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By David Rothman

Pakistani coat of arms“The Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) will make 40,000 books and 23,000 journals available online under its Digital Library Programme… Over 220 international publishers, including the Oxford University Press…John Wiley & Sons, the McGraw Hill Book Companies, the MIT Press, the Springer Publishing Company… will be accessible to Pakistani universities now.” – Daily Times in Pakistan.

OLPC - not for adultsThe TeleRead take: So much for the elite. I wonder how OLPC is faring in Pakistan right now. Actually there’s a Wiki devoted to this topic. I’m curious how many of the 40K books will be accessible to the kids with the laptops. Many and perhaps most titles will be too challenging, but it’s still an interesting question to ponder—along with the issue of how well the books will be absorbed, both at the institutional and individual levels in rural areas and urban slums.

Related: The unofficial OLPC News’ Wayan Vota’s comments on OLPC’s XO as an e-reading machine for adults and children alike—part of a reply to a post on the device for adult use (photo: notice the red X?). I agree with Wayan and would add one other argument for encouraging adults to use the XOs to read. Great role model for the kids! Surely not every adult in developing countries like Pakistan is illiterate, and those who are just might want to learn along with their children. Here’s to a family approach to literacy! Oh, how I hate the K-12 ghetto strategy!

For the benefit of our RSS faithful and to avoid the need to scroll down through all the comments the post attracted, I’ll repro Wayan’s comments ahead.

“I think a great use of the OLPC XO by adults will be for reading. An eBook usage model does not need to be constrained by keyboard size. Reading can be a family activity, and reading can advance several aspects of the family position:

“1. General knowledge of news and information about the community, country, world

“2. Specific knowledge about economic models & advances (ag to manufacturing)

“3. Religious learnings. Don’t forget that the Bible/Koran/etc is often the only book a family might own.

“4. Specific knowledge about a culture, including very localized languages and images (remember the cameras)

“5. Political education, organization and mobilization, a new ‘Little Green Book.”

Why I keep quoting the unofficial OLPC News: Because Wayan and friends seem to Get It as far as ergonomics and other practical matters to which most of the library and K-12 establishmentarians remain stunningly oblivious. For that matter, for the most part, the actual OLPC project has been ahead of the curve on ergonomics matters. I hate it when people regard all sub-$200 laptops as commodities. From an e-book perspective, it’s the screen and the optional tablet form factor that make the OLPC laptop far more than just another gizmo. Now—if I could only persuade OLPC to do detachable keyboards in style, for the benefit of the kids’ backs. Still, the tablet feature is major progress in a sub-$200 laptop.

 
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