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How Laptops in Education Can Help Dictators, Hurt Learning
holy_calamity writes "New Scientist reports on worries that the OLPC's BitFrost security protocols could hand a ready-made surveillance system to controlling 3rd world governments. The laptops identify themselves regularly to a server that can disable individual machines reported stolen — a system that hands a government a kill switch for every unit. BitFrost also has the potential to have machines attach a unique ID to every internet transaction, helping out anyone wanting to track net internet use. A freely available paper from a recent USENIX conference spells out the concerns."
Relatedly, an anonymous reader points out a story at Slate about a study which examined the impact that free PCs had on poor students in Romania, writing that "giving the kids machines without a corresponding level of parental supervision just resulted in distractions which ultimately damaged academic performance. By contrast, allowing children access to machines in a supervised setting, say an after school program via school labs, might mitigate some of the negative effects."
Anyone give this a read? A way to fight back... maybe?
Thought of posting this a few weeks ago re: the tracker tags a Texas school was using, but missed out on a near-top post.
Read it...
http://craphound.com/littlebrother/
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
I've very rarely seen computers useful in courses where the coursework isn't actually computer-related. Programming, digital audio, typing, etc. are all places where computers belong. Anywhere else, I've found them counterproductive to learning. The distraction factor, plus the amount of time spent getting everything to work properly, not to mention having a machine doing something for you that you might otherwise learn to do yourself, make it a waste. This includes calculators in math classes, except when the class has algorithmic concepts that must be simulated.
-- I prefer the term "karma escort."
You are talking about a 3rd world country who may not have been brought up on the amount of technology as many people in the west have been brought up on. You think parents of kids today are clueless of internet dangers. Think about the people in some 3rd world countries. So think of it like this, someone gives a poor person 100 million dollars but says you have to not touch the money and pay attention to a boring class all day. I think you would tell the teacher to F off and you would take your 100 million dollars. That is what it is like to these kids. They have probably never had a piece of technology of their very own (besides a radio or something similar). So yes a computer in the hands of an uneducated student with parents who do not know what their kids are getting into online or in the classroom will not help kids in these countries.
I smoked pot once. But I DID NOT inhale. Will you hire me?
I'm not sure I understand your point. Or are you not making one?
This system provides a ready-made, wide-scale system for any government to track your internet usage, and then decide "you, right there, you've had enough internet exposure to progressive ideas, no more internet for you. And we'll be by with cable ties & a black hood later on, so you might want to say goodbye to your family and friends."
There is a very real concern here. Dismissing it because "well, anything can be abused, really," is downright retarded. Google and Yahoo, to name 2, have been roundly slagged for making it easier for repressive governments to control their citizenry. I see no reason why the OLPC (and any other project using this technology) should be given a free pass in this regard.
Unless the point is that OLPC seems to be the Open Source advocate's wet dream, and so any negative mention of it is met with knee-jerk ranting and/or hand-waving dismissal?
I understand, and agree, with your characterization of computers as assistive technology for children with disabilities. My mother worked as a speech pathologist in a public school system, and I got to see some of the technology she was using with some of the disabled children she worked with, and it was really amazing to see how much of an improvement the technology made in the education of these kids.
My question, however, is this: have there been any studies or research done on the educational outcomes for average children (i.e., without disabilities), to show that giving them a laptop somehow enhances their education? If so, do you have any references to them? I've had no success in finding anything that really answers the question for me.
I'm hard-pressed to believe that handing kids laptops is somehow a panacea that will ensure they all get great educations, because it seems to me like saying handing someone a paintbrush will allow them to paint like Rembrandt. I think for the "geeky" kids, who are inclined to like technology, math, science, etc., having ready access to a computer could be a wondrous thing. But I would think for the other kids, it'd be just another distraction, and I've yet to see this question addressed fully in any discussion of the OLPC (and similar) program(s).
This security system increases the ease of flagging unauthorized content almost as much as it increases the ease of accessing unauthorized content.
I see your informative link, and raise you a pithy comment.