Linux Handhelds in African Schools

blastard writes "Seems some students will be getting to use their Linux handhelds in school without getting into trouble. BBCNews has a story on fifth-graders in Kenya who will be using "E-slates" from EduVision. The EduVision site is available in German, English and Swahili."

Comments

Multilingual

[tagish]

The EduVision site is available in German, English and Swahili.

No it isn't. Only the English link works. Quality fact checking as ever :)

Wish we had these...

[Tavor]

When I was in Fifth grade, I would have loved having a computer issued to me. Would have greatly furthered my abilities as far as computers go. Of course, there are many problems with this. Textbooks don't run out of batteries, which can be a problem sometimes in rural, third world areas. Think about it, these old textbooks aren't updatable, but they have lasted much longer than these handhelds will likely will. Also, here in the United States we sometimes had more technology in the classroom than our teachers knew what to do with, and that canbe a problem as the students here likely have never seen such devices before. There will be no 'geek-students' to help the teacher, after the Company man leaves. Upgrading from books so soon, when we are still using books in America sounds like a double-edged sword to me.

Re:Wish we had these...

[millwall]

There will be no 'geek-students' to help the teacher, after the Company man leaves.

I dont think you should underestimate children in any part of the world.

Give computers to a group of school kids in Dallas, Tokyo, Africa or anywhere and one or two curious of them will understand the in and outs of them in notime.

Re:Wish we had these...

[fireboy1919]

They get dropped and stepped on once, and the screen breaks.

They fall out of a window, and the screen breaks.

A can of food falls on one, and the screen breaks.

They fall of a desk and hit a sharp object (like, for instance, a pencil poking out of a bookbag), and the screen breaks.

They either need to not use touch screens and use a very thick pane of plastic (this won't work with touch screens, and if you can't figure out why I'm not going to explain it), or they need to get the screens for cheap and be capable of swapping them out for cheap.

I don't think that cheap parts are beyond the realm of feasability, though. A lot of the price of current electronics is in the percieved price. There's not a great reason why a $500 electronic device is more expensive than a $100 device. It's all based on what the market can bear, and in this case, it can obviously bear very little.

Re:Wish we had these...

[aussie_a]

Give computers to a group of school kids in Dallas, Tokyo, Africa or anywhere and one or two curious of them will understand the in and outs of them in notime.

But give them a spell-checker and they'll still be wondering how to use it after 14 years.

Re:Wish we had these...

[staeiou]

That's a pretty ignorant assumption you have about Africa. The African continent isn't one huge block of savage rural territory ruled by roving tribes. That would be like saying that everyone in Texas rides a horse to work; it might have been true two hundred years ago, but don't base your assumptions on what happened then. Lagos, Nigeria, has a population of over 8 million, which places it above New York City. There are countless other examples of cities that have not just running water and electricity, but just as many luxuries as some American cities. I'm not going to list population statistics (you can look it up yourself), but Africa isn't one huge rural area.

And what do you mean "there will be no geek-students?" Are you saying that most children in Africa are stupider than Americans? And don't say it has to do with the amount of technology you grew up with; fiddling with tech devices has to do with how intuitive and creative you are. Are you saying that African children don't have this?

Most people have this horrific view of Africa from what they see on TV commericals like "Save the Children" and whatnot. They try and paint a horrible, savage view of Africa so that people will donate money to their cause. Yes, there are bad things happening in Africa, but that doesn't mean the entire continent is savage.
I hate it when people think that Africa is a mass of uncivilization, and there is no infrastructure except what the west has so graciously given. Yes, Africa is generally poorer than most continents, but that doesn't mean that all Africans are: a) stupid, b) poor, c)needy of the West's help

Seems solid

[Seculus]

This seems like a thoroughly good idea. It would enable the schools to have up to date textbooks without the need to buy a new set of books every time the author decides to release an update. Enterprising students should also find something in there to peak their interest - I know I would have loved to have one of these babies when I was that age !

Re:Seems solid

[oirtemed]

That, or you could realize that texbooks rarely actually "go out of date", and any updates are usually drivel only intended to produce a new version to sell. I have a feeling this about a lot more thant having an alternative to books. They could easily be recycling out-of-use, landfill bound books from other countries if that were the case. It seems they are more interested in exposing kids to technology and its intrinsic benefits.

This will be great

[commodoresloat]

for children in some countries who want to make contacts in the US to help them smuggle millions of dollars out of their war-torn country

Hard to see it working well in practice

[NerdConspiracy]

Nice idea in theory but oh so many problems in practice.

The main one is the complexity of the system. I can't imagine primary schools in rural areas in Kenya (or for that matter here in US) having the expertise to fix the problems that will surely arise sooner or later.

If the main goal is to give students access to the textbooks, why not simply preload the relevant ones on the handhelds and give them out to the schools, and do away with the whole satellite -> base station -> wireless network -> handheld business.

At what intervals do the textbooks need to be updated/replaced anyway? Probably less that the average lifetime of the handheld computer in the hands of a 10 year old.

Re:Hard to see it working well in practice

[R.Caley]

Paper/similar materials has been working, oh, for a few THOSAND of year!

Also has a much better user interface, hence the, er, remarkable sucess of electronic book systems in the developed world. Also books are an environmental win, while any electronic system will be an environmental loss.

OTOH, paper has a shorter lifetime in the hands of a 10 year old than a ruggedised electronic gadget should, so it's not obvious this is a silly idea. It will depend on the costs.

These are clearly based on the old Zarus models, so the development and tooling costs to make them were presumably nil plus the ruggedisation. The networking infrastructure is now mass produced and probably relativly cheap.

So it will come down to the expected costs of supplying up to date text books in all subjects, year on year over the lifetime of the hardware.

It probably replaces some writing materials and testing/exam infrastructure too.

On the whole though I suspect they'd be better off using the money to pay the teachers more, and maybe paying the parents of older kids to allow them to stay longer in school when they could be working.

/me smacks forehead

[tomstdenis]

bah, waste of time and energy.

I made it through elementary with an apple ][ in the corner of the class. Hell, we weren't allowed to have calculators until trig [e.g. high school or for science classes]. We had to "use our minds" ....You know what "educates" students very well? Interesting and educated teachers.

I [and I'm sure everyone else] has had a teacher at a time that was totally ineffective of getting the lesson plan delivered. No amount of "e-technology" would "e-help" the students "e-absorb" information that they don't "e-want".

Sure having access to computers is good but giving each student their own personal "e-slate" is just stupid. Specially given that the economic state there doesn't support it.

Tom

Re:/me smacks forehead

[TrappedByMyself]

So you propose solving all the big problems first? Solve world hunger before you teach little Jimmy to read?

You're sterotyping the region. Kenya is not Congo or the Sudan. All of Africa is not covered with warmongering natives eating each other's hearts. Do they have the infrastructure of the US? No. But you're argument is like saying that a school in rural Idaho cannot get computers because there are poor people in Mexico. Only fat kids in Western nations can use computers? Or are you just afraid of more outsourcing as yet another part of the world becomes tech savvy?

15 million books!!!!

[NerdConspiracy]

Pardon me while I fall off my chair laughing. Project guttenberg and the like have been "computerizing" public domain books for years and they are up to what, 10,000 or so. Where is this great magical library of 15 million ebooks?

Kenya != whole of africa

[Anonymous Coward]

Why is it that everytime someone mentions something on slashdot which happens in an african country (Kenya in this case) the post has to mention "Africa" as if it is one country.

Kenya != whole of africa

I live in an "African" country and this seems rediculous to me.

Consider a couple of examples:

If the story is about Americans college students you don't have a title:
Students in North America...

Similarly for a story about something in China or Germany you don't title the story:
Scietists in Asia discover x
or
Scientists in Europe discover y

You you title it:
Scientists in China discover x
and
Scientist in Germany discover y.

The other thing that bugs me is that posters talk as if everyone from "Africa" is mentally handicapped or something.

Change the title to : LINUX handhelds in KENYAN schools!

What about Wikipedia?

[RyoSaeba]

They mention Google digitized books, but they could also grab content from http://www.wikipedia.org/ - after all, that's what GFDL is for!
Ok, some will argue quality / neutrality / completeness isn't guaranteed on all articles - i'll say it's better'an nothing [and biaises exist in every material / textbook]

Not so sure about that....

[The Mutant]

I'm EMEA (Europe, The Middle East and Africa) Manager for a multinational financial services institution. Either myself or someone from my team spend a lot of time on client site at banks in Africa, so we've got some insight.

We take a lot for granted in the developed world. Even at the better run banks in Africa things we could do in less than a day take two or more.

Part of the problem is infrastructure : for example, the power in Lagos goes out constantly. Even the banks with UPS' get caught out sometimes.

Part of it is education : the skills just aren't as widely available as compared to the developed countries. Lot's of times it's the blind helping the blind. Yep, they muddle through but it takes far longer.

The OP had more insight into this problem : after the Company Man leaves there definitely will be loads of these devices that are unusable. Efforts of the curious children asdie, we see it all the time in the banks - why would it be different in the remote villages?

Oh and I'm not knocking these folks; they're just doing the best they can and I actually enjoy going down there to help them, but things are a lot different in Africa.

In case you're curious I've got few pix from my last visit/a :

Am I getting old...

[crypty]

Its amazing how far things are getting at this stage... My hats off to the fine people who are out to make this sort of education possible for kids around the world. Its just a tad scarey that in my day we only had home made paint and a cave wall... although there was that posh kid with his abacus.