Today modern ICT offers the most promising option to improve access to knowledge also in the remotest rural areas.
As long as reliable internet connections are out of reach of most rural areas in our partner countries, innovations such as the Open Toaster and the XO laptop are good alternatives for knowledge transfer. In conjunction with new publication models such as Open Access and Open Educational Resources, students, institutions and businesses can easily access and produce digital content. However, to make an effective and sustainable use of those digital opportunities, capacity development remains the key step. Teaching practices must be upgraded towards activity-centred teaching and digital skills must be trained within different learning settings.

Peter Rave
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH
Eschborn, Germany
Peter.Rave@gtz.de