Laptop for every impoverished child
Motorola director Nicholas Negroponte is turning profits towards a humanitarian cause. At the Education Without Borders conference in the United Arab Emirates yesterday, he announced his initiative ‘One Laptop for Every Child’, which he launched in 2005, was going global in it’s bid for corporate assistance. He hopes children in third world countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Thailand and Uruguay will all have computers by August. This is an ambitious plan, but with electricity and broadband challenges, is it feasible? Elizabeth Stacey is a Deakin University Education professor who attended a South African conference on a similar project. She says there are logistical concerns but Motorola is on the right track for improving global education. Sally Henery from the Isolated Children’s Parents Association of Australia gives an idea how internet access can pose a major challenge for remote communities even in a wealthy country like Australia.