Has One Laptop Per Child Been A Terrible Failure?

by Mike Smith · 2009-09-11 11:36:00 UTC
Topics:

The dream of the One Laptop Per Child Program (OLPC) may be over. Change.org alumni Alanna Shaikh explains how the program was too expensive, and writes of the constant changes made to laptop operating system. In the U.S. order fulfillment has been especially problematic and its effect on learning in the developing world may have been minimal. She points to a great piece by Timothy Ogden who finds "there appear to be cheaper, more effective ways to improve education in developing nations."

Ogden notes studies that indicate computing may hurt learning and that simply delivering deworming medication can significantly improve school attendance for a cheap price. An expert backs up his claims, saying "if deworming follows the pattern we saw in the U.S ... we could see a 30 percent increase in lifetime earnings." Sounds a lot better than what a costly computer can achieve, right? Michael Kleiman has been making a documentary about his experience with OLPC and in coming weeks he'll present a personal perspective on the successes of the scheme.

[Photo credit: OLPC]

Mike Smith is associate editor at Change.org.
PREVIOUS STORY:
NASA Appreciate Long-Game, Restate Necessity of Science Ed
NEXT STORY:
Student loans got you down? Start a petition.

COMMENTS (3)

    Comment Policy

    · All fields are required to comment.

    [X]

    Comments on Change.org are meant for further exploration and evaluation of the campaign on Change.org. To that end, we welcome constructive comments. However, we reserve the right to delete comments which, as determined solely in our discretion: (1) are offensive, abusive, or off-topic; (2) include content solely intended to personally attack the campaign creator, (3) are designed to subvert or hijack comment threads rather than contribute to them; and/or (4) violate our terms of service and/or privacy policy. Repeat offenders may be permanently removed from the site at our discretion. Please also be advised that: (A) we do not actively curate and/or monitor in any manner whatsoever the comments made on the Change.org platform, and (B) the creator of each campaign on Change.org may remove any comment at her/his/its discretion.