Popularly known as OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), Negroponte’s initiative is an educational programme which aims at deploying millions of rugged, ultra low-cost, individually connected laptops to children between six to 12 years of age of developing nations that lack access to such devices.
Touted as a ?unique educational project to help children learn on-screen regardless of the challenges, resource and teaching infrastructure present?, the OLPC programme is today utilised by 41 countries. In India, the Manipur government has already sought 75,000 OLPCs for children of the state and has even paid for a small pilot of 1,000 PCs. Other states queuing up to induct OLPCs into their education systems include Kerala, Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh, which have already ordered OLPC laptops totalling over 4 lakh for introduction in their primary and middle schools, while Gujarat, Rajasthan, Orissa, Haryana and MP have evinced interest in procuring the PCs, subject to the Centre’s contribution.
Says Satish Jha, chairman, OLPC India, ?Wherever OLPC was implemented, the attendance of students has touched 100%, teachers have become more engaged and children learn far more quickly.?
And while the laptops cost around R15,000, the company claims that even at this cost, OLPC is far more cost effective than any low-cost, affordable tablet PC can ever be. ?Aakash has not even been able to take off, while ours is a proven technology which has been tried, tested and used by children and governments the world over,? claims Jha. Moreover, though the initial cost of OLPC is slightly steep, the company maintains that the energy saved using this laptop itself is substantial enough to nullify the procurement cost. ?The total cost of owning an OLPC laptop is under R10 per day and that is less than the cost of electricity to run a desktop. OLPC laptops consume 1 or 2 watts, while desktops consume 120 watts on an average. Further, it can work where there is no electricity as it is designed to work with solar panels and a child can use a hand crank or a foot pedal if a solar panel is not available. It can help children network even where there is no internet,? Jha elaborates.
Visually attractive to children with its white and green exterior, OLPC is sturdy, dustproof, shockproof, waterproof with a screen which works well even under sunlight and comes with all basic skill developing applications. Not only that, the laptops come with all the software a child needs.
OLPC also plans to come out with its tablet version as well. In the 2012 International Consumer Electronics show recently, OLPC demonstrated a fully functional version of the XO 3.0 tablet, which is a low-cost, low-power, rugged tablet computer designed for classrooms around the globe. The device comes with a unique charging circuitry. The XO 3.0 is the only tablet that can be charged directly by solar panels, hand cranks and other alternative power sources. It also features standard or Pixel Qi sunlight-readable display. This technology is good for Indian rural areas where electricity is an issue. However, questions over its price refuse to die down, with some countries even cancelling bulk orders.