Don't ignore the examples to heed in digital learning

This month, Worldreader, an aid agency, introduced electronic books to schools in Ghana and Kenya to improve literacy among children. These e-readers are said to entice children away from football during breaks. Meanwhile, India has launched the Aakash, dubbed the world’s cheapest tablet computer, which costs US$35 (Bt1,050) per unit and is aimed at digital learning for university students.

Thailand, with its own one-child-per-tablet-computer policy, is still caught up in a heated debate about whether the e-reader does more harm than good to first-graders, each of whom is supposed to be guaranteed such a device. The government promises to start distributing 800,000 of these computers to each primary school student at a total cost of Bt4 billion from next January. The cheap gadgets can be obtained from China or India for as little as Bt5,000 apiece.

Despite all the fuss about the pros and cons of the personal tablets and their impact on children’s emotional and physical development, there’s no denying that digital learning is here to stay. The government must ensure that the personal-tablet policy is implemented in a transparent and fair manner in order to properly benefit our education system, not to serve certain political or corporate groups that stand to gain from this potentially lucrative project. Thailand would also do well to study countries that are implementing a similar policy, to avoid potential pitfalls. 

Worldreader, a not-for-profit public charity, aims to put a library of books within reach of every family on the planet, using electronic book technology. It regards personal tablets as the least expensive and most reliable way to deliver books to underserved areas and underprivileged peoples. In Kenya and Ghana, Worldreader distributes free Amazon.com Kindle tablets, each of which can carry up to 3,000 books. In these countries, the only book that is to be found in most households is usually a copy or two of the Bible. Access to a book, let alone a library, is impossible for many families.

Through these Kindle projects, Worldreader will study whether having a Kindle increases the number of books young people read over the course of a school year, and whether their reading level improves over time. This test will involve 300 junior and senior high-school students, who will get a Kindle pre-loaded with some public-domain books, as well as contemporary international and local books. Kindle capabilities include a built-in dictionary and text-to-speech feature to help the visually impaired and those whose parents cannot read.   

While Worldreader’s initiatives are much lauded, questions are being asked regarding access to electricity and mobile phone networks, especially in remote areas.   

Meanwhile in India, university students, not school kids, will be given the Aakash devices, in an attempt to end India’s digital divide. A pilot run of 100,000 units will be given to students for free. The device supports video conferencing, has two USB ports and a three-hour battery life, but some users say it is slow and the touch screen is not agile. The Indian government ultimately aims to sell the devices to students for $35 next year. 

Both the Indian and African digital-learning platforms have gained popular support and drawn flak from critics at the same time. What’s true is that the world is on the threshold of a digital learning revolution. The ways we educate ourselves and our children are reaching new frontiers. Thus, Thailand needs to tread carefully in these digitally charged times. The tablet policy could turn out to be an absolute flop, or a fresh victory for education, depending on the way in which the policy is implemented and the quality of training for teaching personnel to cope with a new learning environment. 

Thailand is not the first country to have come up with a digital- learning policy. Libya had a one laptop-per-child policy under ousted dictator Mu’ammar Gadhafi, for instance. So did other African countries and some in South America. It’s easy to follow in other countries’ footsteps, but these policies are easier talked about than carried out correctly. Let’s not forget that Thailand will have a lot of problems to deal with, not just in the education sector, in the aftermath of the current flooding disaster. 

However, we propose that the government makes sure it continues to deliver its pledges concerning the improvement of our education system through digital learning. Implement the policy only when we know our teachers and students are ready to cope with this new technology. This to ensure that the devices do not end up in the wrong and corrupt hands.