Girls In Tech

Finally, something exciting to blog about: The months of September and October have been great months for the advancement of information technology in Greece. (If Athens residents read this before October 11th is over, they just may have time to attend Athens’ 1st Annual e-learning Expo behind Lallabai in the Aegli Zappio.)

According to Business Development Manager, Nikos Panagiotidis of Intel Hellas, the five pillars of creating a technologically literate society include the access to devices, training of the trainer, training of the users, broadband, and content. For starters, Greece is on the right foot.

Devices: In September, Greece initiated a grass-roots tech project for which all public school 7th grade students received laptops. The concept is very similar to the commencement of the 2003 Maine Learning Technology Initiative (MLTI) in which 17,000 seventh graders received laptops—unprecedented until that time.

Training: Greece’s national initiative is intended to facilitate the huge acquisition of tech skills needed to jumpstart the nation’s future economic mobility in the technology sector. Equipping and training the first cohort of 7th graders with computers necessitates the training of educators as well. Greek students, girls and boys alike, will now have an opportunity to compete in the innovative thinking that spurred the growth of places like the Silicon Valley and Pudong—and maybe make Athens interesting enough to draw the attention of Geeks-on-a-Plane ten years from now when they make their rounds to Europe’s emerging tech cities.

Broadband: With the aforementioned national initiative, the demand for broadband usage is bound to grow.

Content: C-Media (which has already staked a claim in the virtual world of learning via Second Life), Intel, Ote, and many other educational companies, sponsored Athen’s first ever e-learning expo this weekend. The event served as an opportunity for e-learning companies to connect and create on-going business partnerships that are productive for all parties as noted by presenter Dr. Mike Jackson.

As far as educational content is concerned, it was Intel’s freeware launch, Skoool™, that caught my attention. The academic content was first developed by innovators in Ireland. Initially, it focused only on the internationally understood subjects of math and science. It has since grown to incorporate many more learning modules. Greek children will now have over 200 learning modules from which to choose.

So, with all the right things in place: computers, training, broadband and a flurry of new content, this 7th grade national initiative is on its way to closing the digital divide that exists between Greece and its northern EU partners. Furthermore, GIT will be on the scene to cheer on Greece!