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The aftermath of the 2009/10 Mongolia “dzud.” 

If you are Mongolian or work on behalf of Mongolia you should really watch this…

Heart-breaking news report about the realities of alcohol in Mongolia. While we are not working directly in this area we are confident that providing quality education for the new generation of Mongolia will lead to a future that can free itself from the stranglehold of alcoholism and its related crimes and abuse the country currently finds itself in. It’s worth noting that we experience these sorts of situations on a daily occurrence, it’s deeply embedded in society and daily life.

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Six Ways to Improve Educational Laptops - An Open Letter to Intel and OLPC.

Dear Intel and OLPC,

Your Classmate and XO laptops need a killer app. That app is educational material.

Don’t get me wrong, kids love your products, I love them too, they are greatly needed in this time to help bridge the ever widening digital divide. But if your products aren’t created from the beginning to match government education standards then how can they ever be worth the $200 - $400 you charge for them?

To give a current example, let’s look at Mongolia, a country that recently received a large funding grant from the World Bank to introduce 20,000 OLPC XO laptops to Mongolian children. This is a great program which I’m sure will benefit a lot of schools and children. But we are talking about Mongolia, a country whose education system cannot even afford to provide textbooks for its children. If Mongolia cannot provide $20 of textbooks per child, how can it hope to afford maintaining 20,000 $200 laptops? The XO laptop is great, it helps them learn creatively and connect with other students and use different learning tools, but can they study on it? If their school can’t afford their math or history books have you worked with the school system to come up with a way to put electronic copies of those books on these laptops? Or will schools have to take care of maintaining the machine as well as buy books they already cannot afford? 

The educational laptop is a great humanitarian idea. It is an effort that could lead to great things in countries that have, until now, had limited access to technology, especially for children. Yet, I do not see how pitching these machines to countries at this point is going to do much besides provide an expensive toy to a few lucky schools. The hardware is pretty much spot on, but the software needs an overhaul. Instead of simply providing a product capable of revolutionizing education in the developing world you need to create one that actually will. Developing countries have a hard enough time funding the education of their children, your dream is honorable, even revolutionizing, but something’s got to change or else we’ll just end up with another product that kids love, but doesn’t bring the change we’re looking for.

Here are some new rules on how to make your laptops worth the money, and truly justify your claim of helping kids in developing nations get a better education.

Government required textbooks:
At the heart of each laptop, children and teachers should be able to find the textbooks and learning materials their government requires. Hardware is only as good as the software it runs and if a child can’t learn algebra or study Mongolian history on his or her Mongolia XO laptop I don’t see what the point is. Imagine the increase in value your product would receive if they included every government-required textbook from 1st to 12th grade in ebook format? Even if the machines couldn’t handle the content, being able to deliver updates electronically as the children advance in grades would revolutionize governments ability to quickly distribute curriculum updates to schools. Non-negotiable conclusion: Children must be able to study their required subjects on your laptops.

Subject-specific software:
Another tool that is needs attention is subject-specific software. Most education systems around the world teach similar subjects. Why not a math app? Or a chemistry app? These apps could be easily translated into local languages and used for beginning to advanced classes based on need. Some of these tools may already exist or be available on your laptops, but are they presented in a way so a math teacher in Mongolia can link his lesson to the software?

Partnerships:
The XO might be a king of open source, but whatever happened to partnerships? You make a good laptop, but face it, there are others out there excelling in their areas of expertise. Why not approach Google to come up with a cacheable version of Google Earth for geography class? Can you imagine education programmers helping you create digital classrooms so teachers can easily send students assignments and receive their work? The point is that there are people and companies available that are good at what they do and who want to help, they just need to be given a chance.

Knowledge bank:
A digital encyclopedia. A portable Wikipedia. Partner with encyclopedia companies to provide digital content, leave open areas where students can add and edit subjects they are learning about. Updated encyclopedias released? No need to ship off 30 volume book sets, just send off electronic copies to all your schools for instant distribution and updates.

Note-taking software:
When a student is working on math equations in class where does he or she take notes? When a teacher presents the major cities of the world on an interactive map, where can the student jot this down for further study? These machines need a deeply integrated note-taking app that works across all programs so students can save work and notes by subject. It should be simple, intuitive, and oh, it needs to be easy to back up to a school server or flash disk.

Make it more available:
With the XO now available in bulk quantities as low as 100, it is becoming easier for NGOs and schools not covered by a government program to get a hold of these laptops. However, the schools and NGO programs who would greatly benefit from your laptops but don’t need 100 are still left out in the cold. It’s understandable that your programs are young and still getting off the ground, but the market is there, and more importantly, the children are there, so why make it so hard for people helping 75 children in a poor community when the school down the street with 500 students has no problem? Find a distributor, setup a side company, do something so that your product is more readily available. 

In conclusion, I would like to commend you, OLPC and Intel, for leading the charge in bringing technology into developing countries to improve children’s education. However, I do hope that some steps are taken to ensure that your product is really a benefit to children, is usable and can be integrated into what schools are teaching. Again, in countries where even providing $20 of textbooks to children is a struggle, your product needs a lot of added value to justify its purchase and use. Let’s remember that the primary goal in bringing technology into classrooms is not simply to bring the technology, but to give children and teachers a tool that greatly increases their ability to grow and develop while learning in new and creative ways.

I will be watching the advancement of your programs with anticipation.

Sincerely,

Jonathan Renich
Edurelief Founder / CEO