The+Digital+Divide+and+the+One+Laptop+per+Child+Program

**The Digital Divide and the One Laptop per Child Program**
As the world enters the information age, the disparities between various regions have become even more pronounced. In the industrialized world, computer access is increasing towards a state of universality. Many people have computer access to a computer whether it is at his/her school or local library. (However, disparity still exists in the developed world, often around socio-economic status and race). By using this resource fully, the sheer amount of information available through the internet is staggering. Whether it is news, the price of corn, or how to build a shed you can find it on the internet without extensive searching. However, these benefits are not available to everyone. Things like telephones and electricity still aren’t readily accessible to an enormous amount of the world population.



In 2004, less than three out of every 100 Africans use the Internet, compared with the an average of 1 out of every 2 inhabitants of the G8 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the UK and the US). The population of the G8 countries--just 15% of the world's population-- comprises 50% of the world's internet (Information and Communication Technology Statistics)

(Information and Communication Technology Statistics 2005)

This “Digital Divide” has left much of the developing world behind as those with access to the internet leapfrog ahead. If any educational system is to be developed, the digital divide is one problem that must be addressed, and kids have to be given access to the internet and other technologies. Though current technology did create this informational gap, it also holds the promise for a solution. Many developing countries are becoming more able to skip stages in building infrastructure that is becoming increasingly obsolete in the West (for example phone lines) and to maximize the current technology (cell phones). One extremely important development in tackling the Digital Divide is the [|One Laptop per Child] program created by Nicholas Negroponte. The idea is to mass-produce laptops that cost $100 and to distribute them across the globe. These laptops will have antennas to pick up wireless signals. This means that they will have access to the internet without all of the cables and wires that are used in the West, and don’t require the incredible amount of infrastructure that is needed to support internet access. If this project is implemented correctly it would do much to ameliorate the technological disparities. In Galadima, Villa Cardal, Ban Samkha, Luciana de Abreu, Khairat and Arahuay the program has been implemented into classrooms. The [|wikipages of each school]document the program's role and effect.

(One Laptop per Child Project)

However it is important to understand that removing the Digital Divide is a means, not and ends. The ultimate goal is to provide the resources to allow kids and adults to have access to the education that they have a right to. Nicholas Negroponte even lays this out as the goal of his One Laptop per Child project:

//“It's an education project, not a laptop project.”// — Nicholas Negroponte

Sources/Links [|Information and Communication Technology Statistics 2005] [|One Laptop per Child Program] http://www.dexigner.com/design_news/8357.html [|Looking through a hole in the Wall] [|Nicholas Negroponte lays out his One Laptop per Child (video)]