I had a power outage last night that really had me appreciate one aspect of technology we have taken for granted - power. I can certainly see how electrification can boost children's grades - they can read and do homework at night when their days may be dedicated to farmwork after school. From what I read that sort of labor is essential given some horrifying unintended consequences like banning child labor too early for their economic development apparently resulting in increases in child prostitution (correlation isn't causation).

I haven't spent time in the third world but I think it is safe to say the technology that does them the most good is infrastructure whether it is ancient like sewers or new like cellphone first deployment.

I think tablets are largely something for the far end of the bell curve - good for autodidacts who would seek out new things when given the means. Most people don't spend their frer time say looking up obscure history and quantum physics but those who do can be enriched by it.

There are smart people everywhere - I had a professor who grew up in the third world and disassembled and reassembled electronics from a young age. My deceased grandfather had a middle school education but sure could learn - despite working as a plasterer he managed to learn quite a bit of completely unrelated trades untaught, perspective in wood art, and write an eloquent sermon about his time in the Pacific theater when he accidentally made a more generous than expected donation in the dark - giving a $20 bill which is about $300 today and worth even more to the natives. It would have fit in as a chapter of a quality novel perectly.