Mobile Devices and Digital Literacy in Rural Kenya
Imagine having an entire library at your fingertips, but instead of being in a grand room brimming with books, with an air conditioner humming overhead, you are in a classroom, with a dirt floor, green chalkboard at the front of the room where your teacher stands, and you are surrounded by at least fifty students. In your hand is a mobile device that allows you to visit the same worlds and words as a student in a grand air conditioned room, in another part of the world. That is the power of providing digital literacy opportunities in developing countries. One organization in Kenya focuses on providing literacy and technology to rural areas where there is no access to electricity, water, and internet.
The Kenya Connect Project
The Kenya Connect Project supplies schools with:
- water and health programs
- professional development for teachers
- a library card program
- solar lights
- a central facility with 30 computers
- LCD projector
- Kio Kits
With these resources, schools can have safe drinking water. Teachers are trained in ICT skills. Children have access to public libraries and solar lights so they can study at night at their homesteads. In addition, they also have access to a Learning Resource Centre lab, where there are 30 computers available for the students and teachers to use. But that is not all they provide.
The Kio Kit
In partnership with the Kio Kits, the Kenya Connect Project empowers students and teachers in rural Kenya to overcome lack of access and opportunities regarding mobile devices. Access to technology in rural areas is problematic because there is a lack of electricity and infrastructure like cell towers and fibre optic cables. Kio Kits instantly turns a classroom into a digital one. Each kit holds up to 40 Kio tablets. There is a charge centre that can charge the entire system. It is designed in Africa and has had an impact across the country. It is portable and a has a remote link for internet access. The tablets are ruggedized, so they are durable and do not break easily. Tablets such as these have transformed rural Kenya from rural isolation to access to globalization. Access means opportunities for the future.
Future Opportunities
The better access to mobile devices and internet means that developing countries would have access to democratic knowledge found around the world. However, the government’s role in this cannot be forgotten. In China, for example, the government controls content and doesn’t allow access to certain information, same as North Korea. Having access to technology and mobile devices, doesn’t necessarily mean that democratic content will be easily accessible. Kenya is a representative democracy and the government seems to be involved in developing and promoting digital literacy education. This is important because having more access to democratic content can strengthen the democratic process as a whole.
Either way, the future mobile libraries seems bright. There are opportunities to provide books and textbooks to those who cannot afford to have access to all the resources. They provide new opportunities for learning technology in a world that is striving towards more technological advancement every day. It is important that along with technology, teachers are trained how to use and utilize new and changing technology. Technology in the classroom won’t be successful without teachers who know what to do.
To Teach a Librarian 