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Preview Of The $100 Laptop
cynical writes "Harvard's Ethan Zuckerman, founder of GeekCorps and Global Voices, got a chance last week to drop in on Nicholas Negroponte and get a preview of the $100 laptop Negroponte has designed for students in the developing world. Zuckerman talks about both its hardware and the One Laptop Per Child project, and asks the readers for suggestions for innovative ways the $100 laptop can be used." From the article: "The mockup I saw was about the size of a large paperback book. There's a stiff rubber gasket around the edge of the machine, which can double as a stand. The keyboard on the mockup was detachable, but will probably fold out on a hinge ... Two trackballs, surrounded by four way buttons, on each side of the screen act as controls, and function keys on the back act as additional buttons.)" We've previously reported on this device here on Slashdot.
I would easily shell out something like this for my kids to play with. This seems like something that could survive the normal bonkings that paperbacks suffer under my children's hands. It also looks like the perfect "eBook reader" device, which could help on long car trips. Of course, my kids would probably complain and ask for a DVD.
Remember all those silly computer labs back in high schools in the '80s? Did anyone get any real educational value out of them?
I did- classes in just such a lab were my first introduction to Assembly Language and the PROPER use of spaghetti code (in miniassemblers, spaghetti code is useful because it allows you to edit your program directly in memory. So useful that indeed it's valueable to put in three NOPS after every 5th instruction so that if you need to you can insert a JSR later).
I'm sure it didn't help for the majority of students- but for the few who would otherwise be spending their time being beat up by jocks, it was a godsend.
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Did anyone get any real educational value out of them?
I did-- I had an Apple IIe in my 5th & 6th grade classrooms, and I did some programming in Basic & Logo on the system, learned some basic hardware skills.
I tucked those skills away for 10-15 years, but I still think that they helped me to solve logic problems, basic computer hardware skills. I majored in science/humanities major in College, but somehow I still ended up being a Senior System Administrator for a number of companies.
Another way to ask this question: Will the students be at a disadvantage if they do not have tools like a Computer in the classroom?
Obviously they need a roof, teacher, books, etc. But other tools can be valuable as well.
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
As a former computer studies teacher at a secondary school in the developing world, I applaud Negroponte's efforts to get cheap computer hardware into the hands of those who need it. After two years of wrestling with broken, "donated" crap machines from the Western world, I think this is a serious step in the right direction.
At a school like mine, a computer lab could conceivably provide access to Wikipedia, and any other number of educational games. My students were fascinated with education games, spent hours looking at entries in Encarta, and made some pretty incredible art with MS Paint. But of course, more needs to be done.
I think in addition to hardware, we also need to create materials to education children on "how" to use the computer. After scouring the net looking for a primer, my colleagues and I decide to write our own. We should not be reinventing the wheel on this problem.
Cheap hardware coupled with the proper teaching materials could do a world of good for developing countries. I just hope it happens sooner rather than later.
Well by conventional wisdom anyways.
/. j/k :)
By 4th grade you can pronounce almost every word other than a few oddballs and words adopted from foreign languages. You can take a good guess at spelling words and names that you've never heard before.
By 8th grade you've probably read dozens if not hundreds of children's books and a few non-challenging adult books too. This assumes at least 1 book a week checked out from the school library for 8 years - not a universal assumption but something most teachers encourage. You've also done some expository and other writing.
Most newspapers are written on an 8th grade reading level.
High school and college add things like:
exposure to more literature, literary analysis, writing papers for various audiences and purposes, etc.
Graduation brings spending 24x7 in front of a computer reading
What does "functionally literate" mean? Off the cuff I'd say it means knowing how to read and write well enough to get along in society without having someone read or interpret things for you. Can you grocery shop, use an ATM, read a paper or at least the crawl on CNN, read your utility bills and catch and respond to billing errors, etc. without help?
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Sell them for $200 in America with the understanding that you're paying for one in the 3rd world. Buy one, get one sent to somebody who really needs it. I'll take two.