Welcome. Aims. Ambitions. Dreams.

Welcome to the first blog post of 'learning technology for normal people'. This blog is about harnessing the potential of technology to bring education into the lives of normal people (the 99% of the world who don't have access to a computer). These normal people cannot even dream to own the technology that many of us (mainly in the west) take for granted, even though it has transformed our lives too, both educationally and socially.

I want to have that dream. I want the normal people of the world to see what a transformational effect access to technology can bring to their lives. And before you accuse me of being naive or overly optimistic about the transformal power of technology and it's effect on the lives of the normal people who live every day with less than us, I want you to watch this video.

And/ or for something even more uplifting (and shorter) watch this video

I think this is within our reach. I think there is more unused technology sitting in our houses right now, that has educational potential beyond our imagination. It's just in the wrong place, with the wrong 'configuration'.

• I want to propose that we donate technology that has lost it's shiny-ness, or been 'upgraded'. Not stuff that is really, really old, but good enough stuff that we just upgraded because we could.
• I want to propose that we use open source software where we can to reconfigure these devices into educational tools (speech to text engines, touch typing, maths games, programming platforms... simple, simple stuff)
• I want to propose sending this technology to normal people across the globe who could never afford such access to see what happens..
• I want to close the gap between the haves and the have nots in this increasingly digital world and release some of the untapped potential in the 99%

Personally I have an iPod Touch that has spent 85% of it's life sitting unused on the docking station. I know from experience that kids don't need instructions to use these, and there are a number of educational games (often) freely available.  But its an old one now (doesn't do camera) and I listen to my music on my (3rd or 4th) Android touchscreen mobile phone (that holds just as much potential). Any of this sound familiar??

I want to discuss configurations in this blog, suggestions of what software will be most useful, the pros and cons of open source, and I'll talk about all the other challenges of embarking on this project.

But I believe in it, and for now that is enough. Build it and they will come and all that...

I do want comments from all angles. So please comment my posts!!