Peter T. Knight <ptknight@attglobal.net>
Dr. Joseph N. Pelton <ecjpelton@aol.com>
Dr. David A. Johnson <daj@utk.edu>
Dear Peter:
===========
(1) Congratulations to your excellent final report on
Lessons_from_infoDev_Projects" (ATTACHMENT
I).
(2) I sincerely thank you for your kind words for our Tampere
event and high
appraisal of our Global Service Trust Fund
(GSTF) project.
(3) The GSTF project has now been adopted by Joe Pelton's newly
established
[Arthur C.] Clarke Institute for Telecommunication
and Information
(CITI), as one of their four major projects
-- thanks to your effort.
As soon as you come back from Brazil on June
16th, I would like to have
a mtg with you, Joe, and David to discuss
the next step of its development.
Dear Electronic Colleagues:
===========================
(4) You can read its full report and the linked subjects, if you
visit his
web site at: <http://www.knight-moore.com/pubs/Lessons_from_infoDev_Projects.html>.
Best, Tak
****************************************
ATTACHMENT I
Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 08:08:59 -0300
From: PTKnight <ptknight@attglobal.net>
To: Denis Brandjes <denis@schoolnet.org.za>,
Neil Butcher <neilshel@icon.co.za>,
Phil Christensen <phil@cyberschool.co.za>,
"Michael G. Moore" <mgmoore@psu.edu>,
Annette de Jager <adejager@onwe.co.za>,
Vis Naidoo <naidoo.v@educ.pwv.gov.za>,
Brenda Page <pak04477@pixie.co.za>,
Effat El Shooky <eshooky@ritsec1.com.eg>,
"Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D." <utsumi@columbia.edu>,
Bob Day <Dayrs@unisa.ac.za>,
David Berk <dberk@worldbank.org>,
Claire Brown <cbrown@m-edu.co.za>,
"Magdallen N. Juma" <mjuma@nbnet.co.ke>,
"Phinias M. Makhurane" <makhurane@acacia.samara.co.zw>
Subject: Lessons_from_infoDev_Projects
Many thanks for your comments during the drafting process for this paper.
It
is now complete. You can access on the web (cover page, table of contents,
about the author, summary attached -- to main report and annex on project
data
click where indicated.
Further comments always welcome. I understand that infoDev will be
establishing a forum to discuss the paper.
With best regards,
Peter
http://www.knight-moore.com/pubs/Lessons_from_infoDev_Projects.html
--
Peter T. Knight
Knight-Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI)
1808 I Street, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Rio Office
Avenida Atlantica 4002/501
Copacabana
22070-002 Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brasil
Tel/Fax: 55-21-522-7068 Call first to fax
Cellular: 55-21-9752-5972
ptknight@attglobal.net; peter@knight-moore.com
http://www.knight-moore.comhttp://cdinet.com
========================================
Lessons from infoDev Education Projects
Peter T. Knight*
Knight-Moore Telematics for Education and Development/CDI
14 April 2000
Comments welcome
peter@knight-moore.com
This report was prepared based on infoDev project reports, project websites,
e-mail correspondence and interviews with project Task Managers, project
coordinators, and project participants. Therefore thanks is due to
many
different people, some of them unknown to me. However I acknowledge
particular
direct help from via email correspondence and/or documents provided
by Dennis
Brandjes, Neil Butcher, Phil Christensen, John Daly, Rafael Hernandez,
Annette
de Jager, Luiz Antonio Joia, Insung Jung, Michael G. Moore, Vis Naidoo,
Brenda
Page, Effat El Shooky, Rael Shrand, Ntutule Tshenye, Brenda Page, Takeshi
Utsumi, and Claudia Zea. Useful comments via interviews were received
from Bob
Day, David Berk, Claire Brown, Joanne Capper, Tim Carrington, Magdallen
Juma,
Phinias Makhurane, Peter Materu, Kenoko Osseni Bagnan, and William
Saint. Not
withstanding the assistance received, I am responsible for the contents
of the
present paper, not infoDev, the World Bank, or any of the individuals
named above.
Contents
About the Author
Executive Summary
Main Report
Introduction
Overview
ICTs and Education: the Potential Developing
Country Leapfrogging in
the Global Knowledge-based Economy
Geographic Scope
Subject Matter
Lessons from Individual Projects
Worldwide: Emerging Global Electronic Distance Education: An Interactive Workshop
Worldwide: Networking for Innovation in Technology and Teacher Training
Arab Region: Regional Distance Learning Network "LearnNet"
Sub-Saharan Africa: African Virtual University
South Africa: Telematics for African Development
South Africa: Cyberschool Africa
Colombia: Proyecto Conexiones
Jamaica: Partnership for Technology in Basic Education
Conclusions and Recommendations
Recommendations for the global development community
Recommendations for infoDev Management
Annex: Project Data
About the Author
Peter T. Knight is Partner of Knight-Moore Telematics for Education
and
Development, a virtual firm operating within the corporate framework
of
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI), a print and electronic
editing
and publishing company of which he is a shareholder. He holds a Ph.D
in
economics from Stanford University, and worked at the Brookings Institution,
the Ford Foundation, and Cornell University before joining the World
Bank in
1976. Before graduating from the World Bank to the private sector in
1997, he
held a variety of positions including membership in the team producing
the
World Development Report 1980, Lead Economist in the Brazil Department,
Division Chief of the National Economic Management Division of the
Economic
Development Institute (predecessor to the World Bank Institute), and
Chief of
the Electronic Media Center. In this last position prior to his graduation,
he
participated in the establishment of the Information for Development
Program
(infoDev) and was task manager for two of its first eight projects
(Telematics
for African Development Consortium and Toward an Open, Informed Telematics
Policy Debate in Russia). As Chief of the Electronic Media Center,
a small
catalytic unit promoting the use of electronic technologies to conduct
the
Bank's business, he became increasingly convinced that distance learning
making use of the Internet and other electronic technologies is the
"killer
application" of the twenty first century and the single most strategic
area
for economic and social development. He brought his current Partner,
Professor
Michael G. Moore of Pennsylvania State University to work on a variety
of
distance education projects for the Bank, and in April 1997 they established
Knight-Moore. A complete rｫsumｫ and full curriculum vitae may be found
in the
Partners section of the Knight-Moore website, and information on projects
undertaken in the Projects section. Peter has continued to work on
infoDev
projects, and was Task Manager for the CyberSchool Africa project as
well as
author of the present report.
Executive Summary
This report reviews eight infoDev projects in the field of education,
seven of
which have been completed, and one still in execution. These projects
used
US$1.9 million of infoDev resources and mobilized an additional US$3.4
million
>from other sources, for a total project value of US$5.5 million. These
education projects accounted for xx percent of total infoDev grants
during the
years 1996-1999. The study was conducted entirely through the review
of
documents, website visits, e-mail correspondence, and interviews conducted
either in Washington or by telephone. No field research was undertaken
given
budgetary constraints, though the author was familiar with some of
the
projects through previous travel to Brazil, Egypt, and South Africa.
infoDev's staff, sponsors, supporters, and grantees believe that
technology-enhanced education offers the single best potential for
dealing with the
emerging global digital divide which would otherwise tend to aggravate
already
unconscionable differences in well-being, income, and wealth between
rich and
poor countries and individuals. But have infoDev-supported projects
helped to
demonstrate this? We began with a set of important questions regarding
how
lessons from these eight projects might provide guidance for international
organizations, bilateral development agencies, foundations, private
sector
investors, developing country governments and infoDev's own management
as it
plans its work program for the coming years. We sought lessons to help
all
these organizations address the global digital divide and its implications
for
access to the knowledge needed for the information and knowledge poor
to catch
up with the information and knowledge rich in an increasingly competitive,
increasingly knowledge-based, globalizing economy. It is perhaps pretentious
to draw major lessons for such important audiences from so few projects,
involving InfoDev grants totaling less than US$2 million. But we shall
try,
couching the lessons in the form of recommendations.
Recommendations for the global development community
1. A Global Service Trust Fund
to provide access to broad bandwidth
for education
and health projects in developing countries meeting
certain policy
conditions is a proposal worthy of support by the
international
development community, and beyond the scope of
InfoDev's current
resources, though InfoDev's experience as a
multi-donor
grant-making organization operating within the World
Bank Group might
be useful for administering such a Fund, whether
or not the World
Bank Group is chosen as the Fund's administrator.
2. The cost of dialup telephone
connections to the Internet,
especially where
"metered" time-based tariff systems exist, is a
major deterrent
to its use for education and training. Competition
and flat rate
tariff systems are the best ways to reduce this
cost. The international
development community should finance
studies to verify
and support this finding and seek its implementation.
3. There is high unmet demand for
quality distance education even in
Africa and the
Arab countries. This finding can probably be
generalized
to all developing countries, suggesting that there are
potentially
profitable returns to be earned by serving these
markets. What
is needed are new international and developing
country venture
capital funds to invest in these profitable
ventures and
to help them grow to the point where they can attract
more conventional
kinds of equity and loan capital. Like broad
bandwidth infrastructure,
such funds are beyond the reach of
infoDev's financial
and management capacity.
4. Introducing computers into schools,
whether networked or not,
requires important
investments in organization, strategy
development,
training of teachers, and leadership sensitive to
teacher, student,
and community interests to succeed in realizing
the pedagogical
benefits expected. These findings should be given
broad dissemination
and used to shape new computers in schools
projects funded
by the international development community.
5. Face-to-face and synchronous
electronic communication can greatly
enhance the
productivity of cheaper asynchronous electronic
communication,
hence there is still an important role for
international
conferences, workshops, and videoconferencing in a
networked, wired
(or wireless) world. Selective support for such
conferences
should be continued, but conditioned on extensive
preparation
and follow-up using asynchronous electronic means to
maximize the
impact of expensive face-to-face and synchronous
electronic conferences.
Recommendations for infoDev Management
1. infoDev funding can play an
important catalytic role in mobilizing
other funding
and in general facilitating successful execution of
a project because
it increases the credibility of the project in
the eyes of
other sources of project finance. Thus, despite its
relatively small
financial capacity, infoDev should continue its
work, and make
greater use of both the print and electronic media
to publicize
its projects. It should also establish close
connections
to international sources of venture capital such as
SoftBank Emerging
Markets to provide second-stage funding for
projects that
are intended to be profit making businesses.
2. infoDev should increase the
proportion of its total portfolio
devoted to education
projects, given the central role of education
and training
in the increasing knowledge-based and global economy.
But to leverage
this increased investment, a greater portion
should be invested
in projects involving policy formulation and
research, and
both should include built-in evaluation and
dissemination
components.
3. infoDev management should reduce
the time taken for project
approval and
lighten the requirements regarding infoDev ownership
of intellectual
property.
4. infoDev should make sure that
future grants contain provisions for
market analysis
(whether or not the project is in the private
sector), feedback
and evaluation built into the projects, and also
set aside funding
for independent on-site evaluations of at least
a sample of
projects.
5. infoDev should consider being
more cautious in providing funding
to large bureaucratic
organizations and seek additional ways to
support relatively
small, agile, networked organizations and even
individuals
with proven records of innovation.
Body of the report
Annex - Project Data
****************************************
List of Distribution
Peter T. Knight
Knight, Moore - Telematics for Education and Development
Communications Development Incorporated (CDI)
Strategy, Policy, Design, Implementation, Evaluation
1808 I Street, NW, 7th Floor
Washington, DC 20006, USA
Tel: 1-202-775-2132 (secretary), 1-202-721-0348 (direct)
Fax: 1-202-775-2135 (office), 1-202-362-8482 (home)
ptknight@attglobal.net
peter@knight-moore.com
webmail: ptknight@netscape.net
http://www.knight-moore.com
http://www.cdinet.com
IP for CU-SeeMe: 198.77.80.46
http://www.knight-moore.com/projects/GSTF.html
-- about GSTF
Dr. Joseph N. Pelton
Senior Research Scientist
Institute for Applied Space Research, Rm 340
George Washington University
2033 K Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20052
202-994-5507
Fax: 202-994-5505
ecjpelton@aol.com
jpelton@seas.gwu.edu
Or,
Acting Executive Director of CITI
Vice-Chair of the Arthur C. Clarke Foundation of the U.S. (ACCFUS)
Arthur C. Clark Institute for Telecommunication and Information (CITI)
4025 40th Street North
Arlington, VA 22207
(703) 536-6985
ecjpelton@aol.com
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/index.html
http://www.informatics.org/clarke/projects.html
Dr. David A. Johnson, AICP
Board member of GLOSAS/USA
Former President of Fulbright Association
Professor Emeritus, School of Planning
College of Arts and Sciences
University of Tennessee
108-I Hoskins Library
Knoxville, TN 37996-4015
USA
Tel: +1-423-974 5227
Fax: +1-423-974 5229
daj@utk.edu
davidj@buncombe.main.nc.us
http://web.utk.edu/~djohnutk/
**********************************************************************
* Takeshi Utsumi, Ph.D., P.E., Chairman, GLOSAS/USA
*
* (GLObal Systems Analysis and Simulation Association in the U.S.A.)
*
* Laureate of Lord Perry Award for Excellence in Distance Education
*
* Founder of CAADE
*
* (Consortium for Affordable and Accessible Distance Education)
*
* President Emeritus and V.P. for Technology and Coordination of
*
* Global University System (GUS)
*
* 43-23 Colden Street, Flushing, NY 11355-3998, U.S.A.
*
* Tel: 718-939-0928; Fax: 718-939-0656 (day time only--prefer email)
*
* Email: utsumi@columbia.edu; Tax Exempt ID: 11-2999676
*
* http://www.friends-partners.org/GLOSAS/
*
**********************************************************************
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