Kids, PCs and politics
CORONADO, Calif.--Say what you want about all the projects to bring low-cost PCs to the world, but at least someone's thinking of the children.
The Future in Review version of PCs-for-schools, Project Inkwell, tries not to get sucked into the increasingly competitive world of low-cost PC projects. Nick Negroponte of the One Laptop Per Child project recently traded blows with Intel Chairman Craig Barrett over who's more concerned about helping the poor, and who is simply looking for a new market.
"We think it should be a good business, we don't think there's anything wrong with generating profits," said Bruce Wilcox, CEO of Project Inkwell. Wilcox wants to get all the PC industry companies working together on the project, and recently brought IBM into the fold. IBM doesn't sell PCs anymore, but it's increasingly interested in the services revenue that comes along with helping schools set up networks.
Much of the debate centers on the merits of the specific device, whether it's Negroponte's XO, Intel's Classmate PC, or something else. But making sure that the industry works both sides of the fence, the devices and the services, is vitally important, said C.J. Holthaus, technical director at chipmaker Via Technologies. "You can't do The Gods Must Be Crazy strategy, just dropping the laptops out of the plane," he said.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
Are notebook PCs really the key to a better life (or even better learning) for children? Countless genuises ? people whose ideas changed the world ? existed long before the advent of semiconductors, so it hardly seems likely that the lack of a computer will truly hamper any child?s learning ability or intellectual potential.
Maybe we're naive to assume that technology will magically equate to a more efficient or well-rounded learning environment for children - impoverished or otherwise.
Do economically-disadvantaged children without electricity and/or books NEED access to vast stores of knowledge on the Internet? Will that window to the sum of human knowledge be nearly so useful as some potable water, vaccines, or basic book-based education might be?
And is there any evidence that granting access to the Internet and its vast repositories of information has boosted the IQ or potential of children in first-world countries? I've yet to see the introduction of technology bring about miraculous educational reform for children in America.
- The first videos from the OLPC test schools
- by Charbax May 25, 2007 5:30 PM PDT
- I just wrote a story at http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/brazil/videos_olpc_schools.html
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- Just not Intel
- by Fil0403 June 1, 2007 6:33 PM PDT
- Otherwise they are just "trying to kill the compatetion".
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(8 Comments)Where I embedd some of the videos that are online that were recently filmed in some of the actual test schools that have already received some pre-production OLPC XO-1 devices, and you can see the reaction of the children anf of the teachers, that's all that counts really isn't it?
Then of course it'd be great if IBM, VIA and others would invest some billions in providing optimized software, content and even cheaper hardware.