According to the wikipedia article about the laptop
From the OLPCwikiPricing is currently set to start at US$188 and the goal is to reach the $100 mark in 2008.
From a CNN articleBy providing laptops to every child without cost to the child, we bring the poor child the same opportunities for learning that wealthy families bring to their children.
At the launch of the computer in a packed conference room at the Kram Center in Tunisia, the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan called for the information technology gap between the developed world and African nations to be bridged.
But as he attempted to turn the machine's crank handle, to demonstrate its durability and easy functioning, it came off in his hand. The signal, perhaps, for the more cynical to question the real value of the green machine.
Africans themselves question the entire project.
Marthe Dansokho from Cameroon says that this cheap computer is the result of an insular American-user mind set.
"African women who do most of the work in the countryside don't have time to sit with their children and research what crops they should be planting," she pointed out.
"We know our land and wisdom is passed down through the generations. What is needed is clean water and real schools."
From a response to a critical Techdirt article"If you live in a mud hut," one participant asked, "what use is that computer for your children who don't have a doctor within walking distance?"
India opted out of buying the OLPCOne line of disagreement in the Techdirt post and comments is that there are more pressing needs for children in poor countries, such as food and clean water, but that seems like a narrow viewpoint. If we have to solve all existing problems before moving ahead with other technologies, we’d never invent the technologies that help solve existing problems. We should never have invested money in creating computers in the first place, I guess, because poverty and hunger existed then also.
Computers are the key to the future. Putting them in to the hands of as many people as possible all over the world, especially children, seems to me to be a Very Good Thing. Young minds will use them to do amazing things. It’s exciting to think about the things they will create that defy our current limitations and narrow thinking. How can people argue that money would be better spent on schools and teaching when these machines can be an integral part of that education? Providing access to a river of knowledge and information and the ability to participate in new communities.
From the OLPC FAQ (Feb.2006)
HRD contends that spending Rs 450 crore on digital empowerment can be better spent on primary and secondary education. "It is quite obvious that the financial expenditure to be made on the scheme will be out of public funds.
It would be impossible to justify an expenditure of this scale on a debatable scheme when public funds continue to be in inadequate supply for well-established needs listed in different policy documents," the ministry said. It also finds it intriguing as to "why no developed country has been chosen" for MIT's OLPC experiment "given the fact that most of the developed world is far from universalising the possession and use of laptops among children of 6-12 age group". The ministry says 6-12 is a highly "vulnerable age group to cover in an area of human technology interface which is so new and heavily debated". "Both physical and psychological effects of children's intensive exposure to the computer implicit in OLPC are worrisome, to say the least.
In one Cambodian village where we have been working, there is no electricity, thus the laptop is, among other things, the brightest light source in the home.
Why do children in developing nations need laptops?
Laptops are both a window and a tool: a window out to the world and a tool with which to think. They are a wonderful way for all children to learn learning through independent interaction and exploration.
Why is it important for each child to have a computer? What's wrong with community-access centers?
One does not think of community pencils—kids have their own. They are tools to think with, sufficiently inexpensive to be used for work and play, drawing, writing, and mathematics. A computer can be the same, but far more powerful. Furthermore, there are many reasons it is important for a child to own something—like a football, doll, or book—not the least of which being that these belongings will be well-maintained through love and care.
Why not a recycled machine?
Finally, regarding recycled machines: if we estimate 100-million available used desktops, and each one requires only one hour of human attention to refurbish, reload, and handle, that is tens of thousands of work years. Thus, while we definitely encourage the recycling of used computers, it is not the solution for One Laptop per Child.
NYTimes article
The philosophy that this program is based on is "constructionist learning"The idea appealed to the Libyan leader, according to Mr. Negroponte, because it fit into his political agenda of creating a more open Libya and becoming an African leader. The two men also discussed the possibility of Libya’s financing the purchase of laptops for a group of poorer African nations like Chad, Niger and Rwanda.
It is possible, Mr. Negroponte said, that Libya will become the first nation in the world where all school-age children are connected to the Internet through educational computers. “The U.S. and Singapore are not even close,” he said.
Mission statement
XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital.
Extensively field-tested and validated among some of the poorest and most remote populations on earth, constructionism emphasizes what Papert calls “learning learning” as the fundamental educational experience. A computer uniquely fosters learning learning by allowing children to “think about thinking”, in ways that are otherwise impossible. Using the XO as both their window on the world, as well as a highly programmable tool for exploring it, children in emerging nations will be opened to both illimitable knowledge and to their own creative and problem-solving potential.
Having done some reading about OLPC, I think this project will only work for countries that are middle income developing countries, countries like Mexico, Brazil, Argentina etc. From what I’ve read, this project isn’t really suited to Sub-Saharan countries, where access to education (among other things) needs to be improved first before giving every child a laptop. For those countries, infrastructure (which would eventually be able to logistically support programs like this) needs more funding and development. Children have gone to school (and succeeded) without computers for decades since obligatory school attendance. Teachers, textbooks, pencils, paper and a building are what children need for their education, no laptop can replace all of those.
