Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID) 06: Part 2
Well I figured out how GAID, should be pronounced: same as “Guide”.
Day 2, went…alright. The day essentially consisted of four workshops on Health, Education, Entrepreneurship, and Intersectoral governance. Since some of these workshops overlapped I could only attend 2: Education and Entrepreneurship.
Education:
There were four presentatons on education and ICT. One presentation crashed PowerPoint twice (probably one of the highlights of the day). The four people discussed how ICT was being used to increase education in their respective regions.
One of the presentations was on Malaysia’s SmartSchool, which judging from the presentation seems to be doing well. Interesting enough is that their pilot project involves 87 schools and one of the 9MP goals is to expand it to all 1500 schools. I think this would be nice, but could it effectively be achieved? I personally think jumping from 87 to 1500 is too much, and should perhaps be reduced significantly to approximately around 200-500.
A problem noted was that there were no course materials available, and they had to produce some. Interesting they noted that these materials were being used by other countries as well. I wonder if they are available to non-smart schools in Malaysia, and what license they are under.
The third presentation was on DOT ( Digital Opportunity Trust) and how they are approaching educating people in Jordan. Basically a “train the trainers” approach, where one person would train others, who would train others, and hope for a multiplier effect.
The last presentation was about ICT in Namibia, and the differences and difficulties faced there. How the government is working with the telecoms in helping to deliver another Internet pipe dedicated solely for educational purposes.
After the presentation I got to talk to Lee Thorn, form the Jhai Foundation, very nice guy.
Entrepreneurship:
Didn’t pay much attention. Sorr’s people, though the panelists did have some good stories about how ICT and entrepreneurs are helping out people.
Conclusion:
This blog post may seem a bit little, and lack details, but don’t worry there wasn’t anything important to report about.
The workshops didn’t involve much discussion between the audience and the panelists. It mainly rotated around the audience asking the panelists questions, or making comments or suggestions.
By the end of this I wasn’t sure what GAID was supposed to achieve, what exactly was achieved during the past two days, and what was the goal of this whole event? Personally it felt just the same as AsiaOSS.
The event sounded alot like “ICT is the one end solution to all things: education, poverty, drugs”. Reminds me a part in 1984 by George Orwell:
“…as early as the beginning of the twentieth century, human equality had become technically possible. It was still true that men were not equal in their native talents and that functions had to be specialized inways that favored some individuals against others; but there was no longer any real need for class distinctions or for large differences of weatlh. In earlier ages, class distinctions had been not only inevitable but desirable. Inequality was the price of civilization. With the development of machine production, however, the case was altered. Even if it was still necessary for human beings to do different kinds of work, it was no longer necessary for them to live at different social or economic levels.”
Maybe you need to read 1984 to understand it. Though Orwell didn’t exactly say that technology is the solution to everything, he did say it was possible to achieve human equality because of technology. I think the quote taken from Chris Dede about ICT at the end of the education workshop summed the idea nicely ICT.
“computers are less like fire and more like clothes–they make you warm when they fit well.”
My opinion summed up in one line:
GAID needs a GUIDE
One popular question that was asked to me:
Are you an amercianized indian?
shucks
Better yet phrased by Gandhi:
Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not any man’s greed.
