[geeks] OLPCs for sale...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: Mark <md.benson at gmail.com>
>Date: 2007/11/16 Fri AM 02:15:11 CST
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] OLPCs for sale...

<snip>

>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?

Negroponte likes to point out that the family can use it as a light source at 
night, since they don't have electricity in their homes... Really, this is 
what he said on 60 Minutes. I was floored - why not send them small solar 
panels with rechargeable batteries and an LED light array? I would probably 
cost, oh, about a hundred some dollars less than a freakin laptop!

Lionel