The $100 laptop

[Dennis Kibbe]

On Friday 18 November 2005 06:18, KE7FEG wrote:
> Don't flame me, but from a purely dummie persective, I
> had rather use windows as many games/etc wont run on a
> linux machine, BUT, and that is about 40 feet high
> letters, I agree totally and will avoid the redmond
> terrorist as much as possible!!

No flame, but this laptop isn't designed for you.  It's designed to teach kids 
how to learn.  *NOT* what to learn. like Math, Science, etc.  but just to 
have the opportunity to learn how to learn.

These Third World kids don't have your "Windows bias", in fact, they have 
never used or even seen a computer.

An eye opener (from the Q&A session at 58 min.) is that when kids in Thailand 
took home a laptop for the first time, the family gathered around it because 
it was the brightest light source in the house.  Think about that for a 
minute.

Maine has required students to have a for two years (I think) now and 
absenteeism has gone down, parent-teacher co-operation has gone up and the 
kids are more interested in learning.

Open Source/Free software is a powerful enabler.

Dennisk