The World's Children

We were all concerned with children in third world countries, and how they have such a lack of education that it keeps perpetuating the cycle of poverty in the area. We believe that if children in Africa would have solid education then it would help, not completely solve but help the hunger issues, and hopefully create more commerce for certain countries.

However the question is how we educate countries with no money and with many different dialects. Our idea was that if we could have professors and teachers just a few for every school to begin with, but have tele-conferencing technology then the students could still be learning as a mass but in smaller watched groups just with a holographic or computer generated teacher. The other issue that this comes up with is language barriers. So many countries such as Africa have so many countries that the languages are various and very difficult to learn. Which then leads to either teaching a mass group of teachers how to speak 100's of languages or, we could fit out computer systems with language translation software to allow children to use the systems or have lectures and lessons translated to paper and audio from English to the language in that school. This would also allow areas where the population is extremely diverse even here in the US, to teach the same lesson to all students, just aided by this software.

Ideally, we could put these two pieces together to create a system where I teacher could be speaking English into a Web Cam or computer video monitor, and on the other side where the children are listening the lesson comes out at the language specific to that child. Creating more of an ability to teach and create more education opportunities in poorer countries.

The technology chosen to solve the lack of education of unfortunate children across the globe is telecommunications and/or teleconferencing. This technology offers children an opportunity to access education instruction via computer networks. Telecommunications is the exchange of any form of information, be it voice, data, text, pictures, audio or video. Today's open systems allow easier access to these types of information because they use common standards for hardware, software, application and networking. They provide better connectivity, meaning better access and communication. Most importantly, open systems allow for people with any type of computer or network to access the same information, which is important for educational systems with small budgets.

These open systems can be used world-wide to help educate children that lack the educational background they need. Through telecommunications and teleconferencing, we can teach children all over the world in real time through video and audio as if we were right there in the classroom. Teleconferencing allows children to participate in the same learning experience no matter where they are located. Software that helps with translation can also be added for areas do not speak English. With this in place, qualified teachers can still share their knowledge without having to speak different languages. Through use of a network, computers, and a web-cam, students from any geographic area would have access to a live educational professional that could interact with them, answer their questions and offer support and encouragement when needed.

The reason for this technology is simple. There are children in the world in need of an education and technology offers a more cost-effective way to give it to them. Teleconferencing offers the opportunity for children to learn from the best of the best. It can be costly to fly teachers in from anywhere in the world, pay for their room and board and salary but through technology, we can offer children a better education at a lesser cost. A certified teacher from California might have something to offer the children in Africa, but other obligations and finances might hinder that teacher from giving what he/she has to offer. However, if that teacher can remain at his/her home in front of a web-cam for a couple of hours, they may be more inclined to share their knowledge with those who need it.
The possible outcomes of this technology are virtually endless. If we used this technology the right way, the whole world could benefit from it. Targeting third world countries would be the best thing to do. By doing this, children around the world would be able to go to school when they might not have had the opportunity before. Right now there are many different groups that go to these poverty stricken areas and educate the children. Obviously this can cost a lot of money and these teachers usually go over there on a strict voluntary basis. As state before, this is a cost-effective way for children to learn from some of the best teachers in the world.

Educating these children can have many possible outcomes. Children in some third world countries are going to war at the age of ten. This is not acceptable. Giving them the opportunity to go to school can end the civil wars in Africa for example. Allowing these children to see different cultures, possibly those who they are fighting, can be extremely helpful as we strive for world peace. This would also alleviate the problem of sending teachers into war zones risking their lives to do this job.

This technology could also benefit children living in this country. As we all know, there are many poverty stricken areas stateside as well. Some of these children do not have the opportunity to stay in school either. Also, public school districts are cutting costs left and right. If this technology was integrated into public school districts around the country, it could save multiple districts a lot of money. One teacher could teach the same sixth grade class in multiple schools. This would also create a uniform learning system, which is not evident in today's schools. This way parents could be assured that their child is learning the same thing as another child in the same grade at a different school. This would stop the problem of students not being ready for high school just because they went to a bad junior high school. As one can easily see, the possibilities are virtually endless.