I’ve written before about education as a basic human right and about OER as a tool for advancing the equity agenda.
Today, I stumbled upon AHumanRight.org, a group that believes that Internet access is a basic human right and is trying to buy a satellite to increase access. Wow. In the midst of a holiday season that makes me more skeptical than usual about people’s capacity for good, this strikes me as an incredibly big (and good) idea.
In the current world, trying to ensure education as a basic human right might be best achieved by gaining universal Internet access.
For many kids in the world, access to Internet could be the greatest boost they get.
And in developed countries, like the U.S. where I currently live, folks in ed reform are debating the merits of formal education vis a vis its capacity to produce a generation prepared for today’s world’s challenges. No one argues that access to the Internet is essential to preparing a 21st century citizenry.
Not that I’m arguing that the Internet could or should replace traditional education…but achieving universal Internet access seems like a much more attainable goal than gaining universal secondary enrollment (let alone graduation) and/or fixing the current educational system.
Regardless of what you think about schools today, buying a satellite to increase Internet access for under-served populations is certainly a goal we can all get behind.