Waiting for the 100$ laptop

70s-80s overlander

MIT did this experiment early on in India. In the-middle-of-nowhere rural India they set up a kiosk that had computer keyboards poking out from walls, with the computer monitors and CPUs inside behind windows. With NO instruction whatsoever the local urchins had no problem using trial and error to figure out how to use the computers. [I was taught how to use a computer by my 8-year-old son -- who had two 7-year-old whiz-kids as his technical backups. While I was afraid I'd break the thing, these kids had no fear of anything. When in doubt, turn it off then turn it on.]

The whole project was designed around the idea of making it easy for the kids to share projects and inventions. Early trials found out that business-minded parents quickly got their kids to develop projects relevant to the family being able to make more money. Encouragement of social/community networking was viewed as key. My memory is that installing the cell phone network was seen as the first step, with everything else flowing from that.

Oh ye of little faith. Hasn't every "third world" community figured out how to repair cell phones? The laptop computer repairs might not be done the way they teach at the computer factory, but I have no doubt at all that India will find a generation of sidewalk computer repair shops. I am curious, though: has anything like this begun to develop already? [Ten years ago, when the going rate was $35/hr, my then 12-year-old son found he could charge $15/hr to install memory, set up networks, and make websites.]

**A key part of the thinking was that you had to provide a laptop computer to EVERY kid in the village -- or, better yet, to EVERY kid in the district -- so as to get around the jealousy issue. It had to be every kid or no kid.**

Every year of delay equals a huge delay in the nation's later productivity.

[Did we mention that the US glut of computers has sparked an off-shore industry that does nothing but disassemble computers in order to recycle the parts?]

Nick-H

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[and didn't I hear recently something about it being not too fussy where it dumps them? I don't remember the details, but it took a bit of the satisfied recycler's glow away ]

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Aishah

With regard to overlander's post - I don't think it is as simple as this (also noticed your issues raising comment Nick...)
Talking about mobiles - yes, many villages have them. BUT...what actually happens is one man who is having a decent income is paying for his - others will buy theirs on cheap schemes then use until the talktime runs out and then never use again because they can't afford the 'top ups'. Illiterate people are owning mobiles - they use someone who is literate to find their nos. etc. They just manage to dial nos. but have no idea how to use their menus. Mr K is illiterate. If he wants a specific person, he has to ask the nearest body who can read to find it for him - most times Mrs K! I should imagine that mobiles would be a simpler instrument to use than computers - millions of children are totally illiterate in India. IMHO first educate these children properly, THEN bring out the computers!

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brownboy66

and being an institution of scientific research they would have done what is the norm for any experiment - it would have been replicated and independently verified? I have no doubt that by trial and error villagers could learn some interesting things - but considering you're talking about $100 per child per village I would hope there was more to getting results than relying on learning by osmosis. Do you know how much health care could be purchased at $100 per child? How much direct education could be improved at $100 per child?

Also - how have the locals in the intended destinations been involved in this project? Has anyone asked them what they want, what they need? Is a free laptop at the top of their list for improving the quality of life, creating better chances and opportunities for them?

yeah, I guess it might come across as an issue of faith (and yes, I'm ok with you questioning mine). I question the merits of this project - but only because I've spent many years working on development aid (mostly village level projects), picking up the pieces in some cases of some very well intentioned projects - that failed to identify correctly what the end goal was, and ascertain or address adequately what the risks were. Africa and the Pacific, for example, are filled with failed projects - hospitals put into areas where there were no staff, no supplies, no maintenance, and no backup. Petrol driven or electric water pumps put into villages where there was no electricity, or fuel. And the list goes on.

As I said in my original post - I think the idea has some merit but I see some dangers. Technology is a tool, and part of a much wider human process. By focussing solely on the technology there is a risk that the wider processes that needs to accompany the use of the technology get left behind or forgotten. Would learning by osmosis work? It might. Direct training would increase the odds exponentially. Would some sort of fluid network assist in spreading information? Probably - but how about making sure that content in the form of state education and health services are available right from the start; then maybe you have the kind of information villagers might find useful at their finger tips. At the end of the day the question to be answered is how did the technology improve people lives?

Sorry if this comes across a bit strong overlander - but I'm a firm believer that people are the focus of any development project, not technology.

shashank.aggarwal

I would say rather than concentrating on a laptop per kid, they should have concentrated on a desktop per class !! and every kid in some class !!

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Aishah

Exactly, Shashank!

70s-80s overlander

This thread IS a lot more about India than it is about $100 laptop computers -- which is good. On a previous thread we established that India had developed the $35 toilet and that as of about 2005 over 700,000 of the new units had been installed [Just Returned from India..... ] So, yes perhaps there are priorities higher than laptops. I still have to wonder, however, if an Indian kid with a laptop and an internet connection might design a better toilet or figure out a new way to get them more widely spread -- and more commonly kept clean.

A quick Google search revealed the incredibly large amount of discussion of this OLPC [One Laptop Per Child] project. YouTube had perhaps some of the best items. The following is a video of French Canadian kids changing out the mother-board on one of these XO units: http://dev.laptop.org/~joel/xo-video/repair-xo.mp4 . David Pogue reviewed the XO for the NY Times and found it rather indestructable. He also praised the social networking features and the long-life solar-rechargable battery.

It is rather notable that most of the nay-saying voices are from India. If we are lucky, perhaps this controversy will prod Indian engineers and entrepeneurs to come up with a product they consider better suited to Indian conditions. In the meantime, let us keep an eye on how the XO laptop project plays out with other kids around the world. Like I said, I think this discussion is more about Indian and non-Indian attitudes about attempting the difficult or almost impossible -- about rejecting the status quo -- than it is about laptop computers.

Aishah

One point here, Overlander, developing a computer for Indian conditions - that would be great. Something to withstand heat and dust, a rough, tough item that all the thumping in the world will not break the keyboard keys (we are all the time buying new telephones in our ISD STD PCO shop because of key breakdown due to heavy thumping by uneducated people) and low maintenance. Now that would be a terrific thing - and at the same time useful in a big education drive towards literacy.

brownboy66

Granted, its an interesting idea - and anyone or any organisation that develops a passion for safeguarding lives and improving living standards is something to be encouraged. I think its important, however, that the process as a whole needs to identify each step along the way until it reaches the end result of a definite improvement to the people its aimed at. How does a piece of technology with access to the internet, providing information at their finger tips, translate into clean water, a reduction in bacterial infections, prevention of violence against children and women, reduction in child labour, etc. Internet information might show the way - but other steps are needed to turn it into action - and unless those other steps are addressed the information will go no where.

Again - I'm not trying to pour cold water on the idea - but the $100 laptop is the beginning, not the end.

India is probably uniquely qualified to assess the merits of this project as they definitely have the technical expertise, as well as the environment in which to test it out. It would also incorporate one of the fundamentals of development work - getting the locals involved right from the start. Only logical really that the people its aimed at should have a say on what it is.

Firstly - considering all the difficulties and obstacles that india has overcome to be where it is today, its numerous accomplishments, etc - I think its pretty brave to be suggesting that there is an "indian" or non-indian attitude for that matter, at attempting or overcoming the difficult or impossible. Last weekend I met the first Indian to have transversed both the north and south pole (and he's currently looking for his next adventure). A super guy - and not someone who strikes me as having a problem with the impossible (let alone incredibly difficult).

Secondly, to question some of the aspects of this venture with a view towards making it better - I would have thought - is a healthy thing? I don't think its necessarily the case that those who question aspects of the project are stuck in the status quo?

Excellent links by the way - thanks for that.

shashank.aggarwal

Here is the latest on this one..

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7094695.stm

navinkurian2002

Well with more people having access to pages like
http://persmin.nic.in/RTI/WelcomeRTI.htm the fund's WILL have to channeled to the people who need them the most.

Technology cannot fix all the problems out there. But it can do a lot. Bring down phone charges, distributed education (which the present teachers in villages fail to impart)to name a few.

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shashank.aggarwal

You are right...but for someone to reach that link and understand his/her rights the person needs to be educated, not even literate.

nyraghu

Just to add my voice to the skeptic ones here. It seems to me that what we need here is good basic education, not computers. In Allahabad, and elsewhere, one can find government schools without proper teachers, without suitable seats for the children, without proper schoolrooms, and surrounded by garbage dumps. Add to these withouts without textbooks, without stationery, without water, without toilets, etc. The state has in several regions reneged substantially from its crucial responsibility for basic education, and in a "cost-cutting" exercise has stopped recruiting regular teachers, appointing in their stead "shiksha mitras," para-teaching staff who are often not up to the task of teaching children.

Perhaps a renewed emphasis on traditional chalk and blackboard teaching of basics would do us all good. Maybe a child who knows basic arithmetic, reading and writing is better off than a kid who can merely browse the Web, or one who has to use a calculator or a laptop to tote up a few sums.

I have worked for some years in the research wing of one of the major IT companies in India, and one opinion which was voiced by several engineers there was that the country's success in the industry is to a fair extent due to a good higher secondary school background in the basic sciences, and especially in mathematics. This advantage, acquired through rigorous traditional teaching without any computers, has weakened because of the general waning of standards in schools. So even in the IT industry's own self-interest, it may be better to invest more in old-fashioned schools and teaching rather than on computers for kids.

I do agree that computers can be quite useful as tools of empowerment, through access to information. But for that one needs bandwidth, an essential factor in the digital divide. All those cute laptops aren't of much use as tools of information, given the bandwidth poverty away from the big cities.

As far as I know, one such dubious experiment was conducted by an Indian computer company called NIIT, who called it a "Hole in the Wall." But, yes, the MIT Media Lab also periodically makes noises about education and computing issues in India.

Raghu.

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navinkurian2002

This photo shows kids sitting on the road and studying.They wear school uniform but do not have the money to go to school.Also the ratio of student to teacher shows the teachers cannot give them individual attention.Now with a few laptop's with multimedia .Class simulated exercises the student teacher ratio would not matter that much as it is doing now.

Thanks for the http://www.hole-in-the-wall.com/ link !! was looking for it for ages.

nyraghu

Perhaps such laptop surrogates are less expensive than developing good teachers and good facilities across the system, but are IMHO nowhere near a substitute for the real thing. I feel that good basic education --- including good teaching standards and good teacher-student ratios --- should be viewed as a welfare issue of prime importance, rather than as a liability. Anyway, 'nough said, as far as I am concerned.

Best regards,
Raghu.