An obscure merchant from Arkansas, Sam Walton, figured out how to use computers and communications to improve his supply chain and get closer to the customer.

FORBES: Perspectives

Started by the West Bank's Birzeit University, the centre teaches people in the camp how to use computers and sets up websites for refugee news, information and history.

ECONOMIST: Palestinian refugees online: Virtual bridges | The

UN's own plans for bridge-building include a corps of volunteers to teach people in developing countries how to use computers, and a health network to provide hospitals and clinics with up-to-date medical information.

ECONOMIST: Tapping into Africa

Computers might not be the best place to simulate a live philosophy seminar, but they are terrific places to teach people how to use and program computers.

CNN: Online courses need human element to educate

Instead, how about telling how the vice president of marketing at one company, an old-school executive who still uses a fountain pen and hates computers, learned how to use the software in five minutes?

FORBES: Magazine Article

Their research and design is on game-changing topics from how people in sub-Saharan Africa and India use computers and cell phones, to the use of Twitter and social media during crisis, to how digital gaming contributes to business relationships in China, to how American families control internet use at home.

FORBES: Where Are The Women In Tech On 30 Under 30?

The US has said it simply allows Cubans access to computers and free courses on how to use the internet.

BBC: Woman uses computer (file image)

The university was the subject of a study in 2004 by computer chip maker Intel which showed how the use of notebook computers had increased from 1.2% of students in 1999 to 35% just four years later.

CNN: Wired up for learning

Imagine how different the world would be if we could not only use smart phone and tablet computers and the like to deliver every kid the education they deserve and if that education was built around this kind of pattern recognition.

FORBES: Totally Addictive Education: The Future of Learning