The Task

Groups working on this task are reminded that they must first offer an abstract or summary to introduce / induct the reader to the event before offering their answers to the questions.

Questions

1. What possible benefits can this development bring to the world?

2. What are some of the concerns revolving around this development?

3. What do you consider would be the greatest use of this development and why?

Question 1- benefits

As Nicholas Negroponte said, “It's an education project, not a laptop project.”
indeed, when the world becomes increasingly globalised, more children from poorer countries will be expected to enter into the global workforce with relevant IT skills and knowledge as well.

Apart from relying on just traditional solutions to alleviate these children's plight, this laptop can provide a collective source of true learning opportunities for them.

More importantly, this laptop is a recent evolution of laptop design, something similar to an e-book.An e-book can then be used for outdoor fieldtrips.This makes quality learning more convenient and highly accessible at any possible area. Furthermore, some people from developed countries are attracted to this concept and may purchase its related products. This revenue will then be diverted as funds to support the poor children continuosly.

Secondly,this laptop is very affordable, power-efficient, responsive, and durable . Students from developing countries will be able to use them under harsh climatic conditions. Learning will not be disrupted as a result if there is a heavy storm coming.

Thirdly, by the looks of its consistent progress through online updating, there is hope for it to be made widely available to the children in the near future. They need not have to wait in vain as numerous experts were already committed in helping them.

Lastly, there is a strong likelihood to close up the digital gap before it widens further due to income inequality. Friendly ties can be forged between developing and developed countries. This is very crucial in creating a humanitarian society where everyone enjoys to live in.

Done by-^^
Jan yeo,Pearlyn, Winine,Zhijuan
What are some of the concerns revolving this development?

The USD$100 Laptop is also known as the Cheap Laptop that is aimed to be distributed to children in developing countries under the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project spearheaded by Nicholas Negroponte.
The scheme is designed to help children in developing countries to gain access to computers and IT, connecting themselves to the world.
The laptops were dished out to schoolchildren after Libya signed a deal to the project, purchasing 1.2 million of the cheap Linux laptops, bringing it to reality during the summer of 2007.
The OLPC project is backed by Intel's rival AMD, as well as Google, Nortel and Red Hat.

Since the laptops are given to the children in the developing world for free education, people are concerned that these children might abuse the usage of the PC. Instead of using it for education, it might be used for negative influence such as pornography and violence.
Besides, people living in the rural areas tend to be very rigid and tradition about their lifestyles, hence not wanting to accept the change of technology in their lives.
Although the PC is aimed to provide the children with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves, the public is concerned that the PC might not ever reach them as some countries have refused to sign up for the programme.
One of the countries that passed the project is India, claiming the idea not being "mature" enough as what these people really need is classrooms and teachers more urgently than "fancy tools".
Besides, English is an essential component of the OLPC project in order to give the children the possibility of higher education. However, in rural areas of the developing world, many of the children speak of their native tongues and thus not being able to comprehend English, resulting them being deterred from the access of the PC. This is such in India.
Another problem that the public is concerned is that the PC, being used for an educational device that is to be used in schools, would not be in use when the school does not have any connectivity. This defeats the purpose of the project for no connectivity means there is no information sharing with the lack of resources.

By:
Goh Tian Ying
Jacqueline Quek (Leader)
Kwok Yeok Fei
Tay Li Jing
Matthew Tan

Cheap laptop?? question 3. =D

The greatest use of this development is to improve the literacy rate and empower the children in the third countries with more knowledge because the price of laptop is cheap. Hence it is highly affordable. The plan is to bring affordable to being computer to school children in the developing world. This increase the literacy level of the third world country and in turn speed up the progress to the country, this indirectly narrow the gap between the rich and the poor.

The laptop is cheap because the factory employ the use of cheap labour design and components whereby reducing the cost of production which is found in India and China. Despite the country rise as and out sourcing PCs are selling far more slowly than mobile phone and motorbike – because they are too expensive and too complicated and too difficult to maintain. What people have been waiting for is a new approach to computing that boil the essence of internet access down to its lower cost and lower risk. The US$100 laptop keeps the complex design of a conventional laptop but adapts it to meet the needs of the poor children and to cut manufacturing cost.

The use of laptop is environmental friendly as it reduces the need of textbooks. People pay fines and bills online, therefore saving paper. Many people might question the fact that an US hundred dollar laptop might not sufficiently satisfy the needs of people. However, this is wrong. Let’s think of what a hundred dollar laptop can do that a thousand dollar laptop can do. Three things. First, it can be recharge with human power because it’s very power efficient. Secondly, multiple units can work together to form a mesh wireless network. Lastly, the screen is readable in sunlight, takes a maximum of 14% of the power consumption and has high-resolution.

done by: Yong cheng ( leader ) =D
Sin yee(sub-leader)
Ying zhen ( Assistant Leader)
Geraldine( Deputy Leader)