[iDC] :: Deinstitutionalizing education ::

[j.martin.pedersen]

On 14/11/10 00:39, Ted Coopman wrote:
> All,
> 
> ICTs are just tools and tools can be used for good or ill, effectively
> or poorly.

Technology as neutral - that's a rare perspective these days.

Below is a story by Roberto Verzola, who has worked with ICT in the
Philipines since the 1970s, starting out as an engineer and enthusiastic
ICT advocate who build the first computer of the country, but slowly
realising that he was playing the same role as "the missionaries of
old", as he put it. Moving away from ICT towards promoting sustainable
argiculture, Verzola tells this story, which anyone with field work
experience in development should recognise:

"We are all familiar with the typical story of an isolated village at
the edge of the forest. Some villagers have to go to town to buy a few
necessities, and maybe to stock the village store. Others need to go to
sell some products for cash. Villagers start to feel that the foot path
to town is insufficient for their needs.

Village activists may even pursue the issue and organize the people to
demand a better road. Eventually, public opinion is swayed, and a
petition is submitted. The government, the villagers are pleasantly
surprised, is amenable to the idea. Road-building eventually starts.

As completion date nears, the village organizes a welcome party for the
first vehicle that is coming in. A few days later, the village wakes up
to the rumble of engines and smell of diesel exhaust. The vehicles have
come. And they are logging trucks, carrying men with chain saws."


-martin