Essay #4 - Chris Bigelow - Can the $100 Laptop Realize the Dream?

          For many, the XO laptop has the expectation of being a program that will one day bring the free exchange of ideas across the internet and into the lives of the average citizen of any country that adopts this project.  This conjures to mind images of students sitting on the sand next to a camel having an online discussion with students across the globe bundled up next to their igloo.  Of course, in this vision these kids are discussing issues of politics, economics, and religion in an environment that is encouraging, respectful, and fosters learning through the sharing of ideas.  But, will the goal of "One Laptop Per Child" actually help to make this vision a reality?
          First, having a laptop with some sort of internet connectivity does not necessarily guarantee that governments will allow the free discussion of ideas.  Even in a country that allows completely unrestricted discussion, this does not always lead to changes in policy.  According to Waisbord and Morris, "Globalization has made it more difficult for all states to monopolize the information that citizens consume, but it has neither eliminated attempts to influence media content nor slowed governments' allocation of resources to make this possible" (2001, p. xvi).  With all of the collaboration and globalization that has occurred in recent years, the government still controls domestic policy making in even the most technologically saturated countries.  In an observation of post-apartheid South Africa, Jacobs observed that increased media freedom (specifically progressively unrestricted internet access) has not lead to positive effects on democratic participation.  "In fact, the state-sponsored or market-led changes, while in some ways introducing much needed and long overdue changes, have on the whole not resulted in the expected opening up of the media" (Jacobs, 2002, p. 42).
          Second, having a laptop with internet access does not necessarily imply that it will be used for the discussion of important issues, especially when the laptops are being given to children.  Mansilla, in an article on the OLPC news website suggests that "It is a distinct possibility that a massive number of kids connected to each other by XO laptops all around the world end up spending all their networking time exchanging Pokemon trivia and very little else, notwithstanding a small minority of motivated children that may have got connected to each to discuss the issues of the day even without OLPC XO's" (2007, para 9).  Children will be children, and no doubt any teacher will back the assertion that it is difficult to get kids to discuss important issues on any topic.  A study was conducted in which children in rural India were asked to help design computer software for English learning games.  During the course of the survey, researchers noticed that it was difficult to keep the children on task or to get intelligent comments about how to improve the games.  By the end of the study, they realized the usefulness of bringing local supporters to direct the kids in their activities.  "Although rural students were our target users, we found that gaining the support of parents, local facilitators (both adult and children) and local teaching staff was critical for a productive design workshop" (Kam, 2006, p. 32).
          Third, a user in Africa is far more likely to be chatting with a user in the next village than one from a different continent.  Unless there is a specific reason that these users are brought together, the likelihood of them finding one another is slim.  There would need to be a specific forum, site, or software that encourages these kinds of connections to take place, or perhaps a policy or program governing the use of the laptops that makes diverse correspondence more likely.  Even so, the fact that African students are discussing politics with American or Asian students means that they are not (at least at the moment) discussing politics with other Africans.  Massey gives the example that "Every time you drive to that out-of-town shopping centre you contribute to the rising prices, even hasten the demise, of the corner shop" (1993, p. 63).  Carrying Massey's example even further, the determining factor here is whether you go to the out-of-town stores just to get things that are unavailable locally or whether you ignore local stores entirely and look to the outside sources for all of your needs.  The things that we have discussed so far seem to indicate that the most common way to adapt to internet use is for users to rely on local sources for information that is available, and only turn to the net for the more exotic fare.  If this is the case, then perhaps not as much globalization will be happening as some expect.

Works Cited

Jacobs, Sean (2002). Good is the South African Media for Democracy? In African and Asian Studies. Brill. Volume 1, Number 4, 2002, pp. 279-302(24).

Kam, Matthew, et al. 2006. Practical Considerations for Participatory Design with Rural School Children in Underdeveloped Regions: Early Reflections from the Field. Interaction Design And Children. Online: http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~mattkam/publications/IDC2006.pdf

Mansilla, Eduardo Villanueva (2007). Building One Laptop Per Socialized Child. June 12, 2007 Online: http://www.olpcnews.com. Paragraph 9.

Massey, Doreen (1993). "Power-geometry and a Progressive Sense of Place." Ch. 4. in Bird, John, et al. (editors), Mapping the Futures: Local Cultures, Global Change. London: Routledge. Pp.59-69. Electronic reserve: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/eresdocs/files/h5217.pdf.

Waisbord, Silvio, and Morris, Nancy (2001). Introduction: Rethinking media globalization and state power. In Silvio Waisbord and Nancy Morris (editors), Media and Globalization: Why the State Matters. Lanham, MD; Boulder, CO; New York, NY; and Oxford, UK: Rowman and Littlefield. Pp. vii-xvi. Online:
http://social.chass.ncsu.edu/~wiley/courses/447/WaisbordMorris2001.pdf.

Posted at 01:27AM Jun 15, 2007 by BIGELOW, CHRISTOPHER in General  |  Comments[2]