After 2 Years Electricity Is Still a Challenge for OLPC in Nigeria

   
   
   
   
   

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Back in mid-2009 SEED launched an OLPC project in Nigeria by distributing 4000 XOs to children of three different schools. I had all but forgotten about the project until this weekend when a Google News Alert pointed me to this video about the project:


Aside of the fact that the video is really well done I found it interesting to hear that the project's key challenge so far has been electricity (or rather lack thereof).

Given that the power infrastructure and associated costs for OLPC Nigeria was already a topic here on OLPC News back in 2007 and the SEED project has been going on for two years I can't help but wonder why this key area apparently hasn't been sufficiently addressed yet.

Hopefully this infrastructure challenge will be solved soon because overall it seems like the pupils are getting some good use out of their XOs.


Resumen en español: En 2009 SEED lanzó un proyecto OLPC en Nigeria con la distribución de 4000 XOs a niños de tres escuelas diferentes. Ya me había casi olvidado del proyecto hasta que este fin de semana cuando una alerta de Google News me señaló a este vídeo sobre el proyecto. Aparte del hecho que el vídeo está muy bien hecho me pareció interesante saber que el desafío principal del proyecto hasta el momento ha sido la electricidad (o más bien falta de ella). Dado que la infraestructura de energía y los costos asociados para la OLPC Nigeria era ya un tema aquí en OLPC News en el 2007 y el proyecto SEED ya existe para dos años no puedo evitar preguntarme por qué esta área clave, aparentemente, no ha sido suficientemente abordado todavía. Esperemos que este desafío de las infraestructuras se resolverá pronto porque en general parece que los alumnos están recibiendo un buen uso de sus XO.

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1 Comment

Shouldn't this post be titled: 5 Years Later, Electricity is still a challenge for OLPC Nigeria? It isn't like SEED launched in a vacuum of knowledge around electrical issues in Nigeria (or elsewhere).

At this school, like at previous OLPC Nigeria schools, there is an over-reliance on generator power, which is fickle and expensive. There are many solutions to bridge power outages and alternatives to gen power.

In fact, at this point, there isn't an excuse (expect poor planning) for an OLPC deployment to have power issues.

Of course, one could argue that power isn't a problem - when the gen is down, you just don't use the laptops. While we don't like to admit it, that is often the actual plan at the school level for all ICT interventions.

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