World Bank

I think the projector is a very important upgrade from the current non ICT environment to the next level. My take is that the projector serves it purpose best because.. 1. It enables ICT based contents immediately seen by an entire class. It dispense with the need for text books where children's eyes are focused on the screen rather than their books not knowing sometimes where to look for. 2. It saves teachers' time having to draw or write on the blackboard. The pictures are much easier to understand than teachers having to draw or imagine those images etc. 3. Instances where the netbook with load speakers attached to projectors reads out unlimited times and children can follow the lessons better. 1 projector's cost = roughly 2 netbooks.

Projection system to learning is a bit like the picture of bread for a hungry man. How I wish Negroponte had a sense of business as well. He may have partnered with a large corporation to do the job of distributing it and life would have changed for hundreds of children. By asking non-business people to make business decisions he just slowed the whole process. I can tell you about India. Even if all the governments placed the order on OLPC, OLPC will not be able to service them. An order to be converted to what is actionable needs a number of steps to be taken. Where does OLPC have the organization beyond the evangelist Mr Jha to do it in India and some others in other countries. That is hardly anyway to succeed in achieving the audacious goals.

Derek Lomas wrote "I propose that the ICT4D community should reduce its emphasis on the creation of innovative devices and focus more on the creation of effective educational media for existing low-cost devices. Market forces ... not producing quality educational media suitable for education in developing contexts. " I agree wholeheartedly that we should be realistic in our approach, so that we really can be as inclusive as possible. With that in mind I would like to share something from my first experience of running an ICT training course for serving teachers in rural Nigeria. I did three things and thought I was being very realistic - but I was wrong:

I propose that the ICT4D community should reduce its emphasis on the creation of innovative devices and focus more on the creation of effective educational media for existing low-cost devices. Market forces are making computers far more affordable, but are not producing quality educational media suitable for education in developing contexts. This lack of digital educational content is a market flaw that needs to be addressed by public-private funding and academic-commercial partnerships.
Our model: Producing Educational Games for a $10 Computer