Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

AMD have set themselves an ambitious goal along with worldwide partners, to empower 50 percent of the world’s population with affordable access to the Internet by 2015. Their internet usage counter shows that internet penetration among the world population has reached 17.28%, and without intervention, will reach the 50% mark in 2030. AMD’s aim is to reduce this by 15 years, and is based on four simple principles:

1. inclusion ia about empowerment not charity;
2. accessiblity;
3. geosensitivity;
4. integration.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.50x15.com/en-us/flash/internet_usage_566x300.swf" width="533" height="300"/]
Most of all its driving force is education, as Hector Ruiz, CEO of AMD puts it:

“As a child growing up in Mexico, I became aware at an early age of the importance of education. As I have learned and developed in my career, I have discovered that perhaps no force can have a greater impact on promoting education than technology.

“The technology industry has reached a crossroads which may affect its ability to truly empower people’s lives on a global basis. For the past 30 years, the focus has been on creating faster, more powerful, more efficient systems. However, in an increasingly connected world, our ability to effect positive change will no longer be just a result of new technology. Instead it will depend on our capacity to place technology into the hands of a far greater percentage of the world’s citizens.”

A bold ambition that technology educators can only agree with. Take a look at the website, and watch the video of the project in Uganda.

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