IXL Social Enterprise Case Studies Education March 2010 | 页面 2

One Laptop per Child: Taking the Next Step to Realizing Nicholas Negroponte’s Vision by Mark Rennella, Tyler McNally, Ronald Jonash, and Hitendra Patel For Negroponte, improving and spreading education was the major goal; cheap laptops seemed to be the most efficient means to achieve the goal. In 1999, Nicholas Negroponte was inspired by observing the impact of laptop computing on young students in Cambodia, as reported to the television news program, 60 Minutes. The students were gathered in a school that he and his wife had helped to found. They were using Panasonic “Toughbooks” — rugged laptop computers that energized the rural classroom, connecting it via WiFi to the resources of the Internet. Looking back several years later, Negroponte remembered the educational benefits of this kind of technology: “A village that had no books suddenly had access to Google. It changed their lives in several ways, improving self-esteem and empowerment, and fulfilling the passion for learning.”1 For Negroponte, improving and spreading education was the major goal; cheap laptops seemed to be the most efficient means to achieve the goal. One Laptop per Child (OLPC) sprang from this experience into a program whose goal is to see that no children are left behind the digital divide in their education. Six years after that visit to Cambodia, Negroponte announced the existence of this new non-profit from the august halls of the 2005 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland and introduced a prototype of that computer (which would be known as the “XO”). The XO was a rugged equivalent to the Toughbook but designed for kids. All that was offered at an almost unfathomably lower price: OLPC’s target price of $100 compared to typical small lightweight computers on the market for around $2,500. (At this time, small and lightweight laptops were more expensive than bulkier and heavier ones.)2 OLPC’s eventual goal was to ensure that every child in the world had access to laptops in the classroom and in daily life. (This is often referred to as “1:1” computing programs.) (See Exhibit 1 for a full description of the XO’s functions.) The world took notice. Less than two years after this announcement, OLPC (which is based in Cambridge, Massachusetts and closely associated with the MIT Media Lab that Negroponte helped to found in 1985) had garnered $29 million in funding from a wide range of high-profile tech companies, such as: Marvell, eBay, Brightstar, Quanta, Nortel, Chi Lin, News Corp, AMD, Google and Red Hat.3 On the other hand, many critics felt that the price was impossibly low. Computer manufacturers like Intel were threatened and its Chairman took an antagonistic stance, describing the computer as a “$100 Gadget.” Bill Gates thought the screen was too small.4 . Exhibit 1: A Description of the XO’s Functionality OLPC’s XO laptop offers a cohesive integrated software platform. The special features like a built-in video camera, high-resolution screen, long battery life, and pull-string charging makes it enjoyable and easy-to-use for children of all ages. OLPC’s XO laptop includes a long-lasting nickel-metal hydride battery that allows the XO to operate between 6 and 20 hours depending on what features are in use. When power sockets aren’t available, users can recharge the battery with a built-in pull-string charger. The XO laptop also provides network access with a unique wireless mesh network technology and includes a built-in microphone and an integrated camera that can capture video at 30 frames per second with a resolution of 640x480. The laptop has a directional pad and game buttons integrated into the screen bezel in addition to a rubber-membrane keyboard and a touchpad that also supports stylus input. The laptop-user interface, the software that children navigate to interact with the computer, is called Sugar. 1 2 3 4 Based on the Linux operating system, Sugar is designed to encourage social interaction and collaboration and is currently offered in 25 languages. It starts with a range of activities, not programs, and promotes the sharing of these activities both online and through the physical interaction a child has with the computer. Nicholas Negroponte describes it as “active learning.” The system includes also a built-in chat system as well as a web browser based on Mozilla Firefox, providing opportunities for communication with and exposure to the global world. The next step for OLPC’s XO is the XO-3 tablet, an affordable handheld media-center. Sources: Charlie Sorrel, “XO-3 Concept: A Crazy-Thin Tablet OLPC for Just $75,” Wired, December 23, 2009, http://www. wired.com/gadgetlab/2009/12/xo-3-concept-a-crazy-thintablet-olpc-for-just-75/, accessed March 6, 2010 and Ryan Paul, “A comparison of OLPC’s XO laptop and Intel’s Classmate PC,” March 5, 2007, ars technica, http://arstechnica.com/old/ content/2007/03/acomparison-of-olpcs-xo-laptop-and-intelsclassmate-pc.ars, accessed March 8, 2010. John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop, “Making the ‘$100 Laptop,’ ”HBS No. 9-508-024, (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishind, 2008), p. 1. John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop, “Making the ‘$100 Laptop,’ ”HBS No. 9-508-024, (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishind, 2008), p. 3. John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Knoop, “Making the ‘$100 Laptop,’ ”HBS No. 9-508-024, (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishind, 2008), p. 1. John A. Quelch and Carin-Isabel Kn oop, “Making the ‘$100 Laptop,’ ”HBS No. 9-508-024, (Boston: Harvard Business School Publishind, 2008), p. 1 and “ ‘100 laptop begins production,’ ” BBC News, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7082701.stm, November 7, 2007, accessed March 3, 2010. P. 2