phragmentation

I still have mixed feelings about Bella’s school’s choice to buy expensive laptops to use as a roving computer lab, but apparently that’s happened although I haven’t heard anything from my daughter about it. I’m not sure if they went with the $500 Dells or the $1500 Macs. And are they actually using them?

My biggest issue with the school’s computer program is that they aren’t learning about computers, but rather just using them as a replacement for the teachers in other subjects, such as math and reading. To be clear, I am all for kids using computers. For several months I taught the computer class at her school, and tried to get the kids to understand the computers, and not just the busy work programs. A few years ago I heard about and became casually involved in the One laptop per child project. I’ve attended the pedagogy meetings in Cambridge and consulted with the “Buy Two Give One” program. I think this is what kids should be doing with computers: figuring them out and networking with other kids, using open source software, and writing their own programs. And for a relatively low price, much cheaper than what the school paid for each laptop, you can give your child a laptop AND donate one to a child in a developing country.

“Now we in the developed world want something that people in the developing world have. I like that idea!”

— Yves Behar on One Laptop Per Child