Helping to spreading $100 laptops around in the Third World should be just the start of MIT’s worthy initiative. What about little details such as as teaching methods and getting the children to aborb content delivered in this way? In if:book this morning, Ben Vershbow has some provocative thoughts in a somewhat related vein:
The headlines tell of a revolution in the making: “Crank It Up: Design of $100 Laptop for the World’s Children Unveiled” or “Argentina Joins MIT’s Low-Cost Laptop Plan: Ministry of Education is ordering between 500,000 to 1 million.” Conspicuously absent are headlines like “Web-Based Curriculum in Development For Hundred Dollar Laptops” or “Argentine Teachers Go On Tech Tutorial Retreats, Discuss Pros and Cons of Technology in the Classroom.”
Vershbow is a researcher at the Institute for the Future of the Book.
Update, Nov. 17: I really think that a later post from Ben Vershbow goes a little too far in picking on the project after a demo was plagued by Murphy’s Law. I remain a believer in the project, and believe that the content question can be successfully addressed.
