USA: Global initiative provides laptops to children in developing countries

Record ID: 721417

  • Title: USA: Global initiative provides laptops to children in developing countries
  • Date: 12th August 2007
  • Summary: (L!3) NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 09, 2007) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF DR. PASCAL IMPERATO, CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, SUNY DOWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER, WORKING AT DESK (SOUNDBITE) (English) DR. PASCAL IMPERATO, CHAIR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, SUNY DOWNSTATE MEDICAL CENTER, SAYING: "The issue is that this is a technological initiative that is geared towards improving educational outcome. However, one could argue that educational outcomes could be improved in those parts of the world with simpler technologies that are better adapted to those environments and that the funds that are being spent on laptops could be devoted to other areas that would have a much greater impact."
  • Embargoed: 27th August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Science / Technology,Light / Amusing / Unusual / Quirky
  • Reuters ID: LVADK1NS8NV7QHKC9GCHVR433LTG
  • Story Text: Intel Corporation has joined forces with the non-profit organization, One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), in an initiative to provide laptop computers to children in developing countries.
    Intel and OLPC had originally worked independently to create low-cost, child-friendly computers which each planned to sell to government agencies who would in turn, provide them to impoverished elementary school children at no cost. While that remains the objective, the two organizations have merged creating a non-competitive marketplace.
    "As the cost of computing has begun to drop over the years, and as small laptops have become more and more prevalent, more and more possible, it makes sense at this time for those to be available to children around the world," said Vice President of Sales and Marketing at Intel, Wilton Agatstein, Jr.
    The Intel laptop, called the Classmate, will cost 225 U.S. dollars, while the laptop developed by OLPC, the XO, will sell for 176 (USD).
    Government agencies would have the ability to choose which laptop served their needs better. For example, if electric power was an issue, the XO can be charged by turning a hand-crank.
    "When people criticize it and say children need food or medicine, they don't need laptops, I immediately say, substitute the word education for laptop, and you will never say that sentence again," said OLPC founder, Nicholas Negroponte.
    But not everyone is so easily convinced of that. Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, Dr. Pascal Imperato said that children would benefit from other forms of philanthropy.
    "The issue is that this is a technological initiative that is geared towards improving educational outcome. However, one could argue that educational outcomes could be improved in those parts of the world with simpler technologies that are better adapted to those environments and that the funds that are being spent on laptops could be devoted to other areas that would have a much greater impact," said Dr. Imperato.
    Criticism or not, Intel says that in preliminary studies, children who used their Classmate laptops had improved learning and saw better grades that those without them.
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