One Child, One Laptop
Is this our chance to help change the world?
By Brian Kenney, Editor-in-Chief -- School Library Journal, 8/1/2006
After a certain age (14 nowadays?), it's tough to have any heroes. Or to believe that an initiative can actually make the world a better place. But after listening to Nicholas Negroponte of the nonprofit organization One Laptop per Child (OLPC) at last month's National Educational Computing Conference, I've got a new hero. Along with a project that I think might just change the world.
I wasn't alone. “That was the most thought-provoking and inspiring speech I've heard in years,” said Debbie Abilock, editor of Knowledge Quest. Every librarian in the audience said nearly the same thing.
OLPC is dedicated to producing—at a cost of about $100 apiece—a laptop for every child in the developing world. In other words, each child would own a computer, independent of any institution. The idea originally surfaced at the MIT Media Lab, which Negroponte helped found in Cambridge, MA.
How do you make a laptop so cheaply? Eliminate sales and marketing (50 percent of the cost), use open-source software like Linux, get rid of the bloated software that runs our machines (and takes five minutes to start them), decrease the cost of the monitor, and skimp on information storage. OLPC's laptops will be part of WiFi “mesh networks,” which means that groups of 200 or so machines will be communicating, sharing Web access and memory. Power will be generated by a hand crank—no outside electricity needed.
Economy of scale will also drive down the cost, and OLPC is thinking big. It plans to produce 5 to 10 million machines in 2007 and 50 to 150 million in 2008. The project will be launched in Brazil, Nigeria, Thailand, and Argentina. “Bill Gates and Intel hate it, so we figure we must be doing something right,” said Negroponte. At the same time, OLPC has many corporate partners—everyone from Google to eBay to 3M.
More exciting than the cut-rate computers are the ideas behind them. Technology, Negroponte said, should be used by kids to “learn learning” through independent action. And forget about training adults: OLPC plans to give its laptops directly to kids, who will also be responsible for repairing them. “Teaching is one—but not the only—way to achieve learning,” Negroponte said. One of OLPC's goals is to leverage kids' knowledge through collaboration and peer-to-peer learning.
But what about the United States? Sorry, but we'll be on the outside looking in. We already have $400 laptops available, Negroponte explained, and the resources to purchase them if we choose. “We're not fighting malaria,” he quipped. Besides, Negroponte said he didn't “have the patience to deal with 30,000 different school districts.”
Consider these ambitious objectives: Providing access to information to eliminate ignorance. Learning through action and exploration. Encouraging lifelong learning. Developing a culture of collaboration. Sound familiar? There are a lot of parallels between OLPC's goals and our mission as librarians.
But what's missing from OLPC's vision is, of course, the content—which is where librarians come in. It's fine to give millions of kids access to the Internet, but how about giving them easy access to the best information online? And what about a portal for each country, created using the best practices for children's Web design?
Librarians need to share in OLPC's mission. For starters, we need to advocate for one-to-one computing in our own nation. Then, we need to become more involved in shaping the online experience of kids worldwide—from Argentina to Thailand. Think about it. We just might help change the world.
Brian Kenney
Editor-in-Chief
