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Nov
19
The Other 90%
Filed Under Recommendations, Tech News, Views
Last year I heard about an idea that really caught my attention – so much so that I participated with my support and money. That idea and now reality is One Laptop Per Child spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte. The program aims to provide laptops for the other 90% of us – the $100 laptop. What exactly is One Laptop Per Child about? It’s about the power of education. It’s mission statement is
…to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.
Since this is a blog about technology I can’t think of a better way to spread it’s potential than through programs of this kind. Last year the OLPC launched it’s Give One Get One special which allows a supporter to both buy one and either get one for a child here in North America or themselves and/or donate both to the enterprise and this week began that campaign again.
The price is kept down by the scale of the program and the non-profit nature of the approach. I suggest watching Nicholas Negroponte’s TED video (a little dated from 2006, but the it’s all there) and the website to get a sense of the vision.
Given the recent election of Barack Obama in the United States on the theme of change, here is a way to make a real difference in a child’s life, a community’s hope and humanity’s future generation(s):
Most of the nearly two billion children in the emerging world don’t have access to adequate education. The XO laptop is our answer to this crisis—and after nearly two years, we know it’s working. Almost everywhere the XO goes, school attendance increases dramatically as the children begin to open their minds and explore their own potential. One by one, a new generation is emerging with the power to change the world..
There are many worthy causes and good ideas vying for attention this time of year – this is my pitch for just one. Check out this link for more videos and pics and see how this incredible tool is making a difference.
“With the laptop we can say that our school is really elevated because the children are really learning more… They see themselves discovering things that they have never been doing before.” — Mrs. M., Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
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I’ve known about OLPC for quite a while. There’s a very eloquent TEDTalk that Negroponte gives on his rationale for the program and his goals (See tedtalks.com).
Last summer we urged one of our customers who is a supporter of the program to bring her XO computer down to our Beach store for our summer fest to spread the word, but for one reason or another she never showed.
Also, you should be aware of Computers for Schools Ontario an organization devoted to re-cycling older computers back into the schools. I am a former director of this organization. When I was on the board, we recycled up 35,000 computers surplused from business and government back into Ontario schools. We made a priority of getting computers into remote First Nations communities in the north. We also helped Barclays Bank in the UK by getting their surplus labs to Kenya and set up labs in Nairobi. Then there was wireless project we helped CIDA set up in Mali. Canadians are doing good work everywhere. At one point, I met with an official from the Management Board of the Gov’t of Ontario to help build into Ontario’s procurement system a way sending off-lease computers into the schools as well. With then opposition MP Jim Flaherty’s help, we directed a further 19,000 systems into the schools.