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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.
Has this laptop already been rendered obsolete by cellphones?
Just look at the kind of information people are sending and retrieving from these low-power, sub-$100 devices already...
Where do we draw the line between a very small laptop and a large PDA. The price point is good for a PDA especially if you add the price of a detachable keyboard but really what is the point.
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What educationally useful things will the child do with the laptop?
As an ex-CS college professor, let me suggest that it would be better to spend that $100 on the developing world on more teachers, education for teachers, roof for schools, etc.
Technology is not the answer to every problem. Remember all those silly computer labs back in high schools in the '80s? Did anyone get any real educational value out of them?
Obviously, the linked web site is being run off a prototype of the $100 laptop.
Let's try that again: The demo was yesterday afternoon, and while it didn't include a functioning prototype, I learned a great deal more about machine than I have from previous articles, or Negroponte's talk at Pop!Tech. He was able to answer a whole set of questions for me, and raise an entire set of new ones, which, I suspect, will take a number of years to answer accurately.
I'll wait for this to be actual news. I'm filing this under the "proposed" WiMax killer. I accidentally clicked "Submit" instead of "Preview". My bad.
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.
The articles had very little on the look and feel. Better pictures can be found here.
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You could fund this program by selling "designer" vesions in wealthy nations.
Have Swatch or some other design-centric company make a dozen glitzy versions a year. Sell them for $250, with a big trade-in allowance on used units. The store and designers would get a cut; the rest would go to buy units for distribution to poor kids.
They could use the profit from selling it at Fry's and CompUSA to pay for free laptops for the kiddies- and the increase in manufacturing demand might even lower the price more.
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My questions largely had to do with how the laptop would be used in the classroom. I made the mistake of asking a question of how the laptop would be used as "a teaching tool"... like Papert, Negroponte's a big believer that students simply need access to technology and can use it to teach each other and to make discoveries themselves.
I'm inclined to agree with the writer that Negroponte's response is lacking. How will every student having a laptop help them in any way?
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1. What LINUX flavor will it use?
2. What CPU will it use (Intel, AMD, other)?
3. How does the sourcing of compnents influence the $100 cost of the laptop? For example, could they get Intel to hand over a bunch of of CPU's cheaply? Can they get Samsung to do the same with RAM?
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Act now and we'll throw in food, shelter, a stable power supply, and tech support for one year or the rest of your life, whichever comes first.
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).
Sounds like more moving parts than a typical laptop, won't that be an issue when things break, how easily can they get them fixed?
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I wonder, however, why he only plans to offer this device to the developing world when millions of children (and their school districts) in the United States could also benefit from such a device. $100 laptops could save school districts millions in textbook costs alone!
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I grew up in one of those labs, on a Vax. Today I'm a professional software engineer, and I credit it all to the seeds planted in my youth trying to extend the capabilities of DCL batch files to do everything from games to utilites to public message boards. Never underestimate the power of a push in the right direction, especially at a young age.
But the fundamentally cool thing about this box is that it costs $100; at $200 it wouldn't be as cool, and at $500 it'd be really lame. So until they've got real manufacturing costs and really *can* make it for $100 in volume, it's still vaporware.
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of course it will, silly, NetBSD will run on anything, including my Red LED wrist watch from 1979.
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Add a wireless card, DVDRW drive and several USB ports and then it can be used as a phone, book reader, movie viewer, video game, language and typing tutor.
Maybe it can be networked to support a school tutoring program and free internet access?
Add Windows XP error reporting and Office assistants, and it can be used as an instant source of frustration and lamentation.
I couldnt get the worldchanging URL to load....maybe it could be used to support that site too.
He who knows best knows how little he knows. - Thomas Jefferson
Well why wont that homeless guy with the sign reading "Will work for food" read that other sign that says "HELP WANTED"?
But even I don't the 3rd world will bother with this either. It looks a bit too cheap, and there are much better alternatives for slightly more money. Who are they marketing this to anyway? Developing countries are probably more interested in desktops, for the price and performance factor. Besides, if $100 is expensive to people in the 3rd world (and you can bet on that) they're not going to want to carry a laptop around where it can get stolen or damaged. What do you all think?
"You helped our nation celebrate its bicentennial in 17 -- 1976." --George W. Bush, to Queen Elizabeth, Wash
Who wants to be illiterate? Life is so hard - but are children too distracted by entertainment to gain the skills demanded by business?
:)
At any rate, statements like half of x has property p should be substantiated by sources. If half of students can't read wouldn't we hear about it on CNN?
The level of reading required for self-education could be deficient though. It is a lot better now than a few years ago, especially with the power of Google. No one can go to class for every aspect of life or work, and there's no telling whether a book is available to help. Computers to our rescue.
Whenever I go to the library I see thousands of books, but it never gets easy to tell which books are applicable to the current situation at hand. One time I read a few pages about the theory of flaws in metal casting processes. Intriguing but not totally relevant mainly because even if I felt I could make my fortune in the business, I just had no confidence I could assemble enough books in that library to self-educate to the point that I could cast things with less cost, more strength, or whatever. For one thing, casting is bound to be a smelly process and not to be attempted without access to equipment and facilities. So to say that many people cannot read-well, that may be better stated as many people cannot acquire sufficient knowledge for the achievement of even the most fundamental activities occurring in the background of civilization.
So if more and more people get hold of computers, there will be more and more voices clamouring for information, and that should be a good thing. It would be a lot easier for me to acquire comprehensive black and white knowledge for any particular objective.
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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.
There's no reason in the world most textbooks should go out of adoption in less than 10-20 years. The only differences between a 7th grade math book now and one 20 years ago are:
1) calculator-related exercises
2) flashy color
3) "hip" teaching methods
A good teacher can use a 20 year old math book along with supplimental calculator exercises and teach the same material.
On the other hand, some books DO need updating even MORE often than the usual 5-10 year cycle:
Any book or part of a book that touches on historical and political events of the last 10 years.
Any book or part of a book that deals with those parts of science that are rapily-evolving. Science books that teach "classic" science such as Newton's laws don't need updating.
Any book or part of a book that cites "facts" that are now passe, such as a health book that cites the "four food groups."
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
My first reaction was about the same; "Millions of western children / students do not have a laptop. Why the effort to get children who even don't have food a laptop?!"
But on the other hand; Western kids have ALOT more opportunities and resources to get educated and create a future. A laptop wont make too much of a difference for the average western kid in order to "make it".
These kids even can't afford paper (in which aspect such a laptop is a great tool for education!) They can even pass on their studymaterial to their siblings, neighbours, whoever doesn't have the ability to go to school. Once they have their laptop - which I believe only needs to be crancked to run - they're set for lenght of their education. You can't help those people by dumping food, and making them dependant, but by educating and making them selfsufficient. (these people are very creative as well. Hook them up on the internet, give them info... and be amazed.)
I for one, applaud this project!
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
We should give these things out to American kids!
Since they'll be required to hand-crank them every few minutes to continue playing gangbangers-shoot-the-cops, it'll be the only exercise they'll ever get!
ASSUMING teachers were trained, tech support was in place, electricity was in place, and network infrastructure was in place, here's what I see laptops being used for:
Paper-and-book work being done on a computer:
writing/composition, test-taking, e-books, journal-keeping, drill-and-practice, homework, etc. Much of this will be submitted for grading electronically, saving paper costs and making it easier for the teacher to catch cheaters by spotting patterns.
As an enabling technology:
Email, web-based research, multi-site collaborative research by students, remote- or time-delayed teaching, and many other uses.
As a hook to get kids interested in technology:
Some kids will insist on taking their PCs apart and putting them back together, or compiling their own kernel.
As a way to cheat:
Smart, lazy students will find a way and learn in the experience, they'll show not-so-smart-but-lazy students who will lose educational opportunities in the process.
As a way to make money:
Smart students will figure out how to use the PCs for their own profit. So will greedy parents.
As a distraction:
playing games, visiting slashdot, need I say more?
I do hope that for while-attached-to-the-school-network use the schools can force the PCs to boot to a trusted kernel and trusted / directory, while allowing students to boot to their own environment while at home.
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.
You're responding to a post about a:
( ) Technical innovation in a developing country
(*) Product shipped to a developing market
( ) General discussion about IT in the devbeloping world
The location is:
( ) Africa
( ) India
( ) Bangladesh
( ) China
( ) Somewhere else in Asia
( ) South America
( ) Central America
(*) Other _unspecified_
You're objecting to it on the basis that:
( ) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in that country yet
(*) American jobs will be lost
Your argument is bogus because:
( ) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in the developed world either, that doesn't mean we should halt all technological research
( ) This will not adversely affect any efforts to alleviate poverty
( ) This will help to alleviate poverty
( ) Poverty in that country isn't as widespread as you say it is
(*) The US does not have a divine right to keep all the cool jobs
Drill baby drill - on Mars
With my Acer 3002 at $399 (just got my rebates!) that model will be about $200 a year from now making Negroponte's idea a sham.
Really, Negroponte as a computer geek, I'm surprise he just didn't scoop up all the used/cheap laptops on ebay, install linux and build a real application fit for 3rd world countries. Using that roadmap:
It's basically the used car business model. And we all owned a used car--why? heck, cause that system works.
Instead this guy is creating another "industry" that provides no real impact except to his wallet and ego. Great, computers and the internet are tying people together, and now the 100$ laptop is creating a seperate system of devices between the have's and have nots. That what happens in academia when corporate $$$ mixes with big egos... oh well.
This is an outsourcer's wet dream come true.
Expect HUGE sporsorships from the usual suspects."
While I don't exactly agree with the point that you are making, your point gets close to something that I am feeling. I understand that it is wonderful to help the rest of the world, but what about America? I believe one of the articles said that they did not want to make these things available to the general public. What would it hurt to sell these things retail for cheap? We may be a fairly rich country, but poverty still exists in America, and these things could help students of all ages who are middle to low income.
You're responding to a post about a:
( ) Technical innovation in a developing country
(*) Product shipped to a developing market
( ) General discussion about IT in the devbeloping world
The location is:
( ) Africa
( ) India
( ) Bangladesh
( ) China
( ) Somewhere else in Asia
( ) South America
( ) Central America
(*) Other _unspecified_
You're objecting to it on the basis that:
(*) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in that country yet
( ) American jobs will be lost
Your argument is bogus because:
(*) Poverty hasn't been eliminated in the developed world either, that doesn't mean we should halt all technological research
(*) This will not adversely affect any efforts to alleviate poverty
(*) This will help to alleviate poverty
( ) Poverty in that country isn't as widespread as you say it is
( ) The US does not have a divine right to keep all the cool jobs
Drill baby drill - on Mars
Have we not learned from Steve Jobs review of the Segway? Cheap micro computers will be used for porn and Solitaire. Period. Nothing to See Here.