Laptop Could Transform Learning

[PeteS in CA]

Low-Cost Laptop Could Transform Learning
By BRIAN BERGSTEIN (AP Technology Writer)
From Associated Press
December 31, 2006 9:17 PM EST

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - Forget windows, folders and boxes that pop up with text. When students in Thailand, Libya and other developing countries get their $150 computers from the One Laptop Per Child project in 2007, their experience will be unlike anything on standard PCs.

For most of these children the XO machine, as it's called, likely will be the first computer they've ever used. Because the students have no expectations for what PCs should be like, the laptop's creators started from scratch in designing a user interface they figured would be intuitive for children.

Maybe I'm an old fogey and all that nonsense, but this sounds like a feel-good boondoggle at best. It looks to have a potential to be training kids in a computer OS//file management system that is antithetical to the real world for which the kids are supposed to be prepared.

[willawake]

Re: Laptop Could Transform Learning

i think its good for kids to be trained in computers. whats the point to teach them some new interface though that no business will be using. kids should be taught linux at school, windows anyone can learn at home. still that scheme has a life of its own now maybe they can at least get on the net and learn some stuff.

actually one of my friends had some kids who are now entering a year where the school requires them to have laptops. i have never heard anything so dumb, who wants to cart a laptop around all day? cant they provide computers when required. surely most classes need kids to pay attention and listen to the lesson not type.