This is what One Laptop Per Child looks like: a remarkable idea taking root in remarkable places. Founded by legendary Internet pioneer Nicolas Negroponte, its mission is to get every kid in the developing world a simple laptop for a more active way of learning described as "Giving children good things to do so that they can learn by doing much better than they could before." The concept was developed by Seymour Papert, creator of Lego Logo – a simple computer learning system both my kids used in elementary school, Alan Kay and other legends of technology and education.
Think about this: if you grow up wandering around the world online, won’t your perspective on that world be broad and curious? If you create a game to teach fractions, won’t you learn them more completely? They call it "learning learning."
In 2002 every Middle Schooler in Maine got a laptop. The Maine Learning Technology Initiative has reported great results from the initial laptop distribution by 2005. If there is significant performance improvement in a reasonably well-resourced environment, think what it can do for one with little access to books, maps or math tools in the earthbound world!
For a brief period starting November 12th, you can “give
one” and “get one.” Buy two laptops for
$399. One will go to a child in the
developing world; you or your favorite child will get the other one. But act fast – this is only a two week
outreach.
If you’re interested or want to help, you can visit the OLPC (One Laptop Per Child) site here.
*NOTE: In order to observe the Sabbath, this post was written in late October and set to post on Saturday morning.