The Importance of Analyzing Failures

Throughout our ICT4D course one of the main things we did in in every case study was analyzing what was done incorrectly and how that diminished the impact that the project had or how it made the project fail. Personally, I believe that the most important thing I learned this semester can be extrapolated from this process: the importance of effectively planning a project before applying it. Although this seems very obvious it is clear that for a project to be effectively planned a lot of factors have to be taken into account. In relation to ICT projects, for me, the main factors project planners ignored were having an appropriate infrastructure in place that can support the new projects and having an effective mechanism to make the project sustainable.

 

Failed projects are common in the development world, much more than many organizations would like to admit, but personally I believe that this course has showed me the importance of analyzing these failures in order to try to avoid the same mistakes in my professional life. A clear example for me in this aspect is the One Laptop Per Child project. Although it is a great idea and has a very positive mission the project is deemed a failure by many because they did not take into account the infrastructure of many places where they donated the laptops. Like the creators of the project its very probable I would not have considered that to be such a critical factor but now I know, as I’m sure the OLPC directors learned as well, that externalities are very important and for a project to be effective it should take them into account.

The Gods Must Be Crazy: A Recap of 2012′s “Tablets Without Teachers” Experiment

In the fall of 2012, the internet started buzzing about a daring new experiment by One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). In “two remote Ethiopian villages” where the local children not only had never seen a computer but were illiterate as well, OLPC dropped a box full of their new XO tablets in the middle of the village and recorded the results via the tablets’ memory chips.  The Ethiopian experiment proved to be quite interesting indeed.

The boxes were taped shut and came without any instructions.  Within four minutes, one child got the box open, pulled out a tablet, and turned it on.  After five days, the average number of daily apps used by each child was 47.  In two weeks time, these illiterate children were singing their ABCs.  In one village, after five months, one tablet was hacked and running Android.  Best of all, the cameras were disabled in the XO software natively; however, by using Android, this particualrly motivated child got his camera to activate–then quickly hacked the other childrens’ tablets to do the same.  Every tablet was customized–even though software prevented them from originally doing this.  The kids took the tablets and made them their own.

Still not impressed?

After several months, the kids in both villages were still heavily engaged in using and recharging the machines, and had been observed reciting the “alphabet song,” and even spelling words. One boy, exposed to literacy games with animal pictures, opened up a paint program and wrote the word “Lion.”

The gods must be crazy.

OLPC in Peru

As we discussed in class, the One Laptop Per Child initiative has made some progress in improving education, but also has some inherent flaws. Peru, as the country with the largest OLPC program, is a great case study to illustrate the successes and failures of the program. Peru is also a good case study for OLPC because of its large number of rural indigenous people, which is the type of population that the OLPC is trying to target.

In February of last year, the International Development Bank published a working paper evaluating the OLPC initiative in Peru. The evaluation was done over 15 months and encompassed 319 participating schools.

Successes:

- Out of all the schools that were elected for the project, 99% of students and 83% of teachers received laptops. This shows that there is very little corruption and inefficient allocation in regards to the program’s implementation

- Students who received laptops were found to be significantly ahead of those who did not in cognitive skills such as information processing speed and analytical capacity.

Failures:

- Although the majority of teachers received some initial training in how to use the laptops, most all participating teachers expressed a want for more training in regards to how to incorporate the laptops into the school’s educational program. Further training was promised, but two out of three schools have not received any additional training.

- Only about 50% of students actually ever brought the laptops home, as is one of the goals of the OLPC program. The main reason was that the school prohibited it. Students and parents were also afraid of damaging the device.

- Partly because teachers did not receive any training in how to involve the laptops in the educational curriculum, the computers were not used in the classroom on a very regular basis (17% used daily, 33% used 3 times a week).

- Probably the most disappointing failure was that there were no effects on test scores. Both math and language test scores remained the same as they had for the past years before OLPC was implemented, indicating a near zero effect on how the children are actually being educated.

These successes and failures demonstrate clearly the issues that we discussed in class regarding the Warschauer and Ames article. This case study shows that even in a country where OLPC has been accepted as a feasible and desirable education model, inherent problems still present themselves. Until the OLPC initiative can penetrate the curricular and administrative levels of education, there will continue to be a disconnect between the program’s utopian objectives and the reality of the results on the ground.

Role of Laptops in Poverty Alleviation

After learning about OLPC and seeing their promotional videos I began to do a little more research upon the topic and found a great article from 2009 in the UK Guardian by Cory Doctorow that brought up many valid and positive points regarding OLPC and innovation of educational laptop use.

While there have been many set backs to OLPC like scale backs and product design failure, it does not mean this project should fail or not be taken seriously. The innovation of being able to connect people all over the world with each other, not just through mobile phones, but also through laptops is priceless. Mobile phones are wonderful and have had great (positive) effects on many communities (rural included) bringing in education, food, health, and democracy though are not useful in disastrous times and can have great long term costs. While lap tops are more costly they only have initial costs and almost no operating costs although similarly to mobile phones connectivity can be an issue. This is an issue that is only going to be fixed in time, but that does not mean OLPC is set up for failure. IT is in all social groups and a crucial part of many people’s lives. The OLPC project is straying from the old school approach of aid that enables more poverty by creating dependency, and instead focusing on creating capital and skills through education. By connecting the younger generation together and teaching them about technology OLPC is creating a first step to break the cycle of poverty. Many great things have had glitches before they turn into masterpieces and OLPC has great potential to become one.

Open Learning Exchange Nepal

OLE Nepal (Open Learning Exchange) is “s a social benefit organization dedicated to enhancing teaching-learning in schools through the integration of technology and to provide uniform access to quality educational materials across different geographic areas and socio-economic strata”

The organization emphasizes that ICT education should not be the end, but a means to the end. OLE Nepal uses technology to teach mathematics, science and English.

In 2008, OLE Nepal implemented the controversial One Laptop Per Child Program. As of this year, the program operates in 34 schools and has impacted 4,000 students. OLE Nepal has ensured that every school is equipped with digital library and interactive resources and, most importantly, power backup. Lack of reliable access to electricity is a major problem in both rural and urban Nepal. Additionally, OLE Nepal conducts teacher training using the XO computers from the OLPC initiative.

Teacher training is one of the main goals of OLE Nepal. They state that, “Unless teachers are fully comfortable and confident with this new approach to teaching, the initiative will have limited impact on the teaching-learning process.” (OLE Nepal Project)

Perhaps cooperation among existing education organizations, teachers and the OLPC program can improve the success of the program? Among the many flaws of the OLPC program is a lack of infrastructure and human resource support. It seems OLE Nepal has attempted to address some of these issues and remains optimistic about ICT use in education.

http://www.olenepal.org/

Utopianism in ICT4D Visions

 OLPC XO Laptop ComputersThis week’s article “Can one Laptop Per Child Save the World’s Poor?” discusses the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, originally created to provide 150-200 million of children in the developing world with one laptop each. Although it’s core intensions are good, one of the biggest flaws in my perspective is OLPC creator Nicholas Negroponte’s utopian vision. Here is some background information to Negroponte, an American computer scientist known for founding the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab, developed the concept of “The Children’s Machine.” Designed to sell for only $100 per computer, the purpose of such an affordable, energy-efficient laptop was to put one in the hands of children all over the world, providing them with the education, networking capabilities to open up a window of opportunities and eventually to reduce poverty.

My concern with utopianism is the danger it brings of narrow-mindedness. Once the sense of a perfect system or ideal program is conceived, it makes things very difficult for development workers to critique the system. As it turns out, there have been a great number of issues with Negroponte’s XO laptop computer. A recent CNN Article enlightens readers on the fact that not only have XO laptops shown to have technical limitations but the slow demand has caused production costs to rise from $100 to $188 in addition to patent infringement and shipping problems. The original vision of delivering 150-200 million laptop was severely shot down when so far only about 1.5 million have actually been delivered. Instead of pushing such a ridiculous number of laptops, it would have been more effective for Negroponte to instead concentrate the operations where the appropriate interest and need existed and then additionally investing in the development of energy sources and Internet connection among other ICT4D basics. As pessimistic as this may sound, I think it’s important to maintain a more realistic outlook with development projects. This not only serves the purpose of limited funding and efficiency but also works as a means of showing respect to the communities that organizations enter. Organizations don’t always realize that they are entering peoples homes and lives when starting development work and should consider their actions much more than a social experiment. Though Negroponte’s goal may have been for the best, it was necessarily conducted in a respectful manner of taking local community culture into perspective which serves as a major reason why OLPC failed.

To end on a more positive note however, this utopian vision may have helped push for ICT development beyond laptops. Thinking of the need for Internet connection, landlines and similar complementary forms of technology has at least helped to turn media and public attention towards the capabilities and importance of ICTs in the development process.

Resources: ” I’d like to teach the world to type” Kirkpatrick, David. 11/28/05. http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2005/11/28/8361971/index.htm

Rwanda National ICT Resources

Government Resources

1.) Rwanda National Information and Communication Infrastructure (NICI) Policy and Action Plan

Although the document does not say when it was last updated, it was created in 2000 and the plans are outlined until 2020.  The text is in English and was produced by the Minister in charge of ICT in the Office of the President. This document focuses on NICI III, however it also provides information on NICI I, II and IV. Here is a link to the Rwandan Government website (the website to the Ministry of ICT infrastructure does not work).

2.) Rwanda Vision 2020

The Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning created this document in July of 2000.  It is printed in English and outlines Rwanda’s 2020 Vision to be a middle-income, knowledge-based society by 2020.  Vision 2020 cites ICT4D as one of the three crosscutting areas to achieve development goals.

Non-government Resources

1.) National e-Strategies for Development

This report was written by the International Telecommunication Union and it provides information on Rwanda from pgs 23-25.

2.) The Global Information Technology Report 2012

Rwanda’s Networked Readiness Index and sub-indexes is on pg 282.

3.) One Laptop per Child in Rwanda

Overall, information on Rwanda’s ICT plans is very accessible. The Government of Rwanda prioritizes the role of ICTs to accelerate the country’s developmental efforts.  Plans to become a technology-driven society by 2020 are closely mapped out in the country’s NICI plans.

What I’ve Learned

Over the course of the semester, our ICT4D class has covered many topics and lessons. We have looked at successful case studies from India, ICT4D failures like OLPC, and many different sectors that could employ ICT4D. However, if I had to boil all that I’ve learned this semester down to one sentence it would be this: ICT4D can be a wonderful, transformative tool in the development world, but, by itself, it is not enough. 

ICT4D can, absolutely, be a useful tool in the development process. We saw in this course how cell phones allowed Indian fishermen to reduce their time and waste. We tried our hand at OSM, helping the Red Cross create maps for service delivery in Uganda. We learned about tools like Ushahidi and other crowdsourcing applications that allowed survivors of natural disasters to locate their families. As our classmates presented on various sectors– from e-government to agriculture– we learned about the myriad ways in which ICT can help to transform the developing world.

However, before we start reveling in the wonder that is ICT4D, we must also consider a second major lesson to be learned from this course: that ICT is not enough. Sure, there are many ways in which ICT can serve as a powerful tool for development, but without the proper infrastructure, planning, and evaluation, its effects will be limited at best. We saw cases of failures like the OLPC program, where we learned that simply throwing technology at the poor is not enough to truly create effective and lasting change. We discussed briefly all of the donated equipment sitting in developing countries, unable to be used because no one can repair it, because there is not sufficient power, or because it is unsuitable for dusty or humid conditions. There is a need for ICT4D, yes, but more than that there is a need for smart ICT4D, ICT4D that is well thought out, designed with developing countries in mind, and regularly evaluated and revised.

This course made me more aware of the many ways in which ICT can be implemented in the developing world, of the many possibilities that arise out of new and creative uses for technology. But it also taught me to be wary of the quick-fix, the seeming magic bullet. Technology is wonderful and full of potential, but, just like every other development tool, it is also imperfect. We must move forward cautiously with ICT4D, always aware of the possibilities it provides but also wary of moving too quickly or promising too much.

ICT4D Lessons Learned

As someone who would by no means consider himself to be tech savvy, I had my doubts going into this ICT4D class. I know my way around Facebook and can generally find out any information I need from Google, but that is pretty much the extent of my technological knowledge. However, this class was less about strictly technology and more about people. It was about how we can take the latest technologies, whatever they may be, and utilize them in a way that will benefit society and especially to counteract poverty and underdevelopment. It was about how we can effectively teach people in lesser developed areas how to work with technology and use it to improve their day to day lives. This realization made me much more comfortable with the class and made it an interesting one to be a part of.

 

The most important lesson for me that is worth remembering is that technology in itself is not a cure-all to development issues. As we learned through our study of One Laptop Per Child, simply handing out computers or cell phones to people in lower developed nations does not accomplish much to improve their quality of life. Giving a rural farmer in Uganda a laptop will probably create more problems for him than solutions. Technology must be accompanied by instruction, technical assistance and the right infrastructure to utilize it to its full potential. In addition to providing the technology, ICT4D initiatives must teach local populations how to use it, and specific ways that it can help them achieve their daily tasks. Developers also must think of whether the technology will even work in the desired community. As with OLPC, laptops in the classroom do not help if there are no electrical outlets with which to charge them. Similarly, a mobile phone does no good in an area with no cell phone service or poor coverage. Initiating a successful development strategy goes much deeper than choosing a technology and how it will be used. There are many factors that must be taken into account and even one overlooked could be the difference between a successful project and a failed one.

 

Probably my favorite class of the year was the guest lecture by Ralph Russo on cybersecurity. It was fascinating to think of how many different facets of our society are linked with technology in today’s digital age. It was also amazing and alarming to think of the things a talented hacker or cyberterrorist would be able to do using a computer. With the increasing amount of resources that are located or run online (transportation, medicine, electrical systems, etc. etc…) cybersecurity is of paramount importance. I would love to learn more about the methods being used by businesses, governments and the like to keep these systems safe and their information protected. Perhaps in future semesters this can be explored even more in depth in class. This is just one of the many takeaways gleaned from this class and a topic that I will surely keep my eye on into the future.

Lessons Learned in ICT4D

This semester’s focus on ICT4D expanded my understanding of international development significantly. Until this class, I had not considered the detailed concept of ICT4D and its importance – and obstacles – in the developing world. It is a field that must be considered for project development, and being able to spend a whole semester picking ICT4D apart to really understand it was a great experience. I really enjoyed the classes that we spend learning about ICT4D and how it is applied in different sectors. This was a great way to not only get a great understanding of one sector in particular – to which our group was assigned – but to also learn about other development sectors and the versatility of ICT application.

Some concepts that I had never associated with ICT are cybersecurity and the theory behind ICT4D. Cybersecurity was of particular interest to me because it is an issue that we could both relate to our own lives and to the cases that we studied. For example, I had not considered the possible dangers – such as theft and fraud – of giving Internet banking programs to developing countries with poor infrastructure. There are a lot of back-office efforts that must be considered when implementing ICTs. We saw this in action with the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program. It was a great concept, but it could have been far more successful if support began in the back-office gaining government and teacher support. This was a really interesting part of the course because we were able to interact with the ICT and think about what we would consider its flaws if given the technology.

I particularly enjoyed reading and discussing ICT4D case studies. My favorite particular class lesson was the day that we discussed fisherman in India, peacebuilding in Afghanistan, and phone use in rural Africa. By studying these cases, we were able to have a better understanding about barriers to access, challenges, and triumphs of ICT4D projects in real-life scenarios, rather than just theoretical discussion. Some more of my favorite topics were barriers to access. I thought this was particularly interesting because there are obstacles that can be easily overcome if given appropriate consideration. It stressed the importance of understanding a culture and population that you are trying to develop – a concept that we have been taught since our introduction to international development. However, getting a better, more specific understanding of this more general concept was a great way to think about how detailed every aspect of this field is.