Laptop computers for 800,000 low income students in El Salvador



This week El Salvador's Education ministry discussed an ambitious program aimed eventually to have laptop computers in the hands of 800,000 students in poor rural schools.

The computers come from the One Laptop Per Child initiative which was formed to place low cost durable laptop computers in the hands of children to jump start education and learning. The XO computer from OLPC is designed specifically for use by children in poor communities around the world.

According to a news report, the government project, called Closing the Knowledge Gap, currently has the computers in the hands of 400 students in five rural schools in Chalatenango. A year from now, the goal is to have the computers in the hands of 78,000 students in 411 schools, and 800,000 students within 4 years. Students can take the rugged little laptop computers home to continue the process of learning with their family.

To learn more about this project, you can read this blog entry from a participant in teacher training at the Evangelical University in El Salvador or watch thisvideo which starts with happy children from Peru with their XO laptops and continues with pictures from a training session for teachers in El Salvador:



You can also watch another video showing two happy boys with OLPC laptops.


Comments

Anonymous said…
Tim,

This program which sole intention to help out this poor kids became part of a major issue between OLPC and Intel. Intel came up with the Classmate laptop which put the OLPC program at risk of going broke. The reality is that Intel after so many disputes back and forth was mainly due to the fact that the guy was using AMD chips, intel's biggest rival, in their laptops. See here http://news.cnet.com/OLPC-and-Intel-bury-the-hatchet--for-the-children/2100-1005_3-6196629.html?tag=mncol;txt
Tim said…
There is an update on the program at this link.
Unknown said…
Thanks for sharing the information. That’s a awesome article you posted. I found the post very useful as well as interesting. I will come back to read some more.
i7 laptop
Unknown said…
Your post is really good providing good information.. I liked it and enjoyed reading it. Keep sharing such important posts.
Laptops for sale