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Re: [school-discuss] One Laptop Per Child?
i worked with the Jhai Foundation to put together
prototype machines for remote, infrastructurally
primitive areas. the node machines were _very_ low
power with wifi and VoIP. the system included relay
machines that were intermediaries between the
remote node machines and some township that
had internet access.
the primary use of the machines was as a telephone.
the value was to connect the remote users with their
family members and friends who'd gone to more
populated locations for work. the connection was
not only family news and photo sharing (so-and-so
got married, had a baby...), but also commerce:
what of our crafts should we send you kids in the
cities to sell?
the secondary use was for education: "our kids
are better educated than the dumbheads in the
next valley", a matter of local pride.
other uses included tracking market rates for
crops and other goods (to better their negotiations
with the local sharks), medical info (to keep up
on local news--the latest outbreaks, when the
doctors might be coming, etc.), and more.
On Jan 15, 2007, at 9:14 AM, lee rodgers wrote:
>>I couldn't agree more.
>>Since I first heard of the OLPC program, I've found it insane.
>
>>When your world is dominated by where your next meal is
>>coming from and IF your next meal is coming, you probably
>>aren't too concerned about things like PC's, the Internet,
>>etc.
First of all I think there needs to be even more perspective here...
sure people value food first, but altho the malnourished suffer, most
of the developing world doesn't suffer from constant starvation or
severe malnourishment, nor does the old eastern bloc, nor most of
Asia, etc. AAMOF most of the places where there's severe
malnourishment the causes are found in warfare or kleptocracies, and
chronic malnourishment is due to broader social problems as well (like
the Dalits in India).
Speaking of the Dalits, this is the kind of liberating device many of
them are looking for... most of the Dalit population were the former
Buddhist (Theravada) population before the Hindu Brahma ramrodded the
caste system down everyone's throat. The Dalits are reclaming their
destiny from under the Brahmin thumb through two means: Education &
conversion (back to Buddhism or over to Xianity), and their leaders
already see computer tech as the great equalizer. The OLPC is spot-on
what they need. Maybe $150 per unit is too much, so the first one they
get will be shared in a classroom by 8 shifts of science & math
students, but down the road families will be able to afford it....
>>This is one project that should die an early and fast death.
Why don't you take a "wait and see" approach instead of parroting the
usual nihilist avante-liberal nay-saying? Or is it a white man's
burden to decide who gets to jumpstart their industrialization with
which technologies?
The OLPC is starting @ $150 (American) but the price will come down.
It's a great prototype of what can be delivered for a very low cost
(well below Nokia's 770). In 5 years expect sub-$100, in a decade, $50
per unit (maybe not retail but certainly mfg'd).
> But OLPC people cannot give them peace and security.
Chicken & egg.... Education leads to self-governance and social
stability ... modern educational tech could bring that sooner. The
OLPC - as a concept - is in its earliest phases, but 10 years down the
road there's a great potential for real ubiquity of devices of its
ilk. The boom of electronics manufacturing in Asia is just a prelude
to what will happen around the world.
mcooper <mcooper@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Jan 13, 2007, at 8:23 AM, Yishay Mor wrote:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid79489195/
bclid60818931/bctid336122058
Negraponte, Papert and Bender explain.
On 02/01/07, Anthony Papillion <anthony@xxxxxxxx> wrote:I couldn't
agree more.
Since I first heard of the OLPC program, I've found it insane.
When your world is dominated by where your next meal is coming from
and IF your next meal is coming, you probably aren't too concerned
about things like PC's, the Internet, etc.
This is one project that should die an early and fast death.
It is a tough call, isn't it? These people are using what they know
best to do something for kids in developing countries. In the
interview, Negroponte says, "I can't think of anything better," and
that might be most important line. These OLPC people are sincere and
mean well, but you don't think they have thought enough about it yet.
I would say in their benefit that they are doing what they know. They
are using what resources they have. They know PCs, so that is what
they are offering.
So what do you give children in developing countries? Financial aid?
Or do you teach them to fish? One of the biggest problems with these
countries is political corruption and exploitation. So do you give
them guns? What are the other options? The developing countries need
safety and political stability first. They need food, shelter, and
security more than PCs. True.
Perhaps OLPC should be giving laptops to poor African-American
families in Mississippi and opening camps to teach them. What about
poor Appalachians and the children of the working poor? Or how about
young people on Indian reservations? How about the children of
illegal farm workers? Or what about the homeless children in America?
Those children go to school. How about computers in homeless shelters
and staff to teach children there? Steve Hargadan has a podcast with
one of the people involved in a project to put computers in homeless
shelters, and she is a PhD who herself was a homeless child.
I do think we should do something for children in the developing
world, but Negroponte and the MIT people are perhaps not the ones to
do it at this stage. They cannot affect military dictators who use
children as soldiers and sex slaves. They cannot change corrupt
politicians who siphon off oil profits and leave their citizens
starving in mud huts. OLPC could, however, do a lot for the poor in
the US, because information would really give poor children a way out
of the cycle of poverty.
Gee, a little bit elitist, doncha think? It's good enuf for the poor
in the USA, but we know what's good for the rest of the world? Let's
be quite clear here: Not every locale south of the equator is as bad
off as you portray (never mind some of the biggest slave-traders are
oil-rich nations who can readily afford the OLPC machines). So the
contrasts you make don't reflect the world as it is, as each situation
is different.
Look at it this way, most of the world has access to television sets,
even if there's just a few in a village, etc. Why not OLPC-type
machines?
And what about all those old 80286's going to the 3rd world to be used
in various locale? They don't get there for free, either, it costs a
few bucks to ship a 50 - 60 lbs. of equipment to Botswana (doing very
well, no starvation, no war, no corruption, but in need of good,
rugged, portable machines).
I remember years ago -- a very long time ago now -- I awaited the
delivery of my Austin Computers laptop in 1995. It had the largest
damned LCD screen on the market & sported a heafty 32 MB RAM, a rocket
of an 80486. I waited 2-3 extra months for it b/c the LCD factory in
Kobe had partially fallen down from the earthquake, but the people of
Kobe got up & went back to work with holes still in the factory roof.
The point I'm making here is that people can work, learn & achieve
under all manner of circumstances, b/c people seek the most important
fruit of achievement, stability and will suffer all manner of
privation to attain those fruit.
I encourage people to give the Dalit & other poor of the world a
chance and stop bad mouthing this project.
/lee
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