Archive for the '$100 computer' Category

Making a Difference Through the One Laptop Per Child Program

Published November 30, 2008 $100 computer , 14140705 , 21st Century Skills , child , collaboration , Community , Computer , Edublogger , Education , heart , Laptop , OLPC , ox laptop , Third World Leave a Comment
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One Laptop Per Child XO laptop

One Laptop Per Child XO laptop

Students get excited about helping out other students, especially if they feel that they are making a real difference. By assisting the One laptop per child (OLPC) program, they can completely change the life of a child in a third world nation.

The OLPC program has a a powerful mission “To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.” The One Laptop per Child is “an education project, not a laptop project. Their goal is to provide children with access to libraries of knowledge, ideas, experiments, and art — to provide a window into the world, with examples and references on which to build.”

For children in these third world nations, the laptop program is their way to a very different world than the one in which they live. With these laptops, they can learn not just from their local teachers (if there are any) but from people all around the world. They and their parents can learn to read. They can collaborate on activities with other students so they can learn from each other. They can share resources so that children in the village have books to read. Their world expands and so does their future possibilities.

These laptops are designed for children. In addition to educational logic activities (OLPC’s name for applications), students can express themselves through a paint activity and various music activities. They can communicate with others through a chat activity and a record (pictures and video) activity; in addition, they can share any activity with any other child. These young students have learning tools such as a calculator activity, a word processing activity, and a say- the-typed-text activity. These third world students have a web browser and screen shots of many wikipedia entries. These learners can switch from the three views of neighborhood (all those who are connected or nearby with an XO laptop), the circle of friends (those who are connected and share applications), and the home view (all of the child’s favorite activities.

The OLPC has created a powerful laptop with many exceptional features. The screens can be read in direct sunlight. Likewise, due to their mesh capabilities, the laptops instantly create peer-to-peer networks so that students can collaborate with each other. The laptop batteries are very long lasting. The case is extremely rugged. The OLPC works in many languages from Spanish to the small minority language of Quechua.

Students can help out in many different ways. A wonderful class project is to raise enough money to buy a computer for a student in a third world nation. Also, the students can create videos, podcasts, posters, and “ads” about this great project that they share within the school and the community. They can get media coverage to tell the wider community about the importance of the OLPC program. They can host an OLPC event in which they show videos illustrating the difference that the OX laptop is making in students’ lives. They can help any regional OLPC support group in designing activities for children and in testing these activities.

Help students to make a difference in the lives of other students. You can make a difference by using Amazon’s Give a Lap Get a Laptop program now through Christmas.

Digital Divide in the USA WiFi Spots

Published July 19, 2007 $100 computer , 21st Century Skills , Access , Digital , Divide , Hotspot , Internet , WiFi Leave a Comment

Internet

We talk about the digital divide between the USA and third world nations. However, there is a huge digital divide within our country. Here’s an example. Ithaca in the Southern Tier area of New York state with about 30,000 people has over 50 wifi spots (mostly free) according to CNETs Hotspot zone. On the other hand, Pulaski in the northern Tughill Plateau area of New York state, with about 2, 3000 people has no hotspot within 12 miles of the city. It is not just inner city that belongs to the digital divide. Rural parts of the state also do.

As educators we must urge all governments (cities and small towns) to offer hotspots for people. Our youth need the opportunity to get on the Web and use the wonderful educational resources especially if their parent(s) cannot afford Internet in the home. The students need to have nearby places in their community where they can go to get on. Twelve miles is not nearby. Not only libraries and governmental offices (what about the Post Office which almost each area has?) but also businesses and museums should offer free hotspots. Let each community be proud of how many hotspots it offers.

We get excited about how the $100 computer can help children in Third World nations. What are we doing to help the children in our own country, state, and region who are denied access to the Internet?

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Shaking Flashlights, $100 Computers, and Improving Learning in Remote Areas

Published December 27, 2006 $100 computer , Student , technology Leave a Comment

For Christmas I received a batteryless flashlight that I shake for 70 seconds and then it provides light for an hour. I tried it and it worked and worked. My wife commented that every third world person in a remote area where there is no electricity should have one.

I began to think of Negroponte’s $100 computer and how he has designed it to use very little energy so that students can self-power it. I heard him speak at NECC in San Diego and his passion for helping students around the world impressed me. A few years ago, my family went to a resort in a Latin American country and I visited a local school that did not have any electricity. The school did not have walls or windows. The school was the shaded area under a large tree. The teacher had a chalkboard that he lugged from his distant home. There were no textbooks or print resources for these students. If those students had the $100 computers, they could learn so much more and better their future life.

Is the $100 computer perfect? No. Is my new many many of $100s laptop perfect? No. Let’s stop arguing over the $100 computer. Let’s support it as an actual way to help students whose future depends on a good education.

$100 Computer–

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