One Laptop Per Child

[Z^2]

The day has finally come when you can buy them; just thought I'd post that here in case people didn't see it flying around the news online:

http://www.xogiving.org/

[xor]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

Just in time for X-Mas :)

xor

Actually what's more important than the $100 laptop getting released is Halo 3 gets released tomorrow. :)

[Nikita]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

Imagine the potential that could be unlocked by giving every child in the world the tools they need to learn, no matter who they are, no matter where they live, no matter how little they may have.

I don't like that sentence. I'm glad y'all want to help, but am I the only one who thinks somethings a little bit wrong with the idea that giving kids a $100 laptop in Cambodia is the best tool to we can provide to help them? Don't get me wrong, I don't oppose the program, but I'm really against marketing it with the implication that a laptop is as essential to your welfare as toilet paper and clean water....It just sounds kinda arrogant.

Tools such as a Web browser, rich media player, and e-book reader bring into reach domains of knowledge that are otherwise difficult-or impossible-for children to access.

Personally my father and his before him had a way better education than I did without laptops and those new fangled calculators. Thanks to the Web Browser and Rich Media Content I gots a great education, and I b's a white an free amurican. (all in jest ) We will eventually stop teaching so machines can do it for us. Personally we should keep our over privileged butts out of it, because kids coming from other countries seem to be smarter than ours anyway. Dont get me wrong, I'm not trying to be discouraging on these kinds of things but it's not the end all be all if little suzy can subscribe to an rss and gets to read harry potter but she can't count her chickens before they hatched.

[converge]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

It's definately an interesting way to promote giving, since I already (in prior) mentioned I'd be willing to throw a few hundred towards getting one for myself, reasons in another thread somewhere. Instead of selling them straight out, you force those with money to fund the noble cause.

Unfortunately in this case, the noble cause is completely retarded. I personally think that everone in 3rd world countries would be more comfortable with fluffy pink couches. That way they could lay around and starve ,... or hell, air conditioners are cheaper than these units, so lets start shipping those around to the less fortunate. I'm sure their power grids can handle one or two units per country.

In the pyramid of needs I doubt that laptop computers for educational empowerment are very much on their radar. .. if they are fortunate to have radar. Now, if school systems within the US started employing this to fund technology improvement for kids in our country, that would make sense..

[Voltage Spike]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

I'm glad y'all want to help, but am I the only one who thinks somethings a little bit wrong with the idea that giving kids a $100 laptop in Cambodia is the best tool to we can provide to help them? Don't get me wrong, I don't oppose the program, but I'm really against marketing it with the implication that a laptop is as essential to your welfare as toilet paper and clean water....It just sounds kinda arrogant.

Perhaps it is more of a long-term investment. In order to make your country into an industrialized nation you need capital and infrastructure, both of which are really expensive and slow to implement. Attempting to bootstrap your country through information technologies (which are, at the moment, quite lucrative) is significantly easier and cheaper. Even if your end goal is to become like a traditional first-world nation, isn't it still a worthy goal to raise a generation where some percentage will take advantage of the tools to become knowledgeable leaders when the time comes?

(I want to say something about teaching a man to fish, but I'll resist.)

Personally my father and his before him had a way better education than I did without laptops and those new fangled calculators.

While I, on the other hand, received a much better education than my father and his before him (although it wasn't due to the availability (or existence) of laptops).

Thanks to the Web Browser and Rich Media Content I gots a great education, and I b's a white an free amurican.

So we invented a new tool and some people haven't figured out how to properly integrate that tool into education? That shouldn't really surprise you. However, even if school systems didn't utilize the OLPC project at all, don't you think education would be greatly improved simply by providing children access to e-books (where previously they had access to nothing) and the information juggernaut known as the Internet?

Personally we should keep our over privileged butts out of it, because kids coming from other countries seem to be smarter than ours anyway.

First of all, the kids that are most likely to come to our country from somewhere else are probably the ones most likely to be intelligent (based on a number of factors). Second, children in this country continue to succeed in this country (despite many good-intentioned efforts to destroy lower education) because of what OLPC is attempting to bring to other countries: easy access to knowledge. Third, there are many countries ranked (for what that's worth) lower than ours that may benefit significantly.

Really, it sounds like your complaint is the result of someone telling these other countries to destroy their education system in favor of the OLPC ... except that I haven't actually heard anybody touting that position. There may be people in this country that see the computer as the savior of our educational system, but that doesn't mean it's a bad idea to place computer labs into our schools.

[converge]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

I would assert that our generosity is more likely to breed a wider span of consumers than a broader span of intellect. Politically the majority of third world countries have a suffering populous because state funds are used to wage war against other local factions. By that standard one could argue that the best way for aiding them into a new era would be sharing arms and tactical technology worldwide. ... but in order to do that you must first convert, since historically democracies don't fight each other.

While it may be the case that your education path was enhanced, it is calculatedly not so for the majority within this country; current generations *need* BS degrees to quantify what our forefathers previously considered less than a high school education. We have the ability to implement pre-determined/designed technology but growingly lack the breadth to forge innovation of new technology. We have an abundance of webmasters, bloggers and gamers with a distinct lack for people that can create and creatively implement algorithms that innovate how we systematically accomplish development tasks. Ask any HR department in the industry. No doubt its likely similar for the security shindig, with plenty of people willing to run metasploit and nessues, but few heros that actually exploit. And even then, a majority of greater minds in the technology we champion are held by imported labor. I know of folks I [nearly] idolize annually in Vegas, the majority come from outside these borders and laugh, or should, at the US population.

[Voltage Spike]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

I would assert that our generosity is more likely to breed a wider span of consumers than a broader span of intellect.

I'd like to hear a little bit more about why you think that. I just can't see how access to books and the Internet leads to Consumerism.

By that standard one could argue that the best way for aiding them into a new era would be sharing arms and tactical technology worldwide. ... but in order to do that you must first convert, since historically democracies don't fight each other.

Are the parties involved with OLPC well-equipped to help in this regard? If not, then why shouldn't each group help in the manner best-suited to that group?

I also pose the question as to whether an intelligent, informed populace (which partially include those in power) is more likely to move toward a democracy. Perhaps if people could see through the propaganda of the existing system, then they might be more inclined to reject it.

While it may be the case that your education path was enhanced, it is calculatedly not so for the majority within this country; current generations *need* BS degrees to quantify what our forefathers previously considered less than a high school education.

By forefathers, do you mean a specific generation? Perhaps most of the 20th century? And in what regard? Math and science skills? Critical thinking (which didn't seem to be a concern in education until relatively recently)? History and social sciences (and you may have a point there)? Based on what?

We have the ability to implement pre-determined/designed technology but growingly lack the breadth to forge innovation of new technology. We have an abundance of webmasters, bloggers and gamers with a distinct lack for people that can create and creatively implement algorithms that innovate how we systematically accomplish development tasks.

Do you really believe that all Americans of the 1950s were these geniuses (by the standard of today) that the modern man couldn't hope to compete with? I have trouble believing that all of the hugely successful American companies of today are not as innovative as those from a century ago.

And even then, a majority of greater minds in the technology we champion are held by imported labor. I know of folks I [nearly] idolize annually in Vegas, the majority come from outside these borders and laugh, or should, at the US population.

I can think of two major forces at work here. First is the natural filter that the foreign people whom you are most likely to contact are likely to tend toward wolf rather than sheep. That doesn't eliminate the fact that most people, foreign or not, tend to possess sheep-like qualities. The second major factor, with respect to innovation, is not one of education but one of class status. Those who have little will have little to lose in attempting a new venture. A well-off American isn't likely to sacrifice a comfortable life of happiness in order to chase after some wild idea, opting instead for gradual improvements. Your conclusions shouldn't ignore that those people may be teeming with great ideas.

Or you can take the approach that the "greater minds" are evenly distributed throughout humanity and are therefore more likely to be foreign born.

[TeraKING]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

If i was a little boy, and i lived in a poor country where i didn't had food / clean water, I would sell that laptop to buy some food or whatever.
I think those children would be much more happy if you just gave them the $100 instead of the laptop...

[enven]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

I read this on Slashdot a while back (C. 2007-early January probably..can't recall) and recall the thought that came to my mind the very first time I read it: "Why would a poor child need to use a computer when he is receiving sparse aid in general?" Especially when Nato is siphoning funds (Well Anon's son actually) out of Aid...

[theprez98]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

Only a matter of time until the laptops are clogged with adware, spyware and other malware from surfing pr0n.

[theCount]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

Is giving a $100 laptop to a kid in a developing country a good idea? The simple but not very good answer is, it depends.

For example, when I was working in Kashmir last year I found that the majority of the people I worked with, especially in the under-40 age bracket, were educated to a level where giving a laptop would be beneficial.

To put that into perspective, I am now working in Liberia, near the border with Cote d'Ivoire and Guinea. We have a lot of very competent medical staff, the supervisors of whom I have started to give basic computer literacy training to. After the first lesson, during which I explained what I thought were the very basics of computing, and I asked if there were any question, a hand was raised, followed by, "Can you please show us how to turn the computer on and off?"

Computers are all fine and good, I use them for both work and play, but what the developing world needs most is not that. Somebody mentioned clean water, and I concur.

Every year there are cholera outbreaks in this area. We are currently waiting to see if there is going to be one here, preparing for an emergency intervention.

The developing world needs better access to quality drugs. Every month the clinic I work in sees roughly 800 malaria patients, and it is still the biggest killer for under fives. A disease that is an inconvenience for travellers. A disease with a known and effective (for now) cure. If I recall correctly, there was some legal problems over the production of artesunate, the drug that, in combination with others, is the most effective for treating malaria.

Speaking of drugs, rightly or wrongly (I'm leaning towards the latter), the big pharma companies have been pretty much neglecting cures for diseases killing many of the developing world. Chagas disease and sleeping sickness come to mind, and even though there is more recognition for it that those two, multiplée drug resistant TB.

Or, rabies: We've had a couple of rabies deaths in as many months. Post-exposure phophlyaxis is available, but at an extortionate price, so aid agencies like the one I work for are limited in what we can do.

The same applies to Lassa fever. Two or three deaths a month in this district in the arse end of nowhere. There is a cure available, if it is diagnosed coirrectly and in time, but it is too expensive for, say, the ministry of health to provide. In most Lassa cases, the patients get referred to international NGOs anyway.

It's good that people want to help, but geez, prioritising isn't their strong point.

As I said, computers are great, but what use is there if there is no electricity, or other reasonable means to charge the batteries?

Sorry, I realise that if I continue on this line, I will end up dangerously close to entering politics, so I'll stop my rant now.

[Xodia]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

I found the system specs interesting:

# CPU: 433 MHz AMD Geode LX-700 at 0.8 Watts, with integrated graphics controller
# 1200×900 7.5" diagonal LCD (200 dpi) that uses 0.1 to 1.0 Watts depending on mode. The two modes are:
* Reflective (backlight off) monochrome mode for low-power use in sunlight. This mode provides very sharp images for high-quality text.
* Backlit color mode, with an effective resolution that is asymmetrically reduced in complicated ways. See below for details.
# 256 MiB of Dual (DDR266) 133 MHz DRAM (in 2006 the specification called for only 128 MiB of RAM[28])
# 1024 KiB (1 MiB) flash ROM with open-source Open Firmware
# 1024 MB of SLC NAND flash memory (in 2006 the specifications called for only 512 MB of flash memory[29])
# Internal SD card slot[30]
# Wireless networking using an “Extended Range” 802.11b/g Marvell 8388 wireless chip, chosen due to its ability to autonomously forward packets in the mesh even if the CPU is powered off. The chip is run at a low bitrate (2 Mbit/s) to minimize power consumption. Despite the wireless chip's minimalism, it supports WPA.[31] An ARM processor is included.
# Dual adjustable antennas for diversity reception.
# Water-resistant membrane keyboard using a fairly conventional (QWERTY in the US International localization) layout. The multiplication and division symbols are included.
# Dual five-key cursor-control pads; four directional keys plus Enter
# Touchpad for mouse control and handwriting input
# Built-in color camera, to the right of the display, VGA resolution (640×480)
# Built-in stereo speakers
# Built-in microphone
# Audio based on the AC97 codec, with jacks for external stereo speakers and microphones, Line-out, and Mic-in
# 3 external USB 2.0 ports.

My question is, how can the kids afford to upkeep these things? This is just as good as buying a game console for inner city children, but making them buy the games.

The software included:

* A pared-down version of Fedora Core Linux as the operating system, with students receiving root access.[38]
* A simple custom web browser based upon the Gecko engine used by Mozilla Firefox.
* A word processor based on AbiWord.
* Email through the web-based Gmail service.[3]
* Online chat and VoIP programs.
* Several interpreted programming languages, including Forth[39], Logo, JavaScript, Python, Csound, and the eToys version of Squeak.[38]
* A music sequencer with digital instruments: Jean Piché's TamTam
* Audio and video player software: Totem or Helix.

At least their running Linux.

I think the $200 could definitely be used better. Linux based laptops for kids would be a good thing if the kids had a means of using the technology to better themselves. Unfortunately, some new shoes and a way to pay this month's heating bill would better alot of the kids a whole lot more.

[sharxbyte]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

why not send them used laptops. even if they are older, its not like the kids will be doing high powered 3d gaming or need anything capable of playing WOW. if you really want to help, then you can get a pretty good older internet ready laptop for around 60 dollars. (they run pretty well, and i've had to use an old p2 with 95 for a year since my gaming computer crashed... i haven't had much time to fix it or money to buy parts) anyway, i think that 200 dollars could be better spent on clean running water. if we sent them that, they would maybe be strong and healthy enough to build an economy and earn laptops.

[sharxbyte]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

My question is, how can the kids afford to upkeep these things? This is just as good as buying a game console for inner city children, but making them buy the games.

I think the $200 could definitely be used better. Linux based laptops for kids would be a good thing if the kids had a means of using the technology to better themselves. Unfortunately, some new shoes and a way to pay this month's heating bill would better alot of the kids a whole lot more.

after reading your post, i totally agree=)

anyway, do they even have electricity? that would be another thing to invest in.

[^Dash^]

Re: One Laptop Per Child

Well by opening up ways for them to learn and assimilate knowledge, better and faster, i think that they could theoretically evolve much faster.

I know... what they need is clean water, bandages and ways to stop spreading diseases among them, but by allowing them to learn about ways they can protect themselves they can do that by themselves... you all know that saying: "Give a man a fish and you'll feed him for a day... give him a fishing poll and bla bla..."

So in conclusion... you can't just give them all they need to keep them alive... teach them how to keep themselves alive, and maybe by giving them access to information future generations will actually be able to do something and stop waiting for the Red Cross to help them.

my oppinion