The field of telemedicine has become a reality because of mobile devices that can display complex medical data in real time. Doctors in North America can lead a student exercise or even operation on another continent via smartphone display. The patient's vital signs and detailed medical history are instantly accessible. This enables students in remote areas to learn how to perform medical procedures.
Countries including Finland have passed laws guaranteeing their citizens' right to high-speed Internet access. High-speed Internet allows for rapid access to texts, seminars, webinars, videos, graphical teaching aides and other educational tools. High-speed Internet access provides those with no access to traditional higher education with many of the same course materials and recorded lectures that their officially enrolled contemporaries receive.
During the first decade of the 21st century, several technological start-ups began developing software by encouraging unaffiliated programmers to contribute code on a free basis. This model of collaboration has spread to educational software suites, which are being developed with the input of teachers from several continents. Students virtually anywhere setting can access tailored lessons and curriculum through the software as well as contribute feedback.
Placing a computer equipped with basic educational programming in a setting with children enables them to learn through teamwork and competition -- what is known as a "self-organizing system with learning as an emergent behavior." A study conducted in 1999 in an exceptionally poor part of India proved that children retained information displayed on the computer without having the traditional structure of a classroom. The study was later expanded to Cambodia and the United Kingdom with similar rates of success.