[dundee] OLPC Videos...niiiiiiiiiice!

[Gary Short]

-------- Original Message --------
> From: Robert McWilliam <rmcw at allmail.net>
> Sent: 22 January 2008 13:38
> To: dundee at mailman.lug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [dundee] OLPC Videos...niiiiiiiiiice!
> 

> Same way the device itself gets there. You send it preloaded with
> useful stuff. 

Of course, but (hopefully) there will be new software added to the catalogue of available software at regular intervals. Very soon the first laptops will become "out of date" and after time, there will (again hopefully) be so much software that it can't all be housed on the hard drive of just one machine. At that point you have to have a process whereby new software can be cascaded down to even the most remote village. If you don't have such a scheme then you run the risk of creating a two tier community - those with access to the central repository (though this repository could easily be distributed) and those who do not.

> Rural doesn't have to mean completely cut off from the
> rest of the world, you could have internet connections, 

Unlikely in rural areas. The reason the OLPC is hand cranked is 'cos a lot of these places don't even have electricity.

> or whenever
> someone is going into the more populated areas they take a disk of
> goodies back with them. 

This is a good idea and could form the backbone of the cascade process required above.

> > True, but raising money for teachers must be easier than raising
> > money for laptops. How do I know? Well, take any subset of the
> > population and its got to be much easier to explain to them how
> > teachers will help improve education than it is to explain how
> > laptops will improve education - intuition is on your side with that
> > arguement. 
> 
> Why not do both? Raising money isn't a zero sum game, OLPC raising the
> profile of helping education will probably increase the funding to
> other education schemes. The people who think they get the best bang
> for their buck funding teachers do that, those who think the
> technology route can improve things more fund that. And those of us in
> the camp thinking some mix of the two will get best results sit on the
> fence and give some to both. 

True!

-- 
Cheers,
Gary
http://www.garyshort.org