Comments on: Time to get your XO laptop, and to give one

By: TEDBlog Reader

TEDBlog Reader — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

We bought one for our classroom through our milk sales fundraising. What a wonderful way to promote eduation across the world and at the same time help the children who are here in Canada. I can’t wait to give it a whirl.

By: TEDBlog Reader

TEDBlog Reader — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Let me be a Devil’s Advocate. What safeguards are there that if I get one, the other one that I ‘give’ won’t end up being sold on the black market by a corrupt official?

Am I the only person to think this?

By: TEDBlog Reader

TEDBlog Reader — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I believe that any initiative that allows next generation to manage educational issues deserves my support. I live in Brazil and I am sure that this computer would be very useful here. Companies around the world should have in mind that developing next generation´s capacity is a great way of constructing a balanced place.

By: Kokoe (Bruce Johnson)

Kokoe (Bruce Johnson) — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

Response to Devil’s Advocate

The machine is designed with this in mind. It is a bright colored little box with a keyboard too smal for most adults. It’s gotten world wide publicity as a low cost machine with a clear purpose. The hope is to make it impossible to caim that the machine has a purpose other than the intended one of working well for kids, and that the project itself will be well known enough that cheating on it will be too obvious.

You can see Nicholas Negroponte explain this in his TED presentation.

On the other hand, let’s say that a corrupt official did sell the computer that you “gave” in the poorer country. I suppose that this official would profit from it, but presumably, a kid would still end up using it, since it is really only usable by a kid….

By: Harriet Vidyasagar

Harriet Vidyasagar — Tue, 30 Nov 1999 00:00:00 +0000

I don’t see Angela comment now but I read it a little while ago and dont understand what the debate is about…Americas children and India’s children are children of one world and their needs are the same. Some have more and some have less in terms of material wealth and opportunity. I am happy to help American kids in anyway I can. I am visiting the USA this week and like you suggest I will certainly visit inner city schools there. I invite you to visit India and I will be your host, apart from your airfares which will be about $900 during the off peak season, you will not have any expenses of board and lodging and I will show you around. There is poverty everywhere and I have seen many shades of it both material and spiritual and emotional poverty but kids unlike us anywhere can still be given a chance not to fall into the traps that we are in. 14th Nov was childrens Day and we took the kids from the school for a day trip to the zoo and it was wonderful to see how they used their machines to explore their environment.