The Information Revolution

“The Internet changes Everything.” This saying is regarded as an absolute truism among the professionals who are at the forefront of the technological changes taking place in our world. And despite my vantage point being from the extreme sidelines of one of the least developed countries in the world, I am agreeing with them more and more these days.

Let me mention a few examples. While working in Tanzania and using a simple laptop computer, I have created three missionary websites — MaryknollAfrica.org, MIAS.edu, and Bugando.org — that have been viewed by thousands of people around the world. Literally all of the Maryknoll priests, brothers, sisters and associates working in Africa have made use of the Internet for email communications and access to Internet-based information. Some are even using instant messaging (chat) and voice over the Internet (phone calls). In the past few years, I have facilitated conversion of the Africa Region’s financial accounting and reporting to a computer-based system by which the five branch offices submit their monthly reports to the Region via email, the Region’s monthly reports to Maryknoll Center are sent by email, and funds transfers from New York to Africa and then from the Region to the Districts are all transacted via online banking.

Now I am embarking on an even greater adventure, one that begins to reveal the true scope of the Information Revolution that is transforming life on earth. As I mentioned several years ago in this newsletter, I have been a proponent of assuring that the advent of computers and the Internet benefits the developing world as well as the developed world. My current ministry allows me to facilitate just that hope. I have been asked to take the position of Head of the Department of Academic Computing at the Bugando University College of Health Sciences (BUCHS) in Mwanza, Tanzania. Third World medical schools were always at a disadvantage when medical education depended upon multi-million dollar libraries with annual budgets of hundreds of thousands of dollars which were needed to purchase the latest texts and journals. Now through the miracle of the Web, medical schools in the poorest nations can access the very same information — current texts and journals — as any university in the developed world. The World Health Organization has taken a lead in making this possible. It has been actively encouraging the publishers of medical books and journals to make their online versions available free-of-charge to Third World med schools.

The Tanzanian government has wisely removed all taxes from computer equipment, allowing BUCHS to purchase complete computer systems for $700 each. The local telephone company has connected the University computer network to the Internet backbone with a high-speed, broadband, leased line. The BUCHS students and staff will have free and unlimited access to the information of the world. On a daily basis, problem-based learning sessions will be conducted in the two computer classrooms. While being guided by instructors, the students will be given real-world medical problems that they will discuss together and research via the Internet. They will learn how to use the online resources to investigate, diagnose and treat medical conditions about which they are not familiar. They will have access to the advice of medical specialists from around the world. This will also bring about long-term benefits to the quality of health care throughout Tanzania. Whereas in the past, there were virtually no medical libraries for doctors to consult; BUCHS graduates will know how to access the global network of medical information from any of the Internet cafes that have proliferated in the cities and towns of the nation (offering Internet access for a mere U.S. $0.60 per hour).

This ground-breaking step in educational methodology is being watched with keen interest by the government’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. I am confident that in the not-too-distant future, similar models will upgrade many sectors of the Tanzanian educational system. It is my dream that one day all of Africa’s children will attend classes in cyberspace, learning alongside students of every nation in a worldwide school. Indeed, the Information Revolution and the Internet will change everything.

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Maryknollers in Mwanza, Tanzania