Thursday 11 October 2012

On being asked about Technology and Education

A friend recently asked me to send over some links about technology and education following the recent presentation I made on my experience at Singularity. The thought is - how can tech change education in Nigeria. The experience suggests its not hardware and the most exciting innovations are coming from Khan & Co. Thought it might be of interest to readers here:

Education:
  • Huge innovation in education that we didn't talk about. In some US schools teachers now only supervise homework during school hours, and at home the kids watch the school classes from online sites such as Khan Academy. These kind of resources have true leapfrog potential as they allow anybody in the world to access the same content. 
  • Of course you know about the failed One Laptop Per Child initiative (TED video)
  • The founder of this project came to speak to us. I thought the approach very interesting - creating a flexible learning path for students using already available content (there's so much out there already!)
  • HacKidemia - playful technology workshops for kids (get em early). We're bringing a temporary set of workshops to Nigeria around Maker Faire but will be looking to make this permanent there after (need funding/space - let us know if you can help!)
General:
  • Maker Faire Africa, which will highlight African tech ingenuity in Lagos for the first time
  • Most technology transfer is done through incubators/accelerators and the entrepreneurs they raise. Example of an incubator is CCHub in Yaba.
  • There's a small but growing movement of tech angel investors in Nigeria. Nurturing entrepreneurs by providing support and finance is probably the most effective way to get local entrepreneurs to develop or import winning technologies. Ask me for more details if you wish.

No comments: