quote: OLPC America to Launch in 2008 Jan 10, 2008, 19 :00 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (593 reads) (Other stories by Dan Nystedt)
[ Thanks to Jose_ for this link. ]
"The One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC) plans to launch OLPC America in 2008 to distribute the low-cost laptop computers originally aimed at developing nations to needy students in the United States.
"The group, which was formed in the U.S. by teachers from MIT, came under criticism shortly after forming because its original mission did not include the United States..."
I agree wholeheartedly with their decision to attend first U.S. children although I'm a 'Third World Denizen (TM)', I believe that a country should take care of its own, first.
Posts: 1785 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Last I heard of OLPC, Intel was dropping out of the program to pursue their own program.
This will be a good program for inner city kids without access to computers, and the same for some poorer rural districts.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hey, a standardized laptop for schools is just what America's educational system needs.
Seriously, that's not sarcasm.
Moving to a digital age, we need to be able to learn to do work on a laptop; they're lighter, cheaper ($100 versus $50 per textbook, plus money for binders, folders, calculators, pencils...), easier to organize, and more fun for the students.
I imagine the best impact this program will have is on the elementary grades and perhaps junior high. Once you get to high school, the laptops-in-schools system should be free market to let in the more powerful versions.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think laptops will solve the problem with education in this country. They'll provide a different medium to turn in assignments and easier access to information. That doesn't mean students will be any more interested in the information than when they just had textbooks, worksheets, and pencils. A nice thought, but it seems like more money being thrown at education.
That said, having a laptop has been awesome for note-taking in my classes. I'd never been a good note-taker when I had paper/pencil because of my handwriting. I've always been an avid reader, though--and I love learning. Will giving a laptop to an average 14-year old make them want to learn any more?
Posts: 1314 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
I'm pretty sure it'd be a classroom tool, in American anyway, more than it'd be given to the kids outright. Or even so, it'd be a loan, and not a gift. The selling of the laptops has long been a criticism of the program in the third world nations where the focus is. I'm not sure what was done to combat that problem.
Launchy -
I think they are thinking much younger than 14. Probably more in the 8 year old range even. And it's not necessarily about making them want to learn more, it's about giving them better learning tools. Also, I don't think they are meant to totally solve the problems of education. Getting disadvantaged kids more familiar with laptops at a younger age will help them later in life when knowledge of computers will be expected of them, and it will give them a vastly larger pool of information to work from. I think it's meant to level the playing field, and I think it could really help.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
Granted; the biggest problem with the educational system is either abuse of homework or lack of teachers that know their subject. Another thing is that lecturing is seldom fun whereas class discussion is always sure to get at least a few people's attention.
The problems laptops will solve, however, is the inconvenience of dragging around four textbooks and two notebooks every day, the slow and messy method of taking notes by pencil, the achievement gap between rich kids who can use the Internet and keyboards and those who have to be very conservative with paper because of how much it costs, and the restrictions imposed on kids in school when they are given limited resources to do an assignment. When a student has a computer available, opportunities broaden, creativity can be inspired, and fantasies can become possibilities. In South America, the first recipient classes of the laptop are very excited about the built-in camera; they can take pictures of whatever they want very easily, and there's a literal jungle of neat stuff to photograph around there.
And yes, I know it's really $200, but I expect that by the time this really catches on, the price will go down even more. Some at MIT are saying "Let's go for $50 laptop by 2011!" And still, five textbooks equals $250, teachers resources (textbooks that student's don't carry around) are hundreds more, and then comes the paper wasted in schools. It's embarrassing how un-environmentally-friendly the paper consumption in schools are. If everyone uses a laptop, they can cut the amount of paper consumption by as much as 85%. I reckon that even if that's just the public schools, we might see a change in climate; the problem's so bad. Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Price will fall naturally as other things drop in price. Flash memory, which I think they use, is dropping in price as production rises (though still quite expensive) and more peope buy it. The market will make it cheaper over time.
Hm, where did you get that number of waste consumption reduction? That's a good angle.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I love this idea. I was in a trial one-to-one laptop program in Maine called the Maine learning technology initiative (MLTI), The state had a surplus and used it to arrange Apple iBooks for kids starting in seventh grade and following us up. I've never learned so much, the teachers got used to using technology, kids became comfortable with all aspects of the internet, all Apple's creative apps led to the most amazing products from middle school students I've ever seen. They abruptly canceled the program the summer before my sophomore year and I took some serious political action, rallying the student body to get them to extend the program another year. I made the front page for it but I can't seem to find the link.
Posts: 959 | Registered: Oct 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
I got the number from my own survey at my former middle school; I'm assuming papers are still used for testing and mathematics in general. Notices, homework dates, many if not most assignment sheets, class notes, newspapers, forms, passes, etc. can all be done electronically if a standardized laptop is used by all the students and staff. It has been a while since I did the math (back in middle school) so I don't recall the small details. I mainly just campaigned the concluding sentence after I worked out the arithmetic and surveys.
Anyway, I based it on how much paper was being used in each category, and how much of it could be converted to a purely electronic format if the school used the One Laptop Per Child program.
I also remember that what inspired this research was hearing that an airline saved a bunch of money by using purely electronic ticketing, abandoning paper altogether. It was some really huge number; I seem to remember billions, but I don't think that can be right.
I suppose I could redo the survey when the next semester starts and see how high school compares... that would be interesting to see. And seeing we got this fancy new hi-tech building when we came back from break, it might not be too hard to convince the county that they desperately need these cheap little laptops. (If they can spend 84 million dollars on a building, they can 500,000 dollars to supply all the high schoolers with laptops.)
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
Out of all the things I hope that my children learn at school, how to use computers doesn't even crack the top ten.
Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Hey dante, I didn't know that there were any other hatrackers from Maine. If you don't mind, where are you from? I'm about 20 miles south of Augusta.
Posts: 369 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
If I had kids, it wouldn't be a concern for me either, because I actually have computers, so my kids having access to them wouldn't at all be a concern. Can you afford a computer for your home? Since you currently have one, I'm going to assume that's a yes.
I think changes a bit for a poor family struggling to get by. Just saying. It's an inherent disadvantage to them. I think they could learn just fine by using the school computers in the library, if they have any, but I think the laptops could be a unique learning device depending on how they are used.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I find this to be a very interesting idea. I teach math in a high school that (supposedly) has the only one-to-one student/computer ratio in the state, so we consider ourselves very advanced. In many ways, I love have consistent access to computers. We have some software that they can use to enhance their learning and we can quickly look up things on the Internet. I really like just being able to have them get onto programs like Word and Excel without having to sign out a lab, drag them down there, shut down early and haul everything back. We can do a lot of things on the spur of the moment and we often have a lot of fun.
The downside is that we fight a CONSTANT battle to keep kids from playing games and getting onto inappropriate sites. They know how to get around most of the filters and can go just about anywhere. In doing so, they really bog down the system which leaves everyone running very slowly. That means that we update the blockers constantly so a site you check out one day, may not be accessible on student computers the next. I spend a lot of time running (literally... the school's network often doesn't run well enough to support the email system, so many problems are taken care of the old-fashioned way) to the IT department to get specific sites unblocked so that I can use them for a class.
Posts: 340 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I anticipated that problem when I first heard of OLPC.
The solution I came up with was to use a wireless network that the teacher of a classroom has the ability to switch on/off whenever she pleases. It wouldn't be too hard to encrypt the networks of other classes based on the time of day to prevent students from using another class's network, so the students can only use the Internet when the teacher says so. This only works in schools that can afford a wireless network for every room, and it might take a good programmer to make an efficient time-based encryption system, but in concept a thousand computers can be programmed from an administrative office, which knows the time of day and which classes each student goes to, and therefore knows which networks to block at which times. I'm rather sure this can be done because it's not too much of a step up from the computer security at public schools in my county. Actually, it may be easier, because the laptops belong to one child; they aren't sharing a lab.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
posted
All this adds up to is more gaming for kids. Just what young, fat, already learning how to be a couch potato kids need. My nephews never leave their house because of their game systems and their computer.
I can see this being a need in 3rd world countries, maybe. But not in the US.
Posts: 1042 | Registered: Jan 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
More gaming for kids? Obviously you haven't read the specs on these things. I'd be surprised if they could run old Nintendo games let alone anything that's considered nearly first rate today.
And I don't think it's necessary for MOST of the US either, only in poor rural areas and the inner cities.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Pegasus: Hey dante, I didn't know that there were any other hatrackers from Maine. If you don't mind, where are you from? I'm about 20 miles south of Augusta.
I'm all the way down in Kittery, although I lived in Augusta for a few months at one point.
quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: More gaming for kids? Obviously you haven't read the specs on these things. I'd be surprised if they could run old Nintendo games let alone anything that's considered nearly first rate today.
It really doesn't matter what the specs are, the kids will play literally whatever games they can (unless they're educational). There are tons of Internet games that my students have broken into that will run on our computers, as slow and incapable as they are. I see kids in the hall after school for an houru playing a glofiried version of the old "Pong."
Posts: 340 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've little doubt that they could find an easy way to stop that. They could program the computers to not allow downloads of any kind, just viewing webpages, or to be more specific, only webpages that are preapproved.
Otherwise I say fill the memory banks with educational games and the issue becomes a moot point.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote: They could program the computers to not allow downloads of any kind, just viewing webpages, or to be more specific, only webpages that are preapproved
No you cannot program the computers to do this and still have them view the internet and webfiltering is very complex.
Posts: 1918 | Registered: Mar 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
We gave one of these to John for Christmas. We got it under the "buy one, give one" program they had going, where we paid for one for us and one for a child in a developing country.
It's a cute little thing, and John loves to have his own keyboard to bang on. Also he likes watching himself on the screen-cam.
So far it hasn't taken him away from his schoolwork . . .
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
As far as the games kids will stoop to playing in school... I remember playing text only games on my TI82 programmable calculator. Also had stuff like Duck Hunt and my personal favorite, Tetris.
It doesn't REALLY take much technology to entertain a bored kid, only variety.
Posts: 636 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer: (If they can spend 84 million dollars on a building, they can 500,000 dollars to supply all the high schoolers with laptops.)
These are pretty small for highschoolers. The keyboard is about half the size of a regular keyboard. They're designed for younger elementary kids.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
My daughter attends a high school where every kid gets a laptop. We sign major paperwork at the beginning of the year and we are responsible for damages or lost computers. During the day the schools web access is locked so kids can't surf at will. The web is up during lunch so kids can check emails but as soon as lunch is over it goes down again. Afterschool it is back up. Kids have to go to IT to get their cdrom drives unlocked if they want to watch movies. It also needs to be unlocked for other things like accessing a home internet program. The school keeps rather tight restrictions in place though I'm sure some kids get around them.
She does her assignments in a mix of paper and computer depending on the class - math obviously involves paper but English she does all on her laptop. Assignments are uploaded using GradeSubmit or something like that. She uses a flash drive to transfer files if she needs to submit at home. There are no textbooks. The school is fairly new (about 3-4 years) and so far its been very successful. The kids keep the same laptop from year to year but it gets turned in and the school stores it over the summer.
I definately see advantages for the kids - they do learn a lot about using computers for day to day work. Even the elementary schools in this district have computer labs where the kindergartners learn how to navigate and work with computers.
Posts: 1132 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
| IP: Logged |
posted
One of our adjunct faculty last semester works with inner city schools in the area, and is a major part of implementing this "one laptop per child program."
She says it's a complete nightmare and that they do not have the staff to effectively run the program. She's not predicting much success.
She also said that practically every kid she teaches has an iPod and internet access at home, and this is one of the poorest districts in the state, so she doesn't believe the talk that they don't have exposure to computers.
*shrug*
Myself, I see the appeal to taking notes on a computer and cutting down on paper use. I could get behind a program like the one WendyBird describes if it were run properly. As a future English teacher, I'd love it if my students could all submit papers online and let me read typed pages rather than decipher handwriting. I'd be all for it.
But, it does take someone running the program well, maintaining the hardware, troubleshooting, repairing, etc. and the concern is that the schools don't have personnel in place to do that, and the laptops don't come with funding to hire additional personnel AFAIK. Most school districts have technology departments that are already understaffed and overworked, this just adds additional burdens and no way to pay for it. That's my concern.
As for the schools my kids attend, every classroom has computers available as well as the school having computer labs. Kids in kindergarten start taking AR tests and math readiness tests on computers so they all use them from the very first week of school. Elementary kids attend computer labs once a week to learn more, and in high school a computer applications class is mandatory. My daughter just took it this past semester, not that she learned anything because she already was familiar with the Office suite, but I could see how it would be helpful for someone who had never used a computer at home before. No one graduates without having the ability to navigate windows, open programs and do the basics in each - write memos in Word, use Excel for a basic spreadsheet function, make a flyer in Publisher, and a presentation in PowerPoint.
In college, use of a computer is pretty much mandatory, our school does everything online now - registration, financial aid, many courses that aren't exclusively online have class websites that you are required to check and the number of online courses increases every year.
So yes, this is the future and we need to get kids using computers as early as possible. Just not sure if this program is really going to accomplish all that.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I don't think it is fair to assume that a student will have a computer. My teachers in high school (ten years ago) assumed everyone had internet access at home. As someone who didn't, I saw how much harder that assumption made my life. It also is a lot harder to type on a typewriter then it is on a computer, so the requirement that all papers must be typed sucked. Our school did not have computer labs accessible unless you were taking specific courses. It does not surprise me that in some poor neighborhoods, the kids have fancy stuff, but I think that there are going to be some poor families who are trying to spend responsibly (like my family) and those kids are at a disadvantage when teachers assume that technology is available to all when it really isn't.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
10 years ago the percentage of households having internet access was not nearly at the level it is now. The most recent census report says that 26% of households in 1998 had internet access. The number in 2003 (the most recent data available) is now almost 55%. Given that five years have passed, that number is no doubt higher. In my most recent mass communications class the prof said it's over 75% of homes now have a computer with internet access, but I don't have a link to a report or study that proves that number. Wouldn't surprise me if it were true.
And, if you only look at homes that have school-age children, it goes up. The senior population still has the lowest rate of computer use by age. Certainly the poor have the lowest percentage if you look at it by income. If you're a middle class family with school age children, the odds of you having a computer with internet access are pretty darn high. In fact, you probably have high speed.
quote:It does not surprise me that in some poor neighborhoods, the kids have fancy stuff, but I think that there are going to be some poor families who are trying to spend responsibly (like my family) and those kids are at a disadvantage when teachers assume that technology is available to all when it really isn't.
Teachers should never assume that technology is available to everyone, and I don't think they do. Each of my daughter's teachers in high school has asked us to fill out a form and asked specifically if we had a computer, printer, and internet access at home and also asked for email addresses of both student and parents.
Requiring typed papers in high school is appropriate, I believe because students should be utilizing technology. Students that don't have access to computers and printers at home should be able to use computer labs at the school.
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Katdog, there is a school in Bloomington (I think you're still in Indiana) opening with a one to one ratio this fall. I also thought Burris in Muncie had it, I'll have to ask my friend that went there.
Posts: 5362 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by C3PO the Dragon Slayer: Granted; the biggest problem with the educational system is either abuse of homework or lack of teachers that know their subject. [qb]
I wouldn't have put either of those in my top 5 problems with the educational system.
quote:And still, five textbooks equals $250, teachers resources (textbooks that student's don't carry around) are hundreds more, and then comes the paper wasted in schools. It's embarrassing how un-environmentally-friendly the paper consumption in schools are. If everyone uses a laptop, they can cut the amount of paper consumption by as much as 85%. I reckon that even if that's just the public schools, we might see a change in climate; the problem's so bad.
First, giving every child a laptop won't eliminate the need for textbooks. Even if you replaced all the textbooks with electronic textbooks on the laptops, you still have a cost involved. Frequently the cost of electronic textbooks is even greater than the cost of hard copies.
And as for paper use, 2 decades ago people were talking about how computers would lead to the paperless office. If it works as well for schools as it did for businesses, expect the schools demand for paper to mushroom
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Belle: One of our adjunct faculty last semester works with inner city schools in the area, and is a major part of implementing this "one laptop per child program."
She says it's a complete nightmare and that they do not have the staff to effectively run the program. She's not predicting much success.
She also said that practically every kid she teaches has an iPod and internet access at home, and this is one of the poorest districts in the state, so she doesn't believe the talk that they don't have exposure to computers.
*shrug*
I think inner cities are not the correct target for this. If if inner city kids don't own computers they generally have good access to public libraries. The real problems with lack of access are likely in poor rural areas in places like Mississippi and New Mexico along with many of the Indian reservations.
None the less, I agree with the assessment that the program is fraught with problems. There are many many things in our school systems I'd put money into before laptop computers.
Posts: 12591 | Registered: Jan 2000
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Belle: Teachers should never assume that technology is available to everyone, and I don't think they do. Each of my daughter's teachers in high school has asked us to fill out a form and asked specifically if we had a computer, printer, and internet access at home and also asked for email addresses of both student and parents.
Requiring typed papers in high school is appropriate, I believe because students should be utilizing technology. Students that don't have access to computers and printers at home should be able to use computer labs at the school.
In my high school, printers and computer labs were not accessible, but the requirement still existed. That is my objection. A computer and internet are expensive and should not be assumed. Weird thing- they did ask if any students lacked pencils and papers and pens and offered to supply those.
Posts: 1001 | Registered: Mar 2006
| IP: Logged |
posted
We should be able to teach kids basic math, history, and language with books from 1918. they did it then, better than we do it now. Laptops are a huge waste of money.
Posts: 278 | Registered: Apr 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
They didn't do it better than we do now. A few of them did it better than most do now. We have a larger few that do even better than the few in the past did, though, too.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by breyerchic04: Katdog, there is a school in Bloomington (I think you're still in Indiana) opening with a one to one ratio this fall. I also thought Burris in Muncie had it, I'll have to ask my friend that went there.
Although I live in Indiana, I actually teach in Kentucky. There are a lot of schools in this state that are trying to go one-to-one with the computers but the one school that was close (oddly enough, the school where I student taught several years ago) was having trouble just keeping the server up with the number of students they had so they had to abandon the attempt until such time that they had the technology to allow 2000 people on the internet at once. There may be other schools in the state with laptop programs, but for publicity, my school claims to be the only one.
I'm glad to hear that some schools in Indiana are getting there. I'll probably go back to teaching in Indiana someday and would love to know that schools are getting the program setup.
Posts: 340 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I have a question - do we have studies that tell us that kids who use computers in school do better than those who don't? My prof who taught us Teaching and Technology said that in fact studies don't show much difference.
She never elaborated though, and I don't know if it's true or not. In other words - if we give kids laptops with computer access, what are we trying to accomplish? Is it just familiarizing kids with technology? Saving money on textbooks (though I agree that isn't likely)? Or do we think there are real gains students can make with technology that we cannot make with convetional instructional strategies?
Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Belle - it all depends on how the technology is used. Around here, most of the public school teachers are much less computer literate than the students, so they don't have students use the computers for anything more than Word and Google.
On the other hand, programs like SCALE-UP have proven to be extremely effective, and in my experience, much more fun. But you really don't start to reap the benefits until you throw in software like VPython and The Geometer's Sketchpad.
Posts: 145 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by sylvrdragon: As far as the games kids will stoop to playing in school... I remember playing text only games on my TI82 programmable calculator. Also had stuff like Duck Hunt and my personal favorite, Tetris.
It doesn't REALLY take much technology to entertain a bored kid, only variety.
Just make it programmable. Writing games on my 83 is how I started coding. YMMV.
posted
One of the nice things about OLPC is, most user programs have an edit source button available, which lets a person edit the source and run the modified version of the code. All source is versioned, so if a problem occurs, the change is rolled back.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
I think I officially want one of these, even if just to try out some form of Linux.
It would be interesting to see how Wikipedia changes once this catches on in third-world countries. Growing up on an OS and platform that are meant to be free and changeable and educational, rather than proprietary and resolute and for either work or play, makes those who are part of OLPC the most likely to adapt to Web 2.0 sites like Wikipedia.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
