The $100 Laptop for Education

Submitted by cel4145 on September 29, 2005 - 18:35.

Nicholas Negroponte and the MIT Media Lab have finished the design for the $100 laptop. Check out the images. Note that it can run on AC current, a battery, or be charged using a hand crank, a requirement for rural areas of developing nations. It has table writing capabilities, can be an ebook reader, and has a dual display that can run color or black and white (for use in sunlight). And of course it runs on Linux.

So far, five countries have expressed interest in the laptop. Notably absent in the announcement list is the US. While I agree this is a great innovation for developing nations, I'd like to see one distributed to every public school child in the US. Can't we get rid of a few multi-million dollar fighter planes for this?

Link via Ars Technica.

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Not Quite Notably Absent

Submitted by Nickc on September 29, 2005 - 20:23.

But Romney believes many Massachusetts students could also benefit from the laptops. He said he was already considering a plan to buy laptops for each of the state's middle and high school students at $500 apiece. But then Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss told him about MIT's $100 laptop plan. After meeting in July with Media Lab officials, Romney concluded that the lower price tag of their proposed computer could enable the state to roll out the program more quickly.

From http://www.boston.com/business/globe/articles/2005/09/28/for_each_poor_c...

Nick Carbone

cel4145's picture

that's great to hear

Submitted by cel4145 on September 29, 2005 - 22:37.

If Mass gets on board with this, perhaps other states will as well :)

I'd buy one ...

Submitted by salvo on October 3, 2005 - 13:45.

It will be interesting to see if this creates competition to the bottom of the pricing scale, and if high-end laptop sales are impacted by the availablility of ultra-low-cost machines. I'd love to be able to buy what amounts to a "disposable" computer for mobile use, and it might in a strange way remediate the use of desktop machines.

I'm interested in seeing whether first- and second- economic world consumers allow the machines to reach their intended users in the developing world, described in the article as "Brazil, China, Egypt, Thailand, South Africa."

How about a little more social exchange? I think I'd be willing to pay twice their market value in exchange for the promise of another one being sent free to the intended audience, or to an American child in need of network access.

From the article:

"Negroponte says his team is addressing ways this project could be undermined.

For example, to keep the $100 laptops from being widely stolen or sold off in poor countries, he expects to make them so pervasive in schools and so distinctive in design that it would be "socially a stigma to be carrying one if you are not a student or a teacher."

Michael
salvo@purdue.edu

cel4145's picture

market value

Submitted by cel4145 on October 3, 2005 - 17:57.

I read somewhere (can't remember) that they are considering allowing production of a version for regular retail for approx $230-$250 where a small portion of the proceeds would go back into the project to buy laptops for those in need.

Deeper Costs

Submitted by Nickc on October 10, 2005 - 20:23.

The cost per machine is one thing. As this article from today's Globe Op. Ed. page points out, if you buy laptops and don't make other investments, no matter how cheap the laptops, the money is lost.

One lesson is the necessity of professional development for teachers. Laptops can catalyze positive changes in teaching and learning only if teachers take the lead through effective use of the technology to transform classroom instruction, and if teachers and principals learn to use technology to help them make sound instructional decisions based on achievement data. This will require training and support.

From "Not by laptop alone," by Andre Mayer and Isa Kaftal Zimmerman.

I know the need for training and infrastructure isn't lost to readers of Kairos, but it is often to people like Gov. Romney. It's good to see a voice for sanity early in the discussion, even if that voice is likely to be lost when budgets get drawn up.

Nick Carbone