India rejects One Laptop Per Child

[SUBMAN1]

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/07...ys_no_to_olpc/



But Nigeria says yes

By John Oates
Published Wednesday 26th July 2006 14:17 GMT
India has decided against getting involved in Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child scheme - which aims to provide kids in developing countries with a simple $100 machine.

The success of the project depends on support, and big orders, from governments. The loss of such a potentially huge, and relatively technically sophisticated market, will be a serious blow.

The Indian Ministry of Education dismissed the laptop as "pedagogically suspect". Education Secretary Sudeep Banerjee said: "We cannot visualise a situation for decades when we can go beyone the pilot stage. We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools."
Banerjee said if money were available it would be better spent on existing education plans.
Banerjee told the Hindu: "We do not think that the idea of Prof Negroponte is mature enough to be taken seriously at this stage and no major country is presently following this. Even inside America, there is not much enthusiasm about this."

OLPC's original schedule was to deliver machines by the end of 2006, but it will not start production until it has received orders, and payment, for between five and ten million machines.
But in better news it also emerged earlier this month that Nigeria is ordering one million machines. Allafrica.com has the story here.

The idea is backed by AMD, Google, MIT, Nortel and Red Hat.
China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand were all named by the OLPC organisation as governments which had expressed an interest.
More info on the OLPC project here.®

[tycho102]

Originally Posted by The bloody Register

We need classrooms and teachers more urgently than fancy tools.

Well, this is true.

However, it is would also be highly useful if they had a $100 laptop and a $25 satellite internet connection. No rental fees, no contract. Just hook the dish up to the laptop and you've got an instant 2.8KB/s connection to the net.

That's the only thing missing. And then that laptop would have a significant value to it. People out in the boonies of India and China would be able to communicate with the rest of the world (much to the dismay of their governments, I would expect).

However, instructors would be able to learn and refine their own knowledge while trying to train people. And if there were enough laptops, it could easily be a useful intruction tool for things such as reading and mathematics.

[August]

Originally Posted by tycho102

Well, this is true.

However, it is would also be highly useful if they had a $100 laptop and a $25 satellite internet connection. No rental fees, no contract. Just hook the dish up to the laptop and you've got an instant 2.8KB/s connection to the net.

That's the only thing missing. And then that laptop would have a significant value to it. People out in the boonies of India and China would be able to communicate with the rest of the world (much to the dismay of their governments, I would expect).

However, instructors would be able to learn and refine their own knowledge while trying to train people. And if there were enough laptops, it could easily be a useful intruction tool for things such as reading and mathematics.

Such things managed to be taught before computers, without having to expose children to the mass marketing and other downsides of the internet. I can see Indias point.

[bradclark1]

SUBMAN1 you are indeed the king of spam.

[STEED]

Originally Posted by bradclark1

SUBMAN1 you are indeed the king of spam.

Nothing wrong with daily fresh topics it's like fresh air, keep them coming SUBMAN1

[SUBMAN1]

Spam? This is what is happening in the world - other than Islam, or politics. I find it a fresh change to the normal thread bashing around here! Just my 2 cents is all. Trying to start a conversation that doesn't end up in you said this or you said that is all.

These laptops take no batteries, are powered by free software, and I can only imagine the learning potential that a child could get from being able to read the worlds opinions. I've learned way more about the world over the inet than any school could ever teach me. The inet is the most powerful teaching tool I think the world has ever known.

Teachers are good, schools are good for the basics, but for learning after school as well (They get to take the laptops home and plan to put up wireless connections for small towns) these things can't be beat. The 3rd world countries are falling behind. This is only a simple project to find a way to stop that. There is no profit in these things - they are being provided at cost.

-S

[Yahoshua]

I dunno about this whole laptop idea either.

Seems like $100 per laptop would seem reasonable, but is that what the price really is? It's almost like oil prices. You promise me a fixed price at one point and time, but when I want to make another order or renew my technical service contract, the price has skyrocketed. And there is also the question of whether or not this type of system would be feasible on such a large scale without having been tested.

Try this sort of thing in a single classroom before you overtake the school.

At least that's my way of approaching it.

[Vinay]

I think it is a wise decision not to implement the $100 Laptop scheme because for this amount i.e Rs.46000 approximately one can get a minimum of two PC's. Add Rs.10000 and get three PC's. So it is best to have three PC's in a school rather than a laptop with a child. That way the maximum possible utilisation is possible. If possible even better utilisation is possible by networking the computers and sharing the resources like CDROM, Printer etc. The next step for the Government must be to implement the most cost effective and efficent way of computerising the Schools.