GRND Lab

http://www.grndlab.com/

Built solar system developed and installed in southern Kenya to provide power for the new Living with Lions research camp. (see 'work' link)

Cheap computers from TVs and old videogame consoles

UC San Diego-based Playpower Project Receives $180K MacArthur
Digital Media and Learning Grant. Details here

randomised evaluation of dumping computers (+training) on schools in Columbia: no effect

Barrera-Osorio, F. & Linden, L. (2009), 'The use and misuse of computers in education : evidence from a randomized experiment in Colombia', World Bank Policy Research Working Paper (WPS4836)

This paper presents the evaluation of the program Computers for Education. The program aims to integrate computers, donated by the private sector, into the teaching of language in public schools. The authors conduct a two-year randomized evaluation of the program using a sample of 97 schools and 5,201 children. Overall, the program seems to have had little effect on students' test scores and other outcomes. These results are consistent across grade levels, subjects, and gender. The main reason for these results seems to be the failure to incorporate the computers into the educational process. Although the program increased the number of computers in the treatment schools and provided training to the teachers on how to use the computers in their classrooms, surveys of both teachers and students suggest that teachers did not incorporate the computers into their curriculum.

- thanks Yishay for this info

Computer-Based Learning a Reality in Rural Senegal

Manassas, VA (USA), April 2009 – EarthWalk Communications in partnership with the Academy for Educational Development, is extending opportunities for learning with computers in rural Senegal through the use of innovative solar-panel technologies. EcoSolar2 power solution is enabling schools to seamlessly integrate technology into their classrooms and communities regardless of the availability of electricity. more

Building computer labs in Kenya

YouTube clip

Microsoft supports women in Kenya

Microsoft has sponsored ICT and entrepreneurship training for 1,093 Kenyan women from six settlements under its Unlimited Potential program. Details here.

Universal Science Bench

Portable teaching tool using solar and wind for powering local experiments. Details here

Web desktop targets 'cybernomads'

A virtual desktop aimed at users who access the web via cybercafes is attracting interest from organisations set up to bridge the digital divide more

Open Architecture Challenge

Empower the youth of Mukuru Kwa Njenga, an informal slum settlement of 250,000, to connect with other youth and create positive change in their community by building a technology media lab and library.

Details here.

Inveneo

The Computing Station is an ultra-low-power, affordable and fully functional desktop computer designed for use in rural locations such as schools, clinics, field offices, community centers and Internet cafes.

Hole in the Wall

Here is a description of this project, which introduced ICT into an Indian village in an interesting way.

African e-schools initiative

African children do better with digital details an initiative by New Partnership for Africa's Development, supported by various technology companies, announced at e-Learning Africa conference.

Participatory Methods in Development

Just some links to literature about participatory development projects and other relevant areas:

International Institute for Environment and Development - Journals about participation, The Gatekeeper - "highlight key topics in the field of sustainable agriculture and resource management" - e.g. Demystifying Facilitation in Participatory Development

Research Information Ltd - Appropriate Technology, International Pest Control, Outlooks on Pest Management, Participatory Learning and Action journals.

Village Information Centres, Pondicherry (India) beep report
Measures of Impact of Science and Technology in India: Agriculture and Rural Development from M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF)

MIT project in Rural Thailand

I was trying to find out more about and MIT project in rural Thailand the David Cavallo referred to in his Keynote at CAL 07. I couldn't find much online but this extract from ICT and Community Building in Rural Areas of Thailand seems to refer to the project and contains some guidelines about developing rural telecentres and making them sustainable. Also see Cavallo's thesis and Project Lighthouse in Logo newsletter.

"Another notable project was initiated and run by a joint-effort between Thailand and MIT (the Suksa-Pattana Foundation and the Thaicom Foundation). The project is located at a village called Ban Sam Kha in Lampang Province, about 100 km. South of Chiangmai. The project aimed at empowering the people in the community through project-based learning experience or the constructionism approach. At Ban Sam Kha School, practical working programs were tried with students and their parents. A number of workshops took place at Ban Sam Kha to solve the biggest problems of the community: their debts. Once knowing what is going on, the behaviour of the villagers changed rapidly. It was discovered that the total debts of all families combined were more than 18 million baht. Through a simple classification scheme, the debts were grouped by their financial costs and their relationship to the productivities, an amazing new knowledge was learned together. The villagers changed their behaviors quickly in order to get rid of less-performing and high-interest loans. At this moment, the villagers are trained to keep records of their income and expense, with the simple accounting tool training given to school kids at school. Parents are encouraged to join the evening classes to learn about computers where the kids are their teacher! The school has about 15 computers to teach students.

Developing telecenters and make them sustainable turned out to be harder and slower than originally planned, but this is not entirely unexpected. Here are a few things which we learned:

• Get to know the community well before putting ICT into the location
• Always encourage them to understand the linkage between ICT and their daily business
• Let them plan on what and how to do things by themselves. We only ask them relevant questions, which would help making decision.
• Send young staff or student volunteers to learn from the community and document their work.
• Never over-invest in the hardware/equipment as this will affect the sustainability of the centers, but never under-invest in putting a lot of attention to the learning process and technology adoption of the community.
• The winning telecenters are those where the machines are used heavily, and the main users are children. One way of inducing the adults to be literate about PCs is to ask the children to help.
• Always keep records of the users and income for analysis.
• Seek outside help to create useful software, information and news which are relevant to the community. Government agencies and universities are the main producers of the relevant contents such as farm prices, weather forecast/warning, and other knowledge. By enhancing the information quality, communities can learn more about the values of their telecenters."

Setting up a Community Computer Centre

A post from a Peace Corp Volunteer in Togo on his project to setup a community computer centre in collaboration with a local school (read about it here).

The comments on this post are interesting; people sharing their experience of trying to do similar things, worries about sustainability and cost, worries about 'technology evangelism', etc...