One Laptop Per Child - Reviewed By Expert
by Sami Grover, Carrboro, NC, USA on 12.13.07
The One Laptop Per Child project first hit our pages back in 2005, and has since made our guide to green laptops too. The basic premise is a simple, cheap and robust computer, known as the XO, that is designed as a learning device for children in the developing world. The rechargeable battery can even be powered by footpedal. However, while the technology may include green elements, it would be a waste of resources if it didn’t work as the learning tool it is supposed to be. Fortunately Rory Cellan-Jones over at the BBC has chosen to test the computer, and what better way to do it than hand it over to his 9 year-old son? The verdict turns out to be pretty positive:
I had returned from Nigeria not entirely convinced that the XO laptop was quite as wonderful an educational tool as its creators claimed. I felt that a lot of effort would be needed by hard-pressed teachers before it became more than just a distracting toy for the children to mess around with in class. But Rufus has changed my mind. With no help from his Dad, he has learned far more about computers than he knew a couple of weeks ago, and the XO appears to be a more creative tool than the games consoles which occupy rather too much of his time.
Of course the spread of computers and electronics to the developing world poses its own environmental conundrums, but in a world where you are increasingly either online or left out, it is hard to envision global equity without efforts to address the digital divide.
::One Laptop Per Child::via BBC::
I'm pleased the verdict was good.
I have huge respect for Nicholas Negroponte and all the other people involved in the OLPC program.
It's going to be very interesting to see the effect on computing that millions of kids have on it; millions using Linux rather than Microsoft!
It's good to think that he next Google might be built in the developing world using know how gleaned on an XO and computers we're currently throwing away!
Author's note:
This comment has been deleted as it was considered both racist and inappropriate.
One swallow as they say does not make a summer and one piece of eugenic research does not make an acceopted theory. Your argument of systemic low IQ levels in Africa fail to be borne out by over 50 years of research which have failed to find any links between race and IQ.
On the topic of the XO: I think it is interesting - either brilliant or ridiculously shortsighted I can't tell which - that the computer is bundled with the wide area mesh network hardware.
It goes against my predilection for one device for one function - which I learned way back when phones were built into answering machines. One breaks, they both break.
Then again, I am not knowledgeable about the social situations where this computer will be used. It may be a better idea to keep the two bundled for simplicity's sake - NOT because Africans and people in other developing nations are unintelligent, but this seems to be the computer for people with much more pressing things on their mind than keeping track of their computers as well as their network hardware.
There are pressures on people around the world I can barely imagine living in the US. I hope this computer alleviates some them.
And finally - as a budding Urban Planner with an interest in techno-democracy:
Is there a decent user friendly GIS system bundled with the XO so people can use information from the GEOSS and other datasets for disease, pest, weather, and other important information related to the growing of food and collection of water?
I ordered one through the buy 2 get one program. I can't wait to get mine, plus it is cool to know the other is going to a needy family. Check it out:
http://laptopgiving.org/en/index.php
clearly these computers are going to create huge amounts of garbage. Are these computers really going to help the kids over there more than using their traditional means of learning? Its an interesting ideal to say the least, though i fail to see the usefulness in One Laptop Per Child. I didn't have a computer or use one until i was 15. 5 years later i graduated a computer programmer. The notion that simply having a computer will make things better seems like a false solution.
The goal seems reachable being that it simply giving out a lot of laptops to kids in developing countries. But what are the expectations to come out of this?
1 billion children live in poverty (consuming less than $2/day) [world bank], 2.8 billion people live on less than $2 per day [world bank].
50 percent of the world lives under dictatorship. The most common fear in the world is dying of disease.
And we are giving them laptops? Aren't there more important priorities?
I'm not convinced that giving the XO to a child in a western tech-centric country is equivalent to giving it to a child in Africa who has little, if any, exposure to high tech. Jury is still out IMO, and will be for several years until we see the longer-term educational and societal impact. Closing the digital divide is a fine goal and I'd love to see the XO have a positive impact, but in my experience there is rarely a pure "add" in education, the knock-on effects of any change are usually mixed.
alex - I didn't have a dedicated computer until I was in college either. That didn't mean I wouldn't have benefited from one, especially in the current age of ubiquitous Internet access.
The waste issue is bigger. According to OLPCNews.com, the OLPC project doesn't have a good recycling plan for the laptops.
I'm always mixed about how I feel about this project.
One one hand I think it's brilliant that the world can use technology just like us. But on the other hand, I feel that all this effort could have gone into something more useful such as farming, teaching, health and such.
If it cost $1 per day to sponsor a child, then the money for a OLPC can provide at least 12 months of support for a child or family in need of food. Looking at the internet or being able to tell the weather isn't useful to a starving, uneducated person.
I guess my opinion leans more towards the against argument rather than for.
Well, sure - to get an African child's opinion on this project, we need to ask them. Or ask an African adult. But can we? How would we ask them? How would they get our question and reply? How would individual people, living in African villages, let us know what they want?
The Internet can be a very powerful tool in enabling us to communicate directly with the people living in Third World poverty. Instead of making their decisions for them, we'll be able to ask them directly. Instead of thinking of them as some undifferentiated mass of starved suffering, we'll be able to think of them as people - individuals with names and lives and jobs and stories to tell.
Well, I don't know if this will help people in understand the situation any better but I actually have been to Africa; I stayed for three summers in the last 5 years. I've been in the completely rural bush and in the capital cities of Ethiopia and Uganda.
Yes, there are lots of pressing issues in the government, poverty is rampant and there are big social issues to deal with. There are countless non-profits and government organizations working to improve the situation. I know, I worked for one for three years.
But the people of Africa are just like you and me.
The people in the most rural parts of Africa still have similar social structures, family lives, and personal desires. Just because they're poor doesn't mean they're stupid or can't benefit from the introduction of advanced technology.
They rarely put land lines in anymore. Why? Because the technology advanced before they were introduced. So instead people have cell phones. I saw a guy whose business to support his family was a cell phone that people paid to climb up a giant hand built tower and call whoever they needed to.
Kids in Africa and the rest of the developing world can figure out how to use these laptops just fine and they and their families will benefit from it. If anything I would suspect that these laptops will generate new types of businesses and we'll see some young entrepreneurs because of the tools they were given as children.
If this'll be a true educational tool and kids can learn about ecology and wise resource use, the benefits will far outweigh eco-negatives in the long run.