The third segment on 60 Minutes tonight is about the One Laptop Per Child project. The piece is supposed to include an interview with Nicholas Negroponte and video from schools in Cambodia and Brazil.
However, from the short preview with reporter Leslie Stall on the CBS News site, I’m afraid the story will focus too much on the hardware and not enough on the educational potential.
After all, OLPC could allow millions of kids to communicate with and learn from each other, and the rest of the world, in ways they never could before.
The little green machine, as cute as it is, is only a tool to make that happen.
My students want one. Being in a low income area I think something like OLPC could do a lot of good.
Fortunately my students were aware enough to realize that OLPC would have a greater impact in developing countries because very few people have access to computers at all. My students know that even though most of them do not have access at home they do have access at school, the public library, etc. They still want a cheap laptop though ;)