I hate "reader" technology -_-

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Maybe instead of assuming you should ask the people in Africa if they want/feel a need for the laptops. Chances are they do.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Im sure they feel more of a need for food.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I've thought about that and sure, it's wrong to assume that everybody in Africa lives in stick huts and is starving but I don't understand why the hell we assume they need laptops. It's like those Christians who go to third world countries and give the people Bibles instead of shoes or food or something. I would have the same view if a company was advertising that they send free laptops to needy kids in America. But I mostly just hate how everybody assumes that electronics are the key to a great education. The schools in my county "invested" thousands and thousands of dollars in Smart Boards. Only 1/4 of the teachers who have them actually use them and even if all of the teachers used them, would students really be that much smarter? It's the same with teachers who only use power point presentations during their lectures. Do they really think that making students stare at some definitions is going to magically make them learn? I don't think so. I think it's just a crutch for teachers who suck at teaching.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

You know besides that the Laptops do more for their education for the price than paying for books would. It has nothing to do with Americanizing them. The more educated the population, the easier it is for them to improve the living conditions themselves and then keep the improvements

by Anonymous 12 years ago

I'm not saying that they shouldn't be educated, but what good is a laptop if they don't have constant electricity to run it or internet to get online with?

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Its not like they're normal laptops. They're there for education and collaboration and that's it. Since it doesn't have any extras, they run on very little power, meaning they don't need constant electricity. And while they can connect to the internet, they are mainly designed to connect to each other. "A few children working together under a tree can connect to each other without any other hardware, and a class full of students can share collaborative activities with one another and see what their classmates are doing." (taken straight from the features section of the company website).

by Anonymous 12 years ago

This post is really ignorant of the economic state of Africa and the damage that years of bandaid solutions has done to it.

by Anonymous 12 years ago

Somehow I doubt they have internet. I feel like they might just have some educational programs pre-installed. I mean, how do Africans, like the really desperate ones, get internet? They look like they can't process anything at all. And this is off topic, but what if we abandon all the humanitarian work in Africa? We aren't teaching them how to survive! Giving them finite amounts of powder to cleanse their water, dropping crates of food randomly. You know, they actually put A LOT of extra food in those things, because in reality, some evil guys with a car and guns (for lack of a better term...) end up getting to the crates first, and taking most of the food, leaving little for the actual villagers. My idea is, what if you gave them, like a leader. Someone absolutely not corrupt and with good intentions. Someone who could actually organize some territory, maybe capture it with force if necessary. There needs to be order there. It just seems like we're only working up the most temporary of solutions, and even 100 billions dollars means nothing if it's temporary.

by Anonymous 11 years ago