Technology Can Empower Children in Developing Countries - if it's done right

The internet and digital technologies offer huge potential but avoiding a one-fits-all approach and ensuring the right protection mechanisms is vital

      Technology can empower children in developing countries but it isn't enough to simply provide the hardware - training, maintenance and suitability must all be planned for. Photograph: Michael Prince/ Michael Prince/Corbis.

 

      Over the decade technology has transcended poverty, race and economics to become a driving force in the lives of people across the world. More than two billion of us now have access to the internet and five billion of us have mobile phones.

    Children are growing up in a world where social media, mobile technology and online communities are fundamental to the way that they communicate, learn and develop. In recent years the speed, flexibility and affordability of rapidly evolving digital technology has helped slowly prise shut the digital divide between the haves and have-nots and enabled millions of young people in developing countries to join the digital world.

       Increasingly, technology is being seen as a powerful development tool, used in the global battle to hit child and youth-focused targets in global education, livelihoods and health.

     "This technology wasn't developed as a development tool yet has become one of the greatest vehicles for change," says Charles Kenny, a senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development. He adds: "Young people are natural adopters of new technologies and certainly the potential for technology and digital media to be a force for innovation, education and change is just beginning to be realised."

      When it comes to education, there is evidence that young people are increasingly using ICTs and technology as learning tools.

      In an upcoming series of studies into how young people are using ICT's in Zambia, South Africa and Vietnam, Unicef found that 40% of Vietnamese children surveyed in rural areas used the internet for educational purposes, with 34% sending school-related text messages. In urban areas this spiked to 62% and 57% respectively.

   Several high-profile tech companies have launched global initiatives to increase access to technology by children and young people in the world's poorest countries, pouring millions of computers and educational materials into ICT training programmes.

   Computer giant Dell runs its own computer hardware and literacy programme called Youth Learning, which initially launched in India and is now operating in 15 countries across the world.

     "It's our belief that access to technology brings young people into contact with the broader world, opening up access to education and vocational training in a very cost-effective way," says Deb Bauer, director of Dell Giving.

      "What we've learnt is that it isn't enough to simply provide the hardware, it's the quality the wrap-around services – the teacher training, maintenance of technology, reliability of power, which provides the long-term benefits and this is one of the learnings we've been taking forward." The potential of mobile technology as an educational tool is also steadily growing.

      Mobile phone technology in developing countries now accounts for four out of every five connections worldwide. In a recent report by the GSMA into m-learning, more than half of all young people surveyed in Ghana, India, Uganda and Morocco who had accessed the internet, had done so on a mobile device.

      Duncan Clark, a British tech investor and founder of e-learning company Epic Group, goes further when he says he believes that mobile technology has produced a "renaissance of reading and writing" among young people across the world.

       "[Mobile phones] will, I think, be the single most important factor in increasing literacy on the planet. Why? Every child is massively motivated to learn to text, post and message on mobiles. The evidence shows that they become obsessive readers and writers through mobile devices," he says.

        "Texting is a significant form of literacy, introduced by youngsters, on their own, spontaneously, rapidly and without tuition." Mobile phones are also proving effective tools in engaging and mobilising children and young people to engage in economic, social and political spheres.

        The Text to Change (TTC) project in Africa recently launched the Voice Africa's Future project, which aims to engage 150,000 young people across Africa by asking them to text what they think the future of their own countries should look like. In Ghana last year, a community of young people formed a netizens community and set up a hashtag on twitter – #GhanaDecides – to try and involve more young people and eligible voters to get involved in the general elections.

       Yet the wholesale embracement of the idea of reaching young people through technology has also proved problematic.

       "In fact, despite all the big-name sponsors and tech-led education initiatives there have been rather disappointing results in efforts to integrate ICTs into education systems," says Kenny. "There needs to be a massive training programme put in place alongside any kind of imported initiatives as you don't suddenly get a whole bunch of kids from slums in India applying for jobs at Microsoft and Google just because they've had one computer in the classroom."

          The darker side of internet use and issues over privacy and safety of children and young people in developing countries is also a concern. Unicef's upcoming research into children and young people's use of ICT's exposes the lack of data and research on protecting children's safety online in developing countries compared to developed countries such as the UK or US.

          Initial research findings reveal that up to a quarter of children in urban areas and one in every five children in rural areas surveyed in Vietnam had shared personal information such as their phone number or name of their school with someone online. In South Africa, more than 70% of users on an online social networking site talked to strangers at least once a week. In Vietnam 49% of urban children had been exposed to indecent content online, while 20% of rural children reported having been bullied, threatened or embarrassed online.

        "Technology has the potential to be a huge force for good but it is not a silver bullet, a fix-all solution to how to fix the education and employment problems for young people in developing countries," says Kenny. "Yet one thing is clear – it will undoubtedly play an increasingly important part of millions of young people's lives across the world."

http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/technology-empower-children-developing-countries