Image by Raymond Yee via FlickrI have been working in developing countries for years now and always making education a major part of what we do. We deal with bringing US students down to Central America and getting them involved with the culture in rural areas. One of the first questions asked is what is the literacy rate of the country they are visiting? Well Costa Rica is right up there with some of the top countries at 96%.It turns out that on celebrating literacy day we have to ask ourselves how long will reading and writing be enough to celebrate. Just to read and write in a few years might not be worth celebrating. It seems weird to say and of course we will always need to be able to read and write as part of basic education but it seems that learning basic technology is going to be a part of the literacy question for countries in the years to come. We brought our first student group to visit a rural school where we finally got computers and students on Facebook. It was quite amazing to see US students teach the rural kids how to open their accounts.
I would not doubt in the near future that a stat is given to countries such as Costa Rica to rate their literacy on technology for kids. Its a far way from being where it needs to be but just talking about it is a good start for now. Happy Literacy Day!
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