[Teen/VVP] One Laptop Per Child
One laptop per child....sounds a little radical doesn't it? That’s what I thought when I first heard about it... But I guess, it does make some sense. In Machinima today I guess that’s what we were learning about. Should the government of Tanzania allow this idea into their country? Should each child receive a laptop? Some people argue that Tanzania is a poor enough country by itself, so instead of getting 'fancy' tools they should get the required tools. But if you think about it, a country by itself is very powerful because they have the power to borrow money from other countries...and also...there are always those generous donors. So that means that money is not an issue. So, what is it really that keeps a country from taking such a wonderful offer?
If money were to be considered a concern then several measures could be taken to resolve it. They have offered each laptop for $100! Now anyone who has ever shopped for any type of technological device should know that...that’s beyond 'just' a good deal. Its hard to buy a good MP3 player, or any kind of portable device with just a $100s...actually, in this time and place, its hard to get a nice pair of boots for less than or around 100$. So, since snow does not seem like it will fall anytime soon, we can all get together and make and organization to help raise the money—and save a $100 per year ourselves and raise more money; although that sounds like a lot, in order to save a $100 in a year you would have to save less than 30 CENTS per day. Plus, if people in the European Union can raise money then that would be even better because it would take about 75 Euro to make one of those laptops. But I don’t think that we need to go down to raising money to get the money for the country.
Tanzania is a government—so it does have a lot of power to ask other nations for money. Plus, if it were in war, they would without a doubt ask for the money—so perhaps they should consider…considering this a war with technology. It sounds radical to say, but if developing as they are now, they will never catch up with the technological advances that are made. So that’s why they need to take leaps when it comes to technological advancement. New and more advanced technology is developed every year—maybe even less than that—so how can a country who is 50-100 years behind on technology possibly catch up any of the leading technologically advanced nations? Honesty, if they continue to develop at their rate, they can’t. That is unless, they leap forward—they skip a part of the development process—and just go on to giving their children computers.
Computers allow people to learn on their own and grow their minds. I can understand that some people prefer textbooks—but if you get a textbook per child, then that’s all that will be: ONE textbook. But if you get a laptop for a child, sure it’ll still be one laptop, but it will give them an unlimited amount of resources…that is worth thousands of textbooks. Plus, textbooks summarize and synthesize information—but when they have many resources available, they can learn little details and see things from different perspectives, while in a textbook there is only a limited amount of perspectives the reader sees things through. This allows independent learning, which means that each individual will need less attention from teachers—because they will do individual study. Also, to make sure that they do study, they can always censor the computers so that certain “non educational” things cannot be accessed.
Also, another thing has been raised; will there be the same need for teachers? Of course, teachers will still teach whatever they already do, but they will use the internet as a resource instead of textbooks, and can also teach their students how to use the computer. Yes, and also, people say that someone needs to teach the adults; that’s simple, we have the same issue here, a lot of adults do not know how to use the computer and thus they invented CD’s that instruct them what to do exactly. Also, personally, I don’t think anyone needs anything to know how a computer works…it’s just a matter of pushing buttons and playing around with things. Also, if certain teachers are taught how to use laptops—so they can teach kids to use them, then the kids can later teach others (adults and children alike) how to use those computers.
If one laptop is purchased for each child of this generation—and they can master using the computer and make a living out of it. They can create jobs to sell products online and make money from that. Also, they can get other jobs on the internet—or perhaps become one of those teachers who had previously taught them to use the computers. This means, that not only is the laptop allowing them to be more educated in other subjects but also its introduction is opening up new job opportunities. So, if those children begin to use the internet not only as a tool to be further educated but also as a tool to communicate with others and a tool for business advancements—they become better educated and will hold better jobs that will help increase the economy. Also, by getting these higher position jobs, they will then earn more money, and then that will help the government because they will be collecting taxes based on the amount of money each individual makes. Which means, although they would be taking a big leap in order get these laptops and they would be spending a lot of money, they would eventually regain that money and maybe even more. Also, nothing is more important than a bright future for your country and the children—and since that is what these laptops are made to help people achieve—then there should be no reason why that the government should deny this idea.
Anyway, this is just a great idea; it should be given some kind of chance. There really is no good reason not to give anything a chance. And sometimes risks should be taken…just thing about in what position the world would be in right now if no one ever took risks. Would there ever have been fire? Is there any possibility that the human race could have survived this long? We certainly would not have ever come up with a democracy—because this technically is an “experimental” government. So it is something that is worth taking a chance for, and if it works then it will set an example for other developing nations to take actions—and know that there is something that can be done. That…hope does exist and that there is a way for them to technologically develop like every other nation. Think back to the Industrial Revolution: Great Britain was the first country to industrialize, and countries such as the United States industrialized a LONG time later, and Japan—that industrialized when later! But they are more than equally successful—no? So that just means that it is possible for other nations to catch up. But…its been a while since those revolutions took place in those countries…so it will take something like the OLPC to accomplish this and give developing nations come to the same level in which they have the same amount of technology as other nations do; I guess, in simpler words…that’s what needs to be done to make the world “flat”—as Thomas Friedman would say.
Oh yes, for more information on OLPC, you can go to [http://www.laptop.org] ^^~
