The OLPC project has failed in its mission. The project is using an overly U.S. mindset that presented solutions not applicable to specific problems of developing nations. It has already been rejected by the Indian government. Any initiatives to get it back shall be detrimental for the country.
The OLPC project has been criticized for allegedly adopting a "one-shot" deployment approach with little or no technical support or teacher training, and for neglecting pilot programs and formal assessment of outcomes in favor of quick deployment. Some authors attribute this unconventional approach to the OLPC promoters' alleged focus on constructivist education and 'digital utopianism'.
The Scandinavian aid organization FAIR proposed setting up computer labs with recycled second-hand computers as a more economical alternative.Computer Aid International doubted the OLPC sales strategy would succeed, citing the "untested" nature of its technology.
It needs to be remembered that the laptop by itself does not completely fill the need of students in underprivileged countries. The “children’s machines”, as they have been called, have been deployed to several countries, for example Uruguay, Peru, and in the USA, Alabama, but after a relatively short time, their usage has declined considerably, sometimes because of hardware problems or breakage, in some cases, as high as 27% to 33% within the first two years, and sometimes due to a lack of knowledge on the part of the users on how to take full advantage of the machine. The OLPC does not educate the child to self-learn from the device, a major shortcoming that the Aakash-2 device will address.
It is wiser to learn from the experiences of other countries which have burnt their fingers with the OLPC!
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/04/07/1247250/olpc-project-disappoints-in-peru
The OLPC project has been criticized for allegedly adopting a "one-shot" deployment approach with little or no technical support or teacher training, and for neglecting pilot programs and formal assessment of outcomes in favor of quick deployment. Some authors attribute this unconventional approach to the OLPC promoters' alleged focus on constructivist education and 'digital utopianism'.
The Scandinavian aid organization FAIR proposed setting up computer labs with recycled second-hand computers as a more economical alternative.Computer Aid International doubted the OLPC sales strategy would succeed, citing the "untested" nature of its technology.
It needs to be remembered that the laptop by itself does not completely fill the need of students in underprivileged countries. The “children’s machines”, as they have been called, have been deployed to several countries, for example Uruguay, Peru, and in the USA, Alabama, but after a relatively short time, their usage has declined considerably, sometimes because of hardware problems or breakage, in some cases, as high as 27% to 33% within the first two years, and sometimes due to a lack of knowledge on the part of the users on how to take full advantage of the machine. The OLPC does not educate the child to self-learn from the device, a major shortcoming that the Aakash-2 device will address.
It is wiser to learn from the experiences of other countries which have burnt their fingers with the OLPC!
http://news.slashdot.org/story/12/04/07/1247250/olpc-project-disappoints-in-peru
No comments:
Post a Comment