One Laptop Per Child Feedback

So I have received some interesting responses to my Laptop Article thus far. While there is not a huge list of offerings just yet, the feedback that I have received certainly gave me a “cause for pause”. Check out the most recent responses so far…

Jim writes-
I can see Sally Fields in the commercial, now… “For only 89 cents a day, you can sponsor a child and get her connected to the world wide web” (never mind that the kid is wearing rags and hasn’t eaten in three days).

Another Jim writes-
Matt – from South Africa, I can say that while the intention is good, you may recall what the road to hell is paved with.

There is a huge hunger for knowledge amongst the majority of our population, and many previously disadvantaged people are returning to school to complete the schooling they were never able to hope for. We have had a sixty year old come back to complete Grade 12!

In many of our rural communities, electrical power is a major problem i.e. it’s non existent! Even basing this whole concept on laptops, power is still a stumbling block. Solar energy is an option, but the price of sufficient solar panels to charge ten laptops would be probably 10-15 times the cost of the computers!

Compounding that is the substantive lack of broadband connectivity – to the majority of South Africans, ISDN @64k is still a pipe dream. The highest available download rate is achieved via our cellular networks, with HSDPA offering a possible 1.8 M. However this is only available in city centres, far from the rural communities it could benefit.

So, again I would reiterate, good idea – pity about the execution.

Vee writes-
Hi there
Your email showed realism.
The bleeding hearts of this world are so focused on everyone else’s problems that they neglect to sweep their own back yards first. Although, - maybe their own backyards don’t draw enough attention to themselves. Much better to stand on an international stage!

I live in South Africa and stand in awe when South Africans ship aide to other countries in need while they have people of their own requiring care and attention. We have people living on the centre islands of our highways with cardboard serving as shelter. They survive by ferreting through dustbins of the surrounding businesses and homes.

Just a thought. Where do they intend to get the electricity to power these laptops? In this country, which is far more advanced than its’ neighbours, most, if not all, rural schools do not have plug points in the classroom/s and some do not even have electricity! A laptop battery only lasts for so long……..

Tony writes-
Dear Matt.
You are so right! I live in Israel where the $ to Shekel rate is 4.6 sh = 1 $ . As our earnings are in Sh and not $. A $100 is equivalent to 460. So else where, where the exchange rate is worse, the problem is compounded.

Best regards & thanks for your Lockergnome daily.

Mike wites-
Though you could classify me as a geek, there is one thing I have noticed in every day life that has forced me to say this project won’t work. Logic tells me that being smart, good in school and being well educated does NOT mean you have any common sense. So where are these people coming from? One, computers need to have access, just so they can keep updated, plus all the other things you want to do with a computer. So are they going to provide not only the computers in these third world countries and also a way for these computers to have access?

The complexity of the infrastructure alone would be enormous! Dial-up and DSL are unrealistic as it is my understanding that in many parts of the world the infrastructure is as old as Grahm Bell when he was alive. Cable is not even heard in some parts of the world. That puts every thing purely in the lap of Satellite, which everyone knows the security and access needed to handle the load required is cost prohibitive and further development could be 50 years in the future.

If they wanted to really do some good, do good here in the states. I might be a little old fashion, but I am disgusted that fact that we here in the most powerful country in the world, and we can’t even take care of our own.

Jeff writes-
“What in the world are these MIT guys thinking?”

If Bill Gates, AMD, and others hadn’t pledged to make this happen, I’d agree with you. But they did. I think the initial target I saw published was 50 million of the things spread over the least connected parts of the world. Not necessarily 1 per student, but at least 1 per school. In places like Africa’s southern half, that’s a whole lot more than they have now. In any case, I really wish them well and I hope that it doesn’t get snuffed by diplomatic crap.

Tim writes-
Hi Matt,
If there is a market for $100 laptops for the U.S. schools, then it will happen. If the $100 laptop is charity, then they may belong in the 3rd world countries. I think $1000 laptops are possible in the U.S., but there are counter market forces that prevent our schools from obtaining them.

Alan writes-
I’m an elementary school computer teacher in Vancouver, BC, Canada and I want to comment on Matt’s statements “we can’t even manage to prevent school closures, much less provide low cost laptops for the students of most schools… in the larger US cities? I believe that they would find more than one school that could use such innovative technology….Should we be looking at implementing this sort of technology in our own perspective countries first?”
Vancouver is not a well-funded school district; currently, the various government levels fund about $5 per student per year for technology– not a large amount.
While schools here in Vancouver aren’t able to provide laptops for each student, there is no shortage of computer hardware; schools are flooded with cast-off Pentium 1 and Pentium 2-generation PCs, donated by parents, neighbors, and local businesses.
Far too often though, the computers sit unused. There are issues with getting them set up, getting appropriate software for them, training teachers on how to use computers and the Internet educationally, and more– but there is no shortage of hardware– at least, relatively low-level hardware like these.

Often, teachers or parents wonder whether it’s possible to get the under-used computers to schools in the 3rd-world; there seem to be no programs to do this, and given the value of older computer hardware, the cost of shipping seems prohibitive.
I would suspect that my local situation isn’t unique– that for any school that wants, at least for any school located in a relatively large metropolitan area, there’s no shortage of free computer hardware– at least if the school is prepared to use perfectly usable first and second generation Pentiums. But other issues than hardware availability limit the use of these computers– and those issues would be equally true if the schools were filled with $100 laptops.

Mark writes-
What do you think? Should we be looking at implementing this sort of technology in our own perspective countries first? Or instead, is selling notebook PCs to 3rd world countries really the best bet for the success of the word’s children? I’ve had my say, what do you think?
I think we’ve seen the result of a “me first / us first” mentality over and over… The rich get richer, the poor get poorer.

I think it behooves us to facilitate less-fortunate people in other countries being able to *live* and *thrive* before feeling we have to own 3 cars, a $300,000 plus house, etc.

Look after our poor? Definitely! That’s what communities are for. To look after each other.
Helping out in our communities is using the microscope… helping out in the world is using the macro-scope…
No, I’m neither liberal, communist, nor vote Democrat!

Anne writes-
Matt,
Have to agree with you on your thoughts on the laptops. We have similar problems here in the UK and as I believe in every child having the right to the best education there is.
We have a two-tier system in England though because of some of the schools are private only for those who have enough money to pay for their child’s schooling.

Mary writes-
Right on!! I agree, there are plenty of schools and children in our own back yard that could use the computing capabilities.

One issue may be the an easier availability of dollars devoted to assisting one set of children over another. I can’t think of any other reason why someone would look thousands of miles away instead of next door.

[tags]computers,laptop,solar energy,rural communities,electrical power[/tags]