"Una Laptop Por Nino" by David Talbot

“Una Laptop Por Nino” describes David Talbot’s trip to Peru to cover the encouraging effort by a third-world nation to improve their educational system. They plan to spend $80 million on laptops for children who live in high-poverty stricken regions of the country. These laptops will be distributed by a philanthropic organization called One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). One Laptop per Child was unveiled in early 2005 at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, by Nicholas Negroponte, the cofounder and chairman emeritus of MIT's Media Lab. His goal is to distribute laptops, costing $188 each, to third-world nations across the world. These laptops, called the XO, are cheaper, sturdier and use less power than any laptop previously made. They also come loaded with 115 books, a word processor, art and music programs, games, reading- comprehension programs and other educational software. Peru is also spending $2 million on teacher training in a hope that more children will make lives for themselves beyond subsistence farming or menial labor. If Peru’s effort is successful, they will become a model for other third-world nations who are seeking advancement within their educational system.
I think that this is an admiral and positive effort by OLPC organization. Education is the foundation for improving the world in which we live and the building block for our future. This program will allow children that may have never seen a computer in their lives to owning their own. This will no question motivate them to seek further knowledge and encourage them to live up to their potential. These children did not have much to look forward to but hopefully this program can show them a far greater technologically advanced world exists outside of their village in which they can one day unite with.
David Talbot observed a 10-year old girl who made movies using her laptop about her father’s goat. This example provides hope that these children will use their laptops and their resources around them to enhance their educational experience and maximize their potential. I think Oscar Becerra, general director for educational technologies in Peru, was absolutely accurate when he said, ‘One of the problems with education worldwide is that children don't understand why they should learn what they are supposed to learn. When you have a computer, and students own the computer, they begin finding why. They realize they can actually do something that is meaningful to them.’