Feb 01, 2007

Debating the Digital Divide

by Laura Starita

Good teachers know the best way to reach students is to employ a number of different teaching methods. Within this approach, there is certainly a place for advanced teaching tools, such as computers and learning software, but not at the expense of books and writing implements and, even, a school in which to teach. Given that, there is something a bit precious about two Western men arguing about whose “inexpensive computer for the developing world” initiative is better, which is what Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab and Craig R. Barrett, CEO of Intel did last week in Davos, Switzerland, as reported by the New York Times. Negroponte leads the One Laptop Per Child initiative, whose goal is to distribute laptop computers to children in the developing world. Barrett has a similar initiative on the table, and each man is accused of stymieing the other’s project.

Considering that, according to the United Nations, one in four adults is illiterate and more than 100 million children do not go to school, the debate seems an exercise in missing the point. While the motivations of Barrett and Negroponte are estimable - improving the quality of education that poor children receive and enable them to participate in the digital future - it’s easy to see that other investments in educational quality will bring higher returns. While the official statistics point to a dramatic increase in the number of children in school in the developing world, they do not measure the reality that funding has not followed enrollment. The result is the quality of education is probably declining in most places. That’s before we get to the fact that it is not uncommon for students to struggle through a school day with nothing to eat because their families are too impoverished to feed them more than the evening meal. Within this context of need, it seems a bit beside the point whether Negroponte or Barrett has the better plan for gadgets - that $100 for a laptop could still in most cases be far better spent elsewhere.

New York Times: At Davos, The Squabble Resumes on How to Wire the Third World