This is where I would ask the obvious question
on March 6th, 2008 at 2:27 amBirmingham 1st U.S. city to buy laptops meant for Third World
By JAY REEVES
Associated Press Writer
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – If low-cost laptop computers are good for kids in Peru and Mongolia, why not Alabama?
The City Council has approved a $3.5 million plan to provide Birmingham schoolchildren with 15,000 computers produced by the nonprofit One Laptop per Child Foundation, which is putting low-cost laptops in the hands of poor children in developing countries.
The foundation says the deal marks the first time a U.S. city has agreed to buy the machines, which also are headed to countries including Rwanda, Thailand, Brazil and Mexico.
The city school board still must agree to the deal, and some members have reservations. They want proof that computers designed for the remote African bush or the mountains of South America operate properly in an American city already laced with computer networks.
[snip]
Mayor Larry Langford, who came up with the idea for the laptops, says the machines will give many inner-city children their first access to a computer. About 80 percent of the system’s students received free or reduced-price lunches. (more…)
As I read this article, the first question that came to mind was “How long are the lines to use the public computers already available at the Birmingham public library? I ask this question because if kids will not make the effort to use what is available for free, giving them laptops (cheap ones at that) is not helping them in the long run.
Mind you, there have been other school systems throughout this country that have given kids laptops, but the huge difference with them is that they INCORPORATED the technology with the classroom. As you continue to read the article, you will find out that these are very basic Linux computers that are only designed to get a user online. Plus, according to one school board member:
Birmingham schools lack wireless networks needed to get the laptops online, she said, and the system doesn’t have enough technology workers to train teachers, much less students, on the computers.
Langford wants to let students take the machines home, but who pays if one is lost or broken?
Even Nigeria kicked these computers for Intel’s Classmate PC which is more suitable for the classroom.
Another multi-million taxpayer dollar throw away project.
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