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.

Comments

Has this already been obsoleted by cellphones?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

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...

Re:Has this already been obsoleted by cellphones?

[EnronHaliburton2004]

sub-$100 devices already

Most cell phones are not really sub-$100 devices. Their true cost of a web-enabled phone is often well over $100, but the true cost is hidden somewhere in the 1 to 2 year contract with the provider.

Plus, the interface on a Computer is superior then the interface on a mobile phone for many tasks.

$100 per child?

[Ossifer]

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?

Re:$100 per child?

[nb caffeine]

Hell yeah there was, I now know the best way to take a waggon all the way across the country without gettin dystentary!

Re:$100 per child?

[SensitiveMale]

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

Are you forgetting the huge information boom of the 90's and now the 00's?

Re:$100 per child?

[Marxist Hacker 42]

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.

Re:$100 per child?

[EnronHaliburton2004]

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.

Re:$100 per child?

[rctay]

As an ex-public school teacher that ran a lab full of Apple lle's, I can honestly say very little. There was almost zero funding after the initial equipment purchase for maintenance and upgrades. Almost every teacher at the school were technophobes, and only planned class sessions in the lab to have a free period off. After four years the lab was scrapped and the computers was placed in the classrooms to gather dust. A few kids learned a few lines of basic for display tricks. The technology was just pushed too soon to inexperienced administrators.

Re:$100 per child?

[nine-times]

While I agree that thoughtlessly throwing computers at kids doesn't provide much value, I wouldn't say they're necessarily useless. First of all, it seems to me that there may be value in electronic text books. Kids would have less to carry (laptops are heavy, but not as bad as a couple text books), text books could provide multimedia, interactive activities, and tests, and they might be cheaper, all things considered (especially so if we get some decent open-source text books. Does anyone know if there are gratis electronic text-books?)

Beyond that, the fact is computers are becoming a part of our daily lives, and a certain level of computer knowledge is, more and more, becoming a job requirement. They also allow for free expression (more easily), and allow people to connect from around the world. Kids who can't get access to computers and the internet will find themselves at a disadvantage when trying to survive in relation to 1st and 2nd world countries.

No, not every activity needs to be pushed onto computers. Computers aren't replacements for teachers. Computers shouldn't even be top-priority. However, if used properly, they are a great tool. As with most of the cases of technology misuse in the '80s and '90s, the whole problem comes when people who don't understand how these computer-things work start deciding that they'll be a cure-all for every situation. Of course, this problem persists today, but we can hope that as computers become more common, more people will understand that computers are tools to create solutions, and not solutions in themselves.

Re:$100 per child?

[Nijika]

Those labs were the only thing that kept me interested as a child.

That being said, your point is not only well taken, but valid. These laptops could be a leap forward, but they aren't much use if the children they are designed for don't also have food, clothing, and shelter to start.

Nice gesture, but it's a long way off.

Re:$100 per child?

[Pro777]

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.

Re:$100 per child?

[Bastian]

Ahem. That huge information boom mostly only happened for the rich. (If you're here reading Slashdot, that almost definitely includes you. I'm not talking rich-as-in-drives-a-Bentley. Even if your car is ten years old and rusted out, at least you have one.)

This laptop is being designed for folks for whom an information boom would be textbooks and teachers. It's being designed for folks who have a hard enough time putting food on the table and clothing on their backs without dropping two months' paycheck on a piece of electronics. In fact, design flaw #1 on this thing is that it is a piece of electronics.

A computer is a not a magic make-everything-better device.

Re:$100 per child?

[sgt scrub]

What did Sam Kinison http://www.samkinison.org/ say. "Don't send them food. You can't f**king grow food in the desert! Send them f**king U-hauls!
So, I would say they could use the laptop to find places that rent U-hauls.

Re:$100 per child?

[hoggoth]

Well, as a eigth grader I needed to draw circles on the screen, in 6502 assembly language. Of course there were no drawing primitives, just setting a bit to turn on a dot. So I had to research how to plot circles. I found lots of trig answers with sines and cosines, but I didn't have sines and cosines in assembly language and as an eigth grader I didn't really understand them. Then I found an old paper describing Bresenham's algorithm that only used addition to draw circles and arcs. Very fast, very easy to impliment, even for an eigth grader.

That was one example out of hundreds. I learned a lot about math, about research, and about logic from computers. Of course now a days kids don't program, they run prepackaged applications. Using Word and playing Reader Rabbit aren't the same as trying to figure out how a computer works.

Re:$100 per child?

[yppiz]

In fact, design flaw #1 on this thing is that it is a piece of electronics.

While I want to agree with you, I also think that there are counter-examples that electronics are not only beneficial but the correct solution to information needs for the poor. For example, radio and telephone are electroics-based technologies, but are crucial and successful even in poor and low-tech areas.

A critical element of success is that the electronics be reliable and easy to operate. These I think are the big challenges for something like a laptop, not the fact that it's built out of electronic parts.

--Pat

Re:$100 per child?

[drinkypoo]

Personally, I lived in a place that could afford teachers, so no, all I learned from computers was computer skills. I didn't really learn shit about history or social studies, though, because I was a precocious little bastard and they couldn't (wouldn't take the time to) keep me busy, so I mouthed off and made a nuisance of myself. There are few disservices we do our children as serious as forcing them to learn at a pace too slow for them. No child left behind == no child excels.

I want one of these for my kids

[PIPBoy3000]

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.

Re:I want one of these for my kids

[kuman2]

Of course, my kids would probably complain and ask for a DVD.

that's what beatings are for

Sneak preview pictures

[MyLongNickName]

The articles had very little on the look and feel. Better pictures can be found here.

If they made a $200 version

[Marxist Hacker 42]

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.

Buy One Laptop, Get Literacy for Free!

[Dotnaught]

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.

Too many moving parts?

[Barkley44]

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?

Why Not the US Too?

[Mean_Nishka]

If Negroponte is able to mass produce this thing at a true $100 cost it will be revolutionary.

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!

Re:Why Not the US Too?

[Rick Evans]

"If Negroponte is able to mass produce this thing at a true $100 cost it will be revolutionary.

I wonder, however, why he only plans to offer this device to the developing world (...)?"

There are two reasons the manufacturing cost is so low:

1- They'll be shipped to the receiving country as parts. 10 million motherboards, 10 million displays, etc. and assembled in-place using local labor. So the assembly costs are not only low -- they're providing jobs in the country of use. Which instantly supplies a labor pool to upgrade / repair the units.

2- The component suppliers are subsidizing the cost of the parts with profits made from developed countries. One condition of this arrangement is that the $100 laptops cannot be sold here and undercut the profits.

      As much as I think it'd be cool to buy one for $300, the best way to help is to buy a shiny Opteron.

Rick

Hell yes.

[RandoX]

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.

Vaporware until they have real mfg costs

[billstewart]

Don't get me wrong, it's a nice concept. They may be doing some innovative things with the screen, though as of September's non-slashdotted article, that was still just proposed. The crank on the side is a potentially useful touch. And they've taken some creative approaches to picking useful software, applications, and modularity.

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.

Add a wireless card, a DVDRW drive, USB ports

[digitaldc]

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.

Re:THE END OF THE AMERICAN TECH WORKER

[msdschris]

Well why wont that homeless guy with the sign reading "Will work for food" read that other sign that says "HELP WANTED"?

8th grade reading level is "literate" in USA

[davidwr]

Well by conventional wisdom anyways.

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 /. j/k :)

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?

How to fund these things

[JemalCole]

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.

Re:Idea

[fiannaFailMan]

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