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Laptops for All the World's Children
December 25, 2006
You are not born all at once, but by bits.
-- Mary Antin
-- Mary Antin
Silicom.com conducted an interview with Negroponte about the successes and challenges of his initiative and here are a few excerpts:
What are your plans for China?
The problem with China is not the regime, it's Confucius �" it's very top-down thinking. Confucius would never do this, it's much more hierarchical �" the notion of learning through playing is not in that vocabulary.
Were you disappointed when India didn't decide to go forward with the project and the Indian education secretary Sudeep Banerjee said the project was "pedagogically suspect"?
I'm disappointed for them, not for us. I think you have to look further than they are looking. It's true that their numbers are daunting though.
How will you judge if the project has been a success �" say, in five years' time?
We'll find out very quickly if it's been a success. The measure is the energy in schools. There's a village in Cambodia [using the laptops]… [where] there are twice as many kids registering. That's a good measure. That kind of measure �" that's the best. Parent interest in kids' education is another.
Why do you think there's been a lot of negativity as well as optimism around the $100 laptop?
There's a lot of negativity that has come out of the UK. There are people who think refurbishing old laptops is the right way to help the developing world. You'll never see me go online and contradict that �" anything is better than nothing, but it just doesn't work. Sending old computers is not the way to go.
People say if a child is malnourished, he doesn't have drinking water, he's sick, why do you want to give him a laptop? Substitute the word 'education' for 'laptop' and you'll never ask that question again. It's an education project not a laptop project. For people it's like the hazard of being a beautiful blonde �" people pay attention to the wrong thing. It's almost an attractive nuisance. We were driven by the elimination of poverty. With building more schools, it would take forever and ever. What we're trying to do in the meantime is get more children to do more on their own.
Read the complete interview.
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Comments (4)
Displaying All 4 CommentsMerrill Area Public Schools
Merrill, WI, United States
Jared Diamond in his book, "Guns, Germs and Steel" points out that the children of New Guinea have high IQ's. He attributes that fact to the time they spend in the outdoors interacting with their peers and adults. Why would we want to cripple these children by giving them lap top computers? It is time for the West to get off of its technological high horse and learn from other nations and peoples. Technology is creating a major health crisis among our young people and rewiring their brains such that their imaginations are turning into vast pots of overcooked oatmeal.
Ministry of Women and Child Developmennt< P/B 330, Lilongwe, Ma
Lilongwe, Malawi, East Africa, Malawi, Lilongae, United States
The $100 Computer Project appears to be agood idea. However before anything is introduced prior discussions with the concerned social custodians and parents is good so that they accept, own and contribute to the project. If it is just forced on them it becomes very fish and suspecious.
My concern this project is, no African Countries are mentioned. It would be good to bridge the digital divide in Africa as well. Computers are scarerce even to adults office workers. We need them in Malawi.
Departamento Educación Maestra
Las Piedras, Puerto Rico, United States
Deseo conocer cómo puedo participar de esta oportunidad para mis estudiantes de cuarto grado en Puerto Rico.
Gracias.
Espero por su atención.
Mission Viejo, CA, United States
I think the $100 computer project is good and well meant but, as usual, we spend more of our efforts trying to help those outside of our country that sometime do not want or need it while neglecting the thousands of American born poor that also do not have access to computers. China has money and is financing our appetite for their cheap products and many experts reprot that their "poor" students are doing better than average students in math and science. A lot of our high tech industry jobs have been outsourced to India and we want to give them low cost laptops! Meanwhile, there are poor Hispanic, Black and White youth who struggle to get access to the very computers we are shipping abroad. I know because I have these students in my community college classes. We seem to be focused on the learning products and gadgets and not on the learning process and access. The backwards countries must be doing something right since their students are better equipped to understand and manage technology while our students lag behind. India and China's students out perform ours. Charity, concern for techno-literacy and education should begin at home, then we can help the world.
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