
Quocirca's Straight Talking: Lead not lecture
Published: 7 February 2008 12:30 GMT
How do you give underprivileged children around the world access to technology? New initiatives from an unexpected source let students and educators define their own needs, says Clive Longbottom.
According to some, the use of open source software in global education is the key to many problems because it removes the issue of cost.
Yet for those living in areas where the average income is less than $1 a day or where there are specific needs for certain skills or resources, open source licensing fails to address the issue of hardware costs - nor can it ensure that good educators or content are available.
Now an unexpected advocate has come to the fore, in the shape of Microsoft.
Under its Unlimited Potential programme, aimed at providing access to technology to as many people as possible, the Partners in Learning initiative has components that aim to provide a thought-through approach to providing more than just technology to those in underserved environments.
New exclusive:
The Naked CIO
It's time to wage war on home 'workers'![]()
By underserved environment, Microsoft is not just looking at the usual targets of the emerging and third-world markets.
The company is also targeting those environments within the more mature markets where technology has still not made a great impact, such as many of the less well-off rural and inner-city primary and secondary schools. For example, schools in Kilkenny in Ireland, Aragon in Spain and Los Angeles in the US have benefited from the scheme.
But for these schools the innovation relates to how standard syllabus education has been provided, whereas the needs in areas such as sub-Saharan Africa, many South American countries and the burgeoning markets of China, India and through other Asiatic nations are less easily defined.
Here, many children do not attend school at all. Of those who do, many will need to be earning money for their family by the age of 12 or so - indeed, many will be the sole breadwinner and head of the household by that age.
Here, standard kindergarten to age 12 education against a maths, language and reading syllabus may not be the right approach - a new way of dealing with the various problems is required.
If we look at the different issues that such an environment faces, we can see how Microsoft's Partners in Learning attempts to address them:
Obviously, Microsoft is not just being altruistic here - the market it is playing for is the five billion or so people who do not have access to technology and who may at some stage become a worker in a more commercial environment.
Microsoft wants these people to be well versed in its own products, rather than open source, and Partners in Learning is one step towards this. But Microsoft is also learning that arrogance may not win the day, and is being more inclusive than we have previously seen.
The software giant accepts that the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), Intel's Classmate PC and Asus' eeePC will all have a place to play in the market, and sees these as access points to centralised content provided on Microsoft-based systems, or even as means of providing content generated by the use of Microsoft tools direct to the student.
Overall, Microsoft's Partners in Learning initiative provides a well thought out and fully provisioned approach to many of the problems in providing tools and content to the underserved communities around the planet.
That we can all become involved through donating our old PCs to the cause means we can be WEEE-compliant and gain the feel-good factor of helping others.
Meanwhile, those who wish to help lead students to a better life, rather than force-feed them with a curriculum that matches our perceived needs, can see how Partners in Learning provides a guided platform for students and educators to define their own needs.
It uses this approach rather than a pre- or proscriptive educational programme that does not prepare them for maximising their potential in their own life, and in their own environment.
A leading user-facing analyst house known for its focus on the big picture, Quocirca is made up of a team of experts in technology and its business implications. The team includes Clive Longbottom, Bob Tarzey, Rob Bamforth, Dennis Szubert, Louella Fernandes and Fran Howarth. Their series of columns for silicon.com seeks to demystify the latest jargon and business thinking. For a full summary of the consultancy's activities, see www.quocirca.com.
Working in the marketing department will provide this person with a solid grasp of digital marketing, across multiple disciplines: -Online ...
The right candidate will be paid a handsome basic and an incredible earning potential. You will be supplied fifty percent of your leads by a ...
s student and staff web portal using the Moodle Virtual Learning Environment. You should be able to work on your own initiative, often to targets and ...
Agenda Setters 2009
Welcome to the ninth annual Agenda Setters poll – silicon.com's list of the top 50 most influential individuals in the technology and IT industries, from techies and CIOs to entrepreneurs and business leaders. Find out more in our latest special report.
Data Protection Strategies: Deduplication for More Efficient Backups
Dell PowerVault DL2100 Powered by CommVault - Spec Sheet
True Convergence Demands a Communication Service Provider that Embraces a Customer-Centric...
Learn how Performance Metrics for Telcomm Expense Management Drive new ROIs and SLAs
Stories from the web...
Copyright © 2008 CBS Interactive Limited. All rights reserved. Top of page
Tim Ferguson How CIOs can achieve post-recession success Q&A: McKinsey & Company on living in the 'new normal' business world
Richard Leyland Does your business really need an office? Future Company: Banishing physical workplace brings perils as well as perks