Nicholas’ Negroponte’s pet project, the One Laptop Per Child model XO-1, has been given the green light, and Peru is apparently jumping on board right away with a 260,000 system order. Good for them (if they can clean up the rest of their human rights violations). Right now, however, you can make a difference in the life of at least one child, if not more. Head here and donate US$399 to OLPC and they will send one laptop to a child who needs one and one to you. The more you donate, the more laptops. I’m fully behind this one, so get going. Hurry, though. It ends December 31st.
You may question why a child living in a village which has no power or running water might need a laptop. You can sure bet they aren’t going to be checking in on their stock portfolio (hell, I don’t do that!) but they will be learning. In studies performed by MIT Media Lab they determined that children 6-12 who had never seen a computer before were able to start effectively using the XO-1 within three minutes! Not only that, but they move on to teach other kids. They then take the laptop home and teach their family.

This simple, clear, uncluttered, and audacious approach to improving the level of education in the world is a powerful concept, indeed. Sure, it won’t make Harvard graduates out of Nigerian children overnight, but it makes the US$2,000 status symbol laptop look more like a common phone and levels the playing field in a number of ways. Check out this great review over at the Fox News site. Make sure to read it all.

written by Tyler Regas \\ tags: awareness, education, green, mobile, social