

The Failure of One Laptop Per Child - mikeleeorg
http://www.hackeducation.com/2012/04/09/the-failure-of-olpc/

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puppybeard
The abstract of the actual research:

"Although many countries are aggressively implementing the One Laptop per
Child (OLPC) program, there is a lack of empirical evidence on its effects.
This paper presents the impact of the first large-scale randomized evaluation
of the OLPC program, using data collected after 15 months of implementation in
319 primary schools in rural Peru. The results indicate that the program
increased the ratio of computers per student from 0.12 to 1.18 in treatment
schools. This expansion in access translated into substantial increases in use
both at school and at home. No evidence is found of effects on enrollment and
test scores in Math and Language. Some positive effects are found, however, in
general cognitive skills as measured by Raven’s Progressive Matrices, a verbal
fluency test and a Coding test." - [http://www.iadb.org/en/research-and-
data/publication-details...](http://www.iadb.org/en/research-and-
data/publication-details,3169.html?pub_id=IDB-WP-304)

So, rather than it being a failure, all we're told is that, after 15 months,
maths and reading don't show improvements, but other areas do. So overall,
it's positive.

But hey, what's an attentive reading of scientific studies worth against a
link-baiting article that can be knocked up in ten minutes?

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bgilroy26
I think your instincts are spot on. There can be no definitive word on OLPC at
this early stage. Certainly you like to check in as early and as often as
possible, but anyone with any in-school experience at all, even experience
solely as a student, knows that teachers as a group cannot change their
methods in a years time.

Any thinking that the writer here did was with a sociologist hat on rather
than that of a domestic education policy wonk.

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clueless123
Reading the comments on this thread, makes me think of a concept hard to grasp
for people on developed countries: Before you can learn, you must first
fulfill your basic living necessities. Most low income children in Peru (where
I write from) don't have the luxury of free time to "learn by having fun" like
lot's of us did when kids. The reality here is that a small child spends most
of his time "producing" something for their household, be it helping on
farming, selling on the street, taking care of siblings or the like. The
reason why cellphone penetration is so high over here is precisely because the
device helps them with this activities.

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voodoochilo
_yawn_ its not bout test scores but about hacking. getting the kids a chance
to learn how computers work how to code and how to use a computer - that is
the point of the olpc. i dislike this "standardized-tests-for-the-whole-world-
globalist-mumbojumbo". let those kids enjoy and discover their new boxes,
shut-up, wait ... and stop demanding results.

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spindritf
> its not bout test scores

It's not about test scores, it's about verifiable and quantifiable results.
Does dropping a computer in every kid's lap increase the number of hackers?
Are we observing more opensource contributions from Peru which can be
attributed to OLPC?

Is there an empirical reason to believe that this kind of subsidy is
beneficial? This question deserves more than a yawn.

~~~
ktizo
BBC micros in UK schools would be a good example of this kind of subsidy being
beneficial.

It didn't matter that the chances of running into similar systems in industry
were minute unless you ended up coding 6502 for factory automation. It gave a
platform for children to experiment on and get used to the idea of coding.

Also, the percentage of children who this inspires doesn't even have to be
particularly high for it to have definite beneficial economic effects further
down the line and I would be amazed if this kind of effect would be measurable
after less than 2 years.

~~~
voodoochilo
i would even be happy with 10 years.

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ktizo
I think the OLPC was a great success in creating ~$100 laptops as I view it as
part of the impetus that resulted in cheap netbooks being widely available in
the market.

