ebook readers (Kindles) in African education

[fjtorres]

This was a *Pilot* program, folks.
A *test* to see what works and what doesn't.
Instead of taking the word of an MIT pundit and mobilizing millions of dollars and hordes of people on a promise, they chose to run an experiment and get some actual factual data.
Now, they know what to look for in the next phase of developing something that actually works.

Setting up a catapult to hit the dragon with bags of gold isn't the only approach to problem solving.
(With apologies to IBM.)

[VaporPunk]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

This was a *Pilot* program, folks.
A *test* to see what works and what doesn't.
Instead of taking the word of an MIT pundit and mobilizing millions of dollars and hordes of people on a promise, they chose to run an experiment and get some actual factual data.
Now, they know what to look for in the next phase of developing something that actually works.

Setting up a catapult to hit the dragon with bags of gold isn't the only approach to problem solving.
(With apologies to IBM.)

Exactly. If this all leads to an inexpensive, durable ereader that can save governments and students in developing countries money and increase literacy, what's the problem? If it doesn't its still better than doing nothing.

[Keloff]

A few years ago, someone knocked at my door and asked for my help. He held up a paper and explained that his daughter had a homework assignment to do. The assignment paper was a photocopy from their only textbook. He was wondering if I could get him "the information". About 20 minutes later, I had a stack of print-outs from an internet café. Had this man known how to do it himself, he could have easily helped his kid.

This disparity in access to information that you see even in a strong African economy is heart-breaking. Anything that can be done to help alleviate this issue - whether it's teaching information literacy skills or increasing access to information in whichever form - gives me hope.

Originally Posted by CommonReader

You are right. We were talking about Africa here, though, not about some settlements on the Arctic circle. I suppose that villages that are so remote usually do not have good internet connectivity and local electricity production.

Yes, I was thinking of places outside of Africa. On the other hand, these places are hardly Arctic settlements. There are many places that are incredibly poor because they are cut off from the world: tropical islands (by water), mountain villages (by terrain), arctic settlements (by distance), or forest towns (by flora). Then there are issues created by people, which make it difficult/expensive to get goods to remote towns. Cram a library including thousands of books onto a microSD card, i.e. something tiny an incredibly easy to conceal, and the criminal element is none the wiser.

[ScotiaBurrell]

Originally Posted by VaporPunk

Exactly. If this all leads to an inexpensive, durable ereader that can save governments and students in developing countries money and increase literacy, what's the problem?

all have own ideas about how best help less advanteged. when success comes but not done their way -- is illegimate.

thats why

[fjtorres]

One thing that the ongoing open textbook efforts open up is the possibility of loading up a reader with an entire K-12 curriculuum *and* supporting reference materials. (Say, the Kids Wikipedia.) Paired with proper teacher training you could save a *lot* of money in materials and in transport costs, if nothing else.
And they could be updated every year or two even with limited connectivity: mail a DVD or two and let the teachers reload the flash memory with updated content.
We're probably about two years from ruggedized eink readers but that time can be used prepping the content and the training efforts so we might see large scale deployments as early as 2015.

[wizwor]

I think coupling recycled kindles/nooks with solar power sources would be a great way to benefit less advantaged communities while relieving strain on our landfills.

These could be preloaded with appropriate content and distributed via existing networks of missions and NGOs.

I see no downside.

Originally Posted by wizwor

I think coupling recycled kindles/nooks with solar power sources would be a great way to benefit less advantaged communities while relieving strain on our landfills.

I have nothing against donated goods, but I have to wonder if the people understand how communities are impacted by such donations.

On the hardware front, they are going to receive random equipment with very little time to plan how it is going to be distributed and how it is going to be used.

The situation is even worse for books. I had to deal with book donations before. The books were offered gratis to community members, yet barely any of them were taken. Simply put, people donated these books because they didn't want to read them (they were old and/or poorly written) or because the donor had some ideological objective in mind.

[wizwor]

i agree -- most donated goods are sold or landfilled anyway. less so with computers. i used to play with this guy who repaired computers that were shipped to africa. they went to missions that deployed them in schools then supported the deployments. my understanding is that this was very successful.

distributing kindles with bibles, classic literature, and educational materials is a great way to impart values. once the reach of the devices reach critical mass, someone will surely figure out how to deliver news and entertainment.

i particularly like the eink reader as a platform due to the imminent crush of supply, their durability, and the user friendly learning curve.

it's worth piloting.

[BigJack]

quote: The place is too remote to deliver books by truck or by ship, yet they have internet connectivity, a network and electricity to charge the readers? Seriously? Unquote

Well............... what about Juneo, Alaska which doesn't have a single road connecting it to the "outside world" ... but it functions just fine as a state capital, it has electricity, Internet, and much more

[CommonReader]

Originally Posted by BigJack

quote: The place is too remote to deliver books by truck or by ship, yet they have internet connectivity, a network and electricity to charge the readers? Seriously? Unquote

Well............... what about Juneo, Alaska which doesn't have a single road connecting it to the "outside world" ... but it functions just fine as a state capital, it has electricity, Internet, and much more

Eh, Juneau, Alaska? Have never been there myself but this looks like a very substantial port to me:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Cr...eau_Alaska.jpg
I suppose that stuff is usually delivered there by ship? Isn't exactly in Africa, either.

[gari189]

Quite a "rose-tinted" article. It regards a 40% breakdown rate as a "minor setback".....

Makes good headlines and I'm sure the kids loved them (whilst they worked) but I'm sure its not the most effective way to spend money.

In that case, I suppose the most cost effective thing to do would be to airlift in some 1980s vintage textbooks that are written for a culture and in a language that they don't even understand.

In contrast to the ideologically loaded, feel-good aid offered by many charitable organizations, these projects are conducting research to tell us what is effective and gives the recipients more control over their future.

On effectiveness: we see a quantifiable increase in literacy rates over existing conditions. We also see faults (e.g. broken units) but those faults show us what needs to be fixed (e.g. more screen protection).

On giving the recipients more control over education: the OLPC project demonstrates that nations are willing to develop educational resources that reflect their language, culture, and social needs. But that is only because the XO makes it easy to distribute those resources. Print, not so easy.

[fjtorres]

The glass substrate ereaders they used were fragile.
Doesn't mean *all* ereders will *always* be fragile.
Things change, you know:

http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...rs/#more-33390

The future isn't just the past with a new calendar.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by CommonReader

With a breakage rate of over 40% the school would have to spend almost 25,000 US$ p.a. just to maintain the current equipment level. Without continuous external funding the project would therefore basically be dead after just two years. Can you imagine what their school library would look like if they could spend that sort of money on conventional books for a couple of years?

Originally Posted by carpetmojo

What is much more relevant is the 40+% breakage/breakdown figure - that's 240 out of 600 didn't last the year.

Exactly! Until ereaders with non-breakable screens are readily available, it's a shameful waste of limited resources to place ereaders into the hands of school children.

Kindles break too easily. Worldreader had not predicted how many Kindles would break: 243 out of 600, or 40.5 percent. Each time an e-reader broke, Worldreader sent it back to Amazon to conduct “a post-mortem analysis.” Turns out “fragile screens are the main weakness” and Amazon is working on Kindles with reinforced screens (at the same cost), which started shipping to Ghana in October 2011. Plus Worldreader is providing more rugged cases for the Kindles and providing more instruction on how to use them (don’t sit on it, for instance).