Business Week One Laptop Meets Big Business: One Laptop Per Child XO Facilitator: Patrizia Cornacchia

OLPC Mission: Principles and Child Empowerment M77C2ejTw

History of the OLPC Project OLPC project was launched approx. 4 years ago under former MIT Lab director Nicholas Negroponte OLPC project is an EDUCATION project NOT a laptop project Goal: Transforming learning by supplying millions of poor children around the world with laptops Software designed to enable COLLABORATION, EXPLORATION, and EXPERIMENTATION Non-profit organization largely made up of academics OLPC Project was rooted in Paperts (1967) Constructionism theory

Implications of the Project Development of the XO laptop and software took longer than expected Price was $188 per laptop rather than the $100 than was first projected Values that the group behind the project promoted were resisted in the marketplace, government bureaucracies, and classrooms

Cultural Imperialism? Our primary-school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops Arun Kumar, Education Secretary of India Its arrogant of them. You cant just stampede into a countrys education system and say, Heres the way to do it William Easterly, Professor at New York University What are your thoughts?

Potential Advantages of the Project Teachers at a school in Peru where the laptops were tested in a pilot project reported that their students comprehension had improved significantly, and the drop-out rate was down Students who had said they expected to become farmers like their parents were now reported to dream of becoming lawyers, accountants, or engineers What do you see as an advantage of the Project?

One Laptop Per Child: Zimis Story c&NR=1

Criticisms of the Project Original project did not take into consideration to provide support to the countries and advise them on how to integrate the PCs Original idea of open source software for the PCs is no longer being insisted upon by OLPC Individuals opposed to this believe that software should not be owned but shared freely Imposes cultural imperialism? Children receiving the PCs are living in extreme poverty and do not have access to adequate food/shelter Should education be a primary focus?

OLPC Mission Part 2: The XO Laptop, Design for Learning AOjM

OLPC Website