::fibreculture:: One Kindle Per Child

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Nonprofit Tries One-Kindle-Per-Child In Ghana

By Geoffrey Fowler  The Wall Street Journal  August 5, 2010  
<http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/08/05/nonprofit-tries-one-kindle-per-
child-in-ghana>


In the developing world, where literacy remains a giant challenge, might 
digital books be able to leapfrog their print counterparts?

That’s what a non-profit called Worldreader <www.worldreader.org> is 
trying to figure out with a series of trials in Ghana that involve giving 
students Kindles to read in school and at home.

“There’s a huge difference between being able to read from a selection of 
the 10 books that you happen to have — or that somebody donated — versus 
being able to get your hands on a book that you are really interested 
in,” says Risher. 

“When you combine that with very very low distribution costs for 
additional books and falling technology prices, these are ingredients for 
doing something really special.”

This test will involve 300 junior and senior high school students, who 
will get a Kindle preloaded with some public-domain books, as well as 
contemporary international and *local books* (which the organization is 
helping to get published in digital form for the first time). 

"It’s important that this be positioned not just as an educational aid, 
but as something that can be used for personal pleasure," says 
Risher. "The long-term idea is that technology will ultimately help 
create a real culture of reading in parts of the world where that’s not 
been possible before."

The children in Ghana show their e-readers to their parents. Most of the 
parents do not read, so Kindle capabilities like the built-in dictionary 
and text-to-speech help whole families.


www.worldreader.org say: "We are a market-oriented, not-for-profit 
organization focused on increasing access to books in developing 
countries. Families and schools in the developing world have access to 
vanishingly little written material. Worldreader.org aims to put a 
library of digital books in the hands of every family. But we don’t work 
alone: we depend on donations and partnerships, and we invite you to join 
companies like Amazon in helping achieve our mission."

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Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Melburbs Australia