Guys

The education system is not good because of the medium used, rather content and the ability of the students when they are done with the system. We don't know how the world will look, 20 years from now. Having a laptop does not automatically make one a critical thinker - a good education does.

The visionary who built the iPad was not a digital native - he had a good education. A good education will require you to see what can be from what isn't. Now. Insisting that we have the latest medium to train digital natives misses the point… We are training people for the world in 2030. Will laptops be the main medium in 2030? We are moving into the post-pc environment… The digital natives argument fails to stand to this simple test - perhaps we should get them all Google Glasses - it's the future - or should we get them iPads? Google Nexus tablets? 

Everyone is in agreement that the curriculum is the difference - why are we then focusing on the delivery medium? 

Ultimately, we are training people for a future we *cannot understand* and the only skill we need to give these students is the ability to process information and make sound judgements from said information. To be able to reason. See the mountain top on their own, regardless of circumstance. 

After all, the current mode of education is not dated. Globally. It's what has given us the iPad, iPhone, Android, Google Glass, Electricity, cars, the airplane etc 

Insisting that we need laptops to produce digital natives is like insisting that the Wright Brothers needed to have worked for Boeing. It's a fundamentally flawed argument.

The printing press was produced at a time when all manuscripts were hand written. The computer was invented largely by people who were born before electricity transmission or the car had been standardized… (Von Neumann was born in 1903)… 

About the policy - nobody is doing the math for how much it will *actually* cost. Yes. It's already policy, but do we have to back policy simply because it's been passed or because it's a good idea? 

On Monday, May 6, 2013 at 4:02 PM, Christian Ledermann wrote:

http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/philg/2013/05/01/why-isnt-there-a-glut-of-good-software-engineers/

As Google hires all of the world’s good software engineers and my
friends with startup companies fight over the scraps I am left to
wonder how everyone could have been so wrong in predicting that the
world would be glutted with good programmers and sysadmins by now.


On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 3:53 PM, Tech List Kenya <techlistkenya@gmail.com> wrote:
Now that am convinced I am not being considered for the post of ICT PS I
might as well comment.

In my opinion, the laptop per child, if implemented in isolation will be a
very irresponsible use of public funds. Why not one microscope per child?
Don't we need doctors? One spanner per child (for engineers). Ridiculous but
hope you get the point.

I believe the priorities of anyone who wishes Kenya prosperity should be:

a) Food security
b) Health Security
c) Physical security

A healthy well fed nation with peace of mind will spar growth since people
will get out of the hand-to-mouth cycle. I live off technology, yes, but to
place the future of the country on technology is bad planning. We should
instead invest everything we can to make Kenya an agriculture hub. Yes, I
know, it's not as sexy but that will be the day Kenya will rule the region.

Technology should be driven by need. How many people did IT and are working
in other fields?

If we are to buy the laptops (yes, they are not FREE) let us not kid
ourselves it is going to sudden surge in ICT.




On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 2:56 PM, Martin Chiteri <martin.chiteri@gmail.com>
wrote:

Hi guys,

Sorry to differ again with the general opinion here. I am still not
convinced that we need to give kids "a hundred dollar laptops" in order to
make them learn better. My view is that children nowadays are informally
trained to use computers at a very early age, thanks to the many play
stations / XBoxes and smart phones + tablet computers available through
their parents. I am also certain many of them get to use laptops at the same
time for the same reasons. We really need to teach children just a little
more to make them be fully comfortable with the use of other "advanced"
computing equipment.

If the said "digital" dream is to be achieved by 2030, we should have
already seen the fruits of this early exposure, and I believe we already are
doing that but to smaller extents. Another thing we should really appreciate
is that it took fifty years for the U.s of America to get the famous silicon
valley to the point it is at now. Maybe they had no choice, even with their
might, to get there now since fifty years is all they had between now and
then ...... Nevertheless, let not building our "silicon savannah" be the
primary objective but the creation of a population that is capable of
clearly reasoning and fixing their own inadequacies, be it with the economy,
society or technology.

As @Phares among a few others indicated, we really need to tackle the
problem from another region. I really do not think the "One laptop per
child" initiative came about as a result of serious discussions between the
stakeholders in the education field and other parties. If this were the
case, I suspect the actual issue with our education system could have been
clearly pointed out in another direction. By simply working with the basics
like well equipped libraries and labs, class rooms, good roads to schools,
water and electricity, well trained and compensated teachers among others,
good social amenities in schools, we will surely get there.

Martin.


On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 1:33 PM, Peter Karunyu <pkarunyu@gmail.com> wrote:

@Francis

On Mon, May 6, 2013 at 1:09 PM, Francis Njenga <korefn@gmail.com> wrote:

As I read more comments, I believe we all(at least most of the
contributers) agree that
the education system needs to be
"revolutionized"/"modernized"/'Re-engineered'. The question begs:
"How do we do this?"


IMHO, it is incredibly difficult (not impossible) to change our education
system since there are so many vested interests. And even if we did manage
to change it, it would take several years for the effect to be felt
tangibly.

Some of these vested interests are:

Ministry of Education
KNUT
TSC
Teachers
Parents
Book publishers
Our international donors/partners/financiers
Students
Our <put here a bad word of your choice> members of parliament and senate

Each one of these would form a point of resistance in the implementation
of the change in our education system.

The statements of @Phares make a lot sense, but I think we are lacking in
one area; applying scientific methodologies to separate fact from chaff, as
Bitange Ndemo once implied.

These questions linger in my mind:

1. What change in the economy have the fiber optic cables introduced
since they were lit? Can it be measured?
2. What contribution has the Thika superhighway contributed to the
economy? Can it be measured?
3. If a quarter of thika road was implemented in the heart of Kericho
(assuming this is where lots of tea comes from), would the impact of this be
bigger or lesser than thika road?
4. Is a bigger JKIA more profitable for the economy than more milk
processing plants in <that place where they were pouring milk>?

My point is, how can we measure what each basic arm of the economy
contributes to the whole?

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--
Best Regards,

Christian Ledermann
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Phares Kariuki

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