Literacy Before Laptops
Andrew Brown,
May 19, 2008
There is a lot to criticize about the OLPC project. But this isn't one: "Technology alone cannot lift people out of poverty, as the collapse of a well-meaning computer scheme shows." First of all, it hasn't collapsed (yet). Second, its supposed failure would show no such thing. Because, third, nobody supposes that the OLPC - or any other one-dimensional initiative - will lift people out of poverty. The Guardian's Andrew Brown, as the title suggests, advocates "literacy before Laptops". Fine. Supposing literacy will solve the problems he mentions, I ask this: how does he suppose literacy is to be achieved? With books? With teachers? Has he looked at the cost of books and teachers lately? No, the computer is the right answer here. Negroponte's mismanagement doesn't change that.
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