Now I know all four of you have been holding your breath, having read and come up with talking points for our discussion on the New York Times article I posted. Here it is again for you late comers:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/30/technology/30laptop.html?hp&ex=1164949200&en=65317907d3a0f6d7&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Here's summary for you slackers: This fellow has created an ultra-cheap, ultra-durable, HAND POWERED laptop, with wifi and an ultrabright screen for outdoors use. In other words, being coupled with the fact that this laptop was free to the user, and cost only $150 to make in the first place, it is better than the computer you are reading this on. (Disagree? Try booting up in the next blackout to tell me so.) The drawback is that it isn't for you, greedypants. It is for millions of impoverished kids in the developing world. So why the controversy? A few people with more money than they know what to do with (cough*billgates*cough) have suggested that the money for these machines would be better spent on education.
The best counter argument in the article is that kids are like a sponge, give them a computer, or anything interesting, and leave them in front of it for a few hours and they soak it up. That's what I did when my parents plopped an old (new at the time) Mac512 in front of me. Did it matter that I didn't know how it worked? No, I just messed with it long enough and figured it out. As did, I'm sure you know, Bill Gates when he sat down in front of his first computer at Lakeside School in Seattle. Kids learn best when doing, not hearing about doing. It's one thing to be told that the richest nations in the world have magic boxes called computers that belch faeries when switched on, it's another to see the magic happen for yourself.
Anyway, as you can tell I think this is a great program, if you can call something on this scale merely a program. I just wish that the US government would buy a bunch of these laptops for kids in the country of its invention: The good old US of A. Imagine actually letting our own impoverished youths have a functioning computer and access to the internet. They might actually learn something.
What do you think?
I think dogs should be able to run in the park after 9.
Posted by: Rob Dunn at December 2, 2006 09:36 PM"Disagree? Try booting up in the next blackout to tell me so"
Yeah, well will it run Freehand 3.11... More inportantly will it run Winblows Vista? :-)
Posted by: Rob Dunn at December 2, 2006 09:38 PMMy gut tells me that this is just another example of we rich countries using our money to shape and mold the third-world as we wish. "Computers" and "education" aren't necessarily mutually exclusive nouns. In other words, just because these so-called "Less fortunate people" don't have computers, doesn't mean they're not being educated. Furthermore, isn't this a situation wherein, these people with brand new laptops and internet access, have a chance to have their innocence taken away; to have their cultural ideals slowly melted down, as the new global culture creeps in to standardize and amalgamate them? And what about our own poor people?
(my gut is intense)
My mind and heart, however, are on board with this. They think that this is a display of generosity, and that any country should feel priveledged to be a part of this project. It's an opportunity to give something that could make a difference for the greater good of the planet.
But, as you can see, I'm torn. And my gut just got into a fist fight with my brain.
Posted by: brandilicious at December 4, 2006 01:13 PMMy washing machine is none of your business! Don't you have a low flying sturgeon to duck? You Northwesty you!
Posted by: Stirling McLaughlin at December 4, 2006 05:26 PM