Is the Dream of Education for All Already Over?
One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a non-profit organisation which was set up to bring education to the world's poorest children, has impressed and inspired me with its original mission and approach for the last few years. Very recently, however, they have changed their strategy by launching a mass market kids tablet for Western countries. Does that mean the dream ofbringing education and as such a realistic opportunity for a better life to everyone in developing countries is over?The Vision of Nicholas Negroponte
OLPC was launched by Nicholas Negroponte, the founder and Chairman Emeritus of Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab and younger brother of former United States Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, technology enthusiast and author of the best seller Being Digital (which eventually became the manifesto of the Internet Age). In 2005 Negroponte unveiled the concept of a $100 laptop computer, The Children's Machine, designed for students in the developing world (later the price increased to around US$200). The project was originally funded by member organizations such as eBay, Google, AMD, Red Hat, etc. In 2006 the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) announced it would back the laptop.
The organization has since distributed 2.5 million of its specially designed XO laptops to children in 60 countries. Although far behind its original target, it is still a pretty good figure. The laptops are sold to governments, to be distributed through the ministries of education with the goal of distributing "one laptop per child". They are given to students, similar to school uniforms and ultimately remain the property of the child. The operating system and software is localized to the languages of the participating countries.
Criticism from the Beginning
The OLPC project has received criticism both specific to its mission and criticism that is typical of many such systems, such as support, ease-of-use, security, content-filtering and privacy issues. In some countries the project has been bashed for its high prices, cultural
