Over the holidays Martin Varsavsky posted an idea on his blog, one with potential to harness the power behind a lot of the buzzwords in a way that makes a lot of sense to me.

Most of you know who Martin Varsavsky is, if not here’s a few links, he’s the guy with several several high profile projects under his belt, his present commercial venture being fon. I’d love to get into fon and a few related ideas here but that’s not what this post is about, let’s talk about democracy and learning.

First, his post is about his idea – using Skype as a learning tool. The premise is:

(a) there’s a match to be made, those who speak English and can teach it to Spanish-speaking peeps in SA, and

(b) Skype is the tool for making the connection, and

(c) Skype is the tool for teaching since it handles voice, video and text and file transfer

I agree mostly with the idea of using Skype however I wonder if there is a better way to do the matchmaking, finding the teachers for the students. I guess Skype could be an all-in-one solution, but surely there are other ways. I do think he’s spot on re Skype being the tool for the teaching though – what a great idea, eh.

Look at the really cool things he’s done with Educar. And the beautiful thing is others have cottoned on to the Educar concept, money to extend the project into Chile for example; I’d love to see more dollars supporting this and like projects.

And speaking of like projects, the Advanced Micro project, some of the bucks behind Nicolas Negroponte‘s UD$100 computer for students appears to be moving along. The divide does exist, it’s not a myth – and it’s hardware, software and connectivity. Martin is there re connectivity and bringing solutions to Argentine education, I guess I’m just super impressed with all he has done for education in developing countries, such as Argentina where he studied as a kid..

And democracy is a bit by bit process, lowering the capital requirements to have a voice, a press, is a big thing. Fon and others are on that track, it’s a long haul but these guys are on the front lines fighting for everyone’s inherent right to voice opinion.

One more thought, if you’re a videoblogger or into making video, have a look at this: documentary competition over at the Inter-American Development Bank, perhaps with your vid cam and an idea you can add some energy to an education project or help Educar if you found the above information and links interesting.

[photo is Joaquín Fargas' sculpture Corazón + Sol = VIDA ]