One laptop per child... One flaming torch per family

Jimmie Rodgers, the director general of regional development agency, the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, said the laptops "have the potential to revolutionise education in ways that are difficult to imagine".

With the advent of fire wouldn't it have been wonderful for the inventor/discover of said cooking and warmth innovation to have issued some fire - perhaps a stick aflame - to every family.

This glorious benefactor would indeed revolutionise the lives beyond the imagination.
Can anyone imagine a revolution that had some negative repurcussions?
Some repurcussions and end effects that were, unimaginably terrifying and horrific with echoes through history?

Nah - course not.

So I'm all for this. Lets give them a laptop, an i-pod, a gun, a swimming pool (don't teach them how to swim though) and... perhaps an ill-disciplined army with an arsenal of unstable chemical weapons. By them I of course mean juvenilles, not children, to deliver children that kind of technology would be irresponsible at that stage of development. Their particular needs and drivers aren't restrained or disciplined enough for them to harness this new capacity. No no - we'll wait until they have internal infrastructure in their minds and have advanced to being juvenilles.

This post is sort of about this south pacific island where each child now has a laptop. It hasn't been excecuted by Intel, neither is it the logistical victory of supplying the entirity of Africa...
But its a success on an objective - certainly something to speak of.

It concerns me because I have discussed online learning modules, distance learning (e-learning) via multimedia portals and also supplying information via net to disengaged (via tech capacity) communities. So... I should be pleased if everyone has one of these little gadgets. They're all plugged in, they've all got access - and access is key to empowerment and sustainable development. Its key to education, it advances healthcare and yet - who plugged them in?
Why did they plug them in?
Can they unplug them?
How do they remain plugged in?
Can they unplug themselves if they want to?
What issues of dependency does this create if Ethiopia is still dealing with aid dependency after a billion dollar infrastructure investment scheme that was wiped out by ane bad season despite seeming success for several years.

Its great to damn inaction and excessive contemplation and strive forward to offer choice to the masses on the basis that you are crediting others with intelligence and independence - it could be considered the way of the free market.

But I refer back to extremes to illustrate a point I haven't fully articulated to myself yet.
Give the man a fish and he'll eat for a day.
Give the man a new and he'll eat for a lifetime.
Give the man a trawler and he'll trade off his livelihood and that of the man that could've had one fish and at least have lived for one day.

Quality - quantity - and new elites, desires and dependencies...
A slow evolution of capacity or enforced need without meeting core internal needs that allow them to seek basic external solutions?

My place to comment? - Seems I've started.

Personally - I don't think one laptop per child is the best objective to begin with if it detracts funds from other initiatives. I think there are intemediary centres that would allow information to be digested and the instututes that held those access points could be monitored and the impact could be monitored more effectively allowing for refinement.
Engagement campaigns with the community could be supported so they don't end up with a nation plugged into Warcraft.

I don't know enough about the functionality of these items - and I'm sure these companies have done their due diligence, and that this initiative is the BEST of all innovations they could apply their funding and energy to... but seems to me - maybe.. just maybe - there are many financial beneficiaries external to the locations where these projects are implemented, and that if you ran a needs assessment in these areas, 'laptop' doesn't come at the top of too many of the research profiles.

I'm happy to eat my own words.
Right after I've caught my own laptop to enable me to eat for a lifetime.