环球英语 — 451：One Computer Each
Voice 1
Welcome to Spotlight. I’m Joshua Leo.
Voice 2
And I’m Marina Santee. This programme uses a special English method of broadcasting. It is easier for people to understand, no matter where in the world they live.
Voice 1
How are you listening to this programme today? You could be listening to it on the radio. Or you could be listening on a computer. Computers are becoming more and more important to many people around the world. However, it is still the richer countries that use computers the most.
Voice 2
One organisation is trying to change that. It thinks that children all over the world should have the chance to use a computer. It has developed a small computer that is light enough to carry. Laptop computers like this usually cost more than six hundred dollars to buy. But this group’s computers cost less than two hundred dollars.
Voice 1
The organisation is called ‘One Laptop per Child’ or OLPC. Its idea is that millions of children in developing countries will be able to have one laptop computer each. OLPC hopes to sell huge numbers of computers to developing countries. Then the organisation should be able to lower the price of each laptop to one hundred dollars.
Voice 2
The man who started One Laptop per Child is Nicholas Negroponte. He is from the United States. He was already a successful computer scientist – but in 2005 he launched OLPC. He spoke at a conference in the United States where people discuss new ideas. He explained what made him start the OLPC project.
Voice 3
‘I wanted to do something that would be important. But I also wanted something that would take advantage of all my life experience. I knew people where I worked. I knew people who were either heads of companies or wealthy... I said “Let us do something that takes advantage of this”. I thought we could help with education by giving children the power to achieve things. I thought that bringing the world the chance to use computers was the thing we should do.’
Voice 1
OLPC sells laptop computers to developing countries. The governments in these countries then give the laptops to school children. The laptops are strong and difficult to break. They also have an unusual and colourful design. Children can even power the laptops themselves. They pull on a small device that spins a wheel. Doing this for one minute creates enough electricity to power the laptop for ten minutes. Or the laptops can be attached to other power supplies.
Voice 2
The computers are designed to help the children learn. They can connect to the internet and to other laptops. This forms a group of children who can talk to each other through their laptops. Children can also take the laptops home and continue to learn there.
Voice 1
The OLPC designers did not want to fix the design of the laptop too firmly. They did not want to make it so that a child could use it in only one way. They wanted the child to be able to change how the laptop worked – to be creative – to learn by doing. To do this the designers put programs on the laptops that the children could develop. This software was also free. So it helped to keep the cost of the laptops down.
Voice 2
However, in May 2008 One Laptop per Child was forced to compromise this idea. The organisation began working with Microsoft, the biggest software company in the world. This was because many developing countries said they would not buy the laptops unless they had Microsoft computer software. Microsoft computer programmes are the most popular in the world and are used for many different things. Microsoft developed a low cost version of its Windows software for the laptop. However it is not free. And critics say that using Windows will make it harder for children to be as creative as OLPC had wanted.
Voice 1
The use of Microsoft software is not the only change that the project has faced. During the first few months of 2008, three of the top members of the organisation resigned. Also, the project has not been as successful as first hoped. At first, Negroponte said the plan was to sell seven to ten million laptops in two thousand and seven. And he planned to sell one hundred to two hundred million the following year. However, by the middle of two thousand and eight, OLPC had only sold six hundred thousand laptops.
Voice 2
This number is a lot lower than Nicholas Negroponte had hoped for. However there are still thousands of children around the world using the laptops. Many children in Nigeria, Haiti, Mongolia and a number of South American countries have got their own laptop.
Voice 1
Ahmadi Ahned lives in Nigeria. He spoke to the BBC about the laptop that he had been given.
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‘Before the laptops we were writing on paper. Our teachers had taught us about computers but we had never used one. With the help of this computer we know so many things. We teach each other and we learn from each other.”
Voice 2
However, since then, Nigeria has stopped buying the laptops. A new education minister has been elected. He does not think OLPC is a good idea. He says it costs too much money.
Voice 1
One Laptop Per Child may not be as successful as the organisation first hoped. But the idea behind it seems to have made many other companies start to think. Other computer makers are now selling their own very cheap laptops. One of the biggest computer firms, Intel, has a similar laptop that competes with the OLPC computer. Another company in India is even making a computer for less than one hundred dollars.
Voice 2
When Nicholas Negroponte first came up with the idea of One Laptop Per Child it seemed impossible. But it has happened. However, OLPC’s biggest success may be the way it has encouraged other makers of computers. People say it can only be a good thing that more companies are now making laptops for people who would not normally be able to buy one.
Voice 1
However, others disagree. They think it is just a way of people in rich countries to think they are helping the world. People against OLPC do not think it is helpful just to give poor communities computers – especially when many do not have clean water or electricity. Arguments over the usefulness of cheap laptops may continue for a number of years. The lives of the children using the laptops today could show who is right.
