GIve a child in the developing world a laptop - and get one yourself?
03:46, 28 November 2008
.. Posted in Development, Relief and Advocacy Efforts.. Link
The XO Laptop is a very special kind of laptop, the result of many years of work by the One Laptop per Child Foundation and its various supporters for children in the developing world. It's about the size of a small textbook and made with a rugged plastic exterior. It has built-in wireless and a unique screen that works in full color or black and white to make it readable under direct sunlight for children who go to school outdoors. Its power consumption is very low--the XO uses only about 4 watts of power, while most laptops use about 40 watts. This means that when there's no electricity, it can be recharged with alternate power sources like solar power. This laptop is not expensive, big, heavy, fragile, power-hungry or dangerous -- it can't be any of those things to be of service in the developing world.
XO comes pre-loaded with free and open-source software that allows children to write, draw, surf the web, record audio, images and video, edit music, undertake basic computer programming, and undertake distance and sound-wave measurement . Currently, there are XO laptops in over 30 countries. When the laptops arrive, school attendance goes up, teachers download lesson plans from the Web, kids teach each other how to use the machine and everyone has greater access to knowledge.
Why give a laptop to a child who has no running water? People asked the same question about education once upon a time. Yet, what has been found over many years of providing aid and development activities is that teaching children to read means that they won't be hungry in the future. Raise the knowledge of a community and you raise everyone's living standards. To deny even the poorest of children knowledge is to hold them back for life.
You can give a laptop -- or even give one AND get one for yourself -- through Amazon USA, or Amazon UK.
