#ela2009 thursday sessions: Boots on the ground - the only way to ensure impact in ICT4D projects

Ignatz Heinz from Avallain Education for Development, Switzerland
(A man in black with a obvious ethically, warm heart. he has dark hair with a wave in it and a kind face.)
Ignatz focused on major issues to consider when starting an eLearning project:

• sustainability is key, not the (high tech) technology proposed (do not push technology)
• no longer open arms, if eLearning does not suite the audience needs, it won't take off anyway
• too much thinking too early from too far away is wasteful
• what does not work here, does not work anywhere
• simple here is not simple there and complex here is not complex there
• keep things in proportion to the local scale
• the world is flat! e.g. solar panels are available locally, so look for local solutions
• Potemkin, Potemkin, Potemkin: effect of 'projects-that-cannot-fail', but that are not sustainable but that was marketed for the wrong reasons = 'jungle of smiles'
• Believe too much or too little in government (lobby, shifts...)

They do early feasibility tests and look locally for technical solutions, which I like enormously.

Information: http://www.avallain.com/e4d

(sorry for the blurry pictures by the way, my camera lens was smudged and I only noticed once I was back)