The first official order for the so-called "$100 laptop" has been placed by the government of Uruguay. The South American country has bought 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12. A further 300,000 may be purchased to provide a machine for every child in the country by 2009. The order will be a boost for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation behind the project which has admitted difficulties getting concrete orders.
"I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a cheque written," Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the organisation, recently told the New York Times. However, he said he was "delighted" with the first deal. "We commend Uruguay for being the first country to take concrete actions to provide laptops to all its children and teachers and look forward to other countries following this example," he said.
View: Full Story @ BBC News
"I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a cheque written," Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the organisation, recently told the New York Times. However, he said he was "delighted" with the first deal. "We commend Uruguay for being the first country to take concrete actions to provide laptops to all its children and teachers and look forward to other countries following this example," he said.
View: Full Story @ BBC News
It is school equipment. The government buys books for schools without taking away food. They buy chairs and desks. They build huge buildings called "schools". This is just another optional tool that countries can use to aid education, not a replacement for rice, meat or water.
It's as the saying goes. Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime.
Thats the agenda and reasons behind these computers. Yes, $100 in food would benefit them a lot but in the long run these laptops will hopefully help enough of their kids that they in the future will be able to work their own way out of poverty. It's not like they'll be playing games on the systems or anything like that. Besides I'm not sure these are aimed at those who are starving to death. Theres varying levels of wealth and while this is aimed at the lower line, obviously food and the like would be a priority if it was urgently needed.
These PCs may be even better than books in some respects, as the students can get to online resources they would not need to paid for, stored, etc., freeing up resources for educational infrastructure (buildings, etc.).
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Last edited by PureLegend on 30 Oct 2007 - 19:16
btw, check this
http://img89.imageshack.us/img89/3176/warjb2.jpg
A good friend of mine is uruguayan... i always tell her she comes from the southern guyana
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