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

$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?

[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?

[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?

[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: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.

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.

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.

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

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"?