One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

That is why I am one the passionate observers who understand the great value of the OLPC. Nicholas Negroponte's is an inspired idea which about to produce a paradigm shift in education. What I would have done if I had an OLPC in 1951! My education would have been so much faster, richer and more exciting. And that is the opportunity that millions of children will have. Children are similar regardless of the circumstances surrounding them, like puppies are similar in any place in the world. -Mario Miyojim-

http://www.olpcnews.com/use_cases/education/olpc_xo_replace_books.html

Nicholas Negroponte has been able to receive praise from various organization for his One Laptop Per Child plan, targeted to improve the education in developing countries. Due to it's environmental friendly architecture and the cheap cost, the laptop provides a lot of benefits to children in poor countries.

The laptop has a battery life of 13 hours, which reduces the use of electricity and in some cases the laptop can be charged manually. For example in Afghanistan, where electricity is an issue, a prototype using pedals, instead of the original hand cranks, to generate electricity was introduced for people to produce electricity in a more easier way(Mafia2020). Therefore, even the children who are not financially well off can use the laptop to improve their education.

http://www.shortnews.com/start.cfm?id=81152

The implementation of OLPC could be crucial for governments in developing countries to improve the education of the young ones who have the potential to develop the country. But there are still issues concerning with this program.

As it is common with students who are using laptops at school, the use of OLPC might mean that there will be less socialization between the students and the teacher. Then, the students would come to rely more on their laptops than on their teachers, which brings the question of whether the laptop will truly improve the question of whether it will only incite students to study by themselves.

Also from the teacher's perspective, they could have a hard time getting accustomed to a new education systems where it involves laptops. Therefore, the class might be spent analyzing how the laptop works which could decrease the productivity of learning. Another problem might be that teacher might also be too dependent on the technology which could cause them to tell the students to do this and to do that in the laptop while the teacher himself does not do anything (Tse).

http://paradynexus.blogspot.com/2007/05/top-10-issues-of-olpc.html

The misuse of the laptops could also be a problem. Although OLPC was carried out with the idea of improving children's education in developing countries, what if with time, they learn how to deviate from what they are supposed to do and start accessing inappropriate websites? Also using the net, means that there are possible issues of privacy. Children could eventually learn how to use the internet and start posting personal information in the net because they haven't had the right education of the possible threats of the net.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ask_OLPC_a_Question_about_Social_Issues#Intellectual_Property_Rights

Do you think that students in developing countries should set up a proper educational environment first or is distributing OLPC a good plan?