<incom> OLPC

[Pat Hall]

Hi Felipe,

you raise a critical issue - the MIT branding of OLPC. Even though the OLPC 
team left MIT in order to pursue the production of OLPC, it does still 
carry that brand. Here in Nepal we have the same problem - our decision 
makers only hear a part of the story, and the proponents of OLPC are making 
pitches to donor groups, bureaucrats, and the new government. How can we 
together raise a contrary voice?

In Nepal the counter argument will be strongly economic - for the money you 
would spend on equipping every child in a school with a laptop, you could 
replace all the school buildings; the cost of the standard package of one 
million OLPCs plus the hidden infrastructure and training costs would 
consume the entire annual education budget.

But there is also an argument to be made about the educational (mis)use of 
computers, and that is what I hope can come out of a discussion on this 
list. It may also be useful to take the development of the counter argument 
off-line - I know that I need to gather evidence from friends and 
colleagues in educational research.

The key question remains for me - are there any examples anywhere in the 
world of schools education carried out following the OLPC model? It could 
be that we just have to face one or two countries buying in on the idea, 
and then wait and see what happens. If it succeeds, and education becomes 
digital, that is wonderful. But if it fails, then I hope the country 
concerned can afford the loss. Perhaps one country, such as Brazil, should 
volunteer to be the guinea-pig for the G20 world. How about it?

Pat



At 02:46 16/01/2007, Felipe Fonseca wrote:
>Hey Steve
>
>But let me tell you about Brasil. I have been working
>with the Pontos de Cultura project and some other
>initiatives here. The fact is that, as the X-O carries
>the MIT brand, no one asks for our opinion about it,
>as if something developed by those technology
>experts shouldn't be questioned ever. I too believe
>that people designing it are well-intentioned, and
>my intuition says once some X-Os arrive in the
>streets, they'll be hacked both for better and worst
>uses anyway.
>
>I know there's at least one of those in São Paulo,
>I'll try to check it out soon.
>
>f
>
>On 1/13/07, Steve Cisler <sacisler at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>I think the people involved in the XO project are at
>>least as high-principled as some of us believe we are.
>>I think there are some great design features in the
>>new machine, and I did like Negroponte's bemoaning the
>>fact that kids (and adults) all over the world are
>>being taught word/excel/ppoint as if that's the main
>>reason for using a computer.
>>
>>I think it's important to have people at the country
>>level (as participants, kibbitzers and gadflies, and
>>planners and facilitators) to be commenting...and
>>later evaluating how this rolls out. Right now I don't
>>think any of us are more than interested parties, or
>>perhaps I should say persons of interest--to use my
>>government's wonder euphemism for 'suspect.' Maybe we
>>can gather others to take part.
>>
>>Steve
>>
>>
>>
>>____________________________________________________________________________________
>>Finding fabulous fares is fun.
>>Let Yahoo! FareChase search your favorite travel sites to find flight and 
>>hotel bargains.
>>http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097
>>_______________________________________________
>>incom-l mailing list
>>incom-l at incommunicado.info
>>http://mail.kein.org/mailman/listinfo/incom-l
>
>
>--
>FelipeFonseca
>           .''`.
>         : :'  :
>         `. `'`
>           `- Orgulhoso ser MetaRecicleiro
>http://fff.hipercortex.com
>http://metareciclagem.org