Some time ago in Backspin I wrote about the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program that created to provide a high-tech. PC-type teaching tool for distribution to children in Third World countries. The original goal was for the machine to cost $100 but it appears that at least for now that goal is not attainable and the current cost is $140 per laptop. And rather than being called the One Laptop Per Child it will be called the Children’s Machine 1 (CM1). What is remarkable is what the project has achieved for the price. What’s interesting is what the CM1 could make possible outside of Third World use …
The CM1 runs Linux, has a 400MHz AMD Geode processor, 128MB of DRAM, built-in wireless support, 512MB of flash memory for data storage, an SD card slot, microphone and speaker jacks, and a digital camera The CM1’s screen has impressive specs: It is an 8″ LCD with 1200×900 resolution that according to the OLPC, sorry, CM1 project’s founding CTO, Mary Lou Jepsen, the CM1’s display “has higher resolution than 95 percent of the laptop displays on the market today, approximately one-seventh of the power consumption, one-third of the price, sunlight readability, and room-light readability with the backlight off.” The CM1 is fantastic achievement and definitely — IMHO — a much needed and hugely valuable tool for developing countries. But the CM1 also raises an interesting question: What about a laptop for every schoolchild in the US? Or any other country? Education outside of the Third World may, in general, be better than in but there’s no thing as too many tools and PCs have been repeatedly shown to enhance the learning process remarkably. I also wonder that if you can achieve all that for $140 what can you do for $200? $250? We now have cellphones at that price point so why not PCs? You want a connected society? That’s the way to do it.
