Here it is, Nicholas Negroponte's 100$ laptop! I like the colour... Perhaps it will be an important factor in bridging the digital divide. Perhaps it will be too fragile and too difficult to repair to have any lasting impact. User generated content seems to be a part of the vision. As long as local adults (teachers, NGOs and others) are included in this vision, and not only the actual intended users (children), this seems to me to be a good strategy. If local adults are bypassed and the children alone are encouraged to create content within this Western-developed technology, I will be surprised if the project will not be critisised as neo-imperialism. I will also be surprised if the good old Great Jewish Conspiracy will not be a hot topic in this regard.
2 comments:
Ah, I heard about this budget laptop a year or so ago... Seems like a great idea to me if it's actually made available to the right people, which for me would be university level students in poor countries rather than school age children (which schools attended by the poor even have electricity? At least that's my experience from Madagascar - where providing school meals would be a much better investment than laptops to improve student performance, imho). Anyway, poor students here in London would be another good target group :)
very very interesting. so you bought one?
AND! thanks for including my flickr site in your links! it made me squeal with delight when i saw it on your links part. ;)
Post a Comment