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World Economic Forum

WCE ROLE WITH WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

WCE role in educational ICT initiatives of the World Economic Forum

In 2001, the World Economic Forum's education steering committee carefully selected global educational ICT NGOs to develop and pilot sustainable and scalable initiatives in selected developing countries. The Forum is recruiting interested member companies to provide funds, volunteers, and computers to directly make a difference while together we learn how to bring this pilot initiative to global scale. The goal of this Forum initiative is to pilot a sustainable and scalable way to extend Internet access to students in remote, rural schools that will not otherwise be connected for several years. The Forum's Digital Divide Task Force proposes this initiative to be piloted in six countries - two countries each in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

World Computer Exchange is very pleased to have been selected as one of the global NGOs and to be selected as the co-lead for the World Economic Forum initiatives in six of the selected countries: Bolivia, Georgia, Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, and Viet Nam.

Below are links to related materials and to the current copies of the implementation plans for each of the six countries. The size of the document is included for the following documents that open into a Word window:

This initiative reuses donated, working Pentium computers and networking gear to connect schools in developing countries to the Internet. The model is based on (1) a strong partner in each country that develops a sustainable implementation plan and recruits and assists 30 local primary and secondary schools, (2) a local Internet Service Provider that develops and implements a business model that maintains the networks and keeps them connected at no cost to the schools by collecting fees from the non-school community outside of regular school hours, and (3) a local university that helps train new and current teacher in the instructional use of the Internet and the computers, uses their computer science students to do a practicum in the maintenance of the computers, servers, and networks, and works with the participating schools in adapting and developing local content.

The "unit" that is being piloted is 30 primary and secondary schools and a university with approximately 18,000 students being connected by 400 computers to the Internet for an initial one-time investment of $75,000. Each participating school would receive planning assistance, working used Pentium computers, and training. The schools would agree to the preparation of their space and the ongoing teacher training after the first year. In some countries, portions of the following budget have already been raised; in others (especially Vietnam) they have requested Forum members to help with multiple "units".

  • Locally selected consultant to provide coordination and assistance in content adaptation and development to the university, ISP, and partner for the schools it recruits (US$10,000)
  • World Links training materials and a week of training for 35 new and current teachers (US$10,000)
  • Funds to the university for coordination of their maintenance, training, and content roles (US$10,000)
  • Equipment and computer parts to establish a repair shop at university (US$5,000)
  • 400 used, tested Pentium computers with planning, troubleshooting and consulting online and on-site from World Computer Exchange (US$40,000) (In the cases of Bolivia, Georgia, and Kenya $25,000 of this is already committed by the partner and about $7,000 is committed in Ghana.)
Country Partner University ISP
Bolivia Quipus Cultural Foundation Universidad Nur Desatel
Georgia President of Georgia T'bilisi Orbeliani State Pedagogical Univ. GRENA
Ghana Centre for the Empowerment of the Vulnerable Kwame Nkrumah Univ. of Science & Technology Africa Online
Kenya Learning and Development Kenya University of Agriculture & Technology Africa Online
Mexico McGraw Hill Monterrey Institute Pending
Vietnam Siemens International Center of Hue University VDC

For further information, please contact Heather-Pace Clark, Project Manager, Global Digital Divide Initiative at Heather-Pace_Clark@weforum.org. Donations of equipment or funds should be made to World Computer Exchange (TAnderson@WorldComputerExchange.org).