My colleague Vicky Davis, Coolcat Teacher Blog, has put this question out to her network, in a brilliant post called "How would you use cell phones to bring Web2.0 to Cambodia?" I just have to quote her in a few places:
When you complain about your student teacher ratios, look at everyone gathered around the computer in this lesson!
Cambodian bloggers (such as Mam Sari profiled in Beth's blog post) are dedicated, but would you do as Mam Sari does to update his blog?
"He has set up a blog and has a Facebook profile, but to update them he has to ride his motorbike an hour into Phnom Penh. "
She's asking her network to one or two of the following:
- Contribute the $10 -- If her school raises the most, the Sharing Foundation will give her $50,000 additional for the school. (She has already raised $19,000 with bloggers and facebook contributors.)
- Answer Beth's Questions: (If you write a blog post, use the tag bethkanter_cambodiacampaign)
- What advice would you offer to Mam Sari about incorporating computer instruction on a REALLY slow connection and with one computer connected to the Internet?
- Are there any web resources or books that you think I should send over to him to read?
- Dream a little dream with me, if we had a fast Internet connection, what are the possibilities?
- Answer the twitterpoll by replying in twitter @coolcatteacher the answer to this question, " How would you do web2.0 in rural cambodia with cell phone connection?"
I'll summarized the responses because I think this might be valuable information for ngos too. In fact, I'm going to ping a few colleagues ... Katrin Verclas sent me this useful link!
There has already been over $20,000 for the Sharing Foundation's America's Giving Challenge raised through the unselfish giving of over 700 people like Vicky Davis. If you have not yet donated $10 (or more) to this important cause, there is only 72 hours left to donate and change a Cambodian child's life and maybe help us get a faster Internet connection!
I think even with a slow connection, you can go for the information that is very valuable to you. I think blogs are typically better than Web2.0 tools than social bookmarking, because there is an offline option. (for instance blogging by email, which you can do even from your phone mostly, at least I could do it in Ghana, I saw Ghanaian using facebook on their phone too).
Also working on wikipedia in local languages maybe fun to do. It shows that you can create something on the web, and feels empowering...
Posted by: joitske | January 29, 2008 at 06:54 AM
Fine I donated my $10! Enough already! ;)
Posted by: Peter Gulka | January 29, 2008 at 12:13 PM
With the cell phone connection you can run Twitter, which would allow the class to "talk" with others around the world and learn new things.
Posted by: Kami Huyse | January 31, 2008 at 01:11 PM