But in one rural classroom, a revolution is taking place. The focus: a little green laptop computer called the XO has come into action across 20 community schools in Bhutan on an experimental basis to boost development of Information and Communication technology (ICT) in the country.
Donated by the One Laptop Per Child association (OLPC), a US non-profit organisation, and the international telecommunication union (ITU), these laptops are expected to change the concept of education in Bhutan, making it more activity based. Children can use the internet, type, draw, play and edit music on the gadget, thereby making it a complete educational tool.
The XO, previously known as the $100 Laptop as well as the Children's Machine, is an inexpensive sub-notebook computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world, to provide them with access to knowledge, and opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.
The training programme will benefit about 300 students and teachers, with teachers invited to be trained together with the students. OLPC is providing 200 XO laptops to connect 24 schools in rural and remote areas of Bhutan. An additional 44 laptops have been assigned under the ITU-AMD Learning Labs project as well as training support for the 24 schools. In addition UNICEF is providing 25 XO laptops and ITU is facilitating training for eight school teachers identified by UNICEF.
Once training is completed, 50 XO laptops will be donated to the school where the training is taking place and the remaining will be distributed to the other schools. Each of the head teachers of the 24 schools will receive a conventional laptop for monitoring learning progress and comparing knowledge gained through shared and individual usage.
IT experts in Bhutan are hopeful that this initiative will provide school going children with a chance to be introduced to IT at an early age, which will bring IT revolution in the country. If the pilot project is successful, not only the kids will benefit significantly from the "appealing idea," the government could also follow up by buying more of these laptops, they express.
But a major aspect of the XO laptop that may be under-utilised in Bhutan is that most of the community schools, which will receive the computers, lack internet access. Since all the computers have wireless internet capability as part of its goal to create access to the world's information for the children that use it, this major option will not be available for another two years. However, IT experts are still hopeful that the students will be able to create local networks and exchange their information with each other.
However, the Ministry of Information and Communications has embraced the OLPC project saying that Bhutan is the second country, after China, to be targeted by the project. "This is the beginning and it won't fail," the Ministry is hopeful.
On launch of the project, OLPC President, Anthony Wong also expressed his concerns, "This is an education project, not a computer project, and it is about bridging the digital divide because, without the internet, children growing up in rural areas will be greatly deprived." He added that the software applications on the XO were designed not by IT professionals but education experts, and so would help improve the standard of education.
The Government of Bhutan has come up with plans to continue the effort in the long run. Although it is bound to face many hurdles including the purchase of the laptops for future, analysts believe that if the international agencies, like the telecommunications union and UNICEF continue to fund the project on regular basis, both students and teachers will be able to visualize a world, outside their villages, they previously had no knowledge of.
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