Outside the Pagak Peace and Information Centre.

Pagak’s antenna connecting the site to the BOSCO Internet system.

Into the Pagak Information Centre (front room).

Students studying in the middle room. War Child Holland brought in the XOs.

The XOs seem quite durable. Mind you, net books are more versatile and still cheap.

Christopher Okeny (site manager) and Simon Peter Okello (Web 2.0 trainer). Their stories to come on the World Bank’s You Think next week.

Storm building outside the Pagak Centre.

Useful sources on telecenter sustainability. The whole concept best summarized by Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam:

The success lies in embedding ICTs in a holistic approach encompassing a diverse range of development initiatives. The trick is not to emphasise technology but to put people and their needs before technology. Sustainable livelihood approaches need to be people-centred, recognising the capital assets of the poor and the influence of policies and institutions on their livelihood strategies.

A new post on the World Bank’s You Think:

There was a flurry of debate after TMS Ruge‘s speech at the SXSW conference in Austin, Texas, which included fair criticism of the popular One Laptop Per Child initiative. Key to this debate was an issue that I am finding equally as relevant in my new job: technological innovations are not enough in information and communication technology for development (ICT4D). One also needs approaches that effectively teach the use of a computer or the Internet to actually add any value to these innovations.

Continued here.

While on the topic of ICT+, i.e. ICT with added social value, please vote for BOSCO-Uganda‘s entry on Africa Rural Connect: Achieving rural literacy through innovative Web 2.0/ICT use in Northern Uganda!

Having a fun day digesting all the information (and questions) BOSCO-Uganda has to offer. Here are a few shots from yesterday’s field training on GPS mapping and water testing through our Classroom to Classroom initiative. The Lead-Deadwood High School in South Dakota has fundraised for GPS equipment to bring to Uganda. Teachers here are receiving training in how to use this equipment, map water sources on Google Maps, and do some basic testing on water. The point being to engage students in both science and ICT at the same time, while teaching collaborative skills like wikispace use and Google Forums. When teachers train their students, there is the added opportunity of students learning about gathering, analyzing and sorting data.

Project Diaspora skillfully responds to OLPC. Their response makes me think of a discussion we are having at BOSCO (see a reply to PD’s post with some thoughts in the comment section): How to provide more than computer skills and the Internet? How can we engage people to use the Internet, for example, as a tool of learning or economic empowerment?

Let’s call this, for a lack of anything catchy, ICT+. Going beyond the basics of operating a computer to really engaging on the Web and creating content. I constantly refer to the “knowledge of power” concept and the fact that the Internet allows for a distinct reversal of this imbalance. How do we both provide access to the Internet while encouraging users to contribute?

Thus far, BOSCO has used a Web 2.0 training curriculum which is available here. I haven’t been around long enough to know what kind of an impact we are having through this program, but feel free to contact long-term BOSCO staff via myself for an idea of how we do it and what developments we’ve seen thus far.

I posted a link to a book review on “You are Not a Gadget” a couple of weeks ago. There’s more. For once, I think the comment section of the Globe and Mail got it right. Jaron Lanier comes across as an alarmist. The overwhelming good of the Internet and technology in general far outweighs the wrongs (that can probably, with hard work, be righted or better controlled). Boston is rainy and windy.

From the Globe and Mail,

Lanier argues that the Web has created a “hive” mentality that emphasizes the crowd over the individual, and is changing what it means to be a person. “Anonymous blog comments, vapid video pranks, and lightweight mash-ups may seem trivial and harmless, but as a whole this widespread practice of fragmentary, impersonal communications has demeaned interpersonal interaction.” Having grown up digital, “a new generation has come of age with a reduced expectation of what a person can be, and of who each person might become.”

I have recently discovered that I have several readers, but few leave comments. Here’s an appeal. Check out Development Gateway’s software and let me know what you would use it for and whether it is useful in its current form.

An interesting example on how ICT can be integrated into flexible and self-directed education:

In mobile technology, it is often the developing world that leads the way – by using mobile phones to teach people a foreign language, for example.In Bangladesh, more than 1m English lessons have been downloaded to mobile phones as part of the BBC‘s Janala sercvice, the corporation announced today at the World Mobile Conference in Barcelona.

Offering hundreds of three-minute audio lessons and SMS quizzes for less than 4p, Janala – meaning “window” – provides low-cost education through handsets – in a country where English is not as widely spoken as elsewhere in Asia.

The service is very simple: by dialling “3000″, mobile users access classes ranging from “Essential English” to the more advanced “How to tell a story”. The BBC has also set up a website giving learners free access to content.