On Dec 8, 2007, at 9:43 PM, Holden Hao wrote: > On Dec 7, 2007 5:49 PM, Manny <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> One Laptop per Child Doesn't Change the World >> by John C. Dvorak >> http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2227872,00.asp > > Dvorak does not get it. He did not do the research on this one. The > OLPC is an educational project and one that is based on sound learing > theory. To be more specific it is based on the constructivist and > constructionist theories of education. The use of computers for > learning through the mentioned approach is already tried and tested. > The MIT group of Negroponte has done many pilot studies already. If > you do the right research you can trace its beginnings from the works > of Dr. Seymour Papert, one of the creators of Logo. >
it isn't actually a question of whether or not the theory of education is sound or not. it is more economics of scale, of delivering the device to the recipient. negroponte actually has failed to achieve his economics of scale. instead of a US$100 per laptop, it is now close to US$200. intel's classmate is selling approx 2x that... as do a lot of oem laptops. bet you that during any bidding for those machines, the big name company gets picked because of the "service reputation"? can't be blamed really. between a 9 million dollar operation and a several billion dollars with X decades experience company, who would you likely think will be preferred? it probably would have been best if negroponte just got the software from mit and mated that with say an EEEPC-like device instead of building his own. who knows? it is water under the bridge now. but there is some good that came out of it. the olpc woke intel up. first time they actually made a laptop. it changed the market. plus there are more manufacturers now dropping prices... 499 dollar laptops are more common now than when olpc was first announced. given the right market condition, prices could still change. microsoft too i think also contributed to intel's initiative by putting in windows. they got scared all those kids will be learning linux now and will expect their machine to be linux when they grow up. as it stands now, olpc looks like will need an exit strategy as it fades like the print on a t-shirt after a wash, but who knows... always in motion the future is. maybe it'll make a comeback. then again there are those who favor the school of thought that says: jobs first to provide food on the table then education for the young are the keys to bringing a nation out of poverty. put in another way, wouldn't it be better if say, Intel would put up a plant in Thailand or Nigeria to hire several thousand people to work thereby giving those people the opportunity to put food on their table and to send their children to school than giving them laptops which their own government is paying for, with their own money which they really need for other things like maybe irrigation for crops and roads to take their produce to market? ------------------ Cocoy "People who are really serious about software should make their own hardware." --Alan Kay _________________________________________________ Philippine Linux Users' Group (PLUG) Mailing List [email protected] (#PLUG @ irc.free.net.ph) Read the Guidelines: http://linux.org.ph/lists Searchable Archives: http://archives.free.net.ph
