Nov 17 2005
UN debut for $100 laptop for poor
Published by 
pace at 3:48 pm under Technologies
The foldable lime laptop made its debut at the World Summit on the Information Society, which is looking at ways of narrowing the technology gap between rich and poor. Nicknamed the green machine, it can be used as a conventional computer, or an electronic book. A child can control it using a cursor at the back of the machine or a touchpad on the front.
It can also be held and used like a handheld games console and can function as a TV. The green machine was showcased for the first time by MIT’s Nicholas Negroponte at the UN net summit in Tunis. He plans to have millions of machines in production within a year.
The laptops are powered with a wind-up crank, have very low power consumption and will let children interact with each other while learning.
“Children will be able to learn by doing, not just through instruction – they will be able to open up new fronts for their education, particularly peer-to-peer learning,” said Mr Annan.
He added that the initiative was “inspiring“, and held the promise of special and economic development for children in developing countries. Visit BBC for details.
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This is a good innovation that will find ready market in Africa. My fear is that the price will remain the same once it reach here.
I wonder if this is one prong of the Computer for All Nigerian Initiatives (CANI) of the FGN.
Are these machines meant for primary, secondary or varsity students?
Clearly the main problem with education in Nigeria especially at the lower levels is strickly not IT or computer literacy; it is much more basic and fundamental.
So when these 100$-a-piece computers arrive, would the issues of power (electricity) and internet access be totally addressed by then, or what?
I’m excited by the concept, so don’t get me wrong. There are just some questions I find hard to answer in my mind, that’s all.
I do have a lot of reservation and unaswered questions myself. But I believe time will be the tru test of this initiative in Nigeria. Let’s just hope that this will be the beginning of real IT literacy in the country.