A more practical approach is "community computers" (in contrast to "personal computers") available in a school, church, community center, etc., where everyone in the village can have access. It is much more reasonable to provide internet connection for one such community computing center than for personal laptops.
A good model is a thin client/server model, in which one powerful server would serve programs and internet access to many thin clients with limited computing and storage capacity. (Community users would have their own pen drives for storing their own files.) We (Pangaea Network) are testing this idea in Ghana in Asante Akim district. Sarah Blackmun-Eskow President, The Pangaea Network 290 North Fairview Avenue Goleta CA 93117 805-692-6998 [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.pangaeanetwork.org -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paperless Homework Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 5:02 AM To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC Dear Caroline, What you are doing is exactly what our project is about. We believe that a practical approach should be the way rather than fancy ideas about One laptop per child for the developing countries. It isn't practical even in developed countries much less developing countries. It is in this direction that we have created a simple tool to create small sized tutorials and exercises to enable such multimeda contents to be saved in diskettes or Pen drives. Yes even diskettes can accommodate multimedia contents. So in the end the entire extra financial need of the students would be digitally connected would be the cost of a pen drive. It can contain the entire contents for the whole life of the students.... that is our aim. Computers, students would know how to get access to for those students without computers. The good thing about OLPC project is the development of low cost units and its low power needs with longer hours of operation. To use OLPC for each child in developing countries... it would never come to pass. An interesting article about our concept of Practical tech not high tech www.paperlesshomework.com/surf Currently we have tremendous response to our free for schools initiative in Malaysia. We would extend it to other developing countries including China, India and Indonesia which practically form nearly half the world's population. If we succeed here , our job is done. See videos of our contents here www.paperlesshomework.ning.com/video Want to really close the digital divide? Join us. It is the ONLY such project in the world. Regards Alan Foo www.paperlesshomework.com www.paperlesshomework.com An elearning solution for rural areas where online/CDs cannot reach. Get the latest happenings through paperlesshomework tool bar www.paperlesshomework.communitytoolbars.com --- On Thu, 9/18/08, Caroline Meeks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Caroline Meeks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net> Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008, 8:20 AM Thank you all for this interesting discussion. As someone embarking on a project similar to OLPC I'm interested in what advice you have on effective and ethical marketing and corporate relationships. School Key is "One KeyFob per Child". Basically, we question that the best way for children to have ubiquitous access to computers is to have them carry laptops with them. Even if they did cost $100 in a city like Boston kids are not safe carrying home computers. Instead we propose to give each student a 1GB USB Key (currently $5 at Target, probably closer to $1 or $2 in bulk) and arrange for them to be able to boot every computer at school, the library, the ICT center and at home with it. When you buy one computer per student it will always be a compromise. Instead, afterschool programs can have big color screens for art, High use compuer labs can use low power computers, Science departments can have a cart of sturdy laptop with cameras and sensors, and low-cost referbished computers, that doen't even need a hard drives, could be supplied for home. Content can be automatically downloaded when connected to the internet at school letting students do homework offline if they don't have internet at home, then automatically save thier work back to the server when they reconnect at School. Currently this is a Grad school project, developed with open source software by me and Amy Bisiewicz, a Boston Public Schools IT professional, who attended Harvard Grad School of Education last year thanks to a scholarship program for Boston Public School employees. As an Internship for credit at HGSE, I am doing very intial pilot work this fall at two Boston schools. Right now we have no grants, no marketing, no corporate partners. Its seems clear to me that we need to change that, so I'm interested in what you think OLPC and others have done right and wrong in these arenas. Thanks! Caroline _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
