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One Laptop Per Child

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by WilHarris, 19 Jun 2006.

  1. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    What do people think these kids are going to use these lappies for? They're obviously going to be too weak to play video games, they're not for learning C++ on. They are the education, in a form that enables far more learning per dollar.

    People are dying in Africa from starvation, but that isn't going to change, regardless of food aid, so long as the population are uneducated.
     
  2. Kevo

    Kevo 426F6C6C6F636B7300

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    Didn't they dump the hand crank idea? I thought they found out that a small malnourished child couldn’t crank enough power to be useful...
     
  3. Cthippo

    Cthippo Can't mod my way out of a paper bag

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    I'm going to agree with Spec and some others here. We've been sending food and medicine to Africa at least since WW2, and look how much better off they are now. Direct aid hasn't brought about any lasting change that I can see.

    When I think of this I think of what's happened in India in the last 30 years. Once upon a time they were just as poor as Africa, and now they're a technological powerhouse. This kind of development can be done, but it takes education and opportunity.

    This also reminds me of somthing else. Do you know why Nigerian scams come from Nigeria? Nigeria is one of the most connected countries in Africa, and as Adidas says, most people, at least in the cities, have access to an internet connected computer. Like it or not, they are using that access and skills to make money by fleecing stupid Americans (and others). While perhaps not the best example of the benfits of computers and education, it certainly is an example of people using this technology to improve their lives.

    Final thought: The ones who need to be paying for this are the companies that extract resources from Africa for their own profit. That's companies like Shell and BP and DeBeers and Union Minere. If they were forced to put 1% of their profits from Africa into programs like this, then One Laptop Per Child would be feasible.
     
  4. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    I'd be inclined to agree Cthippo, but as liong as African governments are happy for the exploitation to continue by oil and resource companies, it'll continue. If someone stops the companies doing that, I doubt they'd last very long. Coup de tat's would be so attractive to rebel groups, and no doubt oil companies and mining companies would help them along. Anything to maintain profits.
     
  5. Co2

    Co2 CadUser

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    Well that's a way to get some 'good' pr instead of letting those countries actually sell items in other countries instead of borrowing them money and keeping them on a leash :/
     
  6. scq

    scq What's a Dremel?

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    What's wrong with cheaper, traditional methods of education? I don't see how a laptop can surpass the teaching ability of books and an instructor.
     
  7. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    Have you actually read my posts? Going at $5 a book, thats 20 books a kid can have before he could have had one of these laptops. A laptop with even just a 10GB hard disk could hold thousands of books, not to mention it won't ever run out of chalk for writing with. It's not meant to surpass an instructor, but the way I see it, if they used laptops in schools instead of books then they'd have far more resources available to them in a far cheaper package.
     
  8. Kevo

    Kevo 426F6C6C6F636B7300

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    Are we training another nation of call centre workers? :p ;)
     
  9. yahooadam

    yahooadam <span style="color:#f00;font-weight:bold">Ultra cs

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    lol, it has wireless built in, but that requires an access point, who is going to sit there and turn the handle on that ;)
    I wonder how well these things can be overclocked :rock:
     
  10. mattthegamer463

    mattthegamer463 What's a Dremel?

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    Next step: blanket world WiFi coverage. Google will airlift 400 million routers onto every continent, blanketing the world with wonderful internet.

    yey.
     
  11. Captain Slug

    Captain Slug Infinite Patience

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    Not having a laptop doesn't make you poor. Not having access to reliably clean drinking water on the other hand does, and this is what the World Health Organization has been trying to say for years. They've published several large reports on the subject showing how constructing water distribution and indoor plumbing would not only be cheap, but would also eventually pay for itself in GNP gains.

    Spend the money on pumping, plumbing, and filtration instead of toys.

    People are dieing from starvation in countries where clan warfare is still rampant because the feuding clans have a habit of mopping up all the supplies meant to feed the starving.
     
  12. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    Well unless you want 20 more Iraq's, there is no solution to this other then to educate the populace. Dictatorships cannot thrive in a world where people are wise. So long as as much of Africa is uneducated as it is today, war lords, militias, and dictatorships will thrive. Putting in water pumps is pointless if there's no food, and putting in food is pointless if it only gets taken away, or is needed the next year, and the next, and the next.

    We screwed up Africa, I think the west can honestly say that's the case. It's time we tried to fix it, with a serious effort, this should include not just basic aid, but serious attempts at educating, just like this. If that doesn't work, then the continent is overpopulated, and AIDS should lower the population out within a century.

    I don't get why people are suggesting this is pointless and should be spent on standard aid. We've been doing that for the last 50 years, Africa still mostly sucks at standing on it's own feet. It's time we tried something different.
     
  13. dullonien

    dullonien Master of the unfinished.

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    i have to agree with specofdust, we need to give them the tools to do things for them selves. Maybe giving each child a laptop isn't the way, but hell if these companies wanna try, good on them, and I hope it works.

    To Captain Slug, maybe it wouldn't cost too much to fit plumbing and such, but it would be a hell of a lot better to educate them to be able to do it for themselves. This would mean they could teach it to others and so forth, then it's only a matter of time until that issue would be sorted.

    Unfortunately there isn't much we can do for the millions already suffering from AIDS, but with education a difference could be made in the next generations.

    Basically what I'm saying is that if this OLPC helps to educate the population of the third world even by a tiny amount, it will have done more good than 50 yrs of sending food and aid over just for it not get to the people who needed it the most.
     
  14. Captain Slug

    Captain Slug Infinite Patience

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    People that are starving have a tendency to concentrate their efforts of sustinence instead of attending school. Physiological needs always come first.

    One of the studies actually hit upon the fact that the vast majority of female students in poor countries do not attend school SIMPLY BECAUSE there are no restrooms for them. Lacking an effective infrastructure has a huge effect on education due to secondary effects. Areas that do not have direct access to water waste as much as 70% of their weekly productivity transporting drinking water.

    Would you have bothered to go to school if every time you had to go get a drink or go to the bathroom you had to travel all the way back home?
     
  15. dullonien

    dullonien Master of the unfinished.

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    Hmm some interesting points there. I suppose there needs to be a balance between directly helping these countries through aid, and indirectly helping through giving them the resources and information to help themselves.
     
  16. c@r

    c@r What's a Dremel?

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    As a low tech clumsy stingy environmentalist with little taste, I'd be in the running :)

    Seriously though.

    It's unlikely that computers can supply any basic human need (in terms of food, shelter, warmth, etc.). It is likely that computers in other countries can be enablers, just as they are here, and play their (not exclusive) part in education (and lets not forget good ol' consumerist capitalism)

    I wonder about the cultural context that computers are dropped into (and adidas, good point on difference between rural and urban areas). . Computers were born into the 'developed' world, and have grown up and matured there- admittedly at a ridiculously accelerated rate. But that means we’ve had time to culturally adjust. We’re comfortable with them. Even the people who know nothing of computers have a language and a space to be know-nothings in. And we can tolerate that. The point is, that they’re not alien. They are from and of us.

    When Nike aired an advert showing a black athlete running side by side (and crucially, a bit in front) of a big cat a number of people died. This was because a some African tribespeople believed that Nike trainers would confer upon the wearer a magickal ability to outrun big cats. In the infamous Coke example, African mothers were choosing to give their babies the eponymous beverage rather than breast milk, as the adverts suggested that coke equalled beauty, success- in fact everything Western- and therefore Coke must be the best gift you could give your child’s future.

    Now obviously, 'developing world' people aren’t stupid. But they do sometimes operate to an entirely different set of cultural assumptions than us. When we’re in the role of supplier, and they’re our consumers, that can lead to some difficulties. Can we really just plonk a laptop in a village and expect them to get on with it? How much training will be required (and not just of the ‘switch on and click’ variety)?

    I'm not realistically suggesting that we'll end up in some wierd cargo cult situation with this, but historically, our record of imposing our cultural norms on other societies has had some not always desirable effects, and I'd like to know how the companies developing these things are looking to integrate them into the societies where their use is planned. And I'd also like to know who their test groups are...
     
  17. yahooadam

    yahooadam <span style="color:#f00;font-weight:bold">Ultra cs

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    "give a man a fish, and he eats for a day, Teach a man to fish and he can feed his whole family for a lifetime"
    Doesn't it make sense to teach these people how to get water (and at first help them too) how to grow food, how to stop aids
    Instead of just giving them food or water, or sending in Christians to bore them about pre-marital sex

    AID's is rampant over there, perhaps computers would help, it would give them something to do besides F****** but really, there are other needs that need to be addressed
     
  18. DXR_13KE

    DXR_13KE BananaModder

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    this is an interesting machine, and could prove usefull, when i was a child there would be times when i would wish someone would make a portable computer that would run forever or be powered by a crank (the irony), and were i could have gazilions of books to read and not have to carry 10 Kg of books every day to school.

    education is a great way to improve a country.....but......this is something that should be done not now, but a little in the future, first take care of the food and water problem, kill the dictators and evil leaders and make it so that there is a infrastructure were these laptops could be used.

    as for a time to people adjust....welll..... when mobile phones first arrived here no one used them and no one liked them....one day a rich guy got one, then another and in..say...6 months about every one had one and now we have more mobile phones than people.

    and if companies are willing to spend their cash in this efort, for god let them. i dont care and i could even get one if it comes this way and if it comes in black with a dvd player and a larger HD. :D
     
  19. Lazarus Dark

    Lazarus Dark Minimodder

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    what i want to know is why dont I have a highdefinition monochromemode thingy on my dadgum laptop for reading, my eyes hurt to y'know!

    but seriously, few of these will get to really, poor people they will get bought up by cheap people who want internet and such, but not willing to pay for a real laptop. cmon...."hmm... do i eat this year or get a olpc for my kid?...hmm..."
     
  20. NoMercy

    NoMercy What's a Dremel?

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    I think a laptop for every child is being a tad optimistic, at school 90% of textbooks had to be shared, and computers were 1 in 100 pupils, that was 10 years ago, the books probably havn't improved, and I doubt theyve moved the percentage of computers up beyond 5%.

    I'm sure there's a at least semi-idealistic motorvation behind pushing what's effectively a computerised book and puzzle machine into every school in africa, but I'm not sure it's the best way to address the problems.
     
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