The GoGo Board: Moving towards highly available computational tools in learning environments
Arnan Sipitakiat, Paulo Blikstein, David Cavallo · 2002
This paper presents a new framework to tackle the lack of technology availability in learning environments such as schools. The framework is based on the hypothesis that the commonly heard reasons for the scarcity of technology, such as high-cost and complicated budgeting models, are side effects of centralized management styles and an exaggerated belief in the mass-production mindset. The new framework emphasizes communities as producers of their own tools. The GoGo board, a computer-interfacing micro-controller board, is presented as an instantiation of the framework. Preliminary observations of the GoGo board usage and assembly by schoolteachers in Brazil are presented. Availability of learning equipment, materials and infrastructure has always been a crucial challenge in educational systems all around the world, especially in developing countries. Before even considering the purchase of computers, public administrators have to pay attention to much more basic problems such as lack of