The one lap top per child is an interesting approach to bridge the digital divide. The 100 dollar computer is pushing price levels down.
There are competing alternatives not the least smart phones from Nokia and Ericson. The connection to Internet is a key issue and support will be vital.
Bengt Oberger, head of I ICT4D helpdesk for Sida, Swedish Embassies & other Swedish Authorities, provides the following statistics: world population today is 6 billion people, 1,1 billion mobile phones is expected to be sold only this year, 4 billion people owns a sim card, next year the number of mobile phones with Internet connections will equal the number of sold computers (250 millions). Price levels for sms is dropping dramatically, only 6 öre per sms in India today (100 öre = 1 SEK).
Back to the OPLC, and thank you Ildiko Mazar for sending the link to “Nicholas Negroponte: The vision behind One Laptop Per Child”, explaining the background, technology and aims of this project.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/41
(Note in the video that they wanted to build the lap top as a “white Volvo”…Swedish)
I will in fact learn more about this approach tomorrow, the 6th december, in Stockholm at a demonstration and seminar arranged by the Swedish Program for Information and Communication Technology in Developing Regions (SPIDER).
Swedish readers can read about the first experiences of OLPC in Uruguay: http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=707177
We have an application in process with the purpose of evaluating the results of these initiatives in a Latin American and Caribbean context.
Another approach is the Nova 5000. This model is designed with a touch screen and stylus. It comes with a number of programs and content. As battery driven mobile device it can an be used outdoors as well as indoors. http://www.nova5000.com/ And also another perspective on hardware: we have in the developing world millions of second hand computers that work well, they are replaced and pile up as waste each year, shall we throw them away? or equipp them with new free and open software such as Ubuntu and ship them to people who need them? http://www.ubuntu.com/
Important aspects in these efforts are maintenance, durability, repair and support as well as good introductions of how to use the tool both for teachers and students. It will interesting to follow up and study the effects of these tools in practice and its impact on learning and development. In the computer businesses the turnover over new models with ever increasing speed and capacity enabling new activities has been stunning. The updating, replacement and longevity of these cheap models is another important issue. However these opportunities, technologies, and investments are encouraging for the world as whole. Everybody in the global village needs tools, infrastructure for information and communication in order to expand their learning horizons.
