The fifth annual MIT Technology Review Emerging Technology Conference
kicked off this morning with a presentation from Nicholas Negroponte of
the MIT Media Lab. Negroponte discussed his $100 laptop initiative, in
which he is working to produce a low-cost laptop for mass distribution
in k-12 schools in the developing world.
"It is the most important project I've ever done in my life... The
reception it's received has been incredible," he said. "The idea is
simple - it's to look at education. This is an education project, not
just a laptop project. If you take any world problem - peace, the
environment, poverty - the solution to that problem certainly includes
education. And if you have a solution that doesn't include education,
than it's not a real solution at all."
"In emerging nations, the issue is not connectivity," Negroponte
continued. "It *was* the issue; it's not a solved problem, but there are
many people and many systems working on it... It's happening; it doesn't
need me, MIT or the Media Lab. But for education, the roadblock is the
laptop."
Negroponte told the story of building schools in Cambodia. He gave
students laptops to bring home, but they came back the next day, the
laptops unused. Their parents would not let them use them because they
were worried they'd break it. The students went back home with a note
saying they didn't have to worry about the cost of the laptops; the
parents loved them because they were the brightest lights they had in
the home. In the first three years, only one laptop out of 50 broke
(though all the AC adapters died). "Why is that? It's because of
ownership. The kids polished them, made bags for them; they certainly
wouldn't get broken."
Read the full report here: http://www.andycarvin.com/
permalink: http://www.andycarvin.com/archives/2005/09/creating_the_10.html
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Andy Carvin
Program Director
EDC Center for Media & Community
acarvin @ edc . org
http://www.digitaldivide.net
http://katrina05.blogspot.com
Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com
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