[LINK] One Laptop per Child Doesn't Change the World

[Scott Howard]

On 12/10/07, Bernard Robertson-Dunn <brd at iimetro.com.au> wrote:
>
> One Laptop per Child Doesn't Change the World
> ARTICLE DATE: 12.04.07
> By John C. Dvorak
> PC World
> http://www.pcmag.com/print_article2/0,1217,a=220845,00.asp
>
> So what to do? Let's give these kids these little green computers.


OLPC isn't about giving children a laptop.  It's about giving them the one
thing that can allow them to break the cycle of poverty that so many of
these countries are in - an education!

And Education _does_ change the world.


Of course, it might be a problem if there is no classroom and he can't
> read. The literacy rate in Niger is 13 percent, for example. Hey, give
> them a computer! And even if someone can read, how many Web sites and
> wikis are written in SiSwati or isiZulu? Feh. These are just details to
> ignore.


These aren't details to ignore - they are exactly the problem that OLPC was
designed to help fix!  The literacy rate is so low _because_ children do not
get a chance to get an education - there are not sufficient tools or dollars
to teach them.


People don't want to consider the possibility that their
> well-meaning thoughts are a joke and that a $200 truckload of rice would
> be of more use than Wi-Fi in the middle of nowhere. There seems to be a


A $200 truckload of rice will NOT help solve poverty, and anyone that thinks
it will obviously has a fairly sheltered view of what 3rd world poverty is.
I'm not saying that $200, be it spent on rice or building a well or anything
else wouldn't be beneficial, but it's education that's really needed to
break the cycle.


I've really got to wonder if Dvorak is like the average American who doesn't
even have a passport - let alone has ever left the USA.  I've visited
multiple third-world countries, and I've seen the difference education can
make to these communities.

Is OLPC the best way to assist with the delivery of that education?  Only
time will tell, but to write it off as a gimmick shows a complete
mis-understanding of the situation in many parts of the world, and of what
OLPC is trying to bring to people - it's not about giving them laptops, it's
about giving them education.

  Scott.