RE: [school-discuss] $100.00 laptop

["Steve Watts" <s-watts5@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have been following off and on for about 6 months but not contributing to
the communications here.  Lots of good thoughts and insights have "passed
by" since then.  

This $100.00 laptop effort seems noble, but there are several things that
bother me just a bit - wondering if anyone would like to comment further,
direct me or provide insights.

1.  My children in the US go to public schools - I just validated with my
high school senior ands sophomore that PED's (Personal Electronic Devices -
read cell phones, organizers, computers, etc.) are not allowed in schools
(except for calculators, and the math classes have assigned TI-83's they
want students using since games can be installed...).  There is an
implication in the words at the referenced site discussing parity of
technology access between developed and developing countries.  Is there an
authoritative source of information regarding how many students in various
countries have individual access to computers in or out of classrooms?  It
seems like maybe I am missing something here.

2.  Assuming all students had a laptop issued to them, what would they do
with it?  I am an employee of a high tech company, and we generally don't
buy a computer until we have a compelling reason to do so.  Is there a site
or location where I can go to read about what a typical day for a laptop
equipped student might comprise?  This is the type of thing I do for a
living in semiconductor manufacturing and I'm having a bit of trouble seeing
this vision at least at present.  What am I missing?

Any further insights would be greatly appreciated.

Steve Watts
Enabled Foundation
StephenWatts@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Gordon J. Holtslander [mailto:holtslander@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 6:34 PM
> To: schoolforge-discuss@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [school-discuss] $100.00 laptop
> 
> Came across these sites:
> 
> haven't noticed this being discussed here.
> 
> A $100.00 dollar laptop running linux - intended for education in the
> developing world - and likely very practical for the developed world to.
> 
> http://laptop.media.mit.edu/
> http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=1935&tag=nl.e589
> 
> prototype to be released at  World Summit on the Information Society
> (WSIS)
> http://www.itu.int/wsis/ in November.
> 
> It looks like it is intended to support tablet style use (in addition to a
> keyboard)- so one can use it without using a keyboard.  This opens many
> avenues.
> 
> Gord
> --
> Gordon J. Holtslander     /     Dept. of Biology
> holtslander@xxxxxxxxxxxxx  /    University of Saskatchewan
> tel 306 966-4433          /     112 Science Place
> fax 306 966-4461          /     Saskatoon, SK Canada
>                           /     S7N 5E2