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Sometimes Innovation is Child’s Play
By Neil Peterson | January 8, 2009
Sometimes, great innovations can spring from attempting to design a complicated product for use by an unsophisticated audience. For example, not too long ago, the CBS television news magazine 60 Minutes ran a story featuring the work that Nicholas Negroponte is doing with his organization One Laptop per Child (OLPC). Their mission is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves using an educational computer created for use in developing countries at a cost of $100.
In a talk he gave at the TED seminars, Negroponte outlined the principles that drive his work:
- Children are our most precious resource.
- The solution to peace, the environment and poverty is education.
- Teaching is one way to learn, but not the only way.
As a demonstration of his own commitment to these principles, he stepped down from his chairmanship of the prestigious MIT Media Lab to devote the rest of his life to this work.
The OLPC laptop had to meet a number of engineering and software challenges – e.g. working in remote areas with poor electricity and spotty access to the Internet, as well as begin used by young children with no technology experience. The laptop is ruggedized for use in rural environments, has built in Wi-Fi capabilities and is designed from the ground up for use by children. For example, kids can spill liquids on the keyboard without damaging the computer. You can review the mission, history of the project and progress to date, as well as all the details about the computer on the OLPC website. One interesting aspect of the laptop is that it doubles as an e-book reader. This is important since in many developing countries, it is difficult and expensive to ship textbooks. The OLPC group is teaming up with microchip manufacturing powerhouse Intel to leverage its manufacturing, sales and distribution capabilities and truly allow the project to achieve its global dreams.
Review of the XO computer from One Laptop per Child
The 60 Minutes piece pointed out that the laptops are often used by all members of the child’s family and inspire the parents to keep their children in school. The presence of technology could dramatically alter and improve village life, just as when Muhammad Yunus introduced cells phones into rural areas of Bhangladesh as a new business for village women.
Technology has a way of permeating every corner of human existence. Perhaps this technology will spur the growth of education in remote areas and inspire further efforts to bridge what has been called the “Digital Divide” in both developed as well as emerging nations.
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Topics: Business, Education, General, Management, Perseverance | 1 Comment »
January 8th, 2009 at 8:18 pm
Interesting article,yet it is too bad that so few people
looking at this website. And no one wants to discuss
the subject, Even Mr.Peterson….. By the way I complitely disagree with while notion of an article,
yet whatever I have to say does not matter….
Like talking to yourself….. Alas….