Save the world – a laptop at a time

I’m fourth year full-time new media student. I’m am educated, middle-upper class and form part of the 11% of South Africans who have access to the internt. But I don’t have a laptop. This minor detail really disturbed me at the beginning of the year. How am I supposed to become a new media mogul (and nerd) without the required accessories? So for a while I entered a panicked frenzy in a vain hope for a laptop. The woman behind the desk at the IT Department looked at me as if I were a cockroach, “Well, you need to pay R 6,000 upfront.” Pause. “In cash.” Well, that wasn’t going to happen.

So I opted for an external disk. She savoured the tense look of fear on my face before crushing my compromised wish, “It’s R 1,000. Cash.”

So I landed up with a flashstick, which is fast running out of memory because we produce online videos, podcasts, audioslideshows and have a few thousand readings.

The plight of those who seek education in a digitised environment is a challenge. So what happens when the whole world is increasingly digitised? Well, a few of us get left behind. Or a whole continent – like Africa.

Sonaike’s study of the dilemma of Africa’s internet development shows that technology’s ability to transform  lives, while useful, would still prove futile without considering the different limitations of progress in Africa. Sonaike questions the utopian view of advocates who argue that technology could help alleviate social disparities. He writes, “the concern is that the telecommunication revolution may widen existing social gaps, creating two distinct classes of information haves and information have-nots. This concern is far from trivial.”

The money factor simply can’t be ignored, especially on a continent where finding clean water, food and shelter are a struggle for the majority of citizens. These marginalised people miss out on social development and are excluded from socio-economic progress . This disadvantage is most apparent  African schools. In a world where pupils struggle to get textbooks and uniform, is a laptop really a necessity?

 

Phumyeza Mnymana (left) & Chenne Botha from Grahamstown, South Africa, MXitng it up | Photo: Qudsiya Karrim

How can this situation be improved?

The commerce sector has been contributing to social development through the distribution of technology in underpriviledged education institutions. Public-private initiative have proved useful in underdeveloped sectors such as health, education and infrastructure. 

In Grahamstown, a terribly poverty-stricken town where schools have extensive water shortage and infrastructural problems, a company called eKhaya ICTand a US NGO, the Solar Electric Light Fund, opened the first solar powered computer laboratory in the Eastern Cape. “The lab consists of 25 laptop computers, sponsored by Dell South Africa Development Fund, a local video streaming server, Internet access and a wireless network… all powered by solar energy,” reported Grocotts Mail. Project co-ordinators have also provided training and a digital curriculum to teachers. This is just one of several examples that shows the power of a private-public collaboration for digitising Africa. This helps both the pupils and the company establish a humanitarian brand. Often these initiatives are headed and funded by technogiant in the business sector – digital buiness impacting reality.

The MIT institute has established a social development intiative that could revolutionise how children are educated:  “One Laptop per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit association dedicated to research to develop a $100 laptop”. Earlier this year, Mail and Guardian reported that children in Kliptown – which has no libraries or schools – received an educational facelift by OLPC. M&G reports that OLPC has distributed 100 000 laptops to schoolchildren in Uruguat which cost about $100 (R780) to manufacture. “They are the size of a textbook and lighter than a lunchbox. They can operate using different power sources, such as car batteries where electricity is not available; they can also be solar- or foot-powered… The laptops come pre-loaded with educational software, such as South African textbooks and matric set works…”

The $100 laptop could transform the lives of millions of underpriviledged children

Scientists have even been toying around with the idea of mobile education for pupils, using cellphones, iPods, laptops and digital cameras to learn in the classroom. Grocott’s Mailreported that some innovative uses of technology by some South African teachers. For example, Abdullah Sujee taught his students about themes in Cry the Beloved Country “by interviewing anti-apartheid activists using their cellphones and video cameras. The footage was then played in class.” With a little original thinking, the possibilities of using mobile technology to compliment school curriculum could be a reality. At least in some schools.

A scientist gives a lecture on mobile learning during Scifest 2008, Grahamstown | Photo: Qudsiya Karrim

 The initiative is admirable and the project’s benefits are already appreciated by thousands of children around the world and businesses. A potential market gap to be exploited would be dogital text books and class resources, class assignment submission programs and homework assessors. Then we would really have entered a digital education age. But are we looking through rose-tinted glasses?

Left in the dust?

If school was a soccer field and technology the ball, would the playing field be even? One in every few thousand kids in a poverty stricken area gets a laptop. Great. How is this performance compared to the middle and upper class learners for whom a cellphone is a necessity and not having a laptop is unthinkable? How would the Department of Education standardise the  curriculum with such huge disparities in access to technology? How do we ensure that all pupils’ education is standardised, especially without regular class assessments? Or would technology simply allow us to avoid the whole education system and make home-learning preferable.

Mobile and digital learning is certainly progressive and it could be useful, it could not and should not replace and physical (and disciplinary) presence of teachers and principals. Moreover, we should be careful not to allow class and economic inequalities more power over the opportunities for future employment and quality of education. If we consider additional practical issues like the lack of face-to-face interaction with peers, learner self-discipline, and interpersonal social skills, it’s clear we need to step into the digital education future with a little caution.