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The Future of Schools? OLPC, Classmate and the 99$ Tablet
The Future of Schools?
OLPC, Classmate and the 99$ Tablet
Since you can not learn to ride a bike by just hearing stories about it, how are children supposed to learn without books?
One way to solve that problem is the introduction of cheap laptops, because they have some big advantages. The folks at Marvell sum this up pretty well in their press release for their 99$ Moby Tablet:
Quote (shortened):
Printed textbooks are not current: Many textbooks are already outdated or obsolete by the time they leave the publishers' loading docks and they are expected to be used for many years. According to a
study by the New York Library Association, the average book in New York public school libraries is between
21 to 25 years old.
The rising cost of textbooks: According to the Government Accountability Office (GAO), the average cost of a single textbook for
even secondary school students can range from $60
to $200. And textbook costs are spiraling. In California, the
state auditor reported that school book prices have skyrocketed 30
percent in four years. At the university level, according to the GAO,
the average estimated cost of books and supplies for a first-time,
full-time college student in 2003-04 was $898
at four-year public institutions.
School bags are too heavy for students: Studies conducted around the world show that students today are carrying too much weight — often in excess
of 15 percent of their body weight in school books and supplies. One
study of Californian high schools showed that the average weight of a
physics textbook is 4.8 pounds. According to the American Academy of
Orthopedics, neck and shoulder injuries from overweight backpacks have
become among the fastest-growing health concerns for the world's
children.
Unquote.
Due to something economists call 'near zero marginal cost', the cost of distributing a textbook in ebook formats among students who have such a tablet are close to nothing, maybe some minute of battery power, since you already have the book and can just simply copy it once you have wifi.
Think of the hundreds of other applications this could have - interactive games for learning, video conferences for out of classroom teaching, and the green revolution in Iran has shown that with access to the internet, people voice their concerns and connect through the internet a lot more than without it, which might show invaluable basically anywhere on the planet.
Still, Moby is not the only or first project that has similar goals or means.
While Marvell does not really provide an idea how to get it working in Africa financially, the OLPC (One Laptop per Child), Project has come up with a creative solution: the give one get one program. customers in europe and the usa etc buy 2 laptop for the actual price of 2 laptops, which is still really cheap by our standards, but only get one, while the other one finds its way into a classroom somewhere (pic).
The OLPC has probably received the most press of those projects, and has been running for years, and has met a few problems along the way (OS choice etc) that can teach anyone else with similar goals help conquer those.
I have upped a video of Designer Yves Behar explaining some of the things about the project (another TED one, this site is just too incredible).
Last but not least, I wish to mention Intel's Classmate PC, of whom many think it might ultimately be more successfull than the OLPC, and is now in its 4th generation of production. This is actually a netvertible just like the OLPC, and I actually found a netbooknews.com hands-on video that you can look at as well.
In conclusion, one of those might actually be what our children might be taking to school in 2025, with the right programming and software support as well as a supply of ebooks, it might just spark a revolution:
Making learning fun
Views: 85
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Comment by Shakwei Mbindyo on March 20, 2010 at 5:47pm
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Hey Jan, the OLPC project has been running in Africa for a few years. It is simple and clever but Africa does have some challenges that happer the implemenation of OLPC. (1) Cost. Although $99 is relatively cheap, it is still way out of reach for most. In Kenya about 50% live below the poverty line. (2) Most teachers do not know how to use technology (3) Power. Is relatively expensive in Kenya and not available in many parts of the country (4) Telcom infrastructure. Many places in Kenya do not have easy access to the internet. We would need some sort of connectivity to keep the books current. I am assming copyright for the books would not be an issue and they can simply be copied from one device to another withour incurring recurring costs. A direction we are now looking at is the use of mobile phones (in the spirit of using what people have as opposed to bringing in something new). There are interesting debates on mobile v/s computers for learning. Let me know if you would like me to point you in their direction.
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Comment by Jan Lampe on March 21, 2010 at 10:54am
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sure, point me!
do you mean using cell phones as a means of wireless internet access via the service network?
this is precisely why i asked you - because when it comes to those things, no matter how well informed i consider myself, no matter how good my intentions, i still dont really have a clue... thanks for sharing.
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Well there is an interesting project in Tanzania where they use phones to download video on to TV to teach the sciences. It was borrowed from a similar project in the Phillipines. The project is supported by Nokia and you can find more on it here.
As for the mobile phones, I mean actually having learning material on the phone much like eLearninb via computer = mLearning via mobile phone. I am currently working on an mLng pilot for healthworkers in Kenya.
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Comment by Felix Albus on March 22, 2010 at 3:05pm
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If you compare the amount of information per price unit storable in a book and some sort of mobile device... you easily get the idea ;)
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this actually sounds really interesting.
but when you put it up on a tv screen, thats good, but i was under the impression that in general the african cell system is built around older models... which usually have a small screen which makes it hard to read longer texts... how are you solving that?
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