First $100 laptop to come this year

#1

¢‚¬° think we have all heard about the One Laptop per Child Program by now. At first I have to admit I had my doubts, especially because of the magnitude of the project and the low price tag, but all that speculation will soon be over according to Quanta Computers, the Taiwanese PC manufacturer in charge of the program's production. Quanta, who are by the way the largest contract notebook PC manufacturer in the world, said that the first $100 laptops will roll off the production lines this year. It is amazing what $100 will get you:

The $100 machine will run the Linux OS on a 500MHz microprocessor from Advanced Micro Devices, will be wireless broadband-ready, and contain 128MB of DRAM and 500MB of flash memory for storage. The only major component missing will be a big hard disk,¢¢¬‚ according to the group.

These laptops are intended to give children in less developed countries the same educational opportunities as their counterparts in more developed parts of the world.

Source: techspot.com
Relevant article: infoworld.com

#2

Great thing, I'm gonna keep my eyes open for one...For $100 bucks, that's not bad, and should be very capable for a few things...

#3

And it needs no batteries..

#4

Huh...doesn't seem all that bad

#5

No it doesn't need batteries.........but aren't most under developed 3rd world countries lacking electricity and running water still? Not in all places, but majority.......

#6

Never heard of the program.

How many 3rd world countries run Linux and what education appz run on linux would be my big question

Having tech nology is great, being able to use it is better, having a plan to use it is even better.

Just maiking laptops available doesnt seem much of a plan too me.

What teaching tools/appz are being used, how are they imlemented into the curriculum, how does having a laptop help u read/right/ and use 'rithmetic?

#7

The laptop itself comes preloaded with many educational applications, and is running a cut down and special version of Linux - all the laptops mesh together to create a network, and there's specialised features geared towards teaching - ie you can have a 'teacher' in the chat, with 12 other students, and you can teach from wherever, using the webcam built it..

Though, I do agree, some of the countries need to make sure how they teach before they actually try and get their children to attempt to learn..

Teaching them wrong isn't a great way to start..

#8

QUOTE(AYHJA @ Nov 2 2006, 07:24 AM) Great thing, I'm gonna keep my eyes open for one...For $100 bucks, that's not bad, and should be very capable for a few things...

Yeah, word processing and browsing the web through text only web pages. /:D" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt=":D" />