Children in Nepal with a computer from the One Laptop Per Child
program. One Laptop Per Child Earlier this year, two illiterate
villages in Ethiopia received a unique gift from the MIT Media
Lab: a shipment of closed boxes containing tablet computers,
taped shut, with no instructions. Within four minutes the first
box was opened and the tablet was powered on. Five days later a
group of first graders had 47 apps operating per child. From a
report by MIT’s Technology Review: “The kids had completely
customized the desktop—so every kids’ tablet looked different.
We had installed software to prevent them from doing that,” [Ed]
McNierney [of One Laptop Per Child] said. “And the fact they
worked around it was clearly the kind of creativity, the kind of
inquiry, the kind of discovery that we think is essential to
learning.” After several months, the kids in both villages were
still heavily engaged in using and recharging the machines, and
had been observed reciting the “alphabet song,” and even
spelling words. One b