How about OLPC laptops for Aborigines on eBay?
Published January 12th, 2007
How about OLPC laptops for Aborigines on eBay?
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project targets five million impoverished children in the developing world, but work is already underway to trial them among indigenous populations in Australia, and the BBC reports a deal is in the works with eBay for worldwide sales of the simple laptop.
Currently being produced for about 150 U.S. dollars each, the durable, easy-to-use XO laptop is the brainchild of MIT Media Lab and Nicholas Negroponte, who billed it revolutionary for children’s education.
Allowing poor children access to modern technologies, MIT argued, would give those who don’t have access to teachers and schools the ability teach themselves.
“Poor children lack opportunity, not capacity for learning,” reads a description on the OLPC website. “By 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.”
Millions of the laptops are already being built for Rwanda, Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Thailand and Uruguay, and it is understood they will be ready for distribution by July.
But it is fast being realized that many Australian communities could also benefit from the project.
Rangan Srikhanta, a treasurer with the United Nations Association of Australia, is liasing with local governments, universities and the OLPC group to organize local trials.
He said there are many children in “developed” countries, such as Australia, that are exposed to conditions typical of those expected in developing countries.
Source: news.xinhuanet.com
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