One Laptop Per Child News

What would a "bottom of the pyramid" approach for the OLPC look like? While the OLPC vision is bottom-up and child-focused, their actual deployment has been top-heavy. There's occasional discussion about releasing the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop into the market to achieve a more bottom-up development, and the OLPC's original selling point to its manufacturers was that even though the profit margins would be slim, the market would be the next billion users (WSJ). So why not go all-in and focus on this record of success in the technology creation/diffusion realm, and apply it in the international development context?

Where the OLPC Project has intersected with the market; it has created new and valuable intellectual property (Mary Lou Jepsen, former CTO of OLPC, believes so strongly in the new technology that she's created her own for-profit company licensing the OLPC technology). The buzz around the XO has invigorated the ultra-mobile/small/low-power/low-cost laptop market; with Asus' Eee PC, the new Elonex, Fujitsu's newest LifeBook series, and of course Intel's already-existing ClassMate has received much more attention of recent.

BusinessWeek's Bruce Nussbaum has already compared the OLPC to the Classmate from a BoP approach; but only focused on education and implementation:

But one absolutely critical issue that trumps all the others is education—how best to teach kids at the bottom of the pyramid. So far, the conversation about XO has been dominated by geek stuff, not educational stuff. [...] But where’s the debate over digital lesson plans in local languages, team teaching, long-distance education? [...] Intel may be doing better than the XO. A version of Intel’s Classmate PC is already on sale in Mexico and elsewhere and it is—this is key—bundled with educational material software and teacher support.

That's all well and good, but it continues an assumption that I'm trying to open up for debate -- is the educational system the best way to distribute the OLPC XO laptops to create sustained development? What would the the OLPC project turn into if changed to a technology-diffusion, bottom of the pyramid approach with the overall goal of improving communities by closing the "digital divide"?

OLPC through BoP

First off, there are some immediately obvious downsides. The project would not be a one laptop per child; egalitarian, education-focused project anymore, which is a big punch in the gut to the OLPC vision. It wouldn't necessarily be a child-only approach -- children could be encouraged with various incentives, but once you go to the market, turning away customers over 18 won't fly for very long.

However, the current situation is limited pilot projects in mostly urban situations, mostly schools which are on-grid with Internet access available, with Peru leading the way in pushing for remote-rural tests. So a market approach loses something, but might make up for it in spread and long-term impact. A bottom-up approach is still very constructivist; and doesn't necessarily have to lose it's child-centric flavor. If the underlying goal is closing the "digital divide" and helping these countries; what you need is a self-sustaining project, not an infinite series of projects and recurring costs to the government for new laptops.

So what does it take for technology projects to self-sustain; leading to community development? You need to create a technology that individuals in the community will adopt, learn, and expand, and a process to enable this. This is technology diffusion as much as ICT4Dev -- you want to find early adopters who will spearhead technology adoption. If you look at similar technology diffusion projects that have been widely successful, some exciting possibilities come to light.

The mobile phone comparison

The first example that always gets dragged out when talking about technology diffusion in developing world contexts is of course the cell phone. The wildfire-like adoption rates of cellular technology are amazing, even (especially?) in developing countries. The Grameen (Village) Phone project has found a micro-credit solution to bring in even those markets unable to normally afford a phone by extending credit (combined with training on using the phone) to individuals in a community, who then use the phone as a business, charging people to use it to call family or government services in remote cities, find out the market value for their crops, and so on. The profits from this micro-enterprise repay the low-interest loan and improve the quality of life of the entrepreneur.

The OLPC costs a bit more than a cell phone, unfortunately -- but the same microfinance concept has been successful in costlier technology projects. In Nicaragua, a local firm called TecnoSol has partnered with an energy corporation, E+Co, to sell photovoltaics, (PVs, solar power cells) batteries, and training to rural farmers and entrepreneurs through a credit scheme. These PVs can cost up to $3,000 for the more powerful (and larger) cells; but for much of rural Nicaragua, there's simply no grid access, and a PV can mean light, water pumps, and even refrigeration for a farm or a store; which can greatly expand business potential (if you're the only place in walking distance with a cold beer, you will meet with success). So this model can scale up beyond relatively cheap cell phones to more expensive objects. This UMich study (PDF) goes into more detail on the Tecnosol/E+Co partnership.

These projects have many factors contributing to their success, but the underlying key for both is local knowledge -- what local demands are going unmet that could turn enough profit to repay a loan and create a small business? With the Grameen Phone, community members had a variety of different needs that they were willing to pay small fees for, if a phone was available to "rent" time on. In Nicaragua, providing electricity in an area with no access to the power grid has obvious benefits, many of which can be monetized.

The same entrepreneurial idea can feed development, using the OLPC technology instead of (or possibly in addition to) cell phones and PVs. Set up a group of in-country micro-lenders who can walk someone through the usage of the OLPC XO laptops, evaluate requests for laptop loans with local situational and social knowledge, and help with initial setup. Provide micro-loans to individuals with an idea of how to use the laptop in a way that could generate enough revenues for repayment and self-employment. Work with local social customs and systems to find the best way to create social pressure for loan repayment (only x amount of money is available on a rotating basis?), as well as adapt to local markets and needs.

Perhaps some business ideas will also require Internet connectivity -- can this be rolled in as an additional service to the OLPC via a GPRS/EDGE/etc. cell phone connection, a local ISP, or some other solution (satellite uplinks would probably be too expensive unless they're shared with others; perhaps one could get installed and shared among a geographically close group of XO entrepreneurs via the mesh?). Perhaps some plans would also need an energy source to charge the laptop (the yo-yo charger can only do so much) that could be provided or supplemented with solar or wind energy and a UPS battery backup? Maybe a small portable printer (and ink?) is also needed for some ideas -- it all depends on the idea and the local market's need and ability to pay for the services balanced against the cost of the items, marginal costs of ink/paper/cell phone data costs, and how low micro-loan interest rates can be safely set.

Keeping the educational focus

The bottom-of-they-pyramid microfinance approach doesn't even have to drop the education focus. While the returns on education are much to slow to repay loans effectively in most cases, grant programs or other implementations could focus on child usage. For example; the XO could be on sale for anyone; but only young entrepreneurs could qualify for the micro-loans, and they'd have to provide some explanation of how this would fit into their learning. Schools or education-oriented civil groups could to buy on credit in bulk, provided they could support both an educational aspect and a profit-making aspect. Grants could be available to even younger children participating in educational programs, skimming profits off of the loan system and successful entrepreneurs in a new G1G1 style program.

Below are a few ideas (presuming some form of Internet, probably cell-phone-network enabled) that could combine the OLPC, community development, and education with making a bit of profit. There are a million other possible things to do with the laptop, using its built in hardware and software tools as well as adding other open-source software to it, so this is by definition an incomplete list. Only local agents can really know what the local demand for OLPC-related services would be, so take these as very basic, generic ideas:

• Youth could create radio programs with local advertising -- youth gain experience in writing, public speaking, budgeting, aspects of radio operation (physics lesson on radio waves?), as well as marketing. Local industries could advertise goods during their radio program, and this isn't even getting into the FOPSE (For-profit Social Enterprises) possibilities like the LapDesk.
• The OLPC could be used as a traveling/home-visit cybercafe and "digital office" (some tasks might require a portable printer as well) to provide services like:
  • Letter/resume transcription and/or typing
  • Contact (skype/voip with family abroad?)
  • Interaction with eGovernment services
  • Access to current market prices for locally produced goods
  • Manage an eBay store of artesania / handcrafts
  • Remote basic medicine and consultation with urban-based doctors
  • Of course, email/chat/web surfing/entertainment and the like if there's a demand for such services
• Schools (or other groups) could offer the public training and adult education -- the laptop is built to support education; so it's an ideal machine to support training in basic computer skills (typing, mousing, etc.); literacy and numeracy, and so on.

So, readers -- can this work? Does this "cheapen" the laptop-as-educational-revolution? Does that matter if a more substantial and sustainable development project emerges?

Tags: Bottom of the Pyramid | Bruce Nussbaum | GPRS | Muhammad Yunus | Nextbillion | Photovoltaics | TecnoSol |

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The little town of Arahuay, Peru must feel like a ugly duckling suddenly becoming a beautiful swan - one day it was a Peruvian backwater and the next it's the center of global technology attention with a OLPC Peru pilot in its midst..

First there was Carla Gomez Monroy's detailed write up of her experience at Institución Educativa Apóstol Santiago in Arahuay. Then the AP wrote a sweet Christmas story on how OLPC was inspiring children:

"Some tell me that they don't want to be like their parents, working in the fields," first-grade teacher Erica Velasco says of her pupils. She had just sent them to the Internet to seek out photos of invertebrates -- animals without backbones.

"What they work with most is the (built-in) camera. They love to record," says Maria Antonieta Mendoza, an Education Ministry psychologist studying the Arahuay pilot to devise strategies for the big rollout when the new school year begins in March.

After a near-death experience at the school, Ivan Krstić let us know he was astounded in Arahuay with the impact that One Laptop Per Child has on the entire community - children, parents, teachers, and school administrators. He found three key changes brought by the technology.

First, children started communicating more in and out of class, using the XO as a means to eclipse physical barriers and as a way to break down social barriers. Then, since each child had the exact same laptop, they started to share ideas instead of being selfish with things. Last, but not least, there was a change in family perception of school:

"Children’s fathers used to seethe with fury when the laptops were passed out, because the kids no longer wanted to help work in the field all day," he continued.

"I didn’t know how we’d stop the fathers from revolting and making the kids return their XOs," he says, shaking his head slightly. "The kids solved the dilemma for me: they taught their fathers how to use the Internet and a search engine."

"Then they started showing them the work they were doing for school. The reports they wrote, the pictures they took, the notes they compiled. And the fathers had actual proof that their kids were learning," he concluded.

I think the MIT Review captures the current OLPC Peru feelings with its apt article title, "OLPC's Peruvian Honeymoon". While the title referred to Mary Lou Jepsen's belated honeymoon with her husband in Peru, it is apropos to this stage of OLPC Peru development.

So far, we've been awed by the picturesque pilot progress and very shortly there will be 240,000 XO laptops headed towards Peru as One laptop Per Child ramps up its largest deployment ever attempted. Now OLPC is in a mad dash to refine its deployment approach, and just completed its first deployment guide:

With input from the Tech Team, the Learning Team, Brightstar, and the Deployment Team, we now have a Deployment Guide. The guide covers planning, execution, and support, along with some tips based upon our experience in trial deployments around the world; a sample deployment schedule; a sample workshop schedule; a check list to guide you through the deployment process; and a glossary of OLPC terms.

Here's to wishing all the OLPC teams luck in implementation, the hardest, messiest, and most time and resource intensive aspect of any technology project, exponentially compounded by each distance, language, and culture barrier. Or as MIT Review says:

[Mary Lou] Jepsen acknowledged that the challenges Peru faces in reforming its educational system dwarf those of actually designing the pint-sized green-and-white gadgets. "Laptops are easy; education is hard to transform," she told ministry staff.

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Tags: Arahuay | Carla Gomez Monroy | Deployment Guide | MIT Review | Mary Lou Jepsen | OLPC Peru | Peru | XO Honeymoon |

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Now that One Laptop Per Child has started Give One Get One XO sales, its time to revisit the cost of the XO-1 laptop. According to OLPC, its $200 just for the laptop, if you buy at least 10,000. Now that doesn't even come close to the Total Cost of Ownership, which is upwards of $1,000 per laptop when implementation and maintenance costs are added in.

But for argument's sake, let's go back to the base $200 laptop price. And let's take Sumner Lemon's example of Indonesia, one of the world's largest developing countries with a population of 235 million:

Indonesia has around 40 million students and buying all of them a laptop priced at $200 would cost $8 billion, a sum that is 3.3 times larger than the money set aside for Indonesia's mandatory 12-year education program in the government's 2007 budget.

Now Indonesia is not alone in facing astronomical laptop costs when looking at a one-to-one distribution model when barely having a budget for current educational expenditures. So how can there be one learning laptop per child in such a populous country?

On this, I suggest that OLPC look to the wisdom of Intel's World Ahead program staff. Leighton Phillips, manager of Intel's World Ahead Program in Asia, introduced a simple, but effective idea to Sumner:

One possible solution is a monthly payment program where parents pay for subsidized laptops in installments over the school year. But families in developing countries are generally poorer than in other countries-- Indonesia's 2006 per-capita GDP was $3,900 compared to $43,800 in the U.S.-- and that calls for creative financing programs to cover the cost of the computers.

"There are potential subsidies and there are different ways this is happening; some of it can be government-led, some of it can be corporate-led," Phillips said. With subsidized laptop programs, families could be asked to pay $10 per month in addition to existing tuition fees and receive a computer.

Or imagine an alternate Give One Get One program. A global G25%G1 if you will, where relatively wealthy buyers of XO-1 laptops in the developed world pay a 25% mark-up on $200 laptops, with that $50 premium going to subsidize an Indonesian family's purchase of an XO on a payment plan.

No, it's not a pretty as G1G1, but at the same time it could be significantly more effective. There would be exponentially more buyers of XO laptops and selling them in the developing world too can reduce unintended G1G1 consequences.

If XO's are given out free, there would be a propensity for recipients to waste computers - they expect they can just ask for another if the first one is lost or damaged or they could sell them for quick cash. But with a $10 per month payment plan for a $150 laptop, the XO would have a real value, yet only up to $250, which isn't enough price disparity to cause eBay XO sales to American buyers.

Now that would mean One Laptop Per Child would be expected to come up with a maintenance plan better than Humpty Dumpty on a million unit scale. In addition, there will need to be a cultural integration program for parents who've never seen a computer, much less the Internet.

Last but not least, they are also going to want proof that their child can "learn learning" more effectively with an XO vs. a Classmate, Eee PC, or a similar investment in One Teacher Per School.

My hope: OLPC's punt to the pilots develops all three.

Tags: G1G1 | Humpty Dumpty | Intel | Leighton Phillips | OLPC Indonesia | Sumner Lemon | World Ahead | XO Payment Plan |

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When One Laptop Per Child announced Give One Get One, Jon Camfield worried about the unintended consequences of USA sales on XO laptop distribution in the developing world. Specifically, Jon was worried about grey markets allowing XO theft to vandalize education.

Sadly, we now have another theft to add. Bob was a victum of Give One Get None:

My OLPC box arrived today... WITH NO PC IN IT!!! I got the Give One, Get NONE!

In a word. Disappointment. I have to suspect somebody inside FedEx. I wonder how long this is going to take to straiten out..

Now which "straighten out" might Bob be referring to?

Tags: $100 Laptop | Bob Herrmann | FedEx | G1G0 | OLPC Theft | XO Delivery | XO Lust | XO Theft | XO Vandals |

A OLPC Give One Get None Horror Story | Comment (21) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

Can I make a radical suggestion? Could we adjust the messaging of One Laptop Per Child, substituting Sylvia Gonzalez Mujica for Nicholas Negroponte?

I just watched Luis Ramirez interview her as program manager of Ceibal, the OLPC Uruguay roll-out, and while she has similar answers to Negroponte, she speaks with an authenticity and reality that is shockingly refreshing:

One example: when asked if there was teacher push-back, she was honest that not only did the teachers have valid concerns, their opinions mattered and Ceibal worked with them to make OLPC part of their educational methodology. Imagine that.

I only hope to imagine that there will be more Sylvia Gonzalez's in more countries that will make One Laptop Per Child work on a local level.

Video subtitled through fav2fav.

Tags: Ceibal | Luis Ramirez | OLPC Implementation | OLPC Uruguay | Sylvia Gonzalez Mujica | fav2fav |

Sylvia Gonzalez Mujica on OLPC Uruguay Implementation Plan | Comment (8) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

This email from Mike C. Fletcher was original published on the OLPC Developers listserv and is republished here with Mike's permission

Obviously conflict sells stories best, so I won't attack the [Wall Street Journal] author for playing it up. That said, there were issues brought up that we should discuss rather than simply dismissing because the person bringing it up (in this case) had to sell a few papers.

The best friend you have in a design project is the harshest critic available. As long as their critique is fair, we should listen carefully to it.

Much of the stuff I'm discussing below has already been started, or is under-way. I'm just suggesting that we keep it in mind a few things that the article points out...

It's not About the Hardware:

The XO hardware is wonderful, but in the end, it's not the key thing. While it may be able to go into areas that another machine can't go, there are lots of areas that any machine can go into. We are an educational project, and while the screen makes a superlatively good textbook reader, the case is reasonably weather-resistant, and the battery life is good (but not yet so good that it's a killer feature), it is not true that every ministry of education will choose to go with "our" hardware.

Our hardware may have advantages, but it is just a (fairly generic) vehicle for accessing software, content and people, and if countries want to choose another project's hardware, more power to them.[As Nicholas has explicitly stated on a number of occasions.]

Tags: Activity Standardisation | Education Project | Mike C. Fletcher | OLPC Developers listserv | WSJ on OLPC | XO Hardware |

OLPC Education Project Should Take an Opportunity to Learn | Comment (11) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

I am Luis Ramirez and as many OlpcNews readers know, our citizen-led campaign called "one computer per child" in Chile is an attempt to achieve free and permanent access to computers for at least 1 million Chilean children living in poverty before our bicentennial (2010).

After ten months of work I thought it might be time to summarize part of our strategy, and our small –but nonetheless important- achievements, in case they help other people pursuing similar campaigns elsewhere. So here we go with seven ideas:

1. Unleash an appealing idea. The first thing you have to consider is this: the idea of every child having their own computer is a very disruptive one. It may sound common sense to most of us, but is definitely something that has only become possible in the last two years or so.

So, our first goal has been 'spreading the word': "Yes, we are not joking, we can really have one computer for every child in this country". And here is when we have to repeat again: this is not about OLPC's XO. It's about increasing children's opportunities with the help of ICT. We keep it children-centric and not machine-centric.

Tags: Chilean Children | Content Production | Luis Ramirez | Network Support | OLPC Chile | Political Consensus | UCPN |

The Chilean way to One Laptop Per Child | Comment (5) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

Reading Walter Bender's update on One Laptop Per Child software development progress, I came across an interesting tidbit of activity. The operating system software releases have been renamed and repurposed:

• Oct. 26: "Trial-3" (Build 622) are the bits being loaded for mass production. This was completed this week.
• Nov. 16: "Reload" are bits that could possibly be loaded before shipping laptops to individuals. We will hand pick blocking bug fixes only if we need to. Dec. 07: "Killjoy" (V1.0, previously referred to as FRS or First Deployment) is a release based on the "Joyride" builds. This will include bug fixes/minor features that are in Joyride today; and we are actively moving some trac items to this release based on what we know about in the next week. Feature freeze for this is next week; code freeze the week after.

Now digging a little deeper and going to the Sugar roadmap I worry that "killjoy" might not mean a very merry Christmas for all:

Tags: Killjoy | OLPC Sugar | OLPC Uruguay | Operating System | Roadmap | Sugarized | XM Release | XO Software Development |

Will OLPC Uruguay be "Sugarized" by Christmas? | Comment (11) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

A year ago, One Laptop Per Child was lambasted by India's Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee who called Nicholas Negroponte's idea of Constructionist learning through XO laptops "pedagogically suspect."

Now I suspect that a portion of that rejection was due to the MIT India backstory and India's own laptop fantasies. But not matter the reason, India has been a sore spot for OLPC. As Nicholas Negroponte says:

India has more child population than any other country and will benefit greatly from a creative society of them. India needs to take a role of world leadership in the concept of one laptop per child, even if it is ahead of its time and seemingly daunting.

And yet it has a massive education problem. A problem that OLPC now hopes to solve using an alliance with Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (R-ADAG) to provide logistics to the OLPC's India initiative:

Tags: Atanu Dey | Carla Gomez-Monroy | Karjat | Khairat | Maharashtra | OLPC Foundation | OLPC India | Reliance Group | Sudeep Banerjee |

OLPC India: A Twenty-Two Laptop Pilot in Khairat | Comment (14) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

Wayan has been rightly concerned about grey market leakage of XOs from countries to the US, due to the high demand for One Laptop Per Child computers. Another ongoing concern has been in-country theft, misuse, and redirection of the laptops to users other than the intended children.

The first problem has been mitigated by the G1G1 sales in the US, and the theft problem is solved by both the bitfrost security platform and the distinctly green-colored and unique design of the laptop. Reason goes that if you see an OLPC-looking laptop being used by anyone who's not a child, it's been stolen or otherwise coerced from its rightful owner.

Unfortunately, the G1G1 solution plugging the developing world to first world leak has opened up a new leak. With this, it is possible for someone in a country where the children have XOs to legitimately buy a G1G1 laptop through a friend or organization in the US. In fact, many schools and non-governmental organizations worldwide may find US-based organizations to buy a small number of G1G1 XOs to use if their country is unwilling or unable to afford a mass XO purchase; it is unrealistic to think that the G1G1 laptops will stay only in the US.

Tags: Bitfrost | G1G1 | Grey Markets | Ivan Krstić | Mike C. Fletcher | OLPC Laptops | OLPC Security | Sneakernet |

Unintended Consequences of OLPC's G1G1 Sales of XO Laptops | Comment (22) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

Come November 12th, when the OLPC Give One Get One program starts taking orders for XO-1 computers, guess who will be managing the distribution of 25,000 Children's Machines for One Laptop Per Christmas Tree?

In what may be the smartest moves by One Laptop Per Child to date, the XO computers will not be distributed by OLPC, eBay or even CompUSA, but Brightstar Corporation, which specializes in customized distribution and supply chain solutions for the cellular phone and mobile phone market.

Tags: Brightstar | Give One Get One | LATU Uruguay | OLPC Distribution | OLPC USA | XO Computer |

A Brightstar OLPC Give One Get One XO Computer Distributor | Comment (18) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

I am Anders Mogensen, co-founder of Seismonaut - a Danish idea and innovation consultancy. At Seismonaut we map emerging technologies, new media and user trends in the changing global landscape.

A few weeks ago I was in Nigeria taking a closer look at the OLPNC (One Laptop Per Nigerian Child) initiative. During my five day visit I had the opportunity to meet with the key stakeholders in Abuja, and pay a couple of visits to L.E.A School Galadima.

Over three days, I am sharing some of my findings in short write-ups. One Laptop Per XO'ing Child with OLPNC was the first one, OLPNC Galadima School Headmaster Interview was the second, and this is the third installment:

The Nigerian One Laptop Per Child Model

Yes, Olusegun Obasanjo the former Nigerian president did have influence on the OLPC XO-1 color scheme, so I am told by a reliable source in Abuja. And according to the same source Obasanjo was and still is very committed to the OLPNC project. But what about the 1 million laptops which apparently were ordered by the former Nigerian president?

Tags: ALTEQ ICT | Ndidi Nnoli Edozien | OLPC Nigeria | OLPNC | Olusegun Obasanjo | One Laptop Per Nigerian Child | Tomi Davies |

The Nigerian One Laptop Per Child Model | Comment (10) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

"Punt!" When your options have all run out, sometimes the thing to do is just kick the ball as hard as possible and hope that it goes somewhere helpful. While this may seem a nasty comment about the One Laptop Per Child's "buy two, give one" approach, it really is not. In the early days of the personal computer (1975 - 1980) we did nothing but punt. We put out hardware that only early adopters could love in the hopes that someone would write software to make them useful. Eventually, someone did.

It required a large base of early adopters, but we had that, and it seems as if the XO-1 laptop will have an even bigger base. In order to result in development there must be a matrix of communication, but that's not hard with wikis, etc. (we had none of those back then and had to rely upon club meetings and newsletters).

There also being a significant body of experience with open source software development, it should be much less difficult for people to work out how to get programs developed as a group effort. What will be necessary is some significant input on educational software and courseware - the experimental stuff as well as the established approaches.

Tags: $100 Laptop | Nicholas Negroponte | OLPC | OLPC Punters | Open Source Software | Visi-Calcs | XO Laptop |

One Laptop Per Child's G1G1 XO Plan is Punting to the Pilots | Comment (7) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

I have been critical of OLPC in this column previously but I want to express now that I support the ultimate goal of the program. And while I do not believe that One Laptop Per Child is appropriate for all countries and I have serious reservations about their implementation model, I would like to provide some recommendations to policy makers, based on research and my own consulting experience around the world, that I believe will help make OLPC a success in those countries that choose to adopt it. First, I believe along with the OLPC program that all students, as well as a nation's society and economy more generally, can benefit from an educational system that prepares students to be problem solvers, knowledge creators, and self-learners.

This is a profoundly different educational goal from that of most of the world's education systems that aspire (if that is the appropriate word) to produce students who are proficient at recalling established facts and accurately applying standard procedures.

While such a goal may have been sufficient (if that, too, is the appropriate word) for simpler times and for a manufacture-based economy built on standard procedures and unskilled or semi-skilled labor, the world today is a much different place that calls for a fundamental transformation in educational systems.

The set of social, economic, and environmental challenges that confront us today are significantly more complex than in previous decades and requires an education system that can develop a nation's citizenry and workforce to its full creative and productive capacity.

While I share the goal of the OLPC, it is not at all clear to me that giving each child a computer is the only or even best way of accomplishing this goal. Indeed, there is significant evidence that merely distributing computers in schools will have little effect on education.

Tags: Constructionist Learning | OLPC Implementation | OLPC Policy | Robert Kozma | School Pedagogy | XO Hardware |

OLPC and Policy Recommendations | Comment (8) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It

Stephen Dukker, chief executive of NComputing, has a serious hating on One Laptop Per Child, but for all the wrong reasons.

In August, when I read his rhetorical proclamation "Is the OLPC project doomed to failure?" I thought he was going to hone in on any number of Nicholas Negroponte's grand proclamations that are slowly showing false, like governments should buy millions of computers without first pilot testing, there's no need for an implementation plan, or children can learn learning without teacher training.

But instead, the former chief executive of eMachines took a whole other angle to try and knee-cap "$100 laptops":

Helping people in the developing world cross the digital divide is a fundamental act of decency and generosity... As laudable as this dream is, the ideal unfortunately runs counter to a fundamental fact of life: a computer cannot exist independent of basic economic realities.

A computer is, rather, a creature of connectivity and collaboration. And, given the economic realities in the developing world, $200 computers cannot generate the profit essential for the creation of a robust IT ecosystem, which is essential to ensure successful deployment, ongoing operation and maintenance.

While he's right to say a computer needs a whole profit-driven ecosystem of support, from maintenance to connectivity, he's apparently not heard of DVD players, cell phones or radio if he thinks that electronics require a $200+ price point to generate a healthy professional services around them.

Tags: $100 Laptop | Commercial Ecosystem | NComputing | OLPC XO | Shared Use Model | Stephen Dukker |

Stephen Dukker's anti-OLPC Campaign, Rebuffed | Comment (14) | Digg This | Add to del.ico.us | Slashdot It