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ajaygahlawat
October 25th, 2007, 05:58 AM
आदरणीय जाटलैंड वासियो,

आपने शायद "एक लैपटॉप प्रति बच्चा" प्रोजेक्ट के बरे में सुना होगा. यह प्रोजेक्ट करीब करीब २०० डॉलर की लगत के लैपटॉप ६-१२ साल के बच्चों के लिए उपलब्ध करवाने की चेष्टा रखता है. http://www.laptop.org . परन्तु यह मोल १०००० से ज्यादा लैपटॉप एक साथ खरीदने पर ही लागु होगा. १००० के लिए २५० डॉलर, १०० के लिए ३०० डॉलर और १ के लिए ४०० डॉलर. आर्डर अगले महीने से शुरु हो रहे हैं .

क्या हमारे आसपास के स्कूलों में यह कामयाब हो सकता है?

- अजय


P.S. :

एक तो मैं यह बात साफ करना चाहता हूँ की मेरा इस प्रोजेक्ट से कोई लेना देना नहीं है | ना मुझे इससे पैसे मिलने के कोई आसार हैं, ना ख्याति, ना और कुछ | मुझे तो इसके बरे में जान कर यह लगा था की "काश हमारे बचपन में यह उपलब्ध होता"| इसलिए मैं जाटलैंड वासियों के साथ बांटना चाहता था |

दूसरा मैं यह बात बताना चाहता था की olpc एक नोट फॉर प्रोफिट संस्था है| काम करने वाले लोगों की तनखा के इलावा इनका और कोई खर्चा नहीं (जहाँ तक मैं समझता हूँ)| और काम करने वाले लोग भी अव्वल दर्जे के हैं (ये मैं पक्के तौर पर कह सकता हूँ)| यह जरूर हुआ है की इनके प्रयासों की वजय से पूरी कंप्यूटर इंडस्ट्री ने सस्ते कंप्यूटर बनने के बरे में सोचना शुरु कर दिया है|

तीसरा किसी भी चीज को नकारना बहुत आसान होता है| मेरी यह गुजारिश है की इसे नकारने से पहले इसके बारे में जानना बहुत जरूरी है| यदि आप ठीक समझें तो इस बरे में पढ़ें और लिखें यदि न ठीक समझें तो न पढ़ें, न लिखें|

चौथा मेरा यह बात शुरू करने का उद्देश्य एक ही था | ना के कारण सुनना | इकट्ठे कर के प्रोजेक्ट वालों से पूछेंगे इन सब के जवाब | पर थोड़े ओब्जेक्टिवे (तथ्य आधारिक ?) तरीके से पूछने पड़ेंगे | "आण दो" :) |

- अजय

shashiverma
October 25th, 2007, 07:10 PM
Interesting.....business nd business...
I hope Ajay that you know it well which place are you talking about. One Laptop per child....hmm.....
Well I would say let us teach kids about books first and let them find out for themself the need, importance and value of the tech world. Lets not burden them...
Instead of wasting money on Laptop I would prefer spending that on something much better....May be more students having meaningful books in their hands.
They do not need 12yrs to learn abt it and as far making things simple is concerned....why to make the world so artifical for them and get them lost into it.

dndeswal
October 25th, 2007, 07:26 PM
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सबको अपने 'बिजनेस' की पड़ी है, चाहे उससे नन्हें मुन्ने बच्चों का बचपन ही क्यों न खराब न हो जाये । क्या स्कूलों में सिर्फ "जाटलैंड वासियों" के जाट बच्चे ही पढ़ते हैं ? फिर इस वेबसाइट पर इसका प्रचार करने का क्या मतलब ? पोस्ट हिन्दी में (अच्छी बात है), बात हो रही है भारत के स्कूलों की और कंप्यूटर की कीमत "डालर" में, वो भी थोक की मंडी का भाव, अगर कोई एक हजार कंप्यूटर खरीदे तो । सिर्फ सौ डालर की ही तो बात है, बड़ा सस्ता है, आखिर आजकल भारत में डालरों की क्या कमी है ?

कुछ तो बचपन इस टी.वी. ने खराब कर दिया और रही सही कसर यह "लैपटाप" पूरी कर देगा । बच्चे कलम-पैंसिल चलाना, कागज पर चित्रकारी करना भूल जाएंगे और कंप्यूटर बेचने वालों की 'सेल' बढ़ जायेगी ! क्या आईडिया है ! भाड़े में जायें ये सुसरे लैपटाप । छः साल से बारह साल तक के बच्चों की बजाय कालेज के विद्यार्थियों के लिये क्यों नहीं यह आफर दी जा रही ?
.

ajaygahlawat
October 25th, 2007, 08:46 PM
Moving the message directly below the first post. Please see there.

ajaygahlawat
October 25th, 2007, 09:14 PM
Shashi,

Thanks for the thoughtful comments.


Interesting.....business nd business...
I hope Ajay that you know it well which place are you talking about. One Laptop per child
Absolutely! That is the exact reason why I am bringing this up. You see, I went to Government Secondary School Khedi Saadh and learnt the rigors of "takhti potna" "shahi banana" "kalam ghadna" etc. An entire gamut of skills that have never helped me in my life later. What I am trying to bring up is the fact that if we jaats don't come out of our shells. We are going to fade away in oblivion. We all need to know what is happening around us. Instead of sulk at anything that we don't like to be happening according to our own world vision. I have not seen a more analytical and naturally gifted community than ours, and am proud of it. But we need to put those analytical and artistic gifts to good use. But I digress. Let me come back to the topic at hand.




Well I would say let us teach kids about books first and let them find out for themself the need, importance and value of the tech world.


I agree! And any kid that I have given my laptop to, has not watched TV untill I take the machine away. So, I feel that if we let the kids decide, they will surely vote for getting computers. <I am not suggesting that we let them make this decison. I am not suggesting the contrary either.> . Point is, whatever other vices it may have, it will certainly not be burdon on the kids learning. It will be an enhancer. Nevertheless, I have taken this up as a question to be posted to the project.



Interesting.....business nd business...
Instead of wasting money on Laptop I would prefer spending that on something much better....

Yes, that is the argument our government has given, and that is the reason we are not participating in it as a nation.


May be more students having meaningful books in their hands.

Absolutely! And I believe that one great way of enhancing research and reading skills is to give them internet. (my belief only). There are more books available in project guttenburg than one would ever be able to read in a lifetime. Yes the filtering of content part could be a concern, and is already taken care of to a large extent.




They do not need 12yrs to learn abt it and as far making things simple is concerned....why to make the world so artifical for them and get them lost into it.

I don't quiet get the point made in the first sentence. But as far as as artificial is concerned, it is a relative concept. Perhaps you are saying "so different from what it is today" or "so different from how our generation did it"? But again could you please elaborate the concern there. I don't want to put my words to this question. And the question deserves to reach the right ears. :)

-Ajay

ajaygahlawat
October 25th, 2007, 09:20 PM
included on top in PS

rkumar
October 25th, 2007, 09:27 PM
आदरणीय जाटलैंड वासियो,

आपने शायद "एक लैपटॉप प्रति बच्चा" प्रोजेक्ट के बरे में सुना होगा. यह प्रोजेक्ट करीब करीब २०० डॉलर की लगत के लैपटॉप ६-१२ साल के बच्चों के लिए उपलब्ध करवाने की चेष्टा रखता है. http://www.laptop.org . परन्तु यह मोल १०००० से ज्यादा लैपटॉप एक साथ खरीदने पर ही लागु होगा. १००० के लिए २५० डॉलर, १०० के लिए ३०० डॉलर और १ के लिए ४०० डॉलर. आर्डर अगले महीने से शुरु हो रहे हैं .

क्या हमारे आसपास के स्कूलों में यह कामयाब हो सकता है?

- अजय



I am not sure how many kids can afford this laptop even at this low price. However, Its a great development. If not every child, at least every rural school should have 5-10 such laptops for kids to feel new technology. Who knows we may get some best brains in computer technology from such efforts. I don't think age has anything to do with having or not having a laptop. Best brains in computers are always the very young ones. Sooner we catch them better it will be.

RK^2

ajaygahlawat
October 25th, 2007, 10:05 PM
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सबको अपने 'बिजनेस' की पड़ी है.

पता नहीं! कम से कम मुझे तो अपने बिजनेस की पड़ी होती तो मैं जाटलैंड पर पोस्ट करने की बजाये काम कर रहा होता| :)

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चाहे उससे नन्हें मुन्ने बच्चों का बचपन ही क्यों न खराब न हो जाये ।

ये एक अहम सवाल हो सकता है| कृपया विस्तार से बताएं | आपके हिसाब से किस किस तरह इससे नन्हें मुन्ने बच्चों का बचपन ख़राब हो रहा है?


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क्या स्कूलों में सिर्फ "जाटलैंड वासियों" के जाट बच्चे ही पढ़ते हैं ? फिर इस वेबसाइट पर इसका प्रचार करने का क्या मतलब ?
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पर स्कूल में जाटलैंड वासियों के बच्चे भी पढ़ते हैं | और मेरा प्रचार का उद्देश्य बिल्कुल नहीं था, विचार का था | प्रचार करने के लिए माफ़ी | :)


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पोस्ट हिन्दी में (अच्छी बात है), बात हो रही है भारत के स्कूलों की और कंप्यूटर की कीमत "डालर" में, वो भी थोक की मंडी का भाव, अगर कोई एक हजार कंप्यूटर खरीदे तो । सिर्फ सौ डालर की ही तो बात है, बड़ा सस्ता है, आखिर आजकल भारत में डालरों की क्या कमी है ?
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मेरी हिन्दी कोशिश को सराहने के लिए धन्यवाद | मैंने डॉलर में कीमत इस लिए लिखी थी क्यूंकि आजकल हिंदुस्तान में डॉलरों की कोई कमी नहीं और इस वजेह से हर रोज डॉलर का भाव बदल जाता है| अगर मैं रुपयों में कीमत बताता तो वह कल ग़लत हो जाती | और थोक के भाव मैंने इसलिए बताये थे क्यूंकि उसके बिना कंप्यूटर महंगा पड़ता है| लागत बहुत है | अभी तो ये ताइवान में बन रहे हैं, लेकिन अगर भारत चाहे तो भारत में बना शुरू कर सकता है| सारी टेक्नोलॉजी "स्वतंत्र" <open source> है और आप चाहें तो आप आपनी फैंक्टरी खड़ी कर सकते हैं ये बनने के लिए| हाँ ये जरूर है की आगले साल तक एक कंपनी को ये बनने का ठेका दिया गया है| और उन्होंने एक अच्छे काम के लिए ये बिजनेस रिस्क भी लिया हुआ है|


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कुछ तो बचपन इस टी.वी. ने खराब कर दिया और रही सही कसर यह "लैपटाप" पूरी कर देगा ।
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मैंने ये सवाल भी नोट कर लिया है प्रोजेक्ट को भेजने के लिए| पर मेरा ये मानना है की जो टीवी ने ख़राब किया वह ये सुधरने की क्षमता रखता है | पर यदि आप विस्तार से बता पाएंगे की क्या क्या इससे ख़राब होने की आशंका है, तो उसका उपाय ढूँढा जा सकता है | या फ़िर हाथ भी खड़े किए जा सकते हैं - की भाई इस चीज का तो कोई उपाय नहीं |


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बच्चे कलम-पैंसिल चलाना, कागज पर चित्रकारी करना भूल जाएंगे और कंप्यूटर बेचने वालों की 'सेल' बढ़ जायेगी ! क्या आईडिया है !
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कलम पैंसिल चलाना भी एक अच्छी चीज है, और कंप्यूटर चलाना भी | चुनाव आपको करना है की क्या आप कलम पैंसिल चलने के लिए कंप्युटर चलने का परित्याग कर सकते हैं | मैं कंप्यूटर नहीं बेचता इसलिए मुझे सेल के बरे में कोई आइडिया नहीं | पर हो सकता है की आप ठीक कह रहे हों |


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भाड़े में जायें ये सुसरे लैपटाप । छः साल से बारह साल तक के बच्चों की बजाय कालेज के विद्यार्थियों के लिये क्यों नहीं यह आफर दी जा रही ?
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खैर होगा तो वही जो होना है| मेरे या आपके चाहने से तो कोई चीज भाड़ में नही जायेगी | जहाँ तक कॉलेज के विद्यार्थियों का सवाल है | ये कंप्यूटर बच्चों के लिए ही बनाया गया है| सब कुछ शुरू से शुरू हो कर के | कॉलेज के विद्यार्थियों के लिए तो बहुत कुछ उपलब्ध है | मेरे कॉलेज के हरेक बच्चे के पास आज लैपटॉप कंप्यूटर है| उनकी जरूरतें अलग हैं | उन्हें ज्यादा क्षमता की मशीन चाहिए | उस क्षमता की मशीन के लिए आज भारत में दाम २१००० से शुरू होते हैं| और वह पहले है maas produce हो रही हैं, इसलिए और कम करने की गुंजाईश नहीं है|

आशा करता हूँ की आपकी कुछ चिंताओं को शांत कर पाया हूँ? कृपया सवाल पूछना न छोडें |

- अजय

shashiverma
October 26th, 2007, 12:24 AM
Shashi,

I agree! And any kid that I have given my laptop to, has not watched TV untill I take the machine away. So, I feel that if we let the kids decide, they will surely vote for getting computers. <I am not suggesting that we let them make this decison. I am not suggesting the contrary either.> . Point is, whatever other vices it may have, it will certainly not be burdon on the kids learning. It will be an enhancer. Nevertheless, I have taken this up as a question to be posted to the project.
Yes, that is the argument our government has given, and that is the reason we are not participating in it as a nation.Absolutely! And I believe that one great way of enhancing research and reading skills is to give them internet. (my belief only). There are more books available in project guttenburg than one would ever be able to read in a lifetime. Yes the filtering of content part could be a concern, and is already taken care of to a large extent.
I don't quiet get the point made in the first sentence. But as far as as artificial is concerned, it is a relative concept. Perhaps you are saying "so different from what it is today" or "so different from how our generation did it"? But again could you please elaborate the concern there. I don't want to put my words to this question. And the question deserves to reach the right ears. :)
-Ajay


Gud points to discuss...
I am not at all against learning and using computers and it should be taught at school level itself. But the point I am not in favour of is each student having a personal laptop.
But before answering you I would like to mention one thing.
We were not allowed to use calculators when we were in school although they were very much available. Why??
There was a definite reason for doing this. Our brain is gud enough to do all those calculations and we should practise that. Eversince we started using that...ask someone a simple calculation... nd you know the answer.
There is no harm in using the calculator but first let their brain grow.

In the present scenario itself most of the parents do manage to make PC/Laptops available for their kids. I know from the early childhood they are well aware of the things we people learned after being into colleges. But does that make a real difference?? Does the child do not have to pay price for that? I feel they usually get addicted to it and apart from the educational stuff you expose them to the whole lots of things which suck their energy and time. Those things can wait. They can learn it a later stage.

And apart from that I do not think it is possible to make laptops available for each and every student. And if we simply want to follow the west pattern of teaching then lets first think of bringing all students at more or less similiar plateform.

Based on what I understand, it may not be a wise idea to expose them to whole lot of stuff (Which obviously they would have access to... once they have their own laptops) before they are mature enough to understand what to read and what to discard. Its more like you bombard them with whole lot of new things and most of time it would be at the cost of the time they could have spent in growing in the real sense.

I will support introducing laptops at college level as was mentioned earlier in thread.

pnauhwar21
October 26th, 2007, 06:54 AM
I didn't see an option of CD-ROM drive or DVD drive in the laptop which is a must if you want this to be provided to small children..there are tons of interactive Educational CDs that can be shown to children..just using these for internet and games is not going to help much..secondly, what is the Warranty/Support plan of such laptops and how costly will the repairs be?

And as you mentioned the $200 rate is only available for >10K orders, it cannot be bought by any school except if bought by government to distribute throughout the country..hence you should target Government and not individual schools..the rate for less No. of laptops is not competitive enough and you can easily get a decent desktop with better configuration for that amount so why would schools invest in this laptop which is quite different from the systems that are actually used in real world?

ajaygahlawat
October 26th, 2007, 07:35 PM
Gud points to discuss...
I am not at all against learning and using computers and it should be taught at school level itself. But the point I am not in favour of is each student having a personal laptop.
But before answering you I would like to mention one thing.
We were not allowed to use calculators when we were in school although they were very much available. Why??
There was a definite reason for doing this. Our brain is gud enough to do all those calculations and we should practise that. Eversince we started using that...ask someone a simple calculation... nd you know the answer.
There is no harm in using the calculator but first let their brain grow.



Shashi, thanks again for your insights. I think that is a valid concern. While I personally would have phrased it a little differently, I am not going to paraphrase it for risk of loss of original message. Would it be possible for you to summarize the question we need to post to OLPC in one - two sentence?




And apart from that I do not think it is possible to make laptops available for each and every student. And if we simply want to follow the west pattern of teaching then lets first think of bringing all students at more or less similiar plateform.


That is a very widely asked question. And if one goes over the history of OLPC, it started off trying to solve that exact problem. These guys are all educationalists. All they have done all their lives is to teach. And to teach at the best places around for learning. So, yes they do realize that enabling some and not others is not a good thing. But this pattern is so much better than the west. If you have seen schools in the west you would know. It it a new way of thinking. Does not go out to solve all the problems in the world. Just provides a machine with all the tools necessary for learning. Of course it does not take away the mentoring role from the teacher or the parenting role from the parent. Those things are independent of the devices you use.

Secondly, IT is a great equalizer. With great connectivity, you can overcome issues with not having super experts for those students that need it. You can customize the learning experience of every single child without overloading the class teacher. That I believe could be a real equalizer.



Based on what I understand, it may not be a wise idea to expose them to whole lot of stuff (Which obviously they would have access to... once they have their own laptops) before they are mature enough to understand what to read and what to discard. Its more like you bombard them with whole lot of new things and most of time it would be at the cost of the time they could have spent in growing in the real sense.


Information overload is a real problem in today's world. And a new skill is needed. Yes, as you rightly point out, the skill to be able to choose what to read and what not to. Or goal based reading. I am sure not sure how many of our schools cater to that.

Secondly, would it make you happy, if there were a mechanism to control the kind of content students are allowed to explore unsupervised, and the kinds of content they would only be able to access if sharing an activity with a teacher / parent?


Thirdly, please help me with a succinctly worded 1-2 sentence question that we can post to OLPC.


I will support introducing laptops at college level as was mentioned earlier in thread.
College wale bache sunte kahan hain? agar unhen chahiye to woh le hi aayenge.


Thanks again for your interest in this very important subject.

-Ajay

ajaygahlawat
October 26th, 2007, 08:00 PM
Prashant,



I didn't see an option of CD-ROM drive or DVD drive in the laptop which is a must if you want this to be provided to small children..there are tons of interactive Educational CDs that can be shown to children..just using these for internet and games is not going to help much

Really good question. Taking it up to be asked. But there is still a response that I could think of.

The laptops don't have a built in optical drive. Actually if you noticed they don't have a hard disk either. :) , or for that matter, any moving part. The two reasons for that are weight and durability. The laptop has 1GB of flash storage, and the rest of the storage will be provided on the school servers from where you could access it whenever you want. because the wireless internet would always work. And these servers also have cd drives and everything attached to them, so that you could take the contents of the CDs and put it there for all to use.


But they do have a fair amount of USB slots where any amount of peripherals can be attached. Including the extra hard disks and printers if you want those as well. The cost of internal and external USB drives is not very different. So why make the 1.5 kg machine into a 2.5 kg one when you could keep those detached.

An amazing amount of things have packed into those 1.5 Kgs of weight, and 2 watts of average power guideline. It has video and audio recording , it has voice over IP ( read free video telephony) . It has an auto configuring wireless mesh network. Below the keyboard, it has a writing pad where whatever you write would be recorded on the computer. It has interactive activities that can be shared with anyone you invite. And it has the ability to be modified as you want by teachers / students / parents etc. And it has a display that can be read in Sun if you want. Be creative is all it says. For a full list of features, click the laptop icon on the laptop.org website.

If you add all (or most as all is not even possible) these features to a conventional machine, and also make it that light, the cost as on date is about 2000 - 4000 dollars . Now compare that with the pricepoint of 200-400.


Cheers,
Ajay

ajaygahlawat
October 26th, 2007, 08:04 PM
And as you mentioned the $200 rate is only available for >10K orders, it cannot be bought by any school except if bought by government to distribute throughout the country..hence you should target Government and not individual schools..the rate for less No. of laptops is not competitive enough and you can easily get a decent desktop with better configuration for that amount so why would schools invest in this laptop which is quite different from the systems that are actually used in real world?


Who is "you"? I am the community just like everyone else on the website. Not sure if I made it clear enough. I am just a fan of the project. Nothing more nothing less.

ajaygahlawat
October 26th, 2007, 08:06 PM
secondly, what is the Warranty/Support plan of such laptops and how costly will the repairs be?


I don't know. I have myself asked the question and a lot more. see http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/india/2007-October/000064.html
.

-Ajay

ajaygahlawat
October 26th, 2007, 08:54 PM
I am not sure how many kids can afford this laptop even at this low price. However, Its a great development. If not every child, at least every rural school should have 5-10 such laptops for kids to feel new technology. Who knows we may get some best brains in computer technology from such efforts. I don't think age has anything to do with having or not having a laptop. Best brains in computers are always the very young ones. Sooner we catch them better it will be.

RK^2

I agree. But there are some open questions: How do the schools decide who gets to use the 5-10 machines. As far as I can see, they will be used by the "master"'s kids.

Secondly, even the 5-10 machines is not going to happen. Is there a need to influence it? if so, how? if not should we just let it pass us by?

Thirdly, who funds?

-Ajay

shashiverma
October 27th, 2007, 07:26 PM
Well my concern is that if we introduce laptops so early in their life then probably we may end up having robots instead of kids.
I think this is perhaps the reason behind the fact that at many places the best institutes are now making kids learn from nature instead of subjecting them to whole lot of technology.
We have the results in front of our eyes. Just look towards the west world.

Our society is presently not equipped enough to teach kids to maintain balance between the man made tech stuff and nature. If you say that parents and teachers would be capable enough to teach their kids to take laptop as just a book and they would be in a position to maintain balance between their academic and practical (social) education...then probably I would move ahead to buy your sentence.
So i would say parents and teachers need to be educted to maintain balance otherwise I do not think they can teach kids.
I think its more like giving a gun in the hands of your kids without even teaching them the importance and usage.....even which way to hold before firing.
You have rightly said that ..college walle students sunatee kaha hai.....and if you just look around you will find that people simply get carried away with internet and other such stuff. If we can not ensure that the educated lot is good enough to handle them then how do you think it is possible to ensure the same for innocent kids.

ajaygahlawat
October 28th, 2007, 07:27 AM
Well my concern is that if we introduce laptops so early in their life then probably we may end up having robots instead of kids.
I think this is perhaps the reason behind the fact that at many places the best institutes are now making kids learn from nature instead of subjecting them to whole lot of technology.
We have the results in front of our eyes. Just look towards the west world.



Nicely phrased. :) . But being a robot is independent of whether you touch a computer or not. If you mean personality as the psychologists point out, that does not change after 5 years of age. (Very well established assertion in psychology). If you mean behavior, then that depends on a lot of other factors. Like what did you watch when you were growing up. Was it other ignorant people like yourself, or was it some competent person in the city who would never travel to interact with you. And as far as interacting with the nature is concerned, I can only give my own experiences. Personally, I have only started using Neem, Safeda etc. in my daily life only after significant research on the internet. Being an electrical engineer, I also think of a lot of ways of solving the energy crisis in a nature friendly way sustainable way. But nothing would be possible without the reference material available on the net.

I did see someone's experiences using laptops posted on a website. That is from a country poorer than ours. I'll look for it and post it to the discussion.

ajaygahlawat
October 28th, 2007, 07:31 AM
I did see someone's experiences using laptops posted on a website. That is from a country poorer than ours. I'll look for it and post it to the discussion.

As promised, here is the link http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Peru/Arahuay .

This does capture some of the aspects of how people's life changed as an effect of the OLPC laptops. The more important part is how they seem to be ready to change based on the feedback from the actual users.

ajaygahlawat
October 28th, 2007, 07:34 AM
Well my concern is that if we introduce laptops so early in their life then probably we may end up having robots instead of kids.
I think this is perhaps the reason behind the fact that at many places the best institutes are now making kids learn from nature instead of subjecting them to whole lot of technology.
We have the results in front of our eyes. Just look towards the west world.




I am unable to deduce what exact part of the west do you mean here. I have personally experienced life in a fair number of locations in the developed world, and I think they are thriving. :)

ajaygahlawat
October 28th, 2007, 07:57 AM
Our society is presently not equipped enough to teach kids to maintain balance between the man made tech stuff and nature. If you say that parents and teachers would be capable enough to teach their kids to take laptop as just a book and they would be in a position to maintain balance between their academic and practical (social) education.



Agree! So, can we afford to miss the opportunity to equip the society in a manner that it can teach it's kids to maintain a balance between conservation of existing richness and new high tech advancement?

The parents and teachers, are capable is my assertion. They can pull the internet plug if they want. And then the kids would have to explain to the grown ups why they want internet before being given conditional access. While I personally am not in favor of a very high handed approach here, but I am no one to tell people how to raise their children.




...then probably I would move ahead to buy your sentence.

So i would say parents and teachers need to be educted to maintain balance otherwise I do not think they can teach kids.



Please do. :) . Yes absolutely, if they don't know already that is. Actually any change can be best brought in by explaining how the change will affect everyone involved. Take a look at the link I posted earlier about the experiences in a Peru school. They spent considerable amount of time just talking to the teachers.



I think its more like giving a gun in the hands of your kids without even teaching them the importance and usage.....even which way to hold before firing.
You have rightly said that ..college walle students sunatee kaha hai.....and if you just look around you will find that people simply get carried away with internet and other such stuff. If we can not ensure that the educated lot is good enough to handle them then how do you think it is possible to ensure the same for innocent kids.

I agree. Which is why a lot of control over the content is built into the internet access system. There is key word matching to ban pages etc. And the college age is a lot more vulnerable. It is easier to teach responsible use of internet before the teens, than during the teens. But again that is my personal opinion.

I am very happy with the way this discussion is shaping up. We are able to identify the exact reasons why we don't like it. We can specify the aspects we don't like, and we can ask for a solution to those concerns. If they still don't get addressed , then we would be right in our decision to oppose the concept as a whole. But until then, as some mahapurush said, "बुराई से नफरत करो बुरे से नहीं" .

aabhisheksirohi
October 28th, 2007, 04:58 PM
Well Well Good point raise by fellow member!!

Initially the idea comes to my mind to share with Jatland on One Laptop per Child project but I missed out. As I was actively involved in the launch of OLPC’s first Pilot in India under which school children in a tribal village at Khairat (near Karjat, Maharashtra) have been provided with OLPC XO laptops and teacher training for incorporating the new way of imparting education.

This is just one step ahead in the beginning to bring revolution in Indian Education System. This time Government is prepared with all sorts of backup by domestic corporate sector to promote E-learning, online lecture, knowledge sharing sessions, interactive sessions, counseling and computer literacy. It is still early days for this project so I can’t say how much it will be successful but we got a positive response from most of the children in Khairat School who have never seen a computer before each child got a OLPC laptop. These children are accessing the school based curriculum through wireless connectivity. We are planning to set up WIMAX based at Karjat so that we can cover 18 more municipal schools , NGO’s based schools and Private schools in this area.

During the initially phase few rhymes, video based mathematic solutions and many more stories and interactive video sessions written in local marathi language is incorporated in their school based curriculum. Subsequently a dedicated team from Ministry of HRD is working on future developments. Friends it is absolutely untrue that they are going to scrap all the books and pen immediately or thereafter.

OLPC is a JV project of Central Government and other corporate sector to promote E-learning in India. My company is undertaking the responsibility of providing internet connectivity, network backbone, logistic and support to the OLPC initiative in India where as few other software company is working on building the user friendly school based curriculum.

Keeping in mind that the laptops will be handled by school children, they have been built drop-proof, 45-degrees shock-proof, water proof, and have a longer battery life as compared to regular laptops. Based on the Linux OS, the OLPC (XO) laptop has replaceable keyboards, which can be changed for use with 35 global languages. OLPC's XO laptop includes a 366MHz AMD Geode processor, 128MB of RAM, 512 MB of NAND flash storage, and a long-lasting nickel-metal hydride battery that will allow the XO to operate for anywhere between 6 and 20 hours. No hard drives or CD ROM’s but they have 2 USB points and small in built antenna to access wireless connectivity.

Not only laptops but normal desktop PC will also be supplied to the schools. MTNL will deploy Novatium’s thin client solution netPC in Delhi and Mumbai. The PC will be priced (around $115), and comes bundled all with an Internet connection. We are working for the manufacturing of the cheap laptops in India it will help to bring down the price to 80-90 $ per laptop in future.

dskadyan
October 28th, 2007, 09:01 PM
ITs Good that they will also have PC with them.

Then we will have a Kidz Mobile.
Then we will have Kidz CC.

what about kids will have to work out in MNC.
yes we should do some thing that kidz can be fertile at 4-5 year of age. we have to become a faster species.


Let them play..................dont make them wizard ........... try to offload some pressure..............do some thing that we can get rid of PC not our children also get them.........i want that i will discuss things with people in person but we have to discuss on blogs,forums and on chat . As i am used to it.
we think this way but some time still we may get a feeling that we done a lot of masti and we can do more. "Kash main bachpan main aur bhi masti kar pata". So let our children have some masti. otherwise they will come with no memories or atleat not swaet memories. And PC in school will be ok and it wil keep them away from
------> Information overload.
------------> Patience, we are curious and we get answer in a sec on net. will it keep our childer curious enough.
----------------> let them build thier own personlaity before they will get a lot of view and start sharing on internet.
-----------------------> radiation from screen
----------------------------> aching fingers by typing on key board
----------------------------------> let they besome good calibrator and reading habit.
-----------------------------------------> do some tough calulation their own and learn "PHADE" ek kao ekka.
----------------------------------------------> dont jumkyard of silicon and electronic waste.

biotechs2001
October 29th, 2007, 12:34 AM
OLPC project seems an attempt to exploit the governments of poor nations by making them pay for hundreds of millions of machines. Additionally, the price unit does not include the cost of setup, maintenance, training of teachers, or Internet access. Countries adopting the XO must budget for these costs as well.
Money for purchasing laptops could be more favorably spent on libraries and schools. A $2,000 library can serve 400 children, costing just $5 a child to bring access to a wide range of books in the local languages and English; also, a $10,000 school can serve 400–500 children ($20–$25 a child). This could be the more appropriate solutions for education in the poor countries

dndeswal
October 29th, 2007, 07:37 PM
.
Firstly, improve the conditions of school buildings in villages, give a desk and table to each student. Provide the schools with basic facilities like safe drinking water, electric supply, free medical check-up of kids in school premises. Then think about providing computers to primary school kids. And why import computers ? Is there no Indian company which can produce a totally indigenous computer in this country of ours which boasts itself to be a software giant? What about hardware - a sector where we are totally dependant on others?

See an interesting article which appeared today.

http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/local/haryana/4_6_3860636.html (http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/local/haryana/4_6_3860636.html)

लाखों की लागत से खरीदे गए कम्प्यूटर फांक रहे है धूल
Oct 29, 2007
झज्जर, जागरण संवाद केंद्र

प्रदेश सरकार द्वारा शिक्षा के क्षेत्र को बढ़ावा देने के लिए अनेक आधुनिक प्रकार की सुविधाएं उपलब्ध करवाई जा रही है लेकिन विभाग के अधिकारियों की लापरवाही के चलते स्कूलों में स्थापित किए जाने वाले कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम भी कई स्कूलों में चालू नहीं हो पाए है। जिसकी वजह से विद्यार्थियों को कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा ग्रहण करने में भारी मुसीबतों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है। जिले के गांव मुण्डाहेड़ा के राजकीय वरिष्ठ माध्यमिक विद्यालय में आज तक कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम चालू नहीं किया गया है। विद्यालय में लगभग दो माह पूर्व कम्प्यूटर लाए गए थे लेकिन प्रथम सेमेस्टर परीक्षा होने के बावजूद भी आज तक इस स्कूल में कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम स्थापित नहीं किया गया है। मुण्डाहेडा के कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम को चालू न किए जाने के बारे में विद्यालय के प्राचार्य से इस सम्बन्ध में बात की गई तो उन्होंने बताया कि विद्यालय में कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम की स्थापना के लिए विभाग द्वारा भेजा गया फर्नीचर मुण्डाहेड़ा की बजाय मुण्डाखेड़ा के विद्यालय में चला गया था जिसे लगभग एक पखवाड़े पूर्व ही वहां से स्वयं किराया खर्च कर मंगवाया गया है तथा यूपीएस व बैटरी भी स्कूल में पहुंच गई है। लेकिन आज तक इन कम्प्यूटर सिस्टमों को चालू नहीं किया गया है। जिसके कारण लाखों रुपये की लागत से खरीदे गए कम्प्यूटर धूल फांक रहे है और विद्यार्थियों को समय पर कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा भी उपलब्ध नहीं हो पा रही है। इस सम्बन्ध में अनेकों बार ग्रामीणों द्वारा सम्बन्धित विभाग के अधिकारियों को भी शिकायत की जा चुकी है लेकिन आज तक इस समस्या का कोई समाधान नहीं किया गया है। अभिभावकों का कहना है कि इस सत्र की प्रथम सेमेस्टर प्रणाली की परीक्षाएं भी गत दिनों समाप्त हो चुकी है और उसके बाद दूसरी सेमेस्टर प्रणाली की परीक्षाएं नजदीक आती जा रही है लेकिन मुण्डाहेड़ा विद्यालय के विद्यार्थी कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा से वंचित है । जिसके कारण विद्यार्थियों को कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा ग्रहण करने के लिए छुट्टी के बाद आसपास के शहरों में ही जाने पर मजबूर होना पड़ रहा है। अभिभावकों व विद्यार्थियों की शिक्षा विभाग के उच्चाधिकारियों व जिला प्रशासन से मांग है कि उनके विद्यालय में कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम शीघ्र चालू करवाया जाए ताकि वे अपने गांव में ही कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा प्राप्त कर सकें।
.

trueblueindian
October 29th, 2007, 10:49 PM
Well Well Good point raise by fellow member!!

India it will help to bring down the price to 80-90 $ per laptop in future.

well firstof all i would like to say that i think on the same lines as abhishek ....

well according to my knowlidge DST/CSIR is also working on this project to provide under 10K .... the efforts are going in from past 4 years and this is something i know from the horses mouth ... i mean from top ministry official and it is a very good step indeed ...

coming back to the topic .... i am not able to see any strong reasons why some members are up against this project ...

well everyone has a diffrent angle to orsee a situation and i respect that ...

lastly my take on this subject ----

1. yes other infrastructural activities are to be there but whats the harm in taking a leap and going straightout for the very best .. after all we have been complaning again an again that our govt. invests in sytems and tecnology after it is over from int'l platform ... atleast we are acting in synery this time ... looks gud

2. do we have the stastics before debating that at what age computer litreacy is achived in devloped countries and what equipments are available to the toddlers in these countries ... i think the current stastics would be proof eough that our privillaged/under privilagged kids need these gadgets ..

3. according to me fancy things attract children and like in this case if a chld is provided with a Laptop i guess he would be more motivated to play around with the machine .. and woh kehetin hai na if you want to be a master in a trade explore it ... afer all we are not expecting kids to write codes .... the eqquipment i aimed to be a A/V learning aid and online working would indeed result in better monitering of teachers as the DATA would be available at a glane so in turn the other key problem for cuntry like india gets sorted out ... that is --- teachers not doing their duty properly ...

seems to me a very positive move ....

ajaygahlawat
October 30th, 2007, 09:21 PM
OLPC project seems an attempt to exploit the governments of poor nations by making them pay for hundreds of millions of machines. Additionally, the price unit does not include the cost of setup, maintenance, training of teachers, or Internet access. Countries adopting the XO must budget for these costs as well.


While I don't discount the conspiracy theory. Well may be it is an attempt to dupe the poor countries. I only hope the good Prof. Negroponte and his team does not read this bit. For they are trying to do something. And the thing they are trying to do has a nice warm feeling about it. Yes the returns may not be apparent to everyone in the very short term. But the returns are apparent to some. And to those some, the returns justify the costs. Also those some are the ones that would not come to the defence of the concept, but would silently go and buy the devices for their kids and families. One is free to want to buy the device or not. The argument that "it is an attempt to dupe countries" hence "we should not buy it" does not hold ground when one considers that there is *no better technological solution at that cost for that problem* . The argument that may hold some ground is perhaps *technology is not an answer to everything, and I am not letting my primary school kids anywhere near technology.* The answer to that would be. Fine. Everyone is free to raise their child the way they want. But so are others.

About the other costs: Absolutely correct. The price unit does not include networking. It does not include electricity either. Yes, anyone considering the solution should consider these additional costs. But this is no more than conventional cost consideration in any solution.




Money for purchasing laptops could be more favorably spent on libraries and schools. A $2,000 library can serve 400 children, costing just $5 a child to bring access to a wide range of books in the local languages and English; also, a $10,000 school can serve 400–500 children ($20–$25 a child). This could be the more appropriate solutions for education in the poor countries


Fair enough! so, let's create a proposal for creating libraries, and send the document to the government of india, and other governments of poor countries. I am happy to volunteer my time into it. Any other takers?

ajaygahlawat
October 30th, 2007, 09:53 PM
Firstly, improve the conditions of school buildings in villages, give a desk and table to each student. Provide the schools with basic facilities like safe drinking water, electric supply, free medical check-up of kids in school premises. Then think about providing computers to primary school kids.

Yes, all those things should be done. If some people think that these should be done before the laptop project, they have to group now and make it happen. Because the OLPC itself is making rapid progress, we will need to hurry up.


.
And why import computers ? Is there no Indian company which can produce a totally indigenous computer in this country of ours which boasts itself to be a software giant? What about hardware - a sector where we are totally dependant on others?

Because there is no indian company that can make anything even close. Yes, you might want to consider intel's CMPC project. Wipro, Satyam, and Educomp have signed up for being partners to that project. If you prefer the indian companies that is. These devices are just crippled versions of traditional machines. Cost more than the OLPC, and function less than that. But that is your own conclusion to draw. I am not a marketing/ sales rep for either of them.

Unfortunately, the country missed the bus on hardware. We did not encourage that sector enough. So, no indian comanies I am afraid. Software has survived despite the policies not because of the policies. We did make something called the Simputer. There was a company that got the rights to that technology. I am not sure if they are still in business. But the devices were very unusable is what I have heard.

And please, someone please start manufacturing the OLPC in India. The technology is all open and free to use. And if it matters, I would work for free for them.


.
See an interesting article which appeared today.

http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/local/haryana/4_6_3860636.html (http://in.jagran.yahoo.com/news/local/haryana/4_6_3860636.html)

लाखों की लागत से खरीदे गए कम्प्यूटर फांक रहे है धूल
Oct 29, 2007
झज्जर, जागरण संवाद केंद्र

प्रदेश सरकार द्वारा शिक्षा के क्षेत्र को बढ़ावा देने के लिए अनेक आधुनिक प्रकार की सुविधाएं उपलब्ध करवाई जा रही है लेकिन विभाग के अधिकारियों की लापरवाही के चलते स्कूलों में स्थापित किए जाने वाले कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम भी कई स्कूलों में चालू नहीं हो पाए है। जिसकी वजह से विद्यार्थियों को कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा ग्रहण करने में भारी मुसीबतों का सामना करना पड़ रहा है। जिले के गांव मुण्डाहेड़ा के राजकीय वरिष्ठ माध्यमिक विद्यालय में आज तक कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम चालू नहीं किया गया है। विद्यालय में लगभग दो माह पूर्व कम्प्यूटर लाए गए थे लेकिन प्रथम सेमेस्टर परीक्षा होने के बावजूद भी आज तक इस स्कूल में कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम स्थापित नहीं किया गया है। मुण्डाहेडा के कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम को चालू न किए जाने के बारे में विद्यालय के प्राचार्य से इस सम्बन्ध में बात की गई तो उन्होंने बताया कि विद्यालय में कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम की स्थापना के लिए विभाग द्वारा भेजा गया फर्नीचर मुण्डाहेड़ा की बजाय मुण्डाखेड़ा के विद्यालय में चला गया था जिसे लगभग एक पखवाड़े पूर्व ही वहां से स्वयं किराया खर्च कर मंगवाया गया है तथा यूपीएस व बैटरी भी स्कूल में पहुंच गई है। लेकिन आज तक इन कम्प्यूटर सिस्टमों को चालू नहीं किया गया है। जिसके कारण लाखों रुपये की लागत से खरीदे गए कम्प्यूटर धूल फांक रहे है और विद्यार्थियों को समय पर कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा भी उपलब्ध नहीं हो पा रही है। इस सम्बन्ध में अनेकों बार ग्रामीणों द्वारा सम्बन्धित विभाग के अधिकारियों को भी शिकायत की जा चुकी है लेकिन आज तक इस समस्या का कोई समाधान नहीं किया गया है। अभिभावकों का कहना है कि इस सत्र की प्रथम सेमेस्टर प्रणाली की परीक्षाएं भी गत दिनों समाप्त हो चुकी है और उसके बाद दूसरी सेमेस्टर प्रणाली की परीक्षाएं नजदीक आती जा रही है लेकिन मुण्डाहेड़ा विद्यालय के विद्यार्थी कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा से वंचित है । जिसके कारण विद्यार्थियों को कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा ग्रहण करने के लिए छुट्टी के बाद आसपास के शहरों में ही जाने पर मजबूर होना पड़ रहा है। अभिभावकों व विद्यार्थियों की शिक्षा विभाग के उच्चाधिकारियों व जिला प्रशासन से मांग है कि उनके विद्यालय में कम्प्यूटर सिस्टम शीघ्र चालू करवाया जाए ताकि वे अपने गांव में ही कम्प्यूटर शिक्षा प्राप्त कर सकें।
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Yes, I have personally seen these things, and have tried to move some action. More often than not, the bottleneck in the success of these efforts is laziness. And the lab mode. "don't touch it, you will break it" "no, this is not your computer period" "no, only when the computer bhenji is here" . And the biggest bottleneck is that the computer bhenji may not know everything. I have been to a school computer lab, where a computer is in warranty, and has been dead since arrival (about an year ago). The school administration has not bothered to phone up this "indian company" to get it fixed. In a friendly chat with the teacher later I heard, "Kya jindagi ho gai hai. 4 baje tak school mein pilna padta hai." Believe me to get anything done, one needs to work.

I am extremely worried about the students in this sort of setup. Please let them free. Don't hinder their progress. I am not saying that OLPC is THE solution. All I am saying is "the current solution is not enough". Start saying yes to kids experimental way of learning. Do it any way the country / society feels right. But do it. And also consider if OLPC is able to help you do it.

biotechs2001
October 31st, 2007, 12:32 AM
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/HRD_hopes_to_make_10_laptops_a_reality/articleshow/1999828.cms

HRD hopes to make $10 laptops a reality
4 May 2007, 0235 hrs IST,Akshaya Mukul,TNN
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NEW DELHI: Having rejected Nicholas Negroponte’s offer of $100 laptops for schoolchildren, HRD ministry’s idea to make laptops at $10 is firmly taking shape with two designs already in and public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex evincing interest to be a part of the project.

So far, the cost of one laptop, after factoring in labour charges, is coming to $47 but the ministry feels the price will come down dramatically considering the fact that the demand would be for one million laptops.

“The cost is encouraging and we are hopeful it would come down to $10. We would also look into the possibility of some Indian company manufacturing the parts,” an official said.

The two designs with the ministry are from a final year engineering student of Vellore Institute of Technology and a researcher from Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.

Due to reasons of Intellectual Property Rights being insisted by the two designers, the ministry is not parting with the design except giving out some of the major details.

The laptop would be made on a single board which would make it easy to find faults and rectify it, say sources.

A meeting of industry and academia is to take place in IISc, Bangalore, later this month to go through the two designs and invite more suggestions. Simultaneously, HRD ministry has been told by Semiconductor Complex, a Chandigarh-based PSU, that it would like to be part of the project. HRD ministry wants the company to get involved in the fabrication of laptops.

Six anchor groups set up by the ministry to be in touch with experts in critical areas and remove bottlenecks have been meeting regularly. Institutions like IITs and IISc have been identified as anchor institutions for the project and have been entrusted with the task of research and development of cheap laptops.

Sources say it would be another two years before the laptops become a reality.

“We do not want to rush into it. Many issues remain to be resolved like royalty to the designer after the design is patented. Prototyping would also take time. We would even conduct destructive testing and create a proper maintenance network,” said one official.

Ministry sources also say that it has received offers from MNCs, but none of them was adhering to the $10 cost tag.

anilkc
October 31st, 2007, 01:04 AM
How many of you have given a laptop to your own school going child or grand child? Why?

ajaygahlawat
October 31st, 2007, 02:39 AM
NEW DELHI: Having rejected Nicholas Negroponte’s offer of $100 laptops for schoolchildren, HRD ministry’s idea to make laptops at $10 is firmly taking shape with two designs already in and public sector undertaking Semiconductor Complex evincing interest to be a part of the project.


This is some real good news. Now some of the concerns about swadeshi should go away. And if the cost is as low as projected. I am a very happy person. :)

ajaygahlawat
October 31st, 2007, 02:48 AM
How many of you have given a laptop to your own school going child or grand child? Why?

Corollary: How many of you would have given a laptop to your own school going child or grand child, had they been available for $10 or Rs. 400 ? Why?

ajaygahlawat
October 31st, 2007, 02:52 AM
As promised, here is the link http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Peru/Arahuay .

This does capture some of the aspects of how people's life changed as an effect of the OLPC laptops. The more important part is how they seem to be ready to change based on the feedback from the actual users.


And here is a link (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Khairat_Chronicle) for the similar record of the indian school in khairat near mumbai.

anilkc
October 31st, 2007, 03:53 AM
$10 computer is like the Rs10,000 Maruti, if anyone remembers it.:eek:

pnauhwar21
October 31st, 2007, 07:06 AM
The laptops don't have a built in optical drive. Actually if you noticed they don't have a hard disk either. :) , or for that matter, any moving part. The two reasons for that are weight and durability. The laptop has 1GB of flash storage, and the rest of the storage will be provided on the school servers from where you could access it whenever you want. because the wireless internet would always work. And these servers also have cd drives and everything attached to them, so that you could take the contents of the CDs and put it there for all to use.

But they do have a fair amount of USB slots where any amount of peripherals can be attached. Including the extra hard disks and printers if you want those as well. The cost of internal and external USB drives is not very different. So why make the 1.5 kg machine into a 2.5 kg one when you could keep those detached.

Cheers,
Ajay

Ajay Bhai,
Laptop should mean mobility..if these laptops don't have any hard drive, don't have a CD drive what use they will be when children take them to home..if they need to connect to a School server to watch that interactive CD which shows human body functions, they better watch it on school desktop..If you need external hard drive to save your homework or store some class notes, this laptop serves no purpose..all this is extra cost not being mentioned anywhere..the target age of children for these laptops is 6-12..at this age the best use of a computer is to show them animated programs of activities they see in books so that they can relate to them more easily..using laptops to type ABCD, write their names or drawing faces is a total loss of money and effort.

And in one of the links you provided, one major constraint they mentioned was power..there is just not enough power slots in schools and they expect children to power them at home which takes considerable amount of time and battery is over in 2-3 hours..How many villages in India get even 8 hours of electricity? And did you see the pic of Indian village where laptops are provided...they don't even have a bench to sit..so what is of more priority..benches for students to sit, clean drinking water to them and electricity at home n school or laptops for writing ABCD?

ajaygahlawat
November 1st, 2007, 01:08 AM
Ajay Bhai,
Laptop should mean mobility..
Yes. And the reason they don't have a lot of the things is precisely mobility. You can do it in 1.5 kg. But not in 3. I mean my shoulder aches at a 3 kg laptop if I have to carry it all day in a conference. (it is a light one)



if these laptops don't have any hard drive, don't have a CD drive what use they will be when children take them to home..
I didn't say they don't have storage. I only said they don't have hard drive. So, they have NAND flash storage. Which is very fast. And they have network attached storage. More below.


if they need to connect to a School server to watch that interactive CD which shows human body functions, they better watch it on school desktop

They don't have to. The idea would be to store the content from the CD on the school server, and let everyone access it any time they want. Instead of only the person in physical possession of the CDs.



If you need external hard drive to save your homework or store some class notes, this laptop serves no purpose

No, you should not. The idea is to keep the data you need actively in the local flash, and the homework would have places on the school server. Where, once it is finished, it can be uploaded. As far as I know that is. And the school server is expected to be available all the time. So, you would typically be always connected to the server.


all this is extra cost not being mentioned anywhere.
Because this extra cost is not stipulated. You should not need to acquire any external things.



the target age of children for these laptops is 6-12..at this age the best use of a computer is to show them animated programs of activities they see in books so that they can relate to them more easily..using laptops to type ABCD, write their names or drawing faces is a total loss of money and effort.


Yes, now we are thinking like the OLPC designers. Not only would you be able to watch the animations. You would also be able to create them using simple point and drag gestures. Try playing around with Etoys some time.

Similarly, you could not only play music, you could also create your own compositions easily. Great for the budding rehmans. All the while building your fundamental skills in logic sequencing and algorithmics without even realizing it.

Similarly, you could not only play videos, you could also record videos with the inbuilt camera. To top it all, you could use this in real time and it will act as a video conference device for you to be able to conference with your teacher or other fellow students.

Well the possibilities to revolutionize the learning scene with the right tools are endless.

Actually, I'll start creating some demos, and start sharing it with the forum.




And in one of the links you provided, one major constraint they mentioned was power..there is just not enough power slots in schools and they expect children to power them at home which takes considerable amount of time and battery is over in 2-3 hours.. How many villages in India get even 8 hours of electricity?


Yes, and that is why a lot of alternative solutions are being worked on. Including: pull a rope with hand or foot for one minute for a charge sufficient for 10 minutes. Or a rehent (old rotary structures for pulling water from the wells) like device to be run by jhotas and baladhs. Or a diesel generator. Or an invertor in the school. The list is endless. If you really like what it offers, there are always going to be ways to power it up. For it only uses 2 watts of power. My regular laptop takes atleat 30 watts when not doing anything. The regular desktops take about 100 watts. So, take your pick.




And did you see the pic of Indian village where laptops are provided...they don't even have a bench to sit..so what is of more priority..benches for students to sit, clean drinking water to them and electricity at home n school or laptops for writing ABCD?


Yes I did. And, my personal choice, though it does not matter much it seems, would be laptops before the desks. But everyone is free to choose. And water is mostly provided for in the parts of the rural india that I can associate with. For proof I look at the shapes of my kakis and tais . While the generation of dadis did a lot of water ferrying, the generation of kakis has been well provided for and has grown a tad bit out of shape. (if you know what I mean). Every village that I know of has water. And those that don't should have. If you know of some that don't, please raise the matter with the local mla / mp. They are supposed to make it work.

Electricity is a totally different discussion. Each one of us can personally help by doing something about nuclear energy, or biogas, or solar energy, or oil farming (read jatropa), etc. Or even solar passive architectures. But that would be too much to discuss on this thread.

And as a knowlege buff, I am really happy that this one thing has beaten the efforts of lazy government in trying to bring basic amenities like water. Three cheers to the spirit of social entrepreneurship. This, I believe, is a capitalistic way to socialism.

I hope to have provided some insights into the other side of the coin. Please do keep asking the questions. To misinterpret the age old saying: "Dubito ergo cogito ergo sum" of Descartes (I doubt therefore I think therefore I am) please don't stop doubting ever. And never stop clearing the doubts. (I know that, it was not the intended interpretation of the original philosopher.)