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

[David Lloyd <lloy0076@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hmmm...

> As long as the people of a particular region/country and the government 
> do not have a hand in these programs or initiatives all efforts will be 
> the equivalent of the US trying to establish democracy in 
> Iraq/Afghanistan with a gun.

You have many valid points which I've snipped to save bandwidth.

Wouldn't it be better to ask ourselves:

 * In what areas or in what ways could one laptop per child help?
 * How could we, at schoolforge, encourage these ways?
 * Do our important messages and ideas get to the right people by simply
   posting them to this list?

It is true that developing communities from all countries seem to have 
different so-called helpful "fads" pushed upon them. Sometimes it's feel 
good; other times it's political. These "fads" can come back to haunt 
us, as developing communities aren't helped as in your Indian example OR 
we have to remove what we once supported by force [and execute its 
leaders quickly so they don't tell the truth].

I think OLPC's goals are commendable - realistically WHAT IS WRONG with 
the concept of giving the world's children a tool that you might be 
using right now to read this e-mail? Arguing against the basic idea is 
silly, if you ask me.

It can only be wrong if we implement it wrong and if we get the 
priorities wrong.

This leads back to my three questions...

DSL