[IAEP] Another article that could probably use some measured response.

[Bill Kerr]

On Tue, Sep 15, 2009 at 5:39 AM, Kevin Cole <dc.loco at gmail.com> wrote:

> This may have already come up in the 680 unread messages I have in my
> inbox...  If so, my apologies.
>
> A researcher in my office subscribes to Miller-McCune magazine, whose
> slogan is "Turning Research into Solutions".  After seeing last week's
> presentation by SJ et al, he handed me an article from the latest issue
> (September / October 2009, Volume 2, Number 5).
> | News and Opinions by Timothy Ogden (page 12)
> |
> | COMPUTER ERROR?
> | There appears to be cheaper, more effective ways to improve education in
> developing nations than the glitzy One Laptop per Child program.
>
> The article is available on-line at
> http://miller-mccune.com/business_economics/computer-error-1390
>
> At the risk of being burned at the stake, though I'm one of the devout, I
> think the author makes some good arguments that should be either countered
> POLITELY and/or addressed.
>

hi kevin,

my thought was to ask: why do some NGOs criticise other NGOs  in this way?
While other NGOs just get on with the job. Is this to do with a real
discussion of the issues or is there another agenda, such as a fight for
being noticed to attract funding?

I would see a real discussion about the different efficiencies of different
methods of helping developing countries as important and am very interested
in such discussions - see http://universalcommunication.wikispaces.com/

But what is the relevance of comparing deworming with the xo???? No one
promoting the xo is critical of deworming. And such different approaches
attract different types of people, surely there is room for both. The other
comparisons too while a little more relevant don't make much sense to me.
Esther Duflo's suggestion of teachers making a date stamped photo of
themselves each day is going to improve teacher attendance at low cost.
Great idea. But the goals of this approach compared to the xo approach are
very different and so its difficult to compare. I didn't see this article as
fair or balanced because it didn't attempt to setup a real basis for
comparing things.

Also the link provided by walter is very interesting - all the comments as
well as Oscar Becarra's response
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