More Enlightening Quotations From Those In Charge

[chevykanteve]

Thailand can't 'Just Say No' to laptop

New York (BangkokPost.com from Agencies) - The organisers of a project to make cheap laptops for children at their governments' expense insist they still are negotiating with Thailand to take part in the scheme, even though the government has rejected it over and over.

The non-profit One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has attracted support of leading businesses and institutions and will start production later this year, Michail Bletsas, chief connectivity officer at OLPC, said.

The laptop is being made by the Chinese firm Quanta: the goal is for Quanta to manufacture 40,000 laptops a month beginning in September, then step up production to 400,000 per month by the end of the year.

"OLPC would like to manufacture at least three million units in the first round of production," he said.

But OLPC could not say which countries were planning to order the laptops, spokeswoman Jackie Lustig said. Volume shipments to developing nations were planned for later this year, she said.

"OLPC is in talks with Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, Peru, Nigeria, Thailand, Pakistan, Russia, Rwanda and many other countries - but nothing definite just yet," she claimed.

From the time he took office last October, and right up to a public statement last week, Education Minister Wijit Srisa-arn has said Thailand will not buy into the OLPC project, both because of the money and because of the minister's philosophy on education.

For those who didn't hear him the first time, Mr Wijit said last week of the OLPC programme: "We will not focus too much on technology and materials. We are not requesting any budget to finance such an idea."

The idea from Nicholas Negroponte, a co-founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Laboratory, who proposed the project at the World Economic Forum in Davos two years ago, has moved closer to fruition.

Negroponte sees the computers, to be sold in bulk to governments of certain countries, as a linchpin of education and development.

The new computers will not carry the symbolic price tag of $100, at least not right away. The first models will cost $175 and OLPC hopes the price will come down to $100 by 2009....

.....

Soon OLPC will have to contend with even more aggressive Indian competitors. The group Novatium just brought out a basic "NetPC" for $80.

The market for the poor has become so enticing that Microsoft is preparing to launch a scaled-down software bundle of Windows and Office for $3 for qualifying governments.

A bright spot for OLPC is Unicef, the UN children's fund, which is putting its education content on all the laptops shipped.

On a sunny spring day in New York last week, two Unicef officials were outdoors testing several of the small green-and-white laptops.

"If millions of these are in kids' hands, it will be a very good way to develop our info for them and to hear back from kids in the developing world to know what their needs are," said Erica Kochi, a spokeswoman......

It's great to view the educational development of children in a country as governmentally enlightened as is this one. Three cheers to the Education Minister. Alles fur...

Edited May 28, 2007 by chevykanteve

[LinkPopularity]

these kind of projects remind me that 68% of the the Tsunami money was spend on logistics (read :: 5 star hotels and first class flights for overpaid 'social activists')

it's just an other big scam !

good thing that Thailand didn't support these thief's !

[Meerkat]

As much as I hate to defend someone working for the junta, I think Thailand's involvement in the scheme was premature from the word go, and this is a positive step. Thaksin was trying to run before he could walk, policy-wise. With a step-daughter just this month making the switch from government education to private, and suddenly being confronted with a syllabus which includes more than basically how to make pretty baubles, it is obvious that there is much that needs to be fixed at a fundamental level in the education system here before worrying about laptops for children.

Of course I have doubts that this oligarchic administration particularly cares about educating the masses anyway.

[bubba_jones]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

[cm-happy]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

Good point Bubba!

But why not let technology, Information Technology(computers & internet) be an adjunct?

[jdinasia]

I remember seeing a story about an "Institute of Technology" in India ,,,,, HIGHLY respected .... that the students didn't get to actually work with computers until their third year .

When I say respected, their graduates were getting top tier jobs in the US.

was that article in today's paper?

[JimmyTheMook]

It's great to view the educational development of children in a country as governmentally enlightened as is this one. Three cheers to the Education Minister. Alles fur...

This would be counterproductive to all the years of brainwashing they have been successful with in prior generations.

[solo siam]

Nearly $200, normal laptops are nearly down to that price, in fact if you factored in buying 40,000 identical base models straight from the manufacturer I bet you could get a very basic spec normal PC for that price.

It just looks like a stunted, toy of a computer to me - Whats the point of having millions of poor children learn an operating system and architecture that they will never ever use in any sort of employment.

[rychrde]

I remember seeing a story about an "Institute of Technology" in India ,,,,, HIGHLY respected .... that the students didn't get to actually work with computers until their third year .

When I say respected, their graduates were getting top tier jobs in the US.

I used to teach mathematics and physics, and every year had some moron in a suit tell me how much IT I used, which was close to none! It's about ideas and analysis, not about sitting at a pc with an educational site open in one window and ebay in the window underneath.

Two units I did start to run were on using a spreadsheet (as students were clueless) and using advanced search techniques (ditto).

rych

[rychrde]

oh and a similar thing in soviet Russia. They were great at mathematics and computing but didn't have the huge budgets for hard experimental physics. All they had were pens, paper and really old computers.

You KNOW when you need a computer because the pen n paper is just too slow.

rych

[Huw]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

In Thailand, to say is enough, to do is unnecessary. In Thailand, to say that the kids will be able to use technology is sufficient. To actually enable them to do it is superfluous. Appearance is everything, substance is nothing. Talking the talk is adequate, everyone is too lazy or incompetent to walk the walk. Sadly.

It would be better to introduce the kids to basic reasoning skills instead of the 'by rote' education most of them are treated to at the moment. Some basic ethics and integrity wouldnt go astray either, I note the apalling article about cheating at Chulalongkorn within the past week.

Just 2c worth.

H

[cm-happy]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

Good point Bubba!

But why not let technology, Information Technology(computers & internet) be an adjunct?

As adjucnt I was refering to an adjunct learning, teaching aid.

Think some ppl would agree that the internet is a GREAT source of information. Learning to use machines& internet(from a purly user perspective) does not require the user to become and expert in hardware or software. Once learnd and confident, It's a lifelong skill & useful. May even save a trip to the Library(whatever that is).

Might even keep students out of the internet game shops(the Thai equivalent of baby sitter). Spending hours sitting playing computer games with a blank expression on their faces.

However, those long fingernails will have to go! Its a bitch using a keyboard with very long nails. Clipped nails might even stop nose picking LOL.

[cheshiremusicman]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

I couldn't agree more. In the UK you have kids who can't even do SIMPLE addition without a calculator, probably the same in the USA and other countries but WHY? Sure, use the technology, but at least get the brain in gear before doing so!

[torito]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

I couldn't agree more. In the UK you have kids who can't even do SIMPLE addition without a calculator, probably the same in the USA and other countries but WHY? Sure, use the technology, but at least get the brain in gear before doing so!

These are the dangers but the benefits of information technology are much more important. The problem lies in the balance.

Today kids can learn about the world, nature, zoology, sexual education, languages, history, geography, logic, more ideas, more analysis and others ten times easier and faster than the way we learnt. And this provides them with more time to learn more. The problem is that technology is not used appropriatedly for its educational purposes.....too much games with no dicatic objectives. With oriented games children could learn more mathematics and logic than before, and perhaps less chldren will have problems with some subject such as mathematics for instance. The fact is that if it is used efficiently the benefits are much more than the harm.

I study with no computers at all (even in the University), with an strick educational system that forced me to learn everything by memory, even history....I wish I would have had the wonders the kids have today to study the things I like with computers. I would have learn more and faster and probably I would not have needed long hours of study as I did.

This is evolution. And evolution does not impose progress changes, just it makes them possible. So I guess the next generation will make better use of todays technology and this one will make some missuses of it. Tomorrow we have no idea what technology we will have for the new generations. We will have to adapt quickly to the demands of the information technology...no question about that. Your children will talk with people around the world, and all in English probably......

[womble]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

I couldn't agree more. In the UK you have kids who can't even do SIMPLE addition without a calculator, probably the same in the USA and other countries but WHY? Sure, use the technology, but at least get the brain in gear before doing so!

I must say I have often been shocked at just how poor mathematic skills are here in Thailand by people who deal with figures day in day out.

Go to any shop, buy something for 80 baht and give them a 100 note, 9 out of 10 times they will need a calculator to do this!

Worst still I have seen exactly the same in government offices where people have university educations.

[torito]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

I couldn't agree more. In the UK you have kids who can't even do SIMPLE addition without a calculator, probably the same in the USA and other countries but WHY? Sure, use the technology, but at least get the brain in gear before doing so!

I must say I have often been shocked at just how poor mathematic skills are here in Thailand by people who deal with figures day in day out.

Go to any shop, buy something for 80 baht and give them a 100 note, 9 out of 10 times they will need a calculator to do this!

Worst still I have seen exactly the same in government offices where people have university educations.

Agree, the educational level is very poor in here with some exceptional private schools and university. It is not just basic arithmetic, but ask somebody educated for a direction, or to explain a map. You study in here political science and you can not have your own opinion....the problem is complex.

But these issues are not a reflexion if the use of technology..it is clear that with the use of technology itself things will not improve...technology is just a mechanism.

[Austhaied]

Fo a good education you need a good teacher and a blackboard and some appropriate books. There is way too much emphasis on technology in education at the moment. So I'd have to agree with Thailand being somewhat cautious over jumping straight in just because soemone mentions the magic words "Information Technology."

I couldn't agree more. In the UK you have kids who can't even do SIMPLE addition without a calculator, probably the same in the USA and other countries but WHY? Sure, use the technology, but at least get the brain in gear before doing so!

I must say I have often been shocked at just how poor mathematic skills are here in Thailand by people who deal with figures day in day out.

Go to any shop, buy something for 80 baht and give them a 100 note, 9 out of 10 times they will need a calculator to do this!

Worst still I have seen exactly the same in government offices where people have university educations.

In Robinsons the other day my purchase came to 799 baht so i gave her 1000 baht (as you would). She got the calculator out for that one . I have seen this before but this incident really made me sad for her and the education system in LOS.

Edited May 31, 2007 by Austhaied