One laptop per child

The One Laptop per Child Foundation project aims to provide every school child in the developing world with a $100 laptop.
In Nepal a group of largely Nepali computer programmers have spent the last few months producing some Nepali context educational software for the laptops. They are using the text books written by Kathmandu International Study Centre’s Christine Stone. Just before Christmas I took the programmers to Good Shepherd School to try the software with some children for the first time.  We took four laptops with a selection of maths and English software. After showing the seven year-old children how to access the programmes we let them play with them and work things out for themselves.
In groups of three the children became totally engaged with the programmes, chatting away as they worked things out. Four months worth of programming were devoured in an hour!  The programmers now know their work engages children in an exciting way. This term we plan to take the software into some other schools and then in April a year’s pilot study will commence in one school.
We hope it might be one of the schools we are working in. The computers which are tough and use very little energy are recharged through the sun shining on the screen. Alternatively they can be attached to various forms of power including pedal power. It is an exciting project which has the potential to revolutionise education in Nepal.