{"id":698,"date":"2010-02-25T08:55:27","date_gmt":"2010-02-25T13:55:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/?p=698"},"modified":"2012-09-27T10:37:32","modified_gmt":"2012-09-27T14:37:32","slug":"must-address-poverty-and-local-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/edutechdebate.org\/assistive-technology\/must-address-poverty-and-local-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Assistive Technology Must Address Extreme Poverty and Support Local Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

Children who are challenged by disability and<\/i> extreme poverty face the greatest danger of being deprived of their right to education and freedom of expression. For this population, technology must not only be accessible; it must also fit within a context of severe limitations in infrastructure and income. The right solution will address the presence of numerous languages within the same region and will empower local people, disabled or otherwise, to contribute to their own knowledge and culture repository.<\/p>\n

Lack Of Electricity And Financial Constraints<\/b><\/p>\n

Technology that relies on access to grid electricity will not serve the poorest 1.5 billion people. Sadly, this barrier isn\u2019t likely to be removed soon \u2013 the International Energy Agency predicts 1.3 billion people will remain without electricity for the next 20 years. <\/p>\n

Alternative energy options are ideal, but one should proceed with caution, as the practical amortized cost will often exceed what is possible for consumer-sustained revenues or even for government education budgets. When an education ministry has USD 100 a year per student to split between teacher pay, books, furniture, and construction of running water and toilets, little remains for new educational technologies. Program designers need to thoroughly measure and disclose the total cost of ownership of any solution, particularly technology based solutions.<\/p>\n

Mobile-based technologies have greatly impacted development; but there are three important costs to consider: 1) the cost of the handset, 2) the cost of network access, and 3) the cost of energy consumption. Smart phones have potential as education devices, but their cost is out of reach of the poorest two billion. Even basic phones may still stretch available financial resources; and if the educational value requires the mobile network, the cost of network time and even the availability of the network may reduce the feasibility. Finally, use of mobile handsets as everyday learning tools requires constant recharging, which adds cost and additional logistics.<\/p>\n

Content<\/b><\/p>\n

No matter how well a technology adapts to resource constraints, it has little use without good content. Good content includes a \u201ckiller app\u201d that supports a school system\u2019s goals (including their existing curriculum, exam requirements, and methods of teaching); but content can also mean stories, information, or knowledge that has direct practical and even entertainment value. Even if this content isn\u2019t directly useful to schools, it may be invaluable to education. <\/p>\n

A successful technology solution will be built from the ground up to support content. But where does the content come from? The Web will not easily reach the poorest 1.5 billion people who lack electricity. But suppose we could magically make the Web actually accessible \u201cWorld Wide\u201d\u2013 what content would be helpful?<\/p>\n

Language<\/b><\/p>\n

Serving the needs of disabled children in the poorest regions of the world requires content in thousands of languages. A look at Wikipedia\u2019s article count by language<\/a> demonstrates the problem. English speakers can find millions of Wikipedia articles, but very few children understand English. Meanwhile, the 8 million Twi speakers of Ghana are served by 65 articles.<\/p>\n

What if we had a massive effort to translate English content on the Web to thousands of other languages? Would the problems, questions, and interests of children in remote rural areas be satisfied by the content on today\u2019s Web? <\/p>\n

Local Content: Web 2.0 Without Electricity<\/b><\/p>\n

The solution to this problem (already learned with the Web) is to ensure technology is serving content production as much as consumption, and further, to turn consumers into producers. Examples of producers include district government agriculture experts, local nurses, concerned mothers, and disabled children with something to say (all of them).<\/p>\n

To connect content producers with consumers, we need distribution. This presents another requirement for technology projects: affordable digital distribution. Mobile communication networks should be leveraged when available and affordable (which varies drastically across impoverished regions of the world), but the greatest scalability will be achieved using additional means of distribution, especially at the local levels.<\/p>\n

Collaboration Is Critical<\/b><\/p>\n

Content producers are the key. Technology can provide the tools. <\/p>\n

But none of this is possible without collaboration among technology developers, development practitioners, funding organizations, governments, and content producers. No single NGO program can do this work, and no single product will provide a comprehensive tool. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Literacy Bridge<\/a>, the organization I founded in 2007 to work on these problems, set out to design a rural audio computer<\/a> based on the above principles.<\/p>\n