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A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 10:05:19 AM

estah

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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8309583.stm

It is nice to see this program is really making changes.

verity

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 11:00:37 AM

DemonKia

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Thanks for posting a story about this program . . . .

My middle offspring (who's a major computer nut) got one of those a coupla years ago. He loves it within it's limitations, & he's 23, so not the target audience.

They sell each computer paired to one that is donated to a child in an impoverished country, with the US (or wherever) purchaser paying for both. It was $400 when my son got his. The other computer paid for with his purchase went to a child in Mongolia, which pleases my offspring no end . . . . .

&, note please, that these computers scare the hell out of the rest of the computer industry.

I've said for years that when the price of a basic comp gets down to parity with a teevee, then we'll see 'computers take over the world', lol (but in a good way, in my worldview); that is, that it will then become a truly mass media device . . . . Until then, the computer is gonna be stuck being a much more specialty device . . . . .

& the One Laptop program promises to put pressure on computing to go in that direction, so yay! above & beyond the truly awesome results I expect in the long run from boosting global education levels . . . . .

Despite the foot dragging of 'big computing', lol . . . . . . .

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 11:11:11 AM

variation30

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"In the run up to Uruguay's general election on 25 October, the project is being promoted as an achievement of the Tabaré Vázquez government."

that's quite an expensive campaign stunt.

although it will pale in comparison to ours when obama starts dropping hundreds of billions before the next presidential election.

does anyone really think that a child having a laptop is a requirement for a good education?

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 11:21:23 AM

DemonKia

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lol

So, that's an interesting question.

When my two older children got to about 10 or 11, my father & I had a convo about whether he could start giving them his cast-off computers (he's a gadget guy & goes thru them steadily) . . . I voted a strong yes . . . .

Over the next coupla years from that point, I had opportunity to converse with some 'properly middle class' parents on this topic & they seemed pretty uniform that they were gonna protect their children from computers & the dreaded internet & a bunch of other neo-Luddite kinda stuff & wait as long as they could (late teens seemed to be the consensus) before they would get a computer for their kidlet . . . .

Well, my boys could take a computer apart (hardware & software) & put it back together again, better than it was, by the time they were 14 or 15 . . . . . I see this as necessary job skills . . . .

So, it really depends. Computers seem necessary to one's education if one is going to interact computers in one's working life; otherwise it does seem to be more optional . . . . . .

&, personally, the internet has made educating myself on all kinds of stuff a relative breeze compared to how it used to be . . . . . . .

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 11:37:04 AM

pahunkboy

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odd thread. I am getting ready to send my diplomas all back and to get the schools dechartered.

they forgot to teach monetarism, merchanitilism.

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 12:03:01 PM

variation30

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quote:

ORIGINAL: DemonKia

lol

So, that's an interesting question.

When my two older children got to about 10 or 11, my father & I had a convo about whether he could start giving them his cast-off computers (he's a gadget guy & goes thru them steadily) . . . I voted a strong yes . . . .

Over the next coupla years from that point, I had opportunity to converse with some 'properly middle class' parents on this topic & they seemed pretty uniform that they were gonna protect their children from computers & the dreaded internet & a bunch of other neo-Luddite kinda stuff & wait as long as they could (late teens seemed to be the consensus) before they would get a computer for their kidlet . . . .

Well, my boys could take a computer apart (hardware & software) & put it back together again, better than it was, by the time they were 14 or 15 . . . . . I see this as necessary job skills . . . .

So, it really depends. Computers seem necessary to one's education if one is going to interact computers in one's working life; otherwise it does seem to be more optional . . . . . .

&, personally, the internet has made educating myself on all kinds of stuff a relative breeze compared to how it used to be . . . . . . .

building a computer is no more difficult than putting together a set of legos.

using the internet for education is a bit of a risk...but then again, so is a public school.

I would not be so quick to say 'oh the students have laptops they'll be smarter now.' I don't see it as an important factor in education at all. it could even be a detriment in some ways, though that's a bit of a speculation and has to do with more than just using media in the classroom.

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 12:18:04 PM

estah

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Well they are free of windows, so that is a plus point for them, and I have seen the devices and they have edubuntu installed on them....google that, you will be surprised.
It is linux.

verity

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 12:25:24 PM

variation30

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quote:

ORIGINAL: estah

Well they are free of windows, so that is a plus point for them, and I have seen the devices and they have edubuntu installed on them....google that, you will be surprised.
It is linux.

verity

that'll make kids soft. if you don't grow up with ctrl alt delete, you don't grow up.

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 12:25:53 PM

Justme696

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quote:

ORIGINAL: estah

Well they are free of windows, so that is a plus point for them, and I have seen the devices and they have edubuntu installed on them....google that, you will be surprised.
It is linux.

verity

I don't think any one cares what OS they run in the countries they go to.
That luxery to fight over is ours.

btw I saw them with windows also :P
http://www.olpcnews.com/software/operating_system/

< Message edited by Justme696 -- 10/18/2009 12:26:41 PM >

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RE: A laptop for every child. - 10/18/2009 12:34:41 PM

DemonKia

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quote:

ORIGINAL: variation30

building a computer is no more difficult than putting together a set of legos.

For some, but hardly for anything close to the majority . . . . The middle offspring, he's had some interesting experiences in community college classrooms with people two or three times his age (he started college at 16) with virtually no computer skills to speak of . . . . . . Perhaps you are far more skilled, relative to the general population, than you might think . . . . .

& certainly when one strays out of the developed world, such computer skills are probably even more scarce, in part due to the lack of access to computers given their hitherto relatively high price tags . . . . . .

quote:

ORIGINAL: variation30

I would not be so quick to say 'oh the students have laptops they'll be smarter now.' I don't see it as an important factor in education at all. it could even be a detriment in some ways, though that's a bit of a speculation and has to do with more than just using media in the classroom.

I'm not arguing that bit that I've highlighted. Mostly because that's a pretty vague statement . . . ..

The reason you might not see having access to an inexpensive computer for wide dispersal to the less-developed countries as a significant factor in those countries' educational opportunities may be because computers sound like they're fish-water to you . . . . . *shrugs* . .. . . But either way, the experiment continues on regardless of your beliefs about it . . . . . .

There's a pretty vast history of 'too much education' being considered 'wasted' / 'irrelevant' / etc by the educated elite with regard to the less-educated masses, & the XO laptop seems to fit into that cultural conflict pretty well. I prefer to align on the side of 'more education is better' as a general principle, but other people can make other choices . . . . . .

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