Although the words “information wants to be free” has been repeated as one of the internet community’s favorite slogans, I haven’t really meditated on its meaning or impact to the dissemination of information. Recent interactions with speakers and delegates at HPAIR have directed discussions to several informational and educational initiatives. Among these are VLEs and NPR as well as the underlying systemic issues and mental mores of information exchange in education.
During a conversation with fellow delegates in the educational sector of Malaysia we touched upon the Malaysian Frog VLE implemented in over a thousand public schools across the country. The Ministry of Education paid a private company to develop what turned out to be a highly volatile virtual classroom, when in fact mature and stable versions of it have already existed in the marketplace. It is important to innovate and use digital means to complement analogue methods of education, but when it comes to the future generation of a country there can be no chances taken.
I’ve seen Moodles and Google Classroom being adopted in classroom curricula in East Asia with a low risk of failure and a high level of adaptability. Then, I wanted to find out the reasons for the failures and why there wasn’t a suitable remedy or a plan B in case the plan didn’t go as expected. Upon a few follow-up questions, I found out that there was little to now federal oversight provided by national experts, no panels, no parliamentary assent, no expert committee that was significantly involved in the approval process of the failed VLE.
One of the teachers mentioned that a blueprint for education (in the form of a very thick blue book) existed to report on the state of education nationwide. However, the blueprint only takes data from well-funded urban schools and boasts about successful initiatives without providing actionable improvements to rural districts or reflections on failed actions. We even joked that the book was only good for the rainy season because it was so thick and full of bullshit that not even the heaviest rainstorm could soak through its pages. Information isn’t just about the internet and democracy isn’t just a system of governance, it also entails social involvement in national decision making and the divorce of the educational system from the expectations of society – education leads social change.
On a separate interaction with Malik Ali, the founder of BFM 89.9 radio station, the thought of providing educational programming like NPR sounded like a straightforward idea. But on a closer examination on the realities of it, a radio station is more than a mic, a voice, and a frequency; an engaging and inspiring educational program has to compete with the latest Taylor Swift hits or Tom Hanks interviews. Learning is often so boring…
So many issues seem so distant and irrelevant that interest is lost as soon as the program host says: “Child marriages and abductions in southern Asia has been in the limelight…” Usually, people would turn the dial and tune in to a rock music station or just watch TV. Being able to attract an audience and convert them from lip singers to learners during their daily commute is a powerful force. Radio and podcasts can turn idle time into learning time, which is a more effective use of our ears training entire populations to become well-informed voters.
“The ignorance of one voter in a democracy impairs the security of all.” ~ John F. Kennedy
An uninformed population wanted the right to the franchise is a populist disaster waiting to happen. Information doesn’t just want to be free, freely available information is the key to freedom. A well-educated people are a well-informed citizenry who can monitor the actions of their governments and demand real change.
