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Buy one laptop -- and a child gets one free
by Blue Crush | November 17, 2008 at 06:26 am
234 views | 25 Recommendations | 6 comments
With Christmas just around the corner, I wanted to remind readers of the "One Laptop per Child" program, developed by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of MIT Media Lab. What better gift can your own child get, knowing they've helped another?
LONDON, England (CNN) -- For the first time, and for a limited period only, people in North America will be able to get their hands on the XO, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte's rugged little laptop that's designed specifically for children.
Children in Cambodia using XO computers. The XO was designed for children in developing countries.
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And for each cutting-edge XO purchased in the West, another will be given to a child in a developing country.
The "Give One Get One" scheme, which launches Monday, is part of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project to equip the world's poorest children with a learning tool.
For $399, customers can order a laptop for themselves; bundled into the price is the cost of delivering a second XO to a child a poor country.
The laptops, which went into high-volume production on 6 November, go on sale online at 6 a.m. Eastern Time Monday until November 26.
Founder of OLPC, MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte told CNN that the launch of the scheme was exhilarating. "It must be like a runner's high," he said. "A lot of muscles hurt. Many people thought we would not get to the finish line."
Negroponte is convinced that providing children in poor countries with computers is a cost-effective and empowering route into self-learning. In January 2005, he unveiled One Laptop Per Child, with the aim of building a $100 laptop and supplying it in bulk to developing countries.
It's the G1G1 link between a child in North America and a child in a developing country that Negroponte hopes will sway people to purchase an XO.
"In the Give One Get One program, the likely recipient in the developed world is a child," he explained. "For that child to be using the same laptop as a kid in Africa is especially meaningful."
Customers wanting their XOs for the holiday season have been advised to order early: the first 20,000 units should be delivered by Christmas, with their partner computers heading to Peru and Uruguay. Later orders will follow in 2008.
And Negroponte's message to those considering it as a gift this year? "Don't hesitate. Don't buy it because it is an inexpensive laptop," he told CNN.
"Buy it to join a movement to change the world."
November 17, 2008 at 06:26 am by Blue Crush, 234 views, 6 comments
Recommendations (25)
Anonymous user
sara star
on the road somewhere, British Columbia, Canada
Zlender
Ljubljana, Slovenia
Rhonda J Mangus
North Tonawanda, New York, United States
Paschen
Narita, Japan
talentedchimp
Seoul, South Korea
Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 06:37 on November 17th, 2008
The OLPC project uses a Linux derivative as the OS.
Education is the key in developing countries, and anything that helps this is a good thing.
at 06:56 on November 17th, 2008
Education may be a key to a free and just world, however I am far from convinced that the internet or computers are the Right tool for that. The Walldorf Schools Demand even to scrap the computer at home for the good of a Child's development and they turn rather good students out each and every year going to University and performing above average there. Education, yes, Computers, well no, they are certainly not the anther. Good teachers and dedication is what is needed first and foremost.
at 16:00 on November 17th, 2008
Without access to adequate resources, access to the Internet is the next best thing. These countries don't have the luxury of choosing to ban the use of computers.
I didn't say it was the answer.
at 18:44 on November 17th, 2008
I do understand your point and I am not against the Idea per say, however I tent to disagree here with you out of mere personal experience, I never had a computer until being out of University, nor did my own Kids, ad they are now in their 20th study at University and do rather well, so do most Walldorf Students bzw. Learning first, developing the creative and independent mind that is able to think, analyse, be critical and auto critical as well. Then once the Mind has grown and is strong give them additional tools to use, after all the computer is a tool nothing more, and no one would give a child a bulldozer or jack hammer to use with out forming it first and letting that child grow into a mature adult before exposing it to potentially dangerous tools. First learn, then be given more and more tools as one goes along. The Internets can be a loaded gun with out proper guidance and the ability to think objectively and critically.
at 21:39 on November 17th, 2008
Paschen, I respectfully disagree with you. Of course, it's a matter of parental preference, but with proper supervision, a computer can be a wonderful thing for a child, even a very young child.
There are great educational CD Roms and website's out there geared to preschoolers and up. These CDs/sites are by trained experts in childhood education, geared to different age levels. Using a computer helps a child develop their fine motor skills, as well as learn their colors, numbers, etc. in the beginning. Along with books (and your own time, of course), it's a great learning tool, if used in moderation, like anything else.
The key is supervision and moderation.
at 22:10 on November 17th, 2008
You said it your self, with proper supervision, there lays the main problem. Introducing the internet into a village that has barely been exposed to cars or other western technologies and thinking is in a way like giving a loaded gun to a 5 year old. Not to diminish any one here but this program even though well intended is putting the cart before the Horse. First we need good teachers and educators to be formed and then we add the tools.
I was actually in favour of this some time ago, until I saw two Villages where it was implemented and what it caused was a disaster and not education at all.
Some Ideas do seem great at first yet end up causing more harm then good, caution is always strongly advised. We in the West have all ready cause enough disasters as is, we better get down from our high horse and start doing thing that will really help rather then what we believe may because we use it our self's.