Reinventing the Classroom

In 2005, Nicholas Negroponte of MIT Labs demonstrated a prototype of a low-cost computer aimed at poor children in developing countries at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). This initiative evolved into the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) programme with the vision of providing every school child in a developing country with their own computer. The “XO" laptop developed by OLPC is specifically made for primary school students in developing nations including local language support and a rugged design with no movable parts and designed for the extreme environmental conditions in many rural regions such as high heat and humidity.[1]

XO laptops have been deployed in over two dozen developing nations. Around 400,000 of these are in Uruguay, the first country in the world to supply all primary school children with their own laptop in 2009, a feat it accomplished in three years. [2] The Government of Uruguay has been strongly supportive of the OLPC program as a way to democratize ICTs, to spread them from privileged urban elites by to less advantaged areas by providing rural children—and hence indirectly their parents as well—with a computer. It notes that: “What was a privilege in 2006 is a right in 2009.” [3] An egalitarian laptop distribution policy was adopted, starting with rural schools before eventually providing them to students in the capital Montevideo. [4] One of the goals of the Uruguayan plan was to boost overall household computer ownership by leveraging the students taking the laptops home after school. This has resulted in 220,000 new homes with computers including 110,000 in the lowest income families.

The Inter-American Development Bank organized a seminar to discuss the Uruguayan program as well as other initiatives in the region. "Reinventing the Classroom: Social and Educational Impact of Information and Communications Technologies in Education" had around one hundred participants from governments, academia, inter-governmental organizations, NGOs and the private sector including the president of Uruguay, Tabaré Vázquez and Nicholas Negroponte (who graciously autographed my old copy of Being Digital).

[1] http://laptop.org/en/laptop/hardware/index.shtml

[2] Technically, the Pacific Island nation of Niue, with a population of around 1,500, claims to be the first to have provided laptops to all school children. See: “Niue becomes first country with one laptop computer per child.” Xinhua. 21 August 2008. http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/22/content_9605171.htm

[3] Miguel Brechner. “Plan Ceibal: One Laptop per Child and per Teacher.” Presented at Reinventing the Classroom, Inter-American Development Bank, Washington D.C. September 15, 2009. http://events.iadb.org/calendar/eventDetail.aspx?lang=en&id=1444&

[4] “Education in Uruguay: Laptops for All.” The Economist. 1 October 2009.

Are New Technologies Fulfilling Their Promise for Latin America?

Guest comment in Latin America Advisor:

“Mobile phone penetration has increased rapidly in Latin America from just over one for ten people in 2000, to seven for ten people in 2007. This has helped universalize access to voice services, playing a crucial role in increasing teledensity. However, as existing regulatory frameworks are being updated to take into account technology and market developments, emphasis in providing universal access to voice services will be shifting towards universalizing broadband access. High-speed access has a greater potential to impact business, health and education. It allows businesses to go online to engage in ecommerce, can support telemedicine and other health applications and provides students with faster access to the vast amount of information on the web. Countries such as Brazil are currently proposing this paradigm shift, with third generation (3G) mobile networks being considered instrumental in this task. 3G networks are capable of high-speeds comparable to fixed broadband such as ADSL and cable modem. In relation to other regions, Latin America has lagged in the availability of broadband mobile services. However, there has been an increase of 3G launches in the region. Millicom announced recently that 3G would be available on all of its regional networks before the end of 2008. Brazil auctioned 3G frequencies in December 2007. America Movil has launched 3G in over a dozen markets since 2007. If priced competitively, mobile broadband can increase competition for high-speed access, making it more affordable for homes and businesses. As more users get broadband access, this will have an impact on the business, health and education sectors.”