~~~~~~ Senior Solutions ~~~~~~
My technical advisor made me aware of a project he’s been watching develop over the past couple of years. He forwarded information to me and in the fall of 2007, an opportunity presented itself that allowed me to participate on a very small scale. I’m referring to what is known as “One Laptop Per Child”.
Yes, my business and volunteer time is focused around the needs of the elderly, but this was a chance to do something new and exciting to help develop the thinking capacities of children around the world. One of the greatest gifts an adult can share with a child is knowledge. Isn’t it our responsibility to do so? We do this by spending time together, story telling, playing, reading together, and nowadays, helping children to master the gift of endless information.
Computers give a person access to the world and age is not a factor. Whether searching for Medicare D information, or answers to more fundamental questions like “Why does it rain?” within seconds an explanation is available.
One Laptop per Child’s Mission is to make computer access available to children worldwide, no matter how desolate their location, or what stage of development their home country is in. It’s an educational project, not a computer project. The goal is to help children, not sell laptops!
OLPC is a dream turning into a reality for Chairman Nicholas Negroponte. He in collaboration with many others who share his Vision to help educate the children of the world, created a special laptop computer to do just this. Prior to the project, there had been no major push by any computer manufacturer to do so. As is so often the case, money was the bottom line. If there’s little to no return on an investment, too many people aren’t interested. As the program has taken hold and become “newsworthy”, others who had no interest before find reason to be interested now. They see it as an opportunity to make money. This was not and is not the intent behind OLPC.
I’m happy as a small business owner to be part of a project I feel is theoretically sound. OLPC’s “community” concept is too. The desire to pass on information from one generation to the next is nothing new. How people do it, can be.
Please visit http://www.laptop.org to read about the hope this project brings to people around the world. If you’re interested in education, children, innovative thinking, design, computers, altruistic people, you’ll be interested in OLPC. If you need a dose of hope, OLPC is for you. Investigate and participate!
