The Ghost In The Machine <ewill@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Hadron
><hadronquark@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Mon, 04 Feb 2008 22:18:38 +0100
><fo7vfg$e9u$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>
>>> One Laptop Per Child wins Wallpaper* Design Award
>>>
>>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>> | Wallpaper* has given One Laptop Per Child?s XO laptop
>>> | a Judges Award for Most Life Enhancing Item. Click
>>> | through for the February 2008 shoot, which leans
>>> | more towards the ?Ubuntu Calendar? school of styling
>>> | than the usual pics of
>>> | smiling schoolchildren.
>>> `----
>>>
>>> http://www.adequacy.org/stories/2001.11.26.101258.24.html
>>>
>>> Linux just works for me !
>>
>> Life enhancing? Has the world gone mad? How is that in anyway life
>> enhancing?
>
> How is Windows life enhancing?
>
> Personally, I think African schoolchildren have far more
> issues to deal with than the availability of a cheap but
> usable laptop. In particular, there's a fair amount of
> corruption in many African countries, plus the lack of
> infrastructure (water, roadways, electricity, etc.) and
> schooling issues.
>
The best way to handle most of these issues is by educating people. The
best way to educate people in remote locations is by some kind of
telecommuting. This is not a new idea at all, indeed, it's been in use
in Australia for years, known as the "School of The Air" and used
initially HF radio and post, but also includes television, radio
broadcast and internet too. You can see more here:
http://www.questacon.edu.au/html/school_of_the_air.html
http://www.cyberheritage.com/schooloftheair/
The approach of distance learning has also been used to huge success by
the Open University in the UK, which also uses radio, television,
tutorials, post, internet, email and other transport mechanisms to
deliver teaching and to review and assess learning:
http://www.open.ac.uk/
The OU is a highly respected organisation (also, it's where I got my
postgrad certificate in management from :-)
The OLPC offers great advantage in terms of providing access to learning
for children and adults. As a PC, it combines many of the capabilities
of telephone, radio and television as well as post. Unlike HF radio
systems which require significant power as well as mechanical
constructions of aerials for single-channel simplex comms, the OLPC uses
relatively little power, and can share the local radio resource (wifi)
instead of needing a separate channel. Unlike HF radio, it will not
work over thousands of miles point to point without repeater stations or
fibre transport, so some infrastructure is required, but even so, the
possibility for bandwidth sharing is something which should not be
ignored.
However you hack this, distance learning has been used for decades, OLPC
is nothing new in that respect, instead, it's offering a much less
expensive terminating device than a traditional HF radio station (I
know, I have one...)
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
