When I visited MIT for a media conference, and walked around the campus in Cambridge, MA I got a chance to see the crazy projects those kids did (often in their spare time). One of those projects was constructing a replica of a fire engine (half the size of a real one) and moving it piece by piece on top of one of the buildings. Although MIT,like all colleges and universities enroll students who enjoy pulling off wacky shenanigans such as this, the world renowned technology institute is a leader in piloting new innovations around the world.
One program, developed through MIT's Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles project involves bringing mobile learning technology to less developed countries, and the first country they've gone to is Kenya (in East Africa). In a country where some people still live without electricity, the EPROM article states that Africa is one of the leading markets for the mobile phone industry.
"Given their massive adoption and widespread use, as well as the recent technological advances in their computational power, mobile phones are ideal substitutes for the personal computer throughout the continent. Customized applications could have profound implications for the economic development of some of the poorest communities in Africa."
The only problem is that there are not enough computer programmers to use the technology effectively. "Despite the unprecedented growth of mobile phone usage however, these applications are rare." MIT's EPROM formed collaborations with several universities in the Horn of Africa to teach programming on mobile phones to students with different levels of programming experience. The goal is to create a community of mobile device programmers in Kenya, that are able to design educational programs that meet the local needs of the population. To read more about the project, you can visit the EPROM site at: http://eprom.mit.edu/education.html
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