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Empowering youth and connecting schools : lessons from the SchoolNet Namibia approach

BALLANTYNE, Peter
February 2004

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Schools in developing countries are beginning to get computers and access to the Internet. This article draws on the SchoolNet Namibia approach and its achievements. It suggests that programmes like this should give priority to the provision of affordable access using open platforms, pay attention to longer term cost of ownership issues, leverage change through partnerships, work closely with governments, involve school principals and teachers, and seek to ensure that necessary capacities are developed in schools themselves

Case study : the SATELLIFE PDA Project

March 2003

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The article describes the SATELLIFE Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Project that explored questions related to the selection and design of appropriate, affordable technology and locally relevant content for use in African healthcare environment. The project was specifically targeted at assessing the usefulness of the PDA for (1) data collection and (2) information dissemination. This report describes a number of valuable lessons leaned from the project that can be applied to further deployment of PDAs in developing countries. A number of obstacles to technology use have also been identified, which will need to be overcome in order to promote the widespread adoption of the technology in this context

Case study : the Tygerberg Children's Hospital and Rotary Telemedicine Project

2003

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The article describes the Tygerberg Children's Hospital and Rotary Telemedicine Project in South Africa which links specialists from Tygerberg Hospital to doctors at regional community or district hospitals to improve healthcare in rural areas. The initiative has assembled its own telemedicine system using off-the-shelf computer equipment and software that is more affordable than commercial telemedicine systems. It describes the local context, how the system was set up and how it works. It outlines the challenges faced by the project

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