[Grassroots-l] Another management blunder

[Edward Cherlin]

From Business Week
http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_24/b4088048125608.htm
One Laptop Meets Big Business
The big idea of giving PCs to poor children has been challenged by
educators and business. Here, follow the misadventures of One Laptop
per Child
by Steve Hamm and Geri Smith

"[The] Unified Union of Education Workers of Peru, representing some
320,000 public school teachers, is skeptical. "These laptops aren't
part of a comprehensive educational, pedagogical project, and their
usefulness is debatable," says Luís Muñoz Alvarado, the union's
general secretary. Muñoz never had a chance to explore the laptops,
though. In what seems an easily avoidable blunder, the Education
Ministry has not explained the program to the union.

Who is responsible for this? It is inexcusable. And don't tell me it
was the Peruvian government. We can't go into countries without a plan
for preventing such stupid things. Well, let's see. Nicholas had no
plan for deployment in Perú and Uruguay, so Ivan Krstić got handed the
job with no experience. Before that Nicholas dealt with the
Constructionist leaders of the Peruvian Ministry of Education, who
arranged for some kind of teacher training (no details available to
the public, apparently) but no liaison with the Union. To me, that
means that this is 100% Nicholas's fault.

Do we have to create a shadow management team to do the things that
Nicholas and the paid managers have no clue about? I'm willing to help
form one.

Also, management claims that it is seeking partners to deal with
in-country issues of deployment, teacher training, electricity,
Internet connections, and so on, but I see no sign of it happening.
Does anybody else? I have resources that I can bring to bear, but
nobody to make the offers to.
-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay