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The use of information technology to transform impoverished communities in developing countries has inspired philanthropic projects around the world, now collectively referred by the ungainly appellation ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development). A former Microsoft researcher who spent years trying to implement dozens of what he now calls "geek intervention" projects in Bangalore, India, as founder and head of a research lab there, cautions that making these projects work is a lot harder than its backers think. Kentaro Toyama has just published the book Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology recounting his experiences, and gave a remarkably pithy interview to MIT Technology Review discussing his findings. On developing world medical clinics:
If you go to a typical rural clinic, it's not the kind of place that anybody from the United States would think of as a decent place to get health care. Bringing along a laptop, connecting it to wireless, and providing Internet so you can do telemedicine is just an incredibly thin cover. It's a thin, superficial change.
The interviewer mentioned One Laptop Per Child, a former flagship of Internet-era IT philanthropy that appears to be winding down. Statistical studies showed no measurable differences in academic achievement between those given laptops relative to the control group, says Toyama. But what about the intangible side; the delight and fascination social workers see in the faces of kids in developing countries when technological gadgets are put into their hands?
Toyama:
The reality is, that joy is the same joy that you see when you peek over the shoulder of a kid who has a smartphone in their hands in the developed world, which is to say they're overjoyed because they're playing Angry Birds.
Did his lab have any successes? Yes, Toyama provides an example of a program that delivered video training to villagers on improved agricultural practices, presented by peers. But the success of that program depended on human facilitators who made sure the villagers discussed the program and asked questions; otherwise the exercise would have been "just like watching TV", which Toyama says is not effective in changing farmers' habits.
Another Toyama interview that appeared in the Seattle Times broaches the sensitive subject of Toyama's opinion of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the heavyweight in the ICT4D field. Of course, Gates was Toyama's big boss at Microsoft.
Toyama, now an associate professor at the University of Michigan's School of Information, maintains a blog on ICT4D.
Original Submission
(Score: 4, Insightful) by pnkwarhall on Tuesday June 02 2015, @10:59PM
If you think that "kids being happy to play games" is a problem, then **you** have a problem--a very distorted and backwards value system. Games are one of the most significant ways that children learn! More importantly, the last thing I want, as a parent, is my children worrying about "getting a payable skill set". In the interview from TFA, Mr. Toyama mentions that, in his opinion, the most important foundation of successful education was **motivation**. I can't imagine a more horrible world than one where children's primary motivation is a paycheck. Instead, I want to help my children follow their own individual, natural, and genuine motivations.
Following a paycheck, w/r/t gaining knowledge and skills, has never led me in any direction I wanted to go.
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(Score: 3, Interesting) by frojack on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:32PM
It still didn't translate to any improved learning. Or are you against learning as well?
Statistical studies showed no measurable differences in academic achievement between those given laptops relative to the control group, says Toyama.
One of the most influential gifts I got as a kid (50s and 60s) was a monthly subscription to a hard cover science book. Each issue on a different topic, dinosaurs, then microorganisms, how to build a water drop microscope, rockets, ants, trains, mines. They were dog eared within a week, I'd wait under the mailbox for the mailman, I'd sit right down and read it cover to cover, go in the house and read it again, then I'd read it to my dad. Best Present Ever.
That set of books were the internet of my youth. I took them fishing FCS.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 2) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday June 02 2015, @11:45PM
I think the concern is that playing Flappy/Angry Bird(s) isn't really contributing even to motivation. At least, I'm having trouble imagining what Angry Birds would help the kids with beyond what they can already observe in the real world. I'm sure they already understand that objects in freefall follow a parabolic path… or do they? At any rate, it's not going to help them probe the depths of conical sections.
To be honest, I'm not certain what the answer is, but I think we have ample evidence over here in the 1st world that throwing electronics at kids doesn't improve outcomes. Initiatives like Engineers without Borders seem more promising.
One of the things that comes up often is government corruption and corruption in general, which we've also heard a lot about as far as India is concerned. Now don't get me wrong; I'm thinking India has a bright future ahead.
I do see your points about following a paycheck. It seems there has to be some kind of prevailing cultural value or virtue yearning towards education as an end unto itself to defeat corruption and ensure liberty. Following a paycheck leads to corruption (and to anger, fear, the dark side, yada yada). Whatever the nature of that value is ephemeral. I suppose I could engage in armchair pontification about how protestant “bootcamps” (as Sagan called them) in the 16th century and the reformation in general lead to valuing education by the 19th century, but then I'd need to stare down the possible ulterior motives of Horace Mann.
Really the only group I know to have remained ideologically pure over 3,000 years of history are the Chinese Amazons, given that philosophy, ethics, and maths are some of the first subjects they teach to their children, even before combat techniques. I suppose what it boils down to is that the parents have to value education as an end and not a means and take steps to make that end, or rather life-long journey, happen.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:41PM
It seems there has to be some kind of prevailing cultural value or virtue yearning towards education as an end unto itself.
FTFY. Education is the growth of consciousness, which can be used towards many value systems. (I also just wanted to repeat your insightful statement for emphasis in the thread :)
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 03 2015, @12:38PM
That's currently adults' primary motivation. If wages and employment keep decreasing expect children, in addition to both parents needing to work today, to have to work just to keep their family fed and sheltered.
(Score: 2) by pnkwarhall on Wednesday June 03 2015, @10:43PM
I can't imagine a more horrible world than one where children's primary motivation is a paycheck.
That's currently adults' primary motivation.
Speak for yourself.
Lift Yr Skinny Fists Like Antennas to Heaven