posted
For those who don't know, One Laptop Per Child is an organization that wants to create a functional laptop for less than $100 a pop to mass market and get into the hands of children in third world countries to use as a learning tool. The first design wasn't very pretty, but by many accounts it got the job done with a remarkable number of features. It didn't have the size or the super computing power that most of our laptops have (like the one I'm typing on now), but it didn't really need it either.
From what I've read over the last year, the first one is seen as somewhat successful, but not really good enough for various reasons from design flaws to cost overruns (they couldn't get it below $200 a unit). Key personnel abandoned the project and partnerships with big companies fell apart. They still went into production in November, and 600,000 of them are out in third world countries now, but they were never able to hit their $100 goal (they have it around $190 now).
In 2010 they plan to launch a second generation of the OLPC laptop called the XO-2. The XO2 looks a lot more stylistically impressive. Instead of a traditional laptop look, it has dual LCD screens, one of which can function as a keyboard. Or it can us used as an e-book reader, or even placed flat to work as a big screen. In essense it's a laptop/ebook reader/Nintendo DS on steroids.
It will only use 1 watt of power, half that of the first version, and many, many times better than the average laptop uses. The goal is to have them on sale by 2010 for the price of $75 per unit. It's possible they'll do what they did for the XO, the first generation, and sell them to regular people so long as you also buy a second one to be donated to the program (the Give 1 Get 1 program).
It's still, I think, in the conceptual stage, and a lot of what they hope from this thing depends on advances and costs coming down in places that are beyond their control, but it's an pretty cool design I think, with potentially a great array of functionality and uses for so small a price. I think there's a pretty slim chance of that unit as hoped for making it to market in two years, but even if it cost a little more it'd still be cheaper than a Kindle with more functionality and I'd consider getting one.
We'll see how progress on this thing goes, or for that matter if OLPC even exists as an organization by the time it's ready to go, but for now, two questions:
1. How do you think it'll work as an educational tool for third world kids?
2. Would you want one for yourself?
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
There's something quasi-comparable on the consumer market in the form of Asus' Eee PC... And Jove, yes, I want one. A nigh-indestructible, low power-usage, wireless computer weighing two pounds? Baby!
I tell myself that, not being a graphics powerhouse, being Linux-based, and having a relatively small hard drive, I might actually get something productive done on such a beast, but I'm probably kidding myself.
As far as an education tool for kids... I must confess to some modest skepticism. It seems like in many places such a thing would be the most high-tech piece of equipment around; if that doesn't lead to it being outright stolen, does it lead to the kids who use it leaving their homes to make use of their new computer skills when they reach young adulthood, creating a brain drain in their communities?
Still, the networking capabilities seem like they could be wonderful, even in ways I'm probably not guessing. Almost anything that gets students working together well, exchanging ideas, suggests promise. I certainly applaud the underlying idea.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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The Eee PC is really not comparable to the XO. I've used both (reviews and an article for the tech/gadget magazine) and they have very different end-users and uses in mind.
The Eee PC is ultra-portable, so great if you want to, say, carry it around in a purse (I could do this, even when it was in its case, and I had no problem zipping up my purse. Okay, my purse is on the biggish side, but still...) The Eee PC is still a business or personal notebook with much of the functionality we're used to in our computers.
The XO is less a notebook and more an education tool, is not at all about productivity, and is virtually indestructible in a way that no other notebook I've ever seen isn't. The software on it is centered not around productivity but around education, and much of it collaborative learning at that.
The mesh networking capabilities of the XO are potentially problematic here as a tool that could be used by the Tamil Tigers. That is one major concern that I have. The government shuts down telephone service and has media blackouts prior to attacks on the LTTE or as soon as they're warned of an impending LTTE attack. With the mesh network, the LTTE can get around that. This is problematic.
Still, there's an OLPC foundation in Sri Lanka that's working towards getting the XOs into the country. They have around a dozen pilot projects planned for remote areas of the country. But other than a few demo units, we haven't seen anything here yet. Hopefully soon.
The consideration about brain drains... The problem here is that we've got kids who've graduated high school who can't get into university (the free universities are extremely competitive to get into and the paid ones are too expensive for anyone who's middle class or poorer) and end up trying to get a job as a skilled labourer because they've got no choices. They can't afford to further their education, but there are no jobs at the lower skill levels because everyone else is in the same position as them. The country can't advance (in part) because there aren't enough educated and skilled people at the higher levels. This country is in serious need of people with those kinds of skills.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Slate had an article about giving cheap computers to kids, using data from Eastern European programs. They claim that on average, giving a laptop decreases grades and productivity. The kids spend less time doing homework, but lots of time playing computer games. Of course, when they changed the study to include only kids with parents who were around to monitor the kids usage, gpa increased.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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But if you give them systems that can't run games you don't have that problem. I don't know anything about the XO but I'm assuming to get them at their target cost they aren't going to have the capabilities to play games.
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