One Laptop Per Child Begins…$14 Billion on Easter
Chris points to pictures of Nigerian students at the first school to receive laptops in the One Laptop Per Child program, sparking thoughts about global access, inequity in US schools, and what it will take for society to prioritize meaningful opportunities for all children.
Chris points to these pictures that show Nigerian students at the first school to receive their laptops in the One Laptop Per Child program. Very cool to see, and it starts our brains racing with the possibilities. Let’s hope the pedagogies that these kids are taught help them take full advantage of the awesome connection that they now have.
As Chris notes, it does make you wonder what it’s going to take to make this happen in this country as well. We’d heard somewhere that the company who is making these OLPC machines is thinking about a $200 laptop for distribution in the US. Between that and open source and free software, we could really change the picture when it comes to getting kids access in this country.
The other day we were doing a workshop in a place where many, many of the families in the districts lived on welfare or with assistance. The schools had one working computer in a classroom and one lab in the whole building. Few of the kids had computers or access at home. The sad truth is that those kids, and those districts, are falling further and further behind.
We don’t want to look at these pictures as a call to arms…it’s a celebration. It’s no doubt an important moment. But it should give us all pause. In a society that is more concerned with the father of Anna Nicole’s baby, one that spent almost $14 billion on Easter stuff, (the equivalent of 140 million laptops, btw) what’s it going to take before we understand what No Child Left Behind really means?
About the author
Weblogg-ed Team — The Weblogg-ed Team is the collective byline behind our editorial coverage. We write about teaching, learning, and the institutions around them as technology and students keep moving faster than the systems built to serve them. Our work covers classroom practice, edtech and AI tools, online learning, homeschooling, digital literacy, and higher education, written for teachers, school leaders, parents, and lifelong learners who want clearer thinking than the press releases provide.
Related posts
The UnCommon Core
We argue that our testing-obsessed education system is failing to prepare kids for a complex future, and we propose an "UnCommon Core" of skills and understandings—from living lightly on the Earth to networked learning and democratic participation—that every child should develop, taught through rich, integrated, real-world contexts rather than test-driven, siloed curricula.
New Assessments for New Learning
It has gotten to the point where we shudder every time we hear plans to “increase student achievement” or “improve schools,” because those phrases almost always mean one thing: raising standardized test scores. Far too little of what those assessments measure is what we care about as parents, and we need new ways to assess learning that value passion, problem solving, collaboration, and real-world impact.
“The Notion of School is Changing”
It was our great honor to serve on the 2010 K-12 Horizon Project Advisory Board this year, and our report was released a couple of days ago. If you want another piece to add to your “compelling case for change” argument, it’s worthy of your consideration.