![\"\"](\"http:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/ghana-worldreader.jpg\" "\\"Worldreader")
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In April of this year, I wrote the following in the Educational technology Debate post eReaders will transform the developing world \u2013 in and outside the classroom<\/a>:<\/p>\n \u201cIf Worldreader\u2019s<\/a> experience so far is any guide, e-readers are set to transform the developing world, both in \u2013 and outside the classroom. But this change won\u2019t be driven by e-readers by themselves \u2013 it will be driven by human curiosity, ever-increasing connectivity, enlightened self-interest, and a gentle push from organizations like ours.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Having just returned from visiting Worldreader\u2019s program in Ghana, as well as looking at the recent trends in e-reader pricing, I believe this more strongly than I did six months ago. The planets are coming into alignment for a true revolution in the way the developing world reads, and consequently for the way students learn.<\/p>\n Worldreader’s impact<\/b><\/p>\n First, a bit of background. Worldreader is working to put books into the hands of one million children in the developing world by 2015. Working with USAID<\/a> and a private aid agency in Ghana, we\u2019ve put e-readers into the hands of hundreds of children, and then loaded them with local text- and story-books, as well as international fiction.<\/p>\n In total, we have distributed over 80,000 e-books in the past nine months. It\u2019s worth thinking about that number for a second, because it\u2019s staggering: it\u2019s the equivalent of two-and-a-half shipping containers. In our case, they were all delivered wirelessly, using the same cell-phone infrastructure that is becoming more ubiquitous every day. (Ghana\u2019s Daily Graphic reports that mobile phone penetration stands at 81%<\/a>.) <\/p>\n What\u2019s even more interesting is that number doesn\u2019t count the thousands of books that the children and teachers have downloaded themselves over the same period. Just looking at the four-month period from May-August (much of which was over vacation), we logged downloads of 1,301 free book downloads and samples (one popular book: No Good Deed), 1,036 educational game downloads (including Thread Words\u2014 I played it with a few students while I was there), and 92 subscription downloads for free trials of newspapers and magazines. <\/p>\n Remember that all of this is against a context of a severe lack of books. According to SACMEQ<\/a>, half of the classrooms across six countries studied in Sub-Saharan African have no textbooks at all, because of cost and logistical issues. And as Michael Trucano notes in his World Bank blog<\/a>, \u201dOnly 1 out of 19 countries studied (Botswana) ha[s] adequate textbook provision at close to a 1:1 ratio for all subjects and all grades.\u201d Books just aren\u2019t getting to Sub Saharan Africa.<\/p>\n