggles of education is providing all children the individualized instruction they need to understand the material taught and to be challenged at their level, especially when teaching children to read and improve their reading skills. In an ideal environment, the teacher would be able to provide each student personal attention and […]

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The science of early literacy acquisition and proven techniques for teaching reading are both backed by years of experimental research, as well as practical experience implementing programs to improve reading. EGRA testing in Ethiopia Experts agree that measuring reading progress early offers the benefits of informing remediation, taking a snapshot in time or showing progress […]

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For October, the Educational Technology Debate will be focusing on ICT that can improve reading skills of learners in primary schools. Our topic is influenced by the USAID Global Education Strategy, which has as it’s Goal One the improved reading skills for 100 million children in primary grades by 2015, via improved reading instruction, improved […]

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Over the past few years of activity on the ETD forum, we’ve read many examples of how ICT in education projects have improved and innovated practice, making access to education more modern and accessable. At the same time much criticism has been focused on projects that, despite best intentions, focus first on hardware provision without […]

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The phrase “Think Globally, Act Locally” is most often used in relation to environmental issues. We should consider the entire planet and take action in our own community. When applied to education, the phrase could mean attempt to act locally to increase local understanding on local issue in relation to, and by using access to […]

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This year I had the privilege of working with an LLC, a partnering local NGO, and a non-profit that trains undereducated teachers on a project designed to bring Internet access to rural villages in Mexico. Local schoolteachers, many of whom had not received any training beyond a standard high school diploma, were to be trained […]

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Interactive Radio Instruction (IRI) isn’t sexy per se. It doesn’t employ cutting edge networking and caching technologies. It isn’t an Android application. It doesn’t even do social media. IRI may not have the whistles and bells that often support (and sometimes distract) in ICT for Development, but what it lacks in bling, it makes up […]

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