Published in the December 25th, 2009 issue of UNESCO BK ICT in Education Newsletter edited by Hartfried Schmidt.  Thank you Hartie!

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The secrets to successfully bridging the digital divide have long been known.  They are access, access and access.  Granted, access comes with its own bag of worms, challenges that make all of us a bit angry at "technology" some of the time.  Of course, the fact that it is a luxury to be angry at our personal computers is lost on us until something happens to help us regain perspective.

I experienced just such an event recently in the course of planning for the first conference in Thailand exclusively devoted to Free and Open Source Software for education (http://flossed.org).  In the end, we were lucky enough to have 50 willing participants gather at a new and well-equipped international school in the heart of town (http://kis.ac.th).  But on the way, I had ill-fated hopes of gathering a much larger number from among "the truly needy" Thai government schools around Bangkok.  Why ill-fated?  Let me explain.

First of all, I didn't know it, but I was not planning a conference so much as doing my homework on how not to plan a conference.  One doesn't go to each of the schools in the city personally, or write to their principals, because these people are not the masters of their own budgets.  A teacher interested in attending a conference has little hope of going if the school won't pay his or her way.  Yet the school won't pay if the Ministry of Education hasn't already approved the conference, and, more importantly, put aside money to pay for teachers' tickets. 

But this is old news to those of you who organize education at the regional or national level.  The important lesson I gained by visiting local schools was not how misinformed I was about bureaucratic procedures, but that the size of the "divide" is still much larger, even now, than I had hoped.  It is one thing to hear that the average classroom has forty students in it and that a school of 500 to 2,000 students will have a single laboratory of computers ... sometimes enough for a whole class.  It is quite another to put yourself in the place of the teacher or principal of that school and think of how best to use that laboratory.  How are we going to bridge the digital divide in those schools?

It may be that some help will come from outside the classroom.  There are in Thailand, after all, thousands of Internet-connected game parlors patronized by youngsters (mostly boys).  Unfortunately, as those of us who actually delve into exactly what knowledge our students have gained at these establishments have discovered, the young patrons of Internet Game Parlors often have a remarkably shallow understanding of what they're doing.  While they may be quite facile in the gaming world (for which there are applications in the job world now), they show surprisingly little knowledge of other aspects of computer-use, including the World Wide Web on which they are playing.  What's missing is the perspective (there's that word again) and careful exploration that a teacher could provide.  Not only are there many discoveries students don't take the time to learn themselves to which teachers could guide them, but there are the many questions beginning with words such as "Why" or "How" or "Why not" that would spark students' dormant curiosities to look beyond (or more deeply within) the world of games.

So, back to school.  Not only are teachers needed, but many students, especially girls, don't go to Internet game shops and don't know what they're missing. 

School is where older, more experienced, caring people meet with curious, energetic young people with the potential to make good use of modern technologies.  How do we give those schools what they need so that they can supply their students with the missing perspective?

While pondering this question, I happened to ask a few game shop managers how they could afford to set up Internet parlors when the schools couldn't afford computers.  To my surprise, I was told that while the rich shops bought proprietary software, those just trying to "make it work" found someone who knew how to install a GNU-Linux server.  They paid for one Internet account and networked a lab of refurbished (usually leased) workstations (often thin clients) for less than the price of a single proprietary server.  Then they opened their doors and let kids pay to play. 

You see where I'm going.  If these small businesses can "boot strap" Free Software and create "access" to technology and, hence, the world, why can't schools?  As with normal proprietary software, "Shareware" or "Freeware," Free Software is copyrighted and licensed; the difference is that the license allows exploring, improving sharing, giving away and even selling of the software -- as long as you don't prevent anyone else from doing the same.  This license strategy (invented by Richard M. Stallman) has its roots in the world of Computer Science where sharing of "code" is essential to testing and improving it.  Schools are engaged in fostering the habits of exploration, sharing and invention; wouldn't it make sense if the software they used did the same?

In the end, as with most of life, it's a question of values.  Many decision makers see deals with large technology corporations to deliver X number of computers to their schools as the way forward because they deliver the "latest and greatest," help the economy and enable students to use what they'll use in the working world. 

For the teacher in a school of 500 to 2,000 students who must figure out how to provide a reasonable amount of time using computers for every student, the deal with the big company falls short.  There simply isn't enough fancy equipment to go around and the licenses don't allow duplication of software. 

Isn't it much more likely to be successful to approach the problem from the bottom up?  In the local community (literally in each school's neighborhood, not from "headquarters") there is someone who knows how to set up GNU-Linux.  She or he could set up a server for the school and download and install useful Free Software (perhaps starting with the UNESCO ICT in Education CDs.  And, in addition to setting up a few servers, couldn't that person teach staff members at the school how to do it?  And couldn't the teachers then start to learn about the many, many educational applications of Free Software?

Just an idea, but it's not a new one.  In Thailand, we're starting FLossEd groups of teachers and students and parents, people interested in learning more about Free Software for schools (FUG: FLossEd Users' Groups).  Not incidentally, the school, KIS, that hosted the FLossEd Conference, is among the elite schools that can afford to buy the latest technologies.  They decided to use Free Software because it fits their values of encouraging curiosity, sharing and open-mindedness.  Eventually, those who investigate Free Software see the "fit" between free and open minds and the software they're using.  I hope readers will be encouraged to investigate.  We'll have another conference next year, and you're invited.  In the meantime, share your questions and answers with us on http://flossed.org.  We really are all in this together.
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Important References: Free Software (http://fsf.org); Open Source Software (http://opensource.org)

Source: December 25th, 2009 issue of UNESCO BK ICT in Education Newsletter edited by Hartfried Schmidt.