Computers for Schools Kenya

Article in Business Week.

I do not necessarily agree with the thinking that children must learn basic email and productivity applications. Because technology changes so quickly, I think they can 'leapfrog' some developing countries by using such old technologies in innovative ways, as well as by using newer technologies such as mobile phones. In my previous experience, we have tried to do a lot with simple, inexpensive and older technologies. For example, you only need a very basic PC (running Windows 95) and no Internet connection, in order to configure a microcontroller which can interface with sensors and other devices.

The UK has spent a lot of money getting PCs into every school, but the real innovation is needed in pedagogy and the ways that technology is used. Specifically, focusing on computing as a (widely applicable) process, not on computers per se. 'Exploding' a PC by distributing input and output devices, using sensors and other devices, turns a physical space into an information space. I hope this is one thing we can bring to this project.