My colleagues and I often shake our heads over headlines touting the next technology that is going to lead the education revolution. It simply isn’t historically accurate. Technology doesn’t change education; instead, education changes technology, adapting it to current classroom practices.
But, in today’s google alert related to mobile technology, a headline caught my attention precisely because it goes against history. It seems that, in an effort to increase literacy among women, Afghanistan is harnessing mobile technology:
Afghanistan has launched a new literacy programme that enables Afghan women deprived of a basic education during decades of war to learn to read and write using a mobile phone.
In a country where women were forbidden from going to school and the literacy rate for women is about 13%, mobile technology may just foster a revolution in learning. Software developed by an Afghani company and distributed on free phones is making this revolution possible.
Maybe we have finally seen an example of technology sparking a revolution…