New Village – “Leapfrogging the Grid”
on a Micro Scale*

Professor Terrell Ward Bynum

A “Concept Paper” prepared for distribution at the World Energy Technologies Summit: “Leapfrogging the Grid”
Presented at the UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
on February 10 & 11, 2004

CClick here to download this paper in PDF format.

Traditional Saying: Give a person a fish, and he will eat for a day; give him a net and teach him how to fish, and he will eat for the rest of his life.

1. Introduction
2. Description of “Old Village”
3. Clean Drinking Water
4. Educational Opportunities
5. Improved Health Care
6. The Need for an Information Center in Old Village
7. “Local” Employment in the Information Age – The Birth of “New Village”
8. Conclusion – Cultural Considerations

4. Educational Opportunities
If everyone in Old Village were to get healthy drinking water, and if there were a dramatic increase in the average family’s income (see section 7), younger children would need less care, and older children would not have to spend all day helping the family earn a living. This would generate “free time” for the children to go to school. The increased income in the village also would make it possible to hire teachers who are citizens of Old Village. As such, they would be part of the culture and the local economy, so they would understand the local language, values and circumstances. Foreign aid from industrialized nations could provide scholarships to village citizens, enabling them to attend schools and universities that would appropriately educate them, as well as train them to use new electronic educational tools. After such training, the new teachers would return to their homes in Old Village to help their community enter the information age.

The Teachers’ New Tools:
Today there are powerful palmtop computers that use very little electricity and can run hundreds of educational software programs covering language skills, mathematics, science, economics, and a host of other subjects.³ These devices also enable one to “surf the web,” send email and instant messages, and (when fully equipped) function as mobile phones and digital cameras. Mass-producing such devices for use in underdeveloped lands would bring down their cost to about 100 American dollars. Thus, with a modest investment of 50 thousand American dollars, half of the people in Old Village – including teachers, school children, nurses, and many other members of the community – could possess a powerful tool for communicating with each other and with the rest of the world. With connections to the Internet (see section 6), the village would have boundless sources of information, including many of the world’s libraries, newspapers, museums, medical schools, business schools, scholars and artists. Properly trained teachers – citizens of the village who speak the local language and understand the village culture – could instruct school children, as well as adults, on the effective use of such resources.

The teachers also would have available to them powerful laptop computers which run on internal batteries that can be recharged by turning an attached crank. A few minutes of cranking would yield an hour of computing. Such computers can provide to teachers state-of-the-art software and powerful information processing that could be used to create a wide variety of educational experiences for students and community gatherings.

Impacts:
Initially, the newly arrived teachers would have to instruct children and adults on the use of palmtop computers. At first, the citizens of Old Village would use these resources to improve language, communication and math skills to a point where they could then learn about health, business, government, and other useful knowledge. They also would learn how to use cell phones, email and instant messaging to stay in touch with each other and to cooperate in joint projects and activities. Eventually, the more advanced students of Old Village could study a full range of subjects from science and engineering to history, art and culture – first locally, and then as scholarship-supported students at distant universities. To minimize social disruption, and to preserve community values, the political and social leaders of Old Village (and the surrounding culture) would determine the appropriate subjects and skills that their people should pursue.

*The author wishes to express sincere thanks for helpful comments from colleagues at Southern Connecticut State University, especially (in alphabetical order) Christine Broadbridge, John Critzer, Krystyna Górniak-Kocikowska, Darika Nantiya, Arthur Paulson, and Richard Volkman.

³ For example, palmOne™ offers palmtops like the Zire™ 71 and the Tungsten™ T3. Please see the palmOne web site.

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