16 July 2007

One Laptop Per Child.

Imagine a world, where the classrooms are filled with under-nourished and undressed children's but yet attending the classrooms with personal laptop. The scene can create turmoil in your thoughts making you wonder whether such a huge investment on such project is worth, when the basic essentials are still a distant dreams for many.
The idea of One laptop per child 'OLPC' was conceived by Nicholas Negroponte who was co-founder and director of MIT media laboratory. The mission of the group being. "It's a educational project, not a laptop project." The idea was conceived even before computers had known to exist way back in 1967, when 'Logo' the first programming language was written for children's. And today after 4 decades even the project seems to be going strong though no strong results have achieved, but even major companies like Intel has joined hand into the project.
Looking into the fact that behold in front of us, we see that most of the underdeveloped countries and developing countries have plethora of problems confronting them. One among the many lies lack of child education or inadequate literacy. The greatest threat this problem poses to the society and individual at large can be devastating. Child labor, Child abuse, induction to terrorism, child slavery and list can be dug as required. This can lead to chronic global problems, unless the problems can be solved from the grass root level. The mission of this program is to realize and make aware each child who lives in desolation and poverty that light of learning can dissolve the dark forces that elude the society from progress. After all any nations most precious natural resource are there children's on whose shoulders the responsibility of running the country will slowly be passed down.
No doubt this program tries it level best to provide the best of technological gadgets to the children, so they can tap the innate potential latent in them. OLPC is a non profit organization providing a mean to an end. The end that hopes that each child sitting even in the remotest part of the world has the technical requirement to tap the inner potential and get exposed to the reality of the whole world of ideas, so as to grow and contribute themselves over a period of time.
The authenticity of the mission and vision is not worth questioning. But the group seem to be overriding the reality that they are trying to implement these ideas in African countries and other South-Asian developing countries where malnutrition is a major problem that need to be solved before trying to implement these programs. The priorities need to be set right, before trying to solve the problem. The blue-print of any development program needs to prioritize pressing problems before investing time and money, else it can lead to backlash resulting in wastage of huge investment as well as sprouting new problems.
As far as normal far sightedness is concerned any sane individual will see this mission being futile unless other major child related problems are not solved. No doubt this program can run hand in hand with other development programs run by many other non profit organization.
More details about this program can be viewed at this website:
http://laptop.org/en/index.shtml

2 comments:

Radha Pyari Sandhir said...

Well, Manu, your argument is a valid one. Yet, as you said, one of the major problems in these places is inadequate education. Computers would give rise to a lot of positive hands-on learning experiences for the children. They would no longer be left behind!

Yes, maybe the money would be put to better use feeding and clothing them, but remember we are talking about Intel. Intel is offering the best it can to the children, something in its own line! Feeding and clothing the children is for other people to do, it's not the IT industry's responsibility area.

What needs to be done is not one laptop per child, but the setting up of good computer centres. Think about it, the children will be exposed to a whole new fascinating world of knowledge and convenience that we only take for granted!

mouna said...

it is a good vision. if it happens all over the world, to think about the children who'll be benefitted from this is overwhelming. at the same time, we need to address the present problems at hand, than seeing the far-sighted future.

children, because they are the duture of the country, their upbringing.. is fine. parents also should be guided in a proper fashion. as it is they who influence a child and it's ways. it's disparity that we can't think beyond a computer. it's difficult for us, but i'm sure there are some who'd like to think this way...

@ rads: perhaps, so. coming to think a computer is not the entire world. it is just a useful implement in this regard. if a child wishes to see the whole world to play at it's feet, other methods are also possible.