Re: [school-discuss] One Laptop Per Child?

["David Whitmer" <thewhitmers@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just to add to the discussion...

It has been my impression that some criticisms of OLPC, especially
those criticisms highlighting the need in some countries for basic
necessities, are rooted in an apparent misunderstanding of OLPC.

I mean this respectfully, but at least some OLPC criticisms I have
read elsewhere are often clearly from people who read about an
MIT-originated project to sell millions of laptops to poor African
countries, and started reacting to that little bit of information
rather than first attempting to learn what OLPC is, and what it is
not.  In many of those same critical comments are what I perceive as a
subtle double-standard; on one hand the commentator comments on how
arrogant MIT is for assuming it knows what poor children need most,
often followed immediately by that same commentator stating what he
thinks poor children need most.

Different people have different needs.  Some desperately need food.
Obviously, a free laptop will not help someone who is currently
starving and malnourished.  But it would help someone who has food to
eat, water to drink, shelter and clothing, but cannot afford to buy
textbooks, paper and pencils, or cannot afford to go to school
regularly.  It would be especially helpful if that laptop is
relatively rugged, has been preloaded with textbook and other
educational content, and does not require an electrical outlet to
operate.

From their own web site, OLPC is essentially based on the following
principle: "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him
how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."  These laptops are about
getting tools for learning into the hands of children, many millions
of children, so they can learn.

I respectfully ask those getting ready to criticize OLPC to first
attempt to understand what that project is about, and what it does not
attempt to be.  More information about OLPC is at its web site at
http://www.laptop.org/

David Whitmer

p.s. I am not affiliated with OLPC in any way, nor do I have any
vested interested in either its success or failure.  I am just a
technology director at a small parochial K-12 school in midwestern
USA.  I have been following news of OLPC for quite some time now, and
have read a lot about the project, about the technical details of the
laptops (hardware and software) and about OLPC's stated goals, as well
as criticisms of OLPC.