The international “$100 laptop” project, headed by US ICT guru Nicholas Negroponte and aimed at speeding up computer access for pupils in developing countries, is facing a crunch for investment.
Speaking at the National Educational Computer Conference (NECC) in San Diego, California, recently, Mr Negroponte said that he wanted the first countries to sign purchase deals by the autumn. However, none of the targeted countries have yet committed to the $100 million letter of credit required to take part in the scheme.
In his NECC keynote speech - heavy on technology but light on learning - to around 6,000 mainly US teachers he lashed the “bloatware” provided by companies like Microsoft and outlined the lean technology of the new machine which is backed by corporates including AMD and Google.
He said it would help students get involved with programming and “learning to learn”. However, he was unable to produce a working model of the laptop - he said it had been impounded by US customs on its way from Egypt.
Asked by The TES if he could expand on his vision of the learning made possible by the new laptop beyond children learning to programme, he said that the scheme would “not be advocating curriculum” and that the “ebooks” being developed for it would be “wikis” that would allow users to create their own, personalised versions. They would not rely on broadband internet access, he said, because materials could be downloaded to servers overnight to be accessed by laptop users via wireless connection during the day.
However, some Latin American ICT insiders at the conference did not share his enthusiasm. “This is based on a model of individual access,” said one, who did not want to be named. “Education is a collaborative activity and we do not think that this represents good value for money. Besides, we do not believe that you would get a million laptops for your $100,000,000, so where is the $100 laptop?”
Nicholas Negroponte is professor emeritus at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of “Being Digital”. He is founder and chairman of the non-profit One Laptop per Child organisation.
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