To anyone attending an ALA conference, viewing the many attendees toting laptops or sporting smartphones and the exhibit hall dominated by high-tech vendors, it’s inescapable how pervasive technology has become in our society; in developing countries, it’s obviously another story. “Technology and the Developing World,” a Saturday-morning program presented by the Library and Information Technology Association, illustrated various approaches to rectifying that situation
Randy Ramusack, U.N. technology coordinator for Microsoft, described the firm’s Partners in Learning initiative, launched in 2003 to help teachers learn how to use technology. Since then the program has reached over 100 million teachers and students in 110 countries, and Ramusack said they hope to boost that to 250 million by 2010.
Microsoft also supports Research4Life, a public-private partnership that gives scientists in developing countries free or low-cost access to information in more than 7,000 journals.
Ramusack also touted other programs in which Microsoft is involved, including the World Database on Protected Areas, an important tool for conservation activities, and a project with the U.N. High Commission on Refugees to use technology to promote education in refugee settlements.
The One Laptop Per Child project is a nonprofit organization that has put over 1 million laptops into the hands of children in developing countries. OLPC developed the XO computer, a low-cost ($188), low-power (3 watts) unit that has been deployed in 20 countries, half of them in Latin America. SJ Klein, OLPC manager of content, said the design goals were to develop a computer that was cheap, robust, easily repairable, and designed for kids, and that would run on free or open source software.
Klein said the XO, which has built-in wireless but no hard drive, provides a means for children to chat, play, read, and publish their ideas. He noted that such empowerment is “both awesome and sometimes scary for teachers.” The children—who are often the only literate members of their families—take the XOs home from school, where they become part of their lives.