The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) plans to do exactly that. Provide each child with a personal computer.
Check out the project at: laptop.org and sugarlabs.org
Hassan
Shahab Baqai in all his self proclaimed greatness unveiled his brilliant and 'revolutionary' idea for solving the problem of the lack of computers in LUMS. Give every student his or her own personal laptop at the start of the degree program! Some people think bigger.. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) plans to do exactly that. Provide each child with a personal computer. IEEE LUMS, in collaboration with the higher commission had set up a video link with Walter Bender, some professor at MIT. A bunch of other universities were also participating (we could see their mostly empty auditoriums in our screen). The topic was 'How to become a better problem solver' or something similar so we were surprised when the speaker started selling his product. Evidently, to be any good at solving problems you have to start when you are small. He and his team had developed a comprehensive software that teaches Programming/Physics/Chemistry/Math/Language/History/Geography. And then they designed a laptop it plays on. Now they are on a quest to provide every child with one of these. Things are happening in Uruguay (where the number of laptops per person is inversely proportional to income, with hundreds of thousands of their laptops in their country) and a bunch of other countries. He said he had tried to come to Pakistan but was repeatedly frustrated by the Ministry of Education. They are looking for people to translate the software to Urdu (the hardware does have a Urdu keyboard version). Now more about the software. Sometimes we decide how much information is too much for a child to handle. SugarLabs (the people leading this project) want to let the children decide whats too much. So while the software has very basic stuff that a 2nd grader can easily handle, it also contains fairly advanced programming languages. The child, or teacher/supervisor can easily open up the source code (mostly in Python) and make modifications. Also the various software have this step-by-step sequential increase in difficulty. For example with the sound program children can make their keyboard into any musical instrument and play along with their parents who use indigenous instruments. They can go on to program their own band, record music and even create their own instrument. The last step would be the child to access C-SOUND the language used by Hollywood to program sound effects into its movies. So the children have all these mountains around them and while not every mountain suits every child, the child can easily choose which one it wants to attempt to summit. Sharing is encouraged and one can easily share things (instruments, code) with surrounding laptops for the warm feeling of making something that other people want. Laptops are robust, energy-efficient and can easily be taken apart and put back by children. Well, maybe the laptop idea is a bit far fetched. The platform comes in a stick also. You can plug the stick into any old system. The pc will boot from the stick and give the feel of a new computer.
Check out the project at: laptop.org and sugarlabs.org Hassan
16 Comments
Muneeb
10/18/2010 04:20:46 pm
Sucks that it's not coming to Pakistan!
Reply
Hassan
10/18/2010 06:17:38 pm
It could! There are 500 laptops in Pakistan compared to 800 in India compared to 400,000 in Peru and other central American countries. The founder said we had to bring it to Pakistan and that he had tried and failed. Set up a transparent mechanism that ensures the children get the laptops and have basic support and he is willing to send them in. FOR FREE.
Reply
Kamil
10/18/2010 07:18:35 pm
Superbly written. The problem with bringing such a project to Pakistan probably would be the potential for misuse. We can't even ensure they'll get the laptops!
Reply
Mehr
10/18/2010 08:38:23 pm
I wish it was that easy. Sadly, this is the country where people sell stuff they receive as aid for money. Chances are that these laptops too will end up in second hand electronics shops in Old Lahore and Peshawar. And it's not just a matter of corruption, it's about these people's economic conditions.They would rather eat and survive rather than compose music on a fancy toy. Or unless you plan on giving these laptops to kids in Aitchison and KGS - then it's different.Well, then it's super-sad-and-funny.
Reply
Muneeb
10/18/2010 10:23:32 pm
You know, I'm not so sure.
Reply
omar
10/19/2010 05:05:20 pm
What a terrible, hackjob of a blogpost. Potshots, "some professor" at MIT, and just a brief, hurried narration of the OLPC project which could've been googled up. What was your purpose?
Reply
Hassan
10/21/2010 11:38:45 am
Hi Omar. You are doing what me and my group of friends decided not to. What everyone in Pakistan is an expert on. But I'm not going to tell you to stop. Do what makes you happy. I'm glad you read my post though. Pity that when the revolution comes I will have to kill you.
Reply
omar
10/22/2010 05:49:53 am
If you don't have the stomach for criticism just put a disclaimer somewhere in your posts. You could go on to write more material, but it'd be useless if its just as rushed and bloated.
Reply
Hassan
10/22/2010 05:54:54 am
True that.
Reply
Kamil
10/23/2010 10:48:54 pm
Okay relax guys. Hassan, you've taken criticism really well before so I doubt you're actually annoyed. Omar, I'm pretty sure he was joking about what he said. I tend to disagree with you on this actually: yes, one could theoretically find out about the One Laptop Per Child project by googling it, but his emphasis on how it could be adapted in Pakistan made it relevant for readers such as us. Plenty of the material we post could have been googled, its the way we present it by intermingling it with our opinions, what we're studying and our judgment on the project's efficacy that makes our posts more than mere Wikipedia entries.
Reply
Hassan
10/24/2010 08:17:01 am
No. I will find out who you are and eat your babies.
Reply
Omar
10/25/2010 01:51:19 am
Kamil: You know, I'd take the mediation a little more seriously had I not caught the loud "Hahaha" right after Hassan's first reply.
Reply
Zoya Rehman
10/26/2010 07:17:28 pm
Wow.
Reply
10/26/2010 09:06:42 pm
Hello, I'm a businessman, my website is www.trade189.com . but I like read blogs. Because I can learn a lot of knowledge. I like your blog. I will focus and collect it.Thank you very much!
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