$100 laptop project to solve computer shortage in public schools
The Kabataan Party today urged the government and education officials to sign up for the One Laptop per Child project to augment computer shortage in public schools and serve as an alternative source of information for students.
“The One Laptop per Child project can help solve perennial computer shortage and modernize the Philippine public educational system at a lesser cost. This is one worthy investment our government should undertake,” Kabataan Party president Raymond Palatino said.
Palatino said the project is being pioneered by Nicholas Negroponte of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory and aims to provide low-cost computer called XO machine in developing countries.
The XO machine, which is powered by a 366-megahertz processor from Advanced Micro Devices, has built-in wireless networking but has no hard disk drive. Instead, it uses 512 MB of flash memory, and has two USB ports where more storage could be attached. It also comes with a
web browser, word processor and RSS reader, for accessing the web feeds that so many sites now offer.
The machine runs on a cut-down version of the open source Linux operating system and a new user interface known as Sugar, which Palatino said offers a much-needed break from running mechanical office automation tools and teach student not to be dependent on operating systems that leave less room for making things, communicating, exploring and sharing.
He said the government can save millions in the machine which costs $100 or roughly P5,000 compared to desktop computers which cost more than P20,000 and laptops which prices range from P40,000 to more than P100,000 each.
Palatino said countries such as Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Nigeria, Libya, Pakistan and Thailand have already signed up to buying the machine.
“Computer literacy and information technology can boost the quality of education and graduates that our public schools produce,” pointed out.
Moreover, Palatino said the machine makes online sources or electronic books and learning tools and object in the internet more accessible to students.
“This can serve as alternative sources of information and can also help augment another recurrent problem in public schools which is book shortage.”
January 9th, 2007 at 9:23 pm
i strongly agree to have this $100 laptop,. as an i.T student i really know what this thing can actually do to our endangered educational status,.. i hope our govt will do something about this bcuz this is really a great help if this project proposal prosper… =)