Changing every child's life with computers

Raj, 10, from Nepal, used to pull a rickshaw to supplement his family's income. Until recently, he was sure that the only career he could have was that of a rickshaw-puller. But all that has changed now. He has an XO-1 and he has big dreams. "Thanks to this machine, I learn something new everyday,'' he says. "What I learn,I teach my sisters and my mother too.I want to become a pilot."

Lordz, a little girl from Haiti, looks at her XO-1 in a different light. She had lost her mother and was living with her godmother when an earthquake destroyed her home and she lost pretty much everything. The girl who is struggling to come to terms with her loss and is attempting to rebuild her life, says: "When I become overwhelmed by sadness I [open] my laptop [and start working on it] and my tears go away."

Nicholas Negroponte can tell you many more such stories of children whose lives have been changed thanks to a small gadget - the XO Laptop.

A Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor, he was on a trip to Cambodia in 2002 when he experienced first hand how a laptop transformed the life of a child. The child, who was pretty average in school, began to show marked improvement after he had access to a computer. In many ways, it honed the child's hidden talents, helping him to improve hugely. This set Negroponte thinking: what if every child in the world had access to a computer? Imagine the potential that could be unlocked, the problems that could be solved!

This eventually led him to set up the One Laptop Per Child Foundation whose mission is encapsulated in the title of the organisation. (Negroponte is now the chairman of OLPC.)

He also created the XO laptop -an inexpensive sub-notebook computer intended to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world.

The XO prototype

The XO laptops aimed to provide children with access to knowledge, and opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. Its significant green colour gives an indication of its implication to the environment. It consumes limited power, minimises toxic materials, is extraordinarily rugged, has a long lifetime, works with renewable power sources and is recyclable.

These low-power computers use flash memory instead of a hard drive. It was designed with the real world in mind, considering everything from extreme environmental conditions such as high heat and humidity, to technological issues such as local language support. As a result, the XO laptop is extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, responsive, and most of all, fun. While the laptops can be charged by electric power, you can connectto alternative power peripheralssuch as a solar panel, a foot pedal which can charge the battery or even a car adapter.

The XO-3 is the latest model and is OLPC's most ambitious project. It is also known as the XO tablet. At present, it's just a conceptbut it's poised to have an 8.5 x 11 inch touch screen, a camera on the backof the device, an induction charger and a foldable carrying ring on oneof its corners.

Connecting children

Robert Fadel, vice-president of international development and treasurer of the OLPC Foundation says, "By the end of 2010, more than2 million children in countries ranging from Uruguay, Peru, Rwanda, and Ethiopia, Mongolia and Afghanistan among others will have their own OLPC XO laptops.

"We are excited and inspired by the countries, regions and communities that have joined this mission, but we realise that our work is just beginning! In particular, we are fully committed to bringing this programme to every country in the Middle East and believe that many of the countries, like the UAE, can be important partners and participants in this global effort."

His job is to identify and develop strategic relationships with OLPC partners, including governments, non-profit institutions, the United Nations and private industry, to provide technologically driven learning opportunities to children.

A global advocate

But isn't it more cost efficient to equip children with basic learning tools like pen and paper before giving them equipment like computers?

"Computers allow for a different kind of learning experience for children - an experience far different than what a child receives with just pen and paper,'' says Matt Keller, Vice-President of Global Advocacy for OLPC.

"The simple act of programming, thinking through the creation of an object on a screen for example, leads to a different kind of thinking - a thinking that is more analytical, rational, and logical. Additionally, with computers designed for the world's poorest children in the world's most remote places, each child has the opportunity to have a library [of sorts] in her hand. For the first time, each child has the opportunity to connect to the world and its body of knowledge," says Keller. He was working as the senior programme officer for the United Nations World Food programme when he began to see a need for better education in poor schools around the world - an education that neither the UN or host governments were providing. That's when he learned about the activities of OLPC and decided to join the foundation.

Keller, who works with governments from every continent to provide rugged, connected laptops to children living in the poorest and most remote areas of the world, considers Uruguay to be OLPC's most successful project as they have attained complete saturation - every child there now has a laptop!

How it works

Every week, volunteers designated for a particular school or city meet up to test drive the XO machines. They then teach children how to use the software and how to maintain it. The most frequent complaint they get is ‘the power drained out in one day', thanks to the overenthusiastic users.

One major change the volunteers have found is that in schools where children have been provided with XOs, attendance has increased dramatically. For many children, their new ‘toy' is not only a source of education, but a friend and saviour.

Learning ideas

"Since the earliest days of our project, the people of the Middle East (and its diaspora with their deep scientific and technological expertise and a passion for learning and education) have offered to assist us in our efforts. Whether it is governments and non-governmental groups, educators and researchers, scientists and technologists, intellectuals and policy makers or donors and recipients; there is a deep well of talent and resource in the region. This commitment to youth can contribute critically to giving innovative learning tools, ideas and approaches to the children of the Middle East and abroad. OLPC is about education, opportunity and developing current and future capacity. The current generation of children really can contribute to their communities and countries like none before them. We believe that OLPC makes that potential very real," says Fadel

"We are constantly looking for governments, NGOs, and individuals to join the effort to bring these dynamic, inexhaustible learning opportunities to even the most isolated and impoverished children," says Keller. "The response to our project has been, simultaneously, tremendous and sceptical. In general, there is not a policymaker or leader (or child for that matter) in the developing world we have met who has not instantly embraced the idea. On the other hand, some in the media, and some in international institutions have been critical. Regardless of the final outcome in the court of public opinion, one thing is perfectly clear to me: the idea of OLPC is here to stay! We will continue to be an advocate for investing in world-class education for the world's poorest children. Nothing will change for the better on this planet unless we make that dream a reality."

Key features of XO laptops

- Zenifer Khaleel is an Abu-Dhabi based freelancer

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