I'm late in talking about the new $20 Sakshat laptop, but I wanted to mention two issues that seem to have been overlooked in the euphoria over what some are calling a "revolution in education" (and the initial scepticism): The political economy of distribution; and the effectiveness of using laptops in education to begin with.
While the idea of producing a laptop is great for general access to computing in India and across the developing world, providing these laptops through public channels creates issues of its own. We're struggling to identify the best way to deliver wages for work completed through the NREG, do we expect these "irregularities" to disappear when we are disbursing laptops? The "how" of implementation is just as important as the "what."
Regardless of distribution issues, our main concern should be whether computers in the classroom actually improve educational outcomes and learning. The evidence so far is unbelievably ambiguous (The good news, the bad, and worse [all PDFs]). Before throwing money into scaling up what is admittedly a very exciting development, maybe we should be sure whether the idea works?
2 comments:
I don't think the Rs 500/- laptop is a laptop, it appears to be a box with wires that plugs into a laptop.
However, the main issue is - can laptops help education? Our literacy program - Tara Akshar - has taught 50,000 women to read and write in the last two years in 300+ rural centres. It combines software on a laptop with special playing cards and posters and reading and writing books.
The project worked because we had BOTH great software AND we used military discipline to ensure all the courses were run correctly and the laptops were not misused. Without the supervision, reporting and accountability, the project would not have worked.
Victor
www.ReadingWise.net
www.TaraAkshar.com
New Delhi
Online Masters Degree
I'm not sure where many of the theoreticians were while developing their online learning theories. In their world adults are always motivated learners. I'm not unusual but I can easily point to training sessions where learners did not come motivated. In fact, changing learner attitudes was what the first part of the training attempt………….
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