No Computerless Learning Blues, the new NCLB song for bridging the digital divide.
From my other blog: Just heard the NPR report on the success of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) in the boondocks of Peru. Laptop Deal Links Rural Peru To Opportunity, Risk ... OLPC has been controversial ever since first proposed by Nicholas Negroponte, the computer science professor who started the One Laptop Per Child Foundation at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Negroponte defines it "an education project; it's not a laptop project." Launched in 2005, the nonprofit OLPC aims to equip poor schoolchildren in developing countries with durable, inexpensive, networked laptops. The comments on the NPR story website attest to the problems with the project. Ranging from problems with batteries that require electrical rather than solar power to revive, to the objection made by officials of some 3rd world countries: Cheap, toylike laptops are digital crumbs that reinforce the traditional, racist view of western industrialized nations. True, OLPC hasn't accelerated and caught-on with the speed and acceptance originally envisioned, but it is already showing impact. It's also becoming an opportunity for charitable contribution. Amazon has a video clip ad Learn About OLPC's XO Laptop in a buy-one-give-one campaign.
Links in the blog http://parentleadershipined.blogspot.com/

I really hope that under the new administration, we get closer in this country to at least one laptop per family, with children having equal time online with adults. Our current economic crisis might need an upgrade of 'a chicken in every pot'. How about 'An internet-connected laptop in every home'. It's not a silver bullet to solve the many complex problems in educational equity but it is a greatly enabling condition. I raise my mouse and toast I'LL BLOG TO THAT. I'LL BLOG TO THAT.