Nearly all of Uruguay’s 380,000 primary-school pupils have now received Linux netbook
Terry Porter
and the estimated annual maintenance cost is $21. In total, the scheme
has cost less than 5% of the education budget.
Compare that to the farce that Microsoft has cooked up for Australia,
where only one in 9 students will have a netbook due to the $2500+ cost
per unit.
In Australia, its all about Microsoft and Adobe, in Uruguay, it's all
about education it seems.
begin{quote}
Laptops for all
Oct 1st 2009 | MONTEVIDEO
From The Economist print edition
A pioneering project’s chequered start
AFP Shiny new toys, certainly. An educational revolution? Perhaps
FOR the past year the pupils of Escuela 95, in a poor neighbourhood of
Montevideo, have had a new learning tool. Each has been issued with a
laptop computer. This has been of particular help to the 30 or so
children with severe learning difficulties, says Elias Portugal, a
special-needs teacher at the school. Before, he struggled to give them
individual attention. Now, the laptops are helping them with basic
language skills. “The machines capture the kids’ attention. They can type
a word and the computer pronounces it,” he says.
Nearly all of Uruguay’s 380,000 primary-school pupils have now received a
simple and cheap XO laptop, a model developed by One Laptop Per Child, an
NGO based in Massachusetts. The government hopes this will help poorer
and disadvantaged children do better in school while also improving the
overall standard of education. These ambitions will be tested for the
first time later this month when every Uruguayan seven-year-old will take
online exams in a range of academic subjects. The rest of the world
should be intrigued: the first country in Latin America to provide free,
compulsory schooling will become the first, globally, to find out whether
furnishing a whole generation with laptops is a worthwhile investment.
(Peru, a bigger, poorer and less homogenous country, is trying something
similar.)
The scheme has already proved popular. Miguel Brechner, the organiser,
says it has brought home-computing to tens of thousands of poorer
households, while also reducing truancy. It is fairly cheap. Each machine
costs $260 (including teacher-training and connection charges) and the
estimated annual maintenance cost is $21. In total, the scheme has cost
less than 5% of the education budget.
But is this the best use of the money? There have been several glitches.
The first 50,000 laptops arrived loaded with software in English, not
Spanish. In Escuela 95, up to half of the students in some classes have
broken their machines, usually by cracking the screen or snapping the
antennae that pick up a Wi-Fi signal. When poor, rural children wreck
theirs, they often prefer to keep their new status symbol clutched to
their chests than risk the postal service not returning it promptly from
the central maintenance centre.
The biggest technical problem is connectivity. The government reported
last month that in 70% of primary schools only half the laptops can go
online at the same time. Two out of five rural schools have no
connection, and will have to bus their students elsewhere for the exam.
Many of Uruguay’s teachers, a rather elderly bunch, find it hard to cope
with new technology.
Sceptics would rather the government concentrate on making teachers more
accountable. But most admit the laptops are worth a try. They should
prompt a shift away from rote learning and towards critical analysis,
says Edith Moraes, the official in charge of primary schools. They extend
Uruguay’s egalitarianism to computing. They should be seen merely as a
means to the end of better schooling.
end{quote}
http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14558609
--
C.O.L.A Charter:-
"For discussion of the benefits of GNU/Linux compared to other
operating systems."
Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
____/ Terry Porter on Wednesday 07 Oct 2009 07:05 : \____
> Each unit cost $260 (including teacher-training and connection charges)
> and the estimated annual maintenance cost is $21. In total, the scheme
> has cost less than 5% of the education budget.
>
> Compare that to the farce that Microsoft has cooked up for Australia,
> where only one in 9 students will have a netbook due to the $2500+ cost
> per unit.
GNU/Linux and libre software are massive in South America. The UK, US, and
AU will probably be last to liberate themselves... from themselves (English-speaking
proprietary multinationals).
- --
~~ Best of wishes
The Intel-Dell-MS oligopoly/treo can be weakened by competition (Freedom)
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Terry Porter
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> ____/ Terry Porter on Wednesday 07 Oct 2009 07:05 : \____
>
>> Each unit cost $260 (including teacher-training and connection charges)
>> and the estimated annual maintenance cost is $21. In total, the scheme
>> has cost less than 5% of the education budget.
>>
>> Compare that to the farce that Microsoft has cooked up for Australia,
>> where only one in 9 students will have a netbook due to the $2500+ cost
>> per unit.
>
> GNU/Linux and libre software are massive in South America. The UK, US,
> and AU will probably be last to liberate themselves... from themselves
> (English-speaking proprietary multinationals).
I fear that you are 100% correct Roy.
chrisv
>On Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:01:50 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>
>> GNU/Linux and libre software are massive in South America. The UK, US,
>> and AU will probably be last to liberate themselves... from themselves
>> (English-speaking proprietary multinationals).
>
>I fear that you are 100% correct Roy.
The times, they are a-changing. This "let's spend $500 per seat for
an OS/office suite/AV-package" has *got* to end.
Terry Porter
I sure hope so. Sadly most governments don't usually care, it's not
*their* money.
7
> Each unit cost $260 (including teacher-training and connection charges)
> and the estimated annual maintenance cost is $21. In total, the scheme
> has cost less than 5% of the education budget.
>
> Compare that to the farce that Microsoft has cooked up for Australia,
> where only one in 9 students will have a netbook due to the $2500+ cost
> per unit.
>
> In Australia, its all about Microsoft and Adobe, in Uruguay, it's all
> about education it seems.
Sounds like this material belongs in a best practice guide for
educationalists everywhere.
Roy Schestowitz
Hash: SHA1
____/ Terry Porter on Wednesday 07 Oct 2009 14:25 : \____
> On Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:40:18 -0500, chrisv wrote:
>
>> Terry Porter wrote:
>>
>>>On Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:01:50 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>>
>>>> GNU/Linux and libre software are massive in South America. The UK, US,
>>>> and AU will probably be last to liberate themselves... from themselves
>>>> (English-speaking proprietary multinationals).
>>>
>>>I fear that you are 100% correct Roy.
>>
>> The times, they are a-changing. This "let's spend $500 per seat for an
>> OS/office suite/AV-package" has *got* to end.
>
> I sure hope so. Sadly most governments don't usually care, it's not
> *their* money.
And their friends from high school/last employer. Government and commerce are never separate.
- --
~~ Best of wishes
Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, set a man on fire and he's
warm for the rest of his life. -- the fish analogy, according to Simon Cozens
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Moshe Goldfarb
> Terry Porter wrote:
>
>> Each unit cost $260 (including teacher-training and connection charges)
>> and the estimated annual maintenance cost is $21. In total, the scheme
>> has cost less than 5% of the education budget.
>>
>> Compare that to the farce that Microsoft has cooked up for Australia,
>> where only one in 9 students will have a netbook due to the $2500+ cost
>> per unit.
>>
>> In Australia, its all about Microsoft and Adobe, in Uruguay, it's all
>> about education it seems.
>
>
> Sounds like this material belongs in a best practice guide for
> educationalists everywhere.
There used to be a website devoted to helping the educational
community switch to Linux.
Maybe Roy knows what it is.
BTW I think this is a good thing for the kids.
Moshe Goldfarb
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
>
> ____/ Terry Porter on Wednesday 07 Oct 2009 14:25 : \____
>
>> On Wed, 07 Oct 2009 07:40:18 -0500, chrisv wrote:
>>
>>> Terry Porter wrote:
>>>
>>>>On Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:01:50 +0100, Roy Schestowitz wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> GNU/Linux and libre software are massive in South America. The UK, US,
>>>>> and AU will probably be last to liberate themselves... from themselves
>>>>> (English-speaking proprietary multinationals).
>>>>
>>>>I fear that you are 100% correct Roy.
>>>
>>> The times, they are a-changing. This "let's spend $500 per seat for an
>>> OS/office suite/AV-package" has *got* to end.
>>
>> I sure hope so. Sadly most governments don't usually care, it's not
>> *their* money.
>
> And their friends from high school/last employer. Government and commerce are never separate.
>
In USA the parents are sometimes the biggest problem.
They want their kids to use what most businesses are using and
that's Windows.
Of course they are also the ones complaining that their school
taxes are going through the roof.
Rick
Why do you think "a pile of mostly crap applications and very little
support" (your words) is good for the kids?
--
Rick
Megabyte
Terry might also want to double check his math as last time I checked
$150 million to supply 220,000+ Netbooks does not work out to a $2500
per unit cost.
<http://netbookboards.com/2009/04/06/microsoft-and-lenovo-win-150-
million-australian-netbook-contracts/>