Though there are many challenges to face when thinking about pulling off a "one laptop per child" operation, there are so many benefits to the outcomes and success students would have around the world, everyone would reap the hard work it would take. This website talks about the organization and its vision it has for giving each student their very own laptop. If students, especially in the worst poverty areas, were suddenly provided with a laptop, they would be open to so much new information and possibilities to expand their minds about the world that they would never have a chance to learn before. Children would not only learn more efficiently with a greater number of resources, but the students would then taken their laptops home, where knowledge would spread like wildfire with parents, grandparents, other family members, and friends would be able to benefit from the laptop as well. Violence would decrease along with poverty, as communities become more educated as a whole, and are given chances to excell through this new light shining at the end of the tunnel. School attendence would increase with students wanting to come with their laptops in hand, and learn more about the knowledge found online. Not only are they a great resource for material and information, but they make learning fun and engaging for the children. Though there countless benefits from these small green machines, there are always going to be some disadvantages, such as unavoidable problems with techonology, not having enough laptops for children, or the theft of laptops by the less fortunate who did not recieve one. Some may also frown upon spreading the use of technology to the poverty, stating that we should be focusing on other materials they need, or necessities such as food and clean water. As Nicholas Negroponte stated in his interview on YouTube discussing this issue he stated that if you substitued the word laptop with the word education, no one would object to this organization, because when it comes down to it, these laptops provide children with an education they never would have had access to ever before. With these laptops, many doors will be opened to numerous children and families that would have never been opened before.
I picked this first video because I found it interesting to meet the people that created this little green machine and brough into exsistence. It's neat to see their visions for it and why they worked and are still working on it so hard even today, as well as all the odds they beat and doubts they overcame.
The second video shows how big of an impact the laptops are having in poverty stricken countries and shows the magnitude and potential the access to these newly invented computers can create.
Username: laihiu - http://www.flickr.com/photos/laihiu/4045141021/
Username: judy_breck - http://www.flickr.com/photos/goldenswamp/2089691228/
Videos taken from www.youtube.com
Username: simplecoat - Inside One Laptop per Child: Episode one
Username: worldfocusonline - Rwanda aims for one laptop per child
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