Some folks at MIT thought it would be worthwhile to create and mass-produce a cheap and durable laptop that could be distributed to children in developing countries. This project, OLPC, is a couple of years in the making but seems to be making a bit of buzz lately, probably because it’s coming closer to its realization.
“Our goal: to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves” (http://www.laptop.org/index.en_US.html).
This laptop computer will use Linux (an open-source operating system that doesn’t make much fuss over rights or whatnot as Microsoft or Apple), be full-color, will have flash memory (whatever that means) and will be hand-cranked (among other sources of getting electricity). It can be networked to other computers. For instance, if Haluwa is close to some tower that allows her access to the internet and Baraka is close to her (but NOT the tower), he can connect to her computer for access to the internet, and so on and on. [NOTE: I’m not exactly a technological whiz so I may have some of the technical stuff mixed up. If anyone out there notices any error in my description of the project, please do post a comment for clarification!] And the laptop itself is cute! The colors are bright. The screen can be moved around to however the child pleases.
I worked in a Deaf school in Kenya for two years. I know how hard it is to get basic supplies like paper, pencils, and books. This kind of project has great potential, provided the governments of developing countries are willing to pay enough to provide ONE laptop PER child. AND continue to support the project as long as it takes for it to stand on its own legs. But I’m not so sure what kind of changes it’d bring about. Would it really take? Would it really revolutionize education in these countries? Would children who are largely illiterate and more focused on getting their day’s food really benefit from a laptop they’re not really sure how to use? I do know that children are amazingly quick to adapt to new things and can utilize new tools quickly and with impressive precision. But still, there’s a nagging feeling. Is this really what they need? Will it cause more problems than solutions? For example, theft. Will adults be tempted to steal these laptops and sell them on the black market?
And what about sustainability? As a Peace Corps Volunteer, or as any one who’s ever volunteered in developing country would know…ready for a trite phrase? Change must come from within. People coming from other countries and saying they know what’s best for them doesn’t really work. It never really has.
One of my Peace Corps Trainers shared this story with me. A male Peace Corps Volunteer was living in a community where women of the village had to hike a long way up a hill to fetch water for the community everyday. Moved by their plight, he decided to build a pipe from the water source down to the center of the village. The women no longer had to walk a long way and could spend more time on other tasks. Pleased, the male volunteer completed his service feeling he had contributed something. The next volunteer to work with this particular village came in and noticed that the women and men were fighting, more than was typical. She met with different groups of people in the village and asked them what was happening and what they wanted. They all voiced one thing: “We never asked for the pipe to be built. When women walk up that hill, it’s their time for bonding and being with one another.” With the village’s wishes and permission, the new volunteer took an axe to the pipe and restored balance to the community’s way of life. The moral of the story is: outsiders do not know what’s best for any particular community.
So One Laptop Per Child… It’s a lovely idea. The optimist in me sees potential for glorious results. But the cynic says different.
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36 Comments
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I have to agree about outsiders not knowing what is the best for any particular community. A community of any kind needs to meet and outline what they really need before any outsider listens before offering assistance.
This has been a problem in the Deaf community with these outsiders. Outsiders when it comes to the Deaf community, I see two kinds:
One who have absolutely nothing to do with the Deaf community and the other is being part of the community but are seen as inteference. They are in the way of the community’s attempt to create a goal, direction and process that’ll benefit us all on their term. Both groups do harm than good.
This is why America gets the reputation for imposing their beliefs, values, etc on other countries. Such arrogance on their part contributed to its adverse image to the world. And, yes, I am born and reared in America. As an American, I urge our country to be more receptive and sensitive to others.
You can’t even make this comparison. For starters, the deaf community is not a developing nation (well…). Second, the deaf community is set up to perpuate itself and keep the status quo, not to be progressive. But then again, maybe ya’all like acting like it’s still 1870.
Any communities, be it a developing nation or not, are similiar in a lot of ways on different levels. Because I am deaf, so naturally I use deaf community but it could apply to other communities. If it does not begin at home with communities we have, their attitude will carry on abroad.
When you said deaf community is set to perpuate itself and keep the status quo, not to be progressive, may I ask you who are these people? An inquring mind wants
to know.
I love your story about women hiking up the mountain to fetch water and our humane inclination to change them. What the phrase “bonding and being with one another” implies is that these women created their own community, not nation, where they valued themselves. It is a perfect analogy for our Deaf community, (again) not nation, because we resist sound-oriented values imposed on our language and culture. For example, we resist the idea of signing and voicing at the same time. Another example, ask why do Deaf children throw away hearing aids. We value ourselves as Deaf people.
deaf community can be regarded as some kind of colonialism. it’s almost parallel to a foreign power who uses resources and skills, but does not advance/train the locals.
also bottom-up development achieve more than top-down.
anyways - it’s a wonderful idea to provide the children with a tool with that every other person on the planet uses.
Good points about how the local community should be given skills, to sustain themselves and how bottom-up development achieves more than top-down work.
It’s interesting how you say “a tool that every other person on the planet uses.” I don’t have any statistics on hand, but I have a feeling that that may not be true. In fact, I’d make an educated guess and say that only a small percent of the human population has a computer or at least regular access to one. That is exactly one of the reasons why I’m not sure this project would succeed. Going from flimsy exercise books and poorly painted blackboards to computers overnight doesn’t seem very promising.
I am curious about how many people have access to computers. And I’m sure as people read their comment they’ll immediately go to the google search in their toolbar and check. I’ll do the same after I click the “add comment” button. Let’s see who finds out first…
Pew Internet Center… that’d be the place to check.
Did you find the information? I looked quickly but couldn’t find it quickly enough. I am a graduate student after all… :)
(meaning that i don’t have time to look further - not that i’m inept at research!)
Ah, then I don’t have to explain why I didn’t come up with the stats… um, stat. As in ASAP. Graduate students, unite!!
Although you asked for access to computers, am assuming you as much meant Internet access? If so…
http://www.pewinternet.org/ … their reports usually feature penetration numbers (please, people)… Internet, digital TVs, cell phone usage, etc etc.
According to http://www.pewinternet.org/PPF.....splay.asp:
-73% of Americans (about 147 million adults) are Internet users
-42% of Americans are with broadband connectivity
(But don’t read too much into that. Who knows how many use the Web just to access email.)
Another source (xerox from a 2005 report, don’t know name) gives Internet penetration in eight countries as:
- France: 40.6%
- Sweden: 74.6%
- UK: 58.5%
- USA: 68.8%
- Mexico: 11.9%
- China: 6.8%
- Ghana: 0.8%
- Lebanon: 2.3%
Needs more penetration, folks. More.
Thanks, Glenn, for the informative (and not so subtle, haha) stats (stat, whatever). I was actually looking for how many people in the world had access to computers themselves, not just the internet. Although I already know the difficulties of ascertaining such figures…
Wait, Internet usage in China, is only at 6.8%? That number just seems…wrong.
Hochgesang: I said sorry for not getting the stats stat… “stat” being ER-speak for ASAP. That’s what I get for being punny but not funny.
China?: I had the same reaction. Am also wondering about India, also with a population of one billion. Maybe we aren’t realizing how agricultural much of China still is? Either that or 6.8% is flat-out wrong.
According to the report, China has the largest number of Internet users, but the percent of the population is still small. The Internet is still unheard of in rural China where most people live.
http://www.china-embassy.org/eng/gyzg/t231597.htm
On the contrary, it’s very interesting to note that certain web sites are blocked by the Chinese government. However, many Internet users manage to access blocked web sites using foreign proxy servers. I am not sure if they are required to register in order to access the Interent. Anyone knows?
I guess I was comparing to the developed world about the computer bit. your educated guess sounds correct.
I don’t blame you for your skepticism about the children actually getting the laptop. there may be interferences made by certain groups for their own benefit. trying to be optimistic in a way :)
I live in Kisumu and I write about the OLPC on an (independent) blog, OLPC News. As far as I can make out, there appears to be little evidence of OLPC consulting schools in target countries about how laptops might be used and the impact they might have. That’s not to say there hasn’t been any research, however the project has advanced to the point where manufacture is imminent and impact studies seem to be either missing or, perhaps, deemed irrelevant.
I met with a number of school teachers from Nyanza Province recently and talked to them about OLPC’s laptop initiative; they did not seem that impressed. This is not to say they didn’t want computers - it was the discovery that these laptops would be distributed at governmental level that caused the teachers’ concern. All of them assumed that even if Kenya did prescribe to the initiative, it would be unlikely that their schoolchildren would ever receive laptops, perhaps due to corruption but more likely due to political/tribal rivalry (more often than not, Kenyans from Western and Nyanza Provinces are in “opposition” to whoever runs the country).
It’s interesting to read that you worked in a school for the deaf in Kenya while with the Peace Corps. A good friend of my partner’s worked for two years doing exactly the same thing with the exact same organisation in Nyang’oma (Western) about 6 years ago. Unfortunately we lost contact with her about 12 months ago during an overzealous email purge.
Hello David, your comments were very interesting. I particularly relate to them! I remember so many stories and some first-hand experiences about things like this. The teachers’ distrust of the government, the political and tribal rivalry you mention, and etc.
I’m particularly reminded of a comic strip that was taped up on the bulletin board in the Peace Corps Training Center - in the first box, there’s a group of men who live in a developing country and they’re in a meeting. The leader says “so we’ve got money from the aid agency, what should we do?” The second box shows all the men sitting silently. The next shows the leader posing the question, “who’s in favor of saying we came up with a plan but will just use the money for ourselves?” The last box shows that all the men have their hands up in agreement.
I don’t have the dialogue down verbatim but the idea is similiar. And this story rings particularly true here when you say “impact studies seem to be either missing or, perhaps, deemed irrelevant.”
Yes, I worked at the Kibarani School for the Deaf in Kilifi, just one hour north of Mombasa. However I visited Kisumu a few times. How goes it there? Is it getting hotter yet or are the rains still around?
I’ll be sure to check out your OLPC blog. I’m interested in seeing how this project will affect developing countries, and particularly how it affects deaf students in deaf schools.
Just checked out the OLPC blog. It’s very well done. Folks, if you’re interested in following this project, I highly recommend this site (in David’s comment above) and the OLPC’s own site at http://www.laptop.org.
David, let me know if you need help re-connecting to that volunteer, I’m still in contact with some PCVs.
Most (if not all) of the hard work on OLPC News is done by the guy who started the site (who is, coincidentally, in DC). I commented there frequently he eventually invited me to start posting.
I would be interested in trying to get back in contact with our friend. I know it may be a long shot, but your help would be greatly appreciated. Please drop me an email (the address I used to post here is good).
I have mixed feelings about dehumanizing our own existence as human beings. Our society at large seems get more and more impersonal and disconnected from who and what we are all about.
I am sure that there will be the next “generation” who will NOT know how to write their own names via handwritings or brush paints on canvas or express our thoughts on papers or something concrete than electronically-plated materials.
That is called “technopoly” -same title of nonfiction book! People would not do anything without being largely dependent on technology itself. Retail stores would be not possibly open after massive earthquake(s) hit the affected area. Supermarkets with all computerized cashiers could not run without electricity or central system working without outside interference (falling electric lines).
What happened to the modern Frisco (SF) in the early 90s! People could not buy any necessity at the store(s)!
Our humanity is at much stake if we let ourselves too dependent on computer and electronic stuff! Simple stuff like papers and pencils do not create any serious energy pollution unlike laptop (battery acid end up in landfill waste polluting groundwater and other natural surroundings).
We would be better off when we concretate on our own beautiful humanity - ability to write and paint and jump than sitting down with the laptop to restrict our own existence.
The human mentality from threats of conformity and submissive behaviors will be much truer within the use of uncontrollable dependency on electronic “mobile” devices. People will be not able to use their own body parts to spell out their thoughts or names without laptops next to them.
I must say that the existence of communism in Soviet Union and China already done the world a great favor without heavily industralized and commericalized the natural resources. Eco-pollution get worse and worse in the present China in name of mass consumerism and captialism.
The greater availabity of laptop computer within the next generation will dehumanize the societey at large. The future generation will be more likely to absorb themselves into their own living cocoons without giving any damn about other living things.
I wonder what will become of Adam Stone after spending considerable time at the deaf Sri Lanka school.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
Before I go further on this blog writing. Welcome, Carl Schroeder! What a surprise for someone blogging from the Aloha State!
An article in the Sunday edition’s Washington Times from Karen Goldberg Golf pointed out how more people get lonelier, working harder, more stressed and even crunched for more time based on technology watchers’ studies.
Here is an exceprt from the same Washington Times article - “Many Americans say they have fewer close ites than ever - despite having ability to communicate with so many others so quickly”.
Our humanity will face severe technology addiction than we previously admit. Laptop per child will intertwine hir neurological abilities and social interaction into the “emotionless” being, ex. Borgs from the STNG tv show.
Past ten years already breed the “Instant Generation” which their attention spans frustrated a lot of people. Gallaudet professors and staff members seen the firsthand experience with the “Instant Generation” in past five years.
The “Instant Generation” would be very impatient to watch their own science project(s) like planting some beans and learning the gradual physical development of living things.
Robert L. Mason (RLM)
RLM,
But don’t you think it’d be nice to have a choice?
Imagine a kid (in any third world country or right here in America) clicking on a web page in their own native language and being overwhelmed by the amount of information they find. How about actually having access to information, instead of being dependant on someone to filter/feed it to them.
A novel idea indeed.
and we can’t decide what’s best for them based on our own experiences. recently China and India were criticised about pollution levels possibly surpassing the States and their response is if it what it takes to become a developed country then they should go through the experience themselves.
many developing countries agree that the states and europe (the original polluters maybe?) now have alternative energy resources and they should fix it. the US didn’t ratify the Kyoto convention though many states (california for instance) are making local laws for emission caps etc. businesses are looking for federal protection to supersede the local laws *eyeroll*.
That will have a great impact on education in the developing countries **but** computers are not be the answer because a lot of children (millions of them)in the third world have no access to a classroom or a lbrary. How? They desperately need a school, food and water in place first.
The “they need food and water first” argument is a criticism thrown at OLPC all the time. I have to admit that, like OLPC themselves, I don’t buy it. If you go to the OLPC wiki page about common myths, this is one of the criticisms they address directly.
There are many, many people in the world who are poor, yet manage to “get by” - just. The developing world does not consist entirely of starving people waiting in lines at feeding clinics, cap in hand (not that you have explicitly said this, but it is a commonly held image, particularly when people think of Africa).
What OLPC are offering is a tool for children to enable then to pull themselves up out of poverty. As to your point that children need schools first, I agree with you. There is an excellent analysis of India’s rejection of OLPC written by Atanu Dey. In it he points out that a more effective effective scheme for India would be initiatives such as “One Blackboard per School”, “One Teacher Per School” and “One Set of Basic Facilities Per School”. I couldn’t agree with him more.
I am rather tempted to believe that the OLPC project will seriously undermine teachers once it is released. Although it now seems clear that teachers will also receive the laptops (it has been mentioned on the development email lists a few times now) there seems to be little evidence of plans to teach the teachers how to use it in a teaching environment.
Much of the pedagogical thinking behind the laptop focuses on the idea that “kids will teach themselves because they are naturally curious”. This appears to echo Seymour Pappert’s thoughts on children and learning - as it would, given that he was a leading consultant on the project and that he is an MIT emeritus professor (the majority of those behind OLPC are ex MIT).
Where that leaves the teachers in all this is anyone’s guess right now.
David, thanks for the links and they were well-informed. My question is, are they ready for the technology that they have not been exposed to, i.e. communications technologies - computers, mobile phones, digital networks, even interactive television? Here in America as well as in Europe, we make a nice transition over the time when the technology changes. I could be wrong as I have never been to the Third World. However, that’s what I got the impression from the images in the magazines and on the Internet.
Mobile phone companies have been astonished at the rate of up take of mobile phones in developing countries. For example, here in Kenya, there are very few fixed line telephones in terms of population (40 million people live here). The cost of buying a phone line is high; the cost of paying for the “last mile” - literally the cost of the wire, poles, circuitry and manpower required to connect you to the last connected pole - is extortionate. According to the CIA world fact book, there are less than 300,000 fixed lines in Kenya despite the many years they have been around. They go on to assess Kenya’s fixed line telephone infrastructure as follows: “unreliable; little attempt to modernize except for service to business”.
Mobile phones are still relatively new - less than a decade old here. 7 years ago there were only 15,000 users, yet there are now an estimated 6 million mobile users in Kenya. That is a fearsome level of uptake - currently the market appears to be expanding at around 65% per annum. Moreover, there are now more mobile phone users in the developing world than any where else (an estimated 1.4 billion). I recommend you read about about EPROM’s mobile phone research in Kenya.
When my partner and I arrived in Kenya, we bought “pay as you go” (PAYG) phones. We were intrigued by a feature called “sambaza”, but couldn’t initially see the point of it. To “sambaza” someone is to send them airtime credit from one account to another by text message. Say I have Ksh250 credit and my partner has run out, I can “text” her some of my credit. Once we figured it out, we realised how useful it is when one of you works out in the field all day. City workers also use “sambaza” to send money they’ve earned back to family in their rural home. There are also thousands of “community telephone” booths dotted around the country. These are essentially payphones that use GSM to connect as opposed to fixed lines. They look like “normal” fixed line phones but have a little LCD timer on the front. They can be powered by mains, solar power or 12V batteries.
These are two great services, however,in combination, they are somewhat revolutionary. Rural communities have started to use these community payphones like an ATM. A trader might take payment for an item via “sambaza”. When s/he actually needs the money more than the credit, s/he goes to the community phone operator and “cashes out” the “sambaza”. This works because the community phone always needs credit to operate. These services were not “designed” to be used in such a way, however, savvy users have exploited two services to create a micro-payment system.
Given this sort of creative solution, it is entirely possible that in the near future, the driving forces behind new mobile phone services will be from developing markets. The last “killer app” touted by western mobile phone service providers was video and TV on your handset. The phone operators paid tens of billions of dollars for frequency bandwidth to enable this and 5 years later…. Well, exactly how much TV do you watch on your phone today?
Clearly, the developing world does not need to worry about being “ready” for communications technology. They use it just as much as anyone else, perhaps more so. The problem for Kenya is access and opportunity. OLPC’s laptop aims to address these issues. Unfortunately, its only targeting kids.
David explains it very well. But I will add a cute little anecdote. The kids at the school I taught at didn’t know what digital cameras were. But after the first day we used them, they knew immediately to ask for looking at the back of the camera where the little screen was. They got a kick out of seeing themselves in this tiny little metallic box. When they saw another camera we had (an older manual one), they said SORRY CAMERA YOUR BROKEN.
Kids, really humans, are amazingly adept at using tools and adapting.
Not to say that Third-World citizens NEED laptops (”The Ugly American” is full of stories like Hochgesang’s water pipeline)… a possible upshot might be exposing them to Western business conventions (e-mail usage, Internet navigation, etc)? I’m thinking that a lot more jobs could be offshored if they’d know how to operate computers.
Wait, that’d be bad, right? : ) Giving them more of our jobs…
Well…they do know how to use computers in Nigeria at least…
I am about to get millions from some dude in Nigeria….as soon as I give them my banking information…
Good point, Glenn. We do not really need the loss of our jobs to the impractial outsourcings.
David, we would bring the “King Midas” touch to the developing countries which supposedly enrich their lives. We end up ruining their lives.
I’m not sure I understand what you are saying. The way I read it is that you saying you don’t want OLPC to go ahead because it might threaten US jobs. You also appear to be saying that introduction of technology will is in danger of “ruining their lives”.
If in a few years OLPC target countries develop competitive high-tech industries as a result of this technology, how will it have ruined lives?
If the project fails, lives may not be ruined, necessarily, but expectation will have been dashed - which is never a good project outcome. However, if this failure occurs, your fears about US jobs being lost to these countries would be baseless.
I could be misreading you here, but you appear to be arguing both sides of the coin here.
Would you care to clarify?
RLM: Losing our jobs wasn’t a serious point with me. But…
Actually, French is spoken in much of Africa as well. French jobs could be offshored there. Not to mention work from nearby English speaking countries (the UK, S. Afr and even India). As Friedman’s book tells us, the world is getting flat. Commerce isn’t necessarily restricted to an arm’s reach… but Africa still lags.
America wasn’t really built from the bottom-up development. Case in point, during the pre-Industional Revolution years, America was lagging behind Britian and other developing European countries, in terms of advancing technologies. Samuel Gompter came to USA with some engineering knowledge and therefore contributed to the force so greatly that this country instantly became a leader in the industrial world.
My bad… it should be Samuel Slater
Samuel Gompers’ contribution for humanizing the Industrial Revolution with the formation of labor unions for treating laborers in humane ways.