Comments on: WiZiQ or How one Company could change Education in India

By: jasonoutthere

jasonoutthere — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 04:55:12 +0000

Thanks for the mention Kirsten…this could have legs…Microsoft created a certification course just for delivery via Indian internet cafes!

I had a friend in China tell me that internet cafes there were a bit grim…but that doesn't mean there aren't some nice ones or ones that could be created for solely educational purposes.

There is an Australian English company who have a deal with the biggest Phillippino internet cafe chain. They hook up learners with teachers online.

70% of 16-24 year old Indians only access the internet in web cafes, even if they have a family PC, because they want to do their own things an spend some quality time online.

But to get scale you need the right course materials

By: chinamike

chinamike — Fri, 11 Dec 2009 20:32:40 +0000

Talked to an Internet owner. He thought I had lost my marbles at first. Then he through it might be a way to throw the government off the scent (government here aren't high on Internet cafes/teenage hangouts). Might throw them a curve, so to speak. Then he wanted to know how much he could make if he dedicated 20 seats to this project M-F during the summer when kids were out of school. Oops, the conversation got no further. These guys get to the bottom line real fast.

By: Michelle Parker

Michelle Parker — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:17:57 +0000

RT @KirstenWinkler New Blog Post: @WiZiQ or How one Company could change Education in India http://bit.ly/6E5Wwv

By: KirstenWinkler

KirstenWinkler — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:33:49 +0000

Then let's do it .

By: chinamike

chinamike — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:18:57 +0000

Ha-ha, I guess we have different notions of what is revolutionary. But if you could change a place that as seen as a high-school/college hangout (in most 1st and 2nd tier big cities in China) to a place where people would take class, yes, that borders on revolutionary.

By: KirstenWinkler

KirstenWinkler — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:32:47 +0000

Thanks Phil. One of the WiZiQ offices is located in Chandigarh with about 1 million inhabitants and according to Wikipedia at least one of the richest cities in India. As I said, I would simply go out and talk to the owners.
If you do a Google search with Chandigarh Internet Café you already get a nice map where you can see the density of Cafés in the city center.

By: Phil Hill

Phil Hill — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:24:06 +0000

Some interesting ideas. Making the India idea financial viable is dependent on having many learners online attending the seminar. The challenge would be getting a critical mass of Internet Cafe to adopt the program. We've been talking about these emerging markets at Openstudy with our new study social study network, so i get what you're saying.

Phil -
Openstudy.com - why study alone when you can study social?

phil

By: KirstenWinkler

KirstenWinkler — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 17:11:40 +0000

Would be great if you could. There must be hours where are not so many people in the place. Could help those guys to earn extra income.
On the other hand you could build up a whole new market on this. Internet Cafés only dedicated to education. Would be a killer

Is this revolutionary enough, Mike?

By: chinamike

chinamike — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 13:11:14 +0000

In China some problems I can see with this concept is that people identify Internet Cafes with games and not education. They are really not education friendly. Most are loud, poorly ventilated facilities that attract the kind of person you wouldn't want your child mixing with. In other words, they are almost the opposite of school. Still I might just seek one of these guys out and ask them what they think of your idea.

By: OpenStudy

OpenStudy — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:29:05 +0000

interesting ideas on bringing learning to emerging markets, like india – http://bit.ly/6QThh4