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OLPC’s $100 laptop was going to change the world

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235 points ChrisArchitect | 4 comments | 16 Apr 18 14:55 UTC | HN request time: 0.816s | source
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dingo_bat ◴[16 Apr 18 16:05 UTC] No.16849980[source]▶
The real reason why OLPC failed is that children in downtrodden countries don't need a laptop. They need food, a healthy environment, good old fashioned classroom education and plenty of pens and notebooks. A laptop is the worst tool you can use for studying.

I went through my entire school and undergraduate college without once bringing my laptop into the classroom. My mother and father learned to program in FORTRAN using nothing but pen, paper and the occasional slide rule.

Paper books, decent sized notebooks and ballpoint pens. Spend $100 on that. That will actually help. This whole project was solving a first world problem in the third world.

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1. hindsightbias ◴[16 Apr 18 18:42 UTC] No.16851596[source]▶
I'm wondering if there's any evidence that classroom education in the First World has benefited from laptops.

Any peer-reviewed studies on a grade school computer-based curricula out there?

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2. pbhjpbhj ◴[17 Apr 18 16:00 UTC] No.16859539[source]▶
I think the problem is that the tech gets implemented by general subject teachers, often without proper support (in UK).

You need comprehensively designed curricula that can exploit all the tech available in a completely integrated way. Instead it seems you get a pile of tablets, then a subscription to an online system, and it relies on the particular teachers comfort level with the tech and willingness to include it.

In UK schools the use of tech seems mostly unsophisticated.

3. bluGill ◴[17 Apr 18 19:25 UTC] No.16861487[source]▶
I always use this analogy: how/have hammers in the classroom benefited education. Once we divorce ourselves from the baggage of wanting to "prepare kids of the future" we can be more objective.

None of my English teachers have brought a hammer into the classroom. The Physics/science teachers need one of those 2 meter cartoon rubber hammers for some demonstrations. The shop class needs 40 different types of hammers, and 6 of them there is enough for each student to have one. The art class needs a couple hammers, and once in a while the teacher will borrow a complete set from the shop classroom. You can continue the logic for other areas.

Now that have set our mind right, what about computers. There are a number of places where computers are useful in school, but only rarely is it because they are a computer. In English class you need a word processor - there is no particular reason a dedicated word processor only machine wouldn't work just as well if a modern one existed. Likewise in all other classes, the important part isn't the computer, the important part is the software the computer is running.

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4. SamReidHughes ◴[17 Apr 18 23:46 UTC] No.16863352[source]▶
The general programmability of a graphing calculator has been important for a subset of students.