<incom> From the CES in Las vegas

[Pat Hall]

Dear Maja

thank you for posting this, it is very revealing.  At the moment I am 
attending the annual CAN Infotech show in Kathmandu, where we had a 
presentation from a group calling themselves OLPC-Nepal.  There is no doubt 
to me that the OLPC contains some impressive technology, what worries me is 
its intended application.

One quotation in the BBC report is very revealing where they quote Bletsas:
"I'd like to make sure that kids all around the world start to communicate. 
It will be a very interesting experiment to see what will happen when we 
deploy a million laptops in Brazil and a million laptops in Namibia."
Focus on that word 'experiment'.

OLPC was being pushed here as a solution to Nepal's educational 
needs.  There is no doubt that Nepal has severe needs, with inadequate 
school buildings, insufficient teachers many of whom are unqualified mostly 
teaching rote learning from the front of the class, and much absenteeism as 
kids help their families survive.  But there are examples of sound teaching 
practice in spite of these constraints, introduced by local Nepali 
educators and through programs funded by the Scandinavians and through 
UNESCO.  UNESCO is in the process of producing a short video to illustrate 
these local Nepali best practices.

OLPC is based on a high tech view of education mediated by the OLPC, 
networked so that collaborative learning takes place, following a 
constructionist paradigm.  Nothing wrong with collaborative learning and 
constructionist education - that is what happens when teachers move away 
from the front of the class and pupils turn their chairs to work in groups, 
and just a few more resources like teachers or teaching assistants are 
available.  But this does not require the OLPC.

OLPC-Nepal describe themselves as a group of 'young engineers', and billed 
the origins of OLPC as coming from a group 'educators at MIT'.  Hang on, 
isn't the Media Lab a group of high-tech people who have been pushing the 
use of technology in teaching for 50 years, from Marvin Minsky and Logo to 
the present?  Has anybody anywhere adopted a completely computer mediated 
delivery of education in schools?  Even distance educators such as 
Britain's Open University recognise the need for a personal touch in their 
use of tutors and self help groups.

So the way it looks to me is that the high-tech people from Media Labs and 
their fellow travellers, having failed to roll out the use of high tech in 
schools education across the developed world, are now indulging in one 
gigantic experiment on the developing world to see if their 
computer-mediated methods work.  Phew, how does this rank against drug 
trials in developing countries and the dumping of computer waste in the 
name of recycled computers?

How do you stop this leviathon?  Well, it will stop in due course due to 
its own failures, hopefully in countries that can afford the odd 100 
million dollars or two.  I will do what I can to advise people here in 
Nepal against OLPC, though of course it must be people here who decide.

best wishes

Pat



At 02:15 11/01/2007, Maja van der Velden wrote:
>The BBC had an interview with Mr. Bletsas from the One Laptop Per Child
>project:
>
>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6246989.stm
>
>"He said he hoped that the laptop project would help children enrich
>their lives to the extent that one day they could become consumers of
>the types of technologies on display in Las Vegas."
>
>There is much more interesting stuff there. For example, the laptops are
>not supposed to go to people without internet access...
>
>
>Greetings,
>
>Maja
>--
>
>
>In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
>
>But this reality so give me some room
>
>(Billy Bragg - Waiting for the great leap forward)
>
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