One Laptop Per Child

[DreamThrall]

I'm not sure how many people have heard of this, but there's an organization called One Laptop Per Child that has developed a $200 laptop designed to be used for learning by children in developing countries. To learn more about the laptop itself, check out the info website: www.laptop.org

Now I know $200 is probably more than a lot of people here can afford to donate, but starting Nov. 12, they're doing a "buy one get one" program, where if you donate $400, one laptop will be donated to the organization to give to a poor child somewhere, and the other will be shipped to you (or a child in your home). Perhaps this could be something you ask for this Christmas instead of that new video card or RAM upgrade

www.xogiving.com

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Looks great. Should help education in third world areas a bit

 

[Instinct]

Its a good idea education-wise. I just cant help but wonder what a country of starving people are going to do with a laptop.

Im all for building for the future though, I guess the kids will do ok .. that is if they live D:

 

[Pulse]

Its a good idea education-wise. I just cant help but wonder what a country of starving people are going to do with a laptop.

Order Domino's online?

 

[The Monkey]

Yeah, I hear these things don't need an external power source; you power it up by turning a handle.

 

[DreamThrall]

I think they're solar powered too. Also, the display swivels to turn into an e-book reader so they can be used in the classroom for reading textbooks. Once you've got a classroom full of these, it'll be much easier to distribute an e-book than to get actual textbooks.

 

[lePobz]

Wouldn't that be a 'Buy Two Get One' program?

Also, roflmao @ Pulse ... although papajohns > dominos.

 

[hool10]

Yeah I would hold on saying "it's a good idea". The majority use it for, you guessed it, porn. :cheese: http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/nigeria/pornographic_image_child.html

Nigerian schoolchildren who received laptops from a U.S. aid organisation have used them to explore pornographic sites on the Internet, the official News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported on Thursday. NAN said its reporter had seen pornographic images stored on several of the children's laptops.

"Efforts to promote learning with laptops in a primary school in Abuja have gone awry as the pupils freely browse adult sites with explicit sexual materials," NAN said.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XO-1_(laptop) Used for hacking too.

 

[Atomic_Piggy]

Good on them
BTW the link in your post is FAIL!

 

[lePobz]

Lesson 1. The internet is for porn.

 

[mindless_moder]

its an amazing idea but it turned out to be a disaster , most countries arent even signing up for the program. i think it will do better as a personal computer for children in developed countries. it uses linux as an os so it should help kids to learn a fair bit about the technical aspects of computing.

 

[DreamThrall]

it uses linux as an os so it should help kids to learn a fair bit about the technical aspects of computing.

That doesn't make any sense... Its not like the kids are going to have to compile their own kernels or install their own drivers or whatever. That's the most ridiculous statement ever. Linux was an obvious choice because it would be easy to make the software meet the requirements to run on the limited hardware, but its not like the kids are going to be like OMG LETS WRITE SOME C++ AND/OR PHP