This article that I found on https://www.technologyreview.com/business/20572/ talks about how successful and useful the OLPC ( One Laptop Per Child ) deployment in Peru is. OLPC is a very low cost laptop computer that Peru's ministry of education bought for about 9,000 school in the rural areas of Peru. This laptop is expected to be sold to mostly third world countries where the students cannot afford the essential materials to be used for school. Peru is one of its kinds. This laptop has been planned to be used by the pupil and teachers to access some of the needed materials such as electronic books and other application programs such as word processor amongst other fun and productive applications. With the plans and preparation that is already in place, the OLPC will soon hit schools. In some of the schools students will be able to use the connectivity features of the laptop to connect to each other and also the Internet. the general director for educational technologies, Oscar Becerra and the former chief technology officer for OLPC, Mary Lou Jepsen are both optimistic about the outcome of the deployment and the impact that it will make on the future of the children living in the third world countries.
I will say that even though the OLPC will be a useful tool for the improvement of learning among children in the third world countries, it will be very difficult for them to adapt to it as it is very hard for them to keep up with new technologies. I am from Nigeria, a country considered as a third world country, some people in this country welcome new technologies with open hands while some do not. In some cases due to other lacks such as lack of constant electricity and also funds to support the new technology, some of the infrastructure that will be needed are not in place therefore some the implementation and the usefulness of the new technology will be little, having no effect or usefulness.
In some cases it is very important to know the long term cost that a new technology will impose. although they claim that the laptops are made to be as rugged as possible, but knowing that it will go to nine year old and ten year old gives me a feeling that it will inspire more cognitive thinking in the children more than it is expected, they might be too curious about whats going on in the inside of the computer or they might not know how to maintain the laptop for it to last long. like it was stated in the article some of the teachers too are new to computers, even to the extent that they just store them instead of make good use of the laptop. another example of the cost is the maintenance of the laptop. they have to buy, fuel, and also maintain generators and power packs to supply power to the batteries of the computer.
This is a good strategy, but in my opinion I think the manufacturers of the OLPCs are targeting the wrong demographic .A laptop is a great tool that can make life easier, but for a ten year old or a first grader that is struggling to buy school essential and learn the basics on a paper and a pencil like it is done here in America. I will say that this will be a waste of money, some of the money that the country and individuals will be spending to fulfill what this OLPC program is meant for can be used to better or improve on the basic needs of the children such as a conducive learning atmosphere, and other improvement on their current infrastructure.
