LEARNING FOR ALL WITH ICT

Raoul Weiler 02.10.2007

The Millennium Declaration Goals (MDGs) of the United Nations agreed upon in 2000 states that for 2015 primary education for all children should be implemented. This is a noble intention but almost impossible to attain. However, without a generalized learning frame, it will be difficult to elevate the well being of the majority of humans and their societies and communities on earth in a foreseeable future.

The numbers speak for themselves: half of humankind lives in poverty and about the same amount had barely the opportunity to go to school for learning to write and calculate. This situation is known for decades if not monger, but on a large scale nearly something has been accomplished to change.

Where are we going to, is an immense question? More literacy will be required for all populations on earth, individuals will increasingly be in contact with technology in their daily lives, the information and knowledge frames are inescapable for all.

Providing teaching material to children and adequate infrastructure of schools is for many countries already a burden, not to mention the availability of teachers to keep moving the process of learning. With the perspective of fast increasing population worldwide in the next fifty years and thereafter, the problem gets a dimension never experienced before

The question arises if technology can help in this huge process of bridging the technological divide, the knowledge divide, the digital divide.

Yes, there is really a chance that technology can help substantially in the reduction of these divides. In fact we have to deal with a vicious circle: in order to learn one has to know already something. ICT in schools or outside them can accelerate this process

Recent technological initiatives and the systematic decreasing equipment costs -PCs and laptops-designed for education purposes, announce a new era.

The OLPC project. The so called  “One Laptop Per Child” or the $100 laptop  is the most promising example of innovation of technology for education. It is a totally new approach in education or better learning.

The concept consists in providing a dedicated laptop -smaller in size but enough for teaching- to each pupil of a class or a school. The laptop replaces the schoolbooks and the schoolbag. The laptop allows to communicate -via a meshed network- among the members of the class, it can be taken home for further use and learning. Besides local communication, it can be connected with the Internet, provided that the connectivity is possible -wired or wireless via satellite- and that communication costs are 'acceptable'. The OPLC laptops are not for sale, they are bought by the governments or institutions and distributed to the schools. It is a non-for profit business model .

Commercial available technology. The technology innovation will decrease the cost price each time the number increases substantially: the numbers are in the millions, comparable with the cell phones world wide. Finally, these low-cost are now available on a commercial basis.

The world wide digital divide, which was seen as a major topic at the World Summit of the Information Society (WSIS) in Geneva and Tunis, and regarded as extremely difficult to overcome due to the very high investment costs, is getting new perspectives with the avenue of low-cost solutions.

Low-cost devices for satellite communication are now also available, opening the access to anyone in remote and rural areas.

Remains the major issue of didactic content. The transfer of existing schoolbooks on a computer shows little added value, much more can be done and should be done. Seymour Papert of MIT has worked on this issue for decades, and Mrs. Clotilde Fonseca of Costa Rica has proven since about twenty years that the PCs in schools have a substantial impact on the learning process of youngsters.

To create new didactic teaching content, adapted to technology, will take a lot of time -perhaps twenty years or more- but it must be done.

The school system has to adapt itself to the internal evolution of society.

Indeed, the information and learning environment at home with PC infrastructure in many cases and at school must converge, if not a two-speed society will sustain and the divides will increase, certainly at the societal level -social economic, cultural.

Considerable effort will have to be done by   governments and official institutions, like UNESCO, Universities and NGOs as well, in order to provide new didactic material.

As an example Spain has accomplished a big effort in this respect since many years and is ready for further steps by introducing PCs or Laptops at a large scale in school system. In the UK and France the use of interactive 'blackboards' called 'interactive whiteboards' is successfully accepted by teachers and classes.

Why all these education and learning efforts

Equity and dignity of all human beings can only be achieved with access to learning. EFA of UNESCO is the right answer. With the advent of the information and knowledge societies, the necessity for a generalized effort in ICT-based education is the right strategy for all people ..