Dear GKD Members, In response to the question asked on What's on the Horizon, to us in the developing world it is more or less provision of basic connectivity, integrating basic services in the connectivity and a lot of capacity building. I wish to concentrate on educational delivery and discuss a model that I have been toying about with as part of a process to improve the quality of the educational delivery system in the nothern part of Nigeria.
The model uses a VSAT link to the internet and wireless technology to rapidly and cheaply spread access to cover many educational institutions within a radius of 40 kilometers. The VSAT is located in the University and will house educational databases and serves as an educational portal to the higher institutions, secondary and primary schools in the area. Such databases, which are to be updated periodically, will provide the much needed access to educational materials with little need for access to the net. Of course the servers will provide other services such as web based email, DNS, web servers for local content creations, course management software, etc. Once this is put in place, a lot of skills development programs ranging from basic computer skills to advanced networking and web based technologies will be mounted. The key to the success of this model is the maturity of the wireless technology. I believe this kind of model if refined and implemented can be a rapid enabler to "Connectivity for All". We have already started on this project using our University as the base. VSATs and a lot of wireless devices have been deployed with very good results. For instance, our two campuses separated by a distance of 15 kilometers have been linked with wireless. We are also able to cover the two campuses with wireless signals. We are planning next to bring our Teaching Hospital into the picture and one or two secondary schools as a pilot scheme. However, the issues of funding, self sustainability and adequate planning are among our greatest problems. Any ideas that can be of help to us? You can reach me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ahmed Isah Chafe ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
