Skeptics Question OLPC's Focus With $75 Tablet 159
With the recent announcement of OLPC's shift in focus, many are criticizing the nonprofit's attempt to design what could be seen as unrealistic hardware at an impossible price point. "The OLPC project has become an unrealistic hardware 'dream' and lost its focus on education, wrote blogger Wayan Vota on OLPC News, which has followed the OLPC since its inception. The project comes up with unrealistic hardware designs and price points that destroy its purpose even more, he wrote. 'Excuse me if I get mad at the XO-3 hype. I'm angry at the energy devoted to fantasy XO hardware instead of OLPC educational reality. I miss the original OLPC Mission, where children, not computers, controlled our dreams,' Vota wrote."
Books and education (Score:2, Interesting)
I don't see what the poster thinks has changed.
Many of us have pointed out from the beginning that having a computer is not equivalent to education... let alone solving the problems of food and shelter.
OLPC is a Westerner's arrogant fantasy and has been from the beginning. Not at all saying we should not try and level the playing field, but the targets of this program are not suffering in their education because they don't have a Laptop. They are a long way from that.
Boondoggle? No, just misguided and arrogant.
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:5, Interesting)
And before you ask... "Values for a New Millenium"b Dr. Robert Humphrey. Info is in the last part of the book.
Now, when he proved several techniques that took Inner City kids from drug addicts to straight A students... who do you think shut him down? Kids? No. Parents? No. School Board? You betcha. (And that isn't knocking all School Board people...) Read the book.
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:5, Interesting)
It already has been proven. Three groups of kids. First group traditional education. Second is guided but loose (like a lot of decent homeschoolers - not all, mind you) and Third was kids who just had someone to ask questions of and list topics/projects. Guess which group scored better at the end of the testing? Yep... group three. With little more than the Google equivalent of a "teacher". You ever see how quickly school can suck the imagination, creativity and desire to learn out of a kid? And before you ask... "Values for a New Millenium"b Dr. Robert Humphrey. Info is in the last part of the book. Now, when he proved several techniques that took Inner City kids from drug addicts to straight A students... who do you think shut him down? Kids? No. Parents? No. School Board? You betcha. (And that isn't knocking all School Board people...) Read the book.
You'd love what John Taylor Gatto has to say [johntaylorgatto.com] on this subject. He also has a shorter essay here [cantrip.org]. He highlights how many of modern public schooling's techniques are profoundly anti-educational and seem designed to encourage dependency. He also advises that it takes about 50 contact hours to transmit basic literacy and mathematics skills; after that, the person is capable of educating themselves given access to books and other resources. One trivial example of the damage this does can be found in those computer users who get confounded by very simple issues that are found in Page 1 of the manual, the README file, the help file, the FAQ, and the vendor's Web site, yet they still need handholding, not because they are incapable of reading and understanding the information, but because they feel helpless.
I am very grateful that there are people like this who will stand up and say something, who will expose these important ideas. Make no mistake, that takes courage. It's little wonder that you generally don't see folks like that on the prime-time evening news, for what they have to say, however true, is also quite inconvenient to many powerful interests.
Incidentally, you may appreciate my sig; it's quite apropos.
Re:Needed: DIY education software (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, because Afghanistan was an educational utopia before they started in with the harboring terrorists thing, of course.
Too bad the world isn't really like hindsight says it was.
Irony (Score:5, Interesting)
The irony is, the hardware more-or-less existed when the OLPC was first conceptualized - and it could've been done inexpensively at that time, too. Five years ago, a $100 linux-based "netbook" would've been entirely feasable.
No, it wouldn't have had color or an x86 processor. And yes, it would've been a crappy monochrome LCD. But it'd have gotten great battery life, been able to do audio and the basic tasks outlined for the project, and (importantly) been able to be sold for under $100.
It was pretty obvious that Intel was making buku bucks off the advertising associated with the original platform. The OLPC guys got taken for a ride by associating with Intel on that one.
This time around, with enough volume there's no reason $100 shouldn't be achievable for a consumer price, and a lot less than that for production.
Nonsense (Score:3, Interesting)
Kids can, and will teach themselves given the chance. [ted.com]
another link [hole-in-the-wall.com]
(you may want to skip about 5 minutes into the video. The comments are good too.)
T
Re:typical techie outcome (Score:3, Interesting)
"This is what happens when you have techies trying to" produce an education system.. Let's not lose sight of the goal. People implementing business plans fail pretty miserably at educating third world children too. They often fail at educating first world students, for that matter.