[geeks] OLPCs for sale...

[Mark]

On 16 Nov 2007, at 06:40, Geoffrey S. Mendelson wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 16, 2007 at 06:31:05AM +0000, wa2egp at att.net wrote:
>> Laptops are NOT going to solve the problem.  It just makes it look  
>> like
>> the problem will be solved.
>
> Does anyone here remember what happened at Drexel University when they
> REQUIRED their incoming class to buy a Macintosh?
>
> The idea was that everyone would hand in wordprocessing documents
> on floppy disks instead of papers. You can imagine what happened.
> At that time most of the incoming students had never seen a home
> computer, or if they did, used it for games.

Ahh the floppy disk, that lovable and reliable storage media we all  
trusted implicitly... *cough* *cough* *cough* *collapses on floor*

OLPC is a Placebo from big corporate business to make it look like  
they are 'here to help'. It won't solve anything, better teaching and  
better parenting solves problems with children, not giving them a  
laptop. It might *help* in some cases (I, for instance, am dyslexic  
and used a computer at school a lot to help with essay writing, even  
in exams), but it' is not the global solution. For instance, who here  
would know where to find something on the internet if they had never  
used it before and knew nothing about it? You'd ask someone, right?  
Right. You need a teacher as well as a tool. A person needs a certain  
grounding and understanding of anything before they can use it or  
learn from it.I mean, what use is a book to someone who cannot read?

-- 
Mark Benson

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"Never send a human to do a machine's job..."