OLPC in India

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Just saw a OLPC coverage on TV recently and it seems that first pilot is already few months old and running in Khairat village near Mumbai.. OLPC means one laptop per child and meant to be distributed in developing countries around the world to provide access to computers, gain & spread knowledge, explore and experient.

The hole in the wall experiment
At first, you would really wonder about the success of this project. But have a look the ‘hole in the wall experiment’, an experiment carried out in Delhi by NIIT. A few computers were placed near a slum area with screen and sort of joystick to control the mouse and no keyboard. Children aged 6-12, who had not seen computers in their lifetime, had very rudimentary education and with no English skills were the heaviest users of that project and on their own they taught themselves to draw on the computer and to browse the net. They copied each other, shared the skills and were very good discovering things and giving their own names to the menu options as they learnt.

From hole in the wall to power in the hands
I hope what was discovered in that project should also come out true in the OLPC since every child has access to one know. I am not sure what it will do and what will be it’s effect on our Indian education system. But I don’t want to be a skeptic and I am sure kids will find their own potential and discover things for themselves, the things otherwise they would have never discovered.

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