Re: [fsf-community-team] OLPC: A Steep Cost? Or a Profitable Edu-Investment?

[Edward Cherlin]

On Tue, Dec 15, 2009 at 16:56, Franz Christopher <address@hidden> wrote:
> In a recent post here:
>
> http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/uruguay/a_steep_cost_or_a_profitable_i.html
>
> they

That's my post you're quoting. I am not "they". See my criticisms of
OLPC at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Controversies, and in other OLPC
News posts.

> talk about the feasibility and profitability of a plan to give a laptop
> to every student, though as noble as this venture seems, it seems to me this
> is only a giant corporation out to make a few bucks

Very few, as it turns out. The gross margin is $1 per unit.

> whilst using Free
> software and good intentions as a sales pitch. Here is the original post:
>
> ---------------------------------------
>
> In his recent EduTech post How do you evaluate a plan like Ceibal?, Michael
> Trucano wrote,
>
> "All of this comes with a cost, of course: a steep cost. Is it worth it? And
> how will we know?"
>
> When you say that something is expensive, you have to say also, compared
> with what? This comparison cannot only be on price. You have to compare
> value received. What is the value of an education, then?
>
> In crass financial terms, you can set a price on education based on the Net
> Present Value of expected earnings over a lifetime. You can design a
> government education budget around the NPV of the person's tax contributions
> over a lifetime, with due consideration for other expected public services.
>
> But this is the lesser component of the value of education. The true value
> has to include the unpaid contributions that the educated person makes to
> society through volunteer work, perhaps in charities, perhaps in civil
> society organizations, perhaps in emergency services, perhaps simply by
> being adequately informed and active as a citizen. Creating and sustaining a
> society is far more important to that society than merely making money.
>
> Even if we leave that aside, however, investing in your children's future
> has a huge payback, and the Return on Investment for one-to-one computing is
> increasing rapidly as costs decrease and capabilities increase.
>
> Let us suppose, for purposes of illustration, that the MIT technologists are
> correct in saying that a second-generation XO can be made to sell for $75.
> Let us further suppose that students use them for three years, perhaps
> receiving them in grades 1, 4, 7, and 10. The cost for the computers then
> comes to $25 per child per year. Further investment is needed in electricity
> and Internet, at comparable levels.
>
> But the entire community gets to use electricity and communications, which
> are both essential for economic development. There will be expenses for
> other equipment, for teacher training, for reworking textbooks into digital
> learning materials, and so on, but many of these are one-time costs, and all
> will also contribute to development.
>
> Now let's look a little closer at textbooks. Even the poorest countries
> spend $20 annually per student on textbooks. Not necessarily $20 per child,
> given the numbers of children not in school. But close enough for government
> work, since it is a duty of governments to support every child, and someday
> each of them will. California has taken the lead in the US in moving to
> electronic textbooks, but other countries are moving ahead, and substantial
> grant funding is becoming available.
>
> So, what then? So this. Is it a steep cost to save money on textbooks by
> buying computers, and by investing in revamping the textbook industry,
> teacher training, and the schools? Is that a steep cost for ending poverty
> in the next generation? How about for ending wars and global terrorism
> caused by poverty, ignorance, and oppression? Do you know how much we spend
> on those? Now that's a steep cost.
>
> --------------- End of post
>
> Here is my comment on the subject:
>
> I have worked with schools previously, as an outside consultant in both
> Tijuana and San Diego, I can assure you that schools and technology haven't
> been good buddies (even in technology schools) Why?

Exactly so. I cannot explain the differences today in detail, because
I am in the middle of moving house. But you can read my views on the
Earth Treasury Web site. Suffice it to say that only with one-to-one
computing can we integrate computing and Free Software into school
curricula.

"Computer literacy" is the fraud you have been fighting. Imagine a
school with a room full of books, pencils, and paper, where students
were allowed in for an hour a week, but couldn't use any of these
resources in class or for homework. How much literacy do you imagine
would result?

> well, schools usually use dated software and legacy hardware, they misuse
> the few newly acquired machines on meaningless tasks, in short, technology
> in schools is very poorly managed (its a bit better in schools that have a
> sysadmin that is not a grad student)

I suggest that you read up on Plain Ceibal in Uruguay, or talk to the
people at University of Education, Winneba (Ghana) who are planning
the teacher training for their national rollout.

> Why do I mention all of this?
>
> The answer is quite simple, just averaging taxes and counting children and
> costs of books and overhead fees is just not enough. There is an urgent need
> for someone to manage technology in schools so it is put to better use.

Talk to Bryan Berry at Open Learning Exchange (OLE) Nepal.

> A laptop/netbook for each child/student sounds like a great election
> campaign slogan, but in reality it is not as sound. I know everyone is hyped
> about laptops/netbooks and other portable PCs, and why not, they have been
> coveted even before the Desktop PC was even invented, the power to take my
> data everywhere, with me, right next to me at all times.

Specifically the Xerox Dynabook project, led by Alan Kay, in the 1960s
and 1970s. Apple licensed the Smalltalk software, the first designed
for children, in order to create the Lisa and Macintosh, and Microsoft
licensed that software in order to create Windows. All byproducts.
Alan is one of the most important supporters of the XO, which is the
closest we have ever come to creating a Dynabook. It runs Smalltalk,
for one thing. All that is lacking from the original vision is enough
on-board storage for all of a child's work throughout school. We use
school servers for that, but Moore's Law is rapidly catching up with
the problem.

> Ok, sounds like good hype, the market has reaped its benefits from this
> market, I mean laptops/netbooks now outsell desktop PCs, however, here are a
> few facts to consider:

There are a few other facts to consider, such as the amount of MIT
engineering of XO laptops to meet the stringent requirements of their
intended users in the expected environments--every inhabited terrain
and climate. I have to admit that we ran into a problem in Mongolia.
The batteries can't power the computer at -30° F.

> Fact 1 - The usable life span of a desktop is far greater than a
> laptop/netbook almost 4 times as long.

12 years? LOL

> Fact 2 - A desktop PC is more economic and faster to repair than a
> laptop/netbook, you just buy a new CD drive or memory module, video card or
> hard drive and presto. Good to go.

Buy? In Africa? LOL. One of several reasons why an XO has no CD or hard drive.

I can tell that you haven't seen the YouTube video of Canadian
12-year-olds taking XOs apart and putting them back together using
only a #1 Phillips screwdriver. See also the Nigerian children's
Laptop Hospital, founded by six-year-olds. The first broken XO becomes
the source of parts for the next. Children love making FrankenPuters.
It's alive!!

> (Try doing that with a laptop/netbook)

Any commercial laptop/netbook, certainly.

> Fact 3 - The wear and tear of a mobile device is far greater than a Desktop
> PC since a laptop/netbook is moved from one location to another and is
> exposed to the constant impact of travel.

You haven't seen the environmental test reports on the XO, either,
have you? Engineered to survive a drop from 4 feet onto carpeted wood
floors. Survives falling off desks handily.

> Fact 4 - The risk of a desktop PC being misplaced or stolen is also far
> below the risk factor than that of a laptop/netbook

Uruguay has given an XO to every one of its public school students.
Few are lost, and almost none stolen. The security on an XO locks it
up if it is not periodically in range of its school server.

> I can see why they want to push this, if they were really concerned with
> technology and education they would better use and manage the technology
> that is available and quit following market trends and tech-hype.

I was a high-tech market analyst for more than 15 years before
volunteering with One Laptop Per Child and Sugar Labs. Knocking down
hype was my paid work.

> What's next? An iPhone for every child?

Strawman fallacy. Usually a sign of lack of real argument.

> War cannot be avoided until the physical cause
> for its recurrence is removed and this, in the last analysis,
> is the vast extent of the planet on which we live. ~ Nikola Tesla

Thus the notion of putting a billion children into contact with each
other for life.
-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://www.earthtreasury.org/