May 13th, 2009
South Carolina's OLPC initiative: money well-spent?
South Carolina is looking to revive the dying OLPC brand by providing as many as 50,000 students with little PCs. According to OStatic,
In order to receive a laptop, children need to give a small monetary donation — the project coordinators say a dollar or two is sufficient. What’s interesting, innovative — and will undoubtedly make an impression on an elementary school aged child — is that in order to receive a laptop, a pledge needs to made. The child must sign a document promising simply to try to “do something great” for their state, families — and themselves — with the laptop. When these requirements are met, children are then presented with their new XO laptops at a school ceremony, surrounded by friends, family, and supporters.
Needless to say, this is a powerful sentiment. Incredibly powerful, in fact, and I applaud the players (primarily the South Carolina Department of Education and the Palmetto Project) for taking a really innovative approach to getting technology into kids’ hands.
That being said, at around $200 a piece, 50,000 XOs will cost on the order of $10 million. While this isn’t a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, it could fund some substantial infrastructure upgrades in the vast rural areas of South Carolina. It could fund labs, library Internet connections, and support upfront networking costs that would help small towns save money and improve services to students long term.
Don’t get me wrong. There is no way that anyone could deny the value of the message that South Carolina is trying to send to their students. However, without a curriculum supporting the use of the computers or the connectivity to get these machines online (at home or otherwise), one has to question the value of the entire proposition. Just because it feels good, doesn’t mean it’s money well-spent when educational programs are being slashed left and right at the state level across the country.
Follow Chris Dawson on Twitter! Christopher Dawson is the technology director for the Athol-Royalston School District in northern Massachusetts and a member of the Internet Press Guild. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations, but always keep in mind that the opinions expressed here are his own and not those of his daytime employer, even if he talks incessantly about his day job.
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