The Village Computer?

Nicholas Negroponte (see below) is not the only one intent on bringing computers to the third world. An Indian IT businessman, Sugata Mitra, has already begun setting up computer kiosks in poor neighborhoods and villages in northern India. His initial experiment, as described by the BBC, is fascinating:

Beyond the perimeter fence [of his IT compound], [Sugata] could see the dispossessed children sleeping rough in a shanty town. He decided it was time to break a hole in the wall and give the children outside a chance to see what a computer was. He cut a hole and hooked one up. What happened next amazed him. They taught themselves how to use it.

He responded by adding more computer kiosks:

Sugata took his experiment further and set up computers amongst the underprivileged communities of Delhi. He built special kiosks where only children could reach the keyboard, and left them connected to the internet. In each case the results were the same. Without adult intervention, the children got to grips with the technology, even with their limited understanding of English.

Sugata was able to make some important but controversial observations. "Groups of children given adequate digital resources can meet the objectives of primary education on their own - most of the objectives."

Very interesting, and very conservative. Liberal thinking demands that Experts be sent to enlighten benighted villagers (the Beeb quotes an editor who cites Bill Gates' good-old-liberal efforts); conservative thinking expects the same of people everywhere, and leaves them the responsibility of using what is in their grasp. Sugata's is a true compassionate conservatism: he is placing more with the grasp of the children, and then expecting them to develop that resource with their own brain-power. His approach in a rural village:

Sugata gives a short talk before letting them loose. "Who can ride a bicycle?" he asks. Forty hands shoot up. "And who taught you?" There is some confusion and shaking of heads. "No-one taught you," he says. "It's a skill you can learn on your own." He turns to the computer behind him. "And the computer is like a bicycle."