EECS alum teaching computers to speak K’iche’ (fwd)

[phil cash cash]

EECS alum teaching computers to speak K’iche’

Winter 2005
http://www.coe.berkeley.edu/forefront/winter2005/lieberman.html

[photo inset - Andy Lieberman was honored by the Tech Museum of San Jose
for his pioneering efforts to bring computers and the Internet into
Guatemala’s educational system.]

Andy Lieberman (B.S.’88 EECS) has been recognized with a 2004 award
from the San Jose Tech Museum of Innovation for his work with Enlace
Quiché, a small nongovernment organization dedicated to preserving the
language and culture of Guatemala’s native Mayan population.

Founded in 2000 by the Academy for Educational Development and USAID,
with Lieberman as its president, Enlace Quiché’s goal is to
incorporate technology into the training of bilingual (Spanish-Mayan)
teachers. In just four years, the organization has established 28
technology centers, produced 14 interactive Mayan language CDs,
launched an Internet portal, and opened a demonstration and training
center.

Credit for these successes, Lieberman says, goes not to him, but to the
thousands of Guatemalan teacher and student participants who are using
computers and, at the same time, keeping their Mayan heritage alive.

“A lot of people in technology think that just getting access to a
computer is what the developing world needs,” Lieberman says. “But
there’s a whole other issue of making technology meaningful and
responsive to people’s needs. If you’re going to bring technology
to rural Guatemala, it has to be culturally relevant and in their
language.”

[photo inset - A key element of Lieberman's program is the use of
K’iche’ and more than 20 other indigenous languages that predate
the Spanish Conquest. PHOTOS COURTESY OF ANDY LIEBERMAN]

Lieberman grew up in San Francisco and helped Lowell High install its
first computers before he graduated in 1983. According to his father,
Andy has been gravitating toward this kind of work his whole life.

“My son has always been enterprising, and he’s always been
interested in other people,” says Harry Lieberman. “He once talked
about getting a bus, putting computers on it, and driving around rural
areas so kids could use the computers. Now he’s basically doing what
he dreamed of.”

As an EECS student at Berkeley, Andy entertained the idea of a high-tech
career, but an unsatisfying internship with a large Boston-based
semiconductor company changed all that.

“I was having a hard time finding meaning in the work,” he says.
“I kept asking myself, ‘What am I really contributing to
society?’ I had so many opportunities growing up; teaching and
sharing what I have and what I know are very strong values.”

On a 1990 trip to Guatemala to learn Spanish, Lieberman fell in love,
first with the country, then with a woman named Tomasa, who is now his
wife. They live with their two children in the mountain town of Santa
Cruz del Quiché, where he is known as “Teacher Andy.”

Go to www.enlacequiche.org.gt/getknow.htm for more about Enlace Quiché.