[LINK] Laptop program hailed

[eric scheid]

from The Australian...

(offered without comment .. I'll leave that to the far more learned and
capable LINKers)

Laptop program hailed
Mitchell Nadin - May 27, 2011 12:00AM
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/laptop-program-hailed/story
-fn59niix-1226063774046
 
THE lives of 5000 students in remote Australia have been turned around
during the past 12 months, courtesy of a small green and white laptop.

Over the next three years that story will be writ large across the country,
with the One Laptop Per Child scheme aiming to provide the computers to
400,000 children aged 4-15 in remote and regional Australia by 2014.

The OLPC program is a global scheme established in the US in 2005. To date,
the non-profit organisation has given laptops to almost 2 million children
worldwide, true to its charter of using technology to help bridge the gap
between children in remote communities and their city cousins.

Yesterday, the local arm of the charity - of which The Australian is a
sponsor - celebrated its two-year anniversary.

The executive director of the program in Australia, Rangan Srikhanta, said
educators in the field had reported that the laptop roll-out had "literally
changed children's lives"

"If we can provide an XO to each of the 400,000 remote Australian children
by 2014, we will have made a marked contribution to educational reform," Mr
Srikhanta said.