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Negroponte's Talk at Emerging Technology Conference

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the from-the-horses-mouth dept.

xacting writes "The video of Nicholas Negroponte's talk about MIT's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) research initiative was just posted to MIT World. In it, he discusses the challenges of tripling the world's laptop production, dealing with China's policies towards free speech and the problems of grey markets." From the article: "The key to churning out these cheap educational devices is volume -- and the more countries that join the bandwagon, the sleeker and less expensive the computers are likely to be. Negroponte casts a wary eye on the potential grey market appeal of the machines, and is determined to make them so distinctive as a government-distributed, educational tool that taking one would 'be like stealing a post office truck.' Negroponte concludes, 'Changing education on the planet is a monumental challenge,' taking decades. But OLPC will 'seed the change,' and help 'invent the future.'"

5 of 195 comments (clear)

  1. Not so sure ... by RageEX · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Why is everyone so sure that putting a laptop in a kids hand will help them that much? I'm sure it's a great idea on some level but what about starving illiterate kids, wouldn't food and teachers be a better investment?

    1. Re:Not so sure ... by quokkapox · · Score: 4, Insightful
      Not every community in Africa is starving and lacking teachers.

      Think of what benefits would result if every student in a small Kansas town were given a $100 laptop with Net access.

      --
      it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
    2. Re:Not so sure ... by RageEX · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Who said Africa?

      A lot of fat Ameircan kids get very early access to computers, what good does it do them? Seems like we still have a problem with math, reading, and reasoning in this country and throwing money at it doesn't necessarily help.

      I'll repeat myself, I'm sure it's a great idea on some level. But will spending all this money on technology ahead of treating disease, famine, poverty etc. produce results? These machines can't teach a child to read or write can then? Will they just become a fancy Feynman-eque abacus?

  2. I don't understand this approach by giorgiofr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Time and time again, we have been shown that trying to deny people access to things they want leads to one thing only: black market, with all the niceties that usually follow it.
    So why is Negroponte so keen on preventing everybody who's not a starving child from getting the 100$-laptop? Especially since he seems so worried that they might not be in enough demand to grant them the best prices for components etc.
    I say, why limit distribution and *force* this to be a government-sponsored program?

    --
    Global warming is a cube.
  3. It's the Software, Stupid by Slugster · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This is the problem--that there is not really much useful media to put on these machines.
    For the most part, "the Internet" in itself is not directly useful in a lower-grade classroom, unless you want to teach kids about porn. What electronic media is available is usually only optional, and designed to complement the printed books.

    What really needs to be created is MEDIA, electronic versions of suitable textbooks. And a database of quiz and test questions, organized by book sections, and a program to automatically check those answers. If the hardware had a way to do very-short-range networking (I'm thinking IR here, it only needs to work inside one room and not cause interference in adjoining rooms) then the ability to push file content over it and a way to check quiz answers in real-time would be a good thing too.

    But you really don't need a whole laptop to do this. A laptop is really just adding a whole bunch more problems. A simnple e-book type device with a few input buttons would work. You wouldn't even really need a multi-tasking OS; this greatly cuts down on the speed and memory requirements of the hardware.

    And finally, the thing's got to be drop-proof, water-proof, crayon-proof, ect. It needs to run off of regular disposeable (or possibly rechargeable) batteries, not $150 li-ion jobs. A laptop is NOT what will work for this.

    And really--e-textbooks would/should be priced far lower than printed copies. There's no incentive for any school to even consider going to e-book use, if they are going to have to pay a bunch of money for hardware, and then pay a bunch more for "e-book licenses". If they just go with the printed books, they only pay a bunch once.
    ~