Radical Educational Technology, Courtesy of Nokia

"An education program, using technology, to get things done."

Using the existing mobile phone network to deliver high quality educational programming to rural classrooms, Nokia has been working to shift the educational paradigm in the Global South.
During my time in Nepal, I was working to motivate the sole local private wireless network to sponsor a similar plan for our library and school locations in the rural mountains. However, the option that I stumbled upon, OLE Nepal, was a far better fit for our needs. In Tanzania, however, another homegrown solution to closing the digital divide, for using technology to create interest and passion in the classroom for both students and teachers alike. A strong innovation, capturing the attention of both the private and public sectors, a local, organic solution. Radical technological innovation for the classrooms of East Africa. I look forward to spending some time visiting these locations this summer on my East Africa Educational Tour 2011!

From the BridgeIT site:

The program develops videos in the subjects of math, science, and life skills, and provides schools with the technology necessary to use the videos in their classroom - everything from the mobile phones that receive the videos to the televisions that play them. Teacher training and lesson plans that promote the integration of the educational videos into regular classroom activities are also provided. The short educational videos are transmitted to teachers in 150 schools in seven regions of Tanzania (Lindi, Mtwara, Pwani, Dar es Salaam, Tanga, Dodoma and Kilimanjaro). In a country in which classrooms are often overcrowded (the program originally aimed to reach 10,000 students; due to crowded classrooms and teachers teaching multiple classes through the day, BridgeIT lesson plans have so far been taught to more than 40,000 students) and the demand for books greatly exceeds the supply, lessons via video are an effective way to reach a large number of students.