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Modern School

(794 posts)
Thu Apr 19, 2012, 12:02 AM Apr 2012

The One Laptop Per Child Deception


Audrey Watters, writing in Hacked Education, provides an interesting critique of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) movement, starting with the recent study by the Inter-American Development Bank in rural Peru which indicated that providing laptops does not improve test scores.

This should be no surprise. Test scores and academic success are influenced most significantly by socioeconomic factors that affect children well before they have even started school (see here and here), like malnutrition and poor health; exposure to smoke, lead and other environmental insults; and lack of early exposure to reading.

Nevertheless, one might wonder why anyone would believe that computer technology would provide more bang for the nonprofit buck than investing in nutrition- and poverty-reducing programs or building water treatment plants. These investments would not only save children’s lives but help improve their health and nutrition, thus reducing premature births, cognitive impairment and learning disabilities. Furthermore, when one considers that the laptops were not allowed to be taken home, that many of the families lacked electricity and internet access anyway, and the teachers were provided little or no professional development on integrating technology into the classroom, the program seemed doomed from the start.

The mission of OLPC was never about raising test scores or even improving learning. Rather, they believe that providing low-cost technology will “empower” children, make education more “joyful” for them, and provide them a “brighter future.” As with testing, there is no evidence that laptops do any of these things.

The idea of placing fancy, high tech toys (er, tools) into the hands of disadvantaged and marginalized people has the same sort of appeal as winning a shopping spree or the lottery. It’s exciting to imagine computers in the hands of children for whom classrooms and slate and chalk are luxuries. It is absurd, however, to think that this will erase years of hunger and privation or replace quality teaching.

Now let’s move on to the U.S., where the notion of a laptop (or tablet or iphone) in every hand is also a popular notion. Will this save districts money? It depends on whether they are maintaining and replacing the hardware and if students treat the hardware with the same carelessness and abuse with which they treat their textbooks. It will bring in millions of dollars to the big four textbook publishers—Harcourt Educational Measurement, CTB McGraw-Hill, Riverside Publishing (a Houghton Mifflin company) and NCS Pearson—which will be producing the majority of the ebooks, and tech companies like Apple, which will gain greater access to public K-12 revenues and which will lock districts into lucrative service contracts.

Will it improve learning? Not likely. The bulk of the material that will be available will be the same or similar to what is already produced by the big 4 publishers (i.e., digital versions of their existing textbooks). Will students suddenly improve their vocabularies and reading comprehension by virtue of having ebooks and tablets? Also unlikely.

Will it be a boondoggle that will hamstring districts and cut into scarce resources? Most definitely. They will have to purchase the laptops or tablets AND new ebook licenses, with an initial cost that will likely far exceed that of new textbooks alone, even though new textbooks are not even necessarily needed in electronic or hardback versions.

Modern School
http://modeducation.blogspot.com/2012/04/one-laptop-per-child-deception.html
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The One Laptop Per Child Deception (Original Post) Modern School Apr 2012 OP
I feel the same about Lifelong Protester Apr 2012 #1
Yes, because 1800s-era classrooms are really the best thing for the 21st century. TheWraith Apr 2012 #2
I sorta think the OP is trying to say-- eridani Apr 2012 #4
going to be a huge scam for the following reasons IMO... msongs Apr 2012 #3
One USB flash drive per child would be more productive. eppur_se_muova Apr 2012 #5
The same amount of money spent on poverty proud2BlibKansan Apr 2012 #6

Lifelong Protester

(8,421 posts)
1. I feel the same about
Thu Apr 19, 2012, 12:26 AM
Apr 2012

the One iPad Per Child rush on in this country. Really? In WI where the gov cut 1.6 billion dollars in education for the next biennium? Really? I guess if you believe as most of his cronies do that teachers can just be replaced by hi tech toys (you know, one teacher in a remote location, somehow teaching and reaching 100s of kids?) you might buy into this scheme. Me? I don't buy it, just a boondoggle of a high-tech sort, IMHO.

eridani

(51,907 posts)
4. I sorta think the OP is trying to say--
Thu Apr 19, 2012, 02:36 AM
Apr 2012

--that what matters is what's on the laptop, just as what matters most is what is in the textbooks--not to mention the quality of the teacher using them.

msongs

(67,129 posts)
3. going to be a huge scam for the following reasons IMO...
Thu Apr 19, 2012, 02:28 AM
Apr 2012

replacing broken/stolen items
corporations strip mining the schools as mentioned in the article
computers have limited value to people who cannot read, write/compose, or type
keeping students on task while on the computer will be a big problem

How do I know this? because that is what I saw happening in our local school, and that was while the stuff was being shown off

eppur_se_muova

(36,222 posts)
5. One USB flash drive per child would be more productive.
Thu Apr 19, 2012, 09:51 AM
Apr 2012

Desktops typically offer more bang for the buck than laptops, so invest in (supervised) computer labs, not laptops. Just give each student a place to keep all his "stuff", and set up a standard backup scheme for everybody.

There are lots of classes which can be taught just fine with no hi-tech gizmos at all. The chalkboard is still probably the single most effective educational tool ever devised -- overwhelmingly so, in terms of cost/effectiveness.

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