[Olpc-open] Let them have laptops

[Todd Cranston-Cuebas]

> Sadly though, the story isn't very different here in the US of A. We
> have schools in San Francisco and Palo Alto (that I know of personally)
> that don't have money for text books. The few books that they can afford
> to buy come in around February or so. How much does the US spend on its
> military budget? I'm not even going to bother looking it up. I think its
> a problem of priorities, intent and distribution.


I agree that it is a question of priority but money is not always the issue.
Schools often have money but the allocation of those funds are rarely called
into question. Ratios of administration:teachers of 10:1 is inexcusable and
from my experiences with teachers, they are the most undervalued of skilled
workers in the US. The way schools are run would not, and could not, be
sustained in any normal business. In our local schools we are "wired" and
"computerized" because they have a wireless system on campus that down more
than it is up, they have 2 _ancient_ donated PC's in the corner of the
classroom with a random mix of cards, monitors, etc. These machines rarely
work, are incompatible with half of the software out there, and yet the
administration can claim (and probably receive funding) because it's a wired
school.

Let's assume however that the schools had the best of equipment and the best
networking available, there still would be little value. Teachers are taught
through a mentorship-type arrangement and basically, they do what their
mentor showed them. Teaching knowledge, and teaching techniques and
strategies, are passed down. Teachers are very reluctant to change these
strategies in the face of new technology or even government testing
mandates. I can't blame them since they are overworked as it is and often
its hard enough to keep on track given that that they assume the role of
educator, social worker, etc. The best tools without a change in mindset and
approach won't solve the problems at hand.

That being said, I'm a big proponent as the XO as a disruptive technology. I
also see the growing legions of volunteers who are willing to support these
systems as a way to bypass the traditionally lacking support in the US
public schools of the future. I'd put my trust in an altruistic community of
educators, technology people, etc. over public school administrators. I'd
also put my trust in the future creation of open-source educational
resources over the text book industry.

Just my two-cents and BTW: I do not mean to imply that I think it is
acceptable to have any classroom without sufficient books for each and every
student ;)

>
>
> > With respect to education about technology, how much of a
> > computer would $200 have bought ten years ago?  Not even a
> > computer; maybe a monitor for $200 in 1998.  How much of a
> > computer will $200 buy in 2018?  Maybe ten years from now,
> > $50 will buy a computer that is vastly superior than the XO
> > laptop of today.  How do we educate children for that kind of future?
> >
> >
>
> More important than the cost of the laptop is what a child will do with
> it. If it will simply sit and collect dust, then its not really solving
> problems. The laptop needs to be a cog in a bigger plan, where the
> laptop is used to bolster the curiosity of children.
>
> > The author of the article was right when saying it's, "a matter of
> > political will."  If each of 100 million children in India took their XO
> > laptops home, and showed their families and neighbors how they
> > work, we might be looking at close to a billion people directly
> > impacted by this project.  With the right software, those billion
> > people might then use that kind of technology to express their
> > political will.  If that happened, I think there would be fewer hungry
> > people in the world.
> >
>
> I still think people in any given nation need to be an integral part of
> the solution. Instead of giving them a bunch of XOs, we have to figure
> out how education will be sustainable beyond the life cycle of those XOs
> or the next batch of technology that becomes available. Keep in mind
> that a good proportion of the billion plus people in India (the target
> of the article) are quite well fed. Many of them just don't care about
> the rest.
>
> Sameer
>
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
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>
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