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EECS alum teaching
computers to speak K’iche’
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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.”
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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.
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