Bureaucracy is restrictive. They are sozzled idiots who have no clue as to which way the wind is blowing. No doubt, TRAI is saddled with such idiots brimming up to the core.

I came across a brilliant write up by Keith Hudson (here) and he writes nailing the issue to the core:

And then there’s the educational potential of the Internet. When I wrote my book, Introduction to Computer-Assisted Learning (Chapman and Hall, 1984) — that is, before the Internet was invented — I envisaged that, by now, we would have vast educational programmes in all possible subjects beamed down from satellites. How naive I was! They still haven’t arrived. The formal university procedures and bureaucracy-controlled school systems still hold sway and cramp many more potential geniuses than they encourage. The poor bright boy or girl in a far-off Chinese or Indian village—or, so help us, increasingly in poor homes in the US or the UK—still hasn’t got access to effective teaching programmes that could be available on the Net. When this happens—one day!—then that will be yet another spanner in over-large bueaucratic empires.

Hence when I come across fancy experiments with OPLC projects, it isn’t the sole medium of instruction that helps. In any case, there is NO probable research or it’s outcome favoring the technology over the traditional methods. Technology can play it’s part as a supplement (e.g. Broadband) but not as a stand alone mechanism. A video conferencing in a remote village would actually help the children to explore the boundaries beyond their own physical limitations and confines but only if they have been primed to expect what is going to be shown to them. Here in lies the challange.

 

Related articles

• Caps Coming to Broadband Data Usage. Where Does That Leave Netflix? (community.tradeking.com)
• AT&T adds monthly data caps on home broadband (blogs.consumerreports.org)
• Will BT’s new broadband boss bring fibre to rural Britain? (telegraph.co.uk)
• Does Broadband Create Digital Ghettos? (techcrunch.com)
• Don’t Rural Areas Deserve Access to Improved Internet Service? (liveruralnl.com)
• Constant Contact Supports the National Broadband Plan (blogs.constantcontact.com)
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Tags: Broadband, bureaucracy-controlled school systems, Chinese, DTH, Google, Idiots, India, Internet, Media, OPLC, techcrunch.com, Telecommunications India, TRAI, United Kingdom, United States, video conferencing, Wireless

This is a project doomed for disaster primarily because it was an atlanticist’s version of creating another sop to “spoon feed” the hungry nations by way of “educating” them with brand new laptops. It is an interesting cocept but is sorely out of tune with the present realities. If you don’t get what I am speaking off, I am referring to the $100 laptop.

BBC says that Intel has bid goodbye to the project and instead wants to focus on it’s version of a run down “cheap” laptop. All “noble intentions” indeed. I am glad that the frigging babus did not invest crores of public money to support the hair brained idea. Nevertheless, I report here because there was lot of hue and cry about the “mesh networking” and the works.

Tags: Broadband, Intel., laptop, Mesh Network, OPLC, Telecommunications India