From Chile - A Laptop in Every Backpack

Submitted by Simon Rosenberg on 3/27/09
Simon Rosenberg's picture

I just completed my panel, Science and Innovation For Sustainable Growth, at the Progressive Governance down here in Chile and want to quickly report in on an inspirational presentation which helped kick off the panel.  Miguel Brechner, President of the Technology Laboratory of Uruguay, made a presentation about a wildly ambitious program in Uruguary to provide all school children, aged 6-12, with the Negroponte one laptop per child wireless computer.  As a co-author, with Alec Ross, of a paper calling for similar committment here in the US, I of course was thrilled. 

The results so far, a year into the program, have been amazing.  Here is a link to more dated powerpoint presentation Miguel gave last year.  I will be providing links to more when Miguel gets me them.  He is traveling to DC in June and I hope to build an event where he can talk of this program's early and very encouraging success.  

With President Obama's budget calling for a $100 billion new investment in education, I hope he and his team will see fit to at launch least a serious demonstration project of this idea. It would be tragic if countries like Libya and Uruguay put a laptop in the hands of all their kids before the United States.

More soon from this terrific conference.

Comments

Technology plays a big

Submitted by Myles M. on 4/13/09.

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Technology plays a big role in
the existence of humankind now in the 21st century. However,
everything has its pros and cons. But technology could be a great help
especially for children to learn and explore. Just about anybody would love to
get a $50 computer.  Get all of your
technology needs out of the way for $50? 
That's a good deal.  The $50 small
computer called a Netbook is being offered by AT&T when you sign up for
their $60 a month data plan.  You have a
cap on downloads, but you don't need payday loans to get a computer.  Netbooks are a smaller versions of laptops,
not a lot of memory, but good for some small processing tasks and connecting to
the internet.  It's good to know you
don't have to get payday loans and yet you can get a $50 computer.