One Laptop Per Child Talks

Negroponte at NECC

In July 2006, Nicholas Negroponte, spoke at the 2006 NECC Conference with Chris Walsh about One Laptop Per Child.

The transcript of Nicholas Negroponte's interview at the National Educating Computer Conference (NECC):

Chris Walsh: Hi, this is Chris Walsh with NECC Live--special edition of NECC Live--here in San Diego, California. We just happen to have a opportunity to talk to Dr. Nicholas Negroponte from the “One Laptop per Child Initiative.” Thank you for hopping on! You just finished your keynote, I'm sure it was to thunderous applause. But, everybody here is all a buzz about the One Laptop per Child. Tell us just a little bit about what inspired the initiative.

Dr. Negroponte: Well, we've been working on the use of computers to learn learning for about 35 years. This is not a new project at all. And...we've been working in developing nations for about the past 20-25 years. And...what we think the time is right for—we couldn't have done it a couple of years ago, we can do it now—is to provide every child with a laptop so the one on one experience, as well as a seamless one at home, at school, making it part of your life for music, for games, for doing everything from homework to...what we would call “constructionist software” that the time is right. And, if you look globally, there are, in rough numbers, a billion children.

Chris Walsh: Throughout the world, we're not just talking developing nations.

Dr. Negroponte: Right. In rough numbers, it's a billion children in primary or secondary school; half of them are in rural remote places with no electricity. Typically, a rural school in a poor country has well-meaning teachers, but they maybe have a sixth grade education. School is maybe two and a half hours a day because there are two shifts; they don't really start on time...they kind of end early. It's not something you can just solve by teacher training...building a few more schools...you've got to leverage the children. If you're going to make a change that's going to have an effect in the next five years, the only solution is to leverage the children themselves. So the idea behind “One Laptop per Child” is to get the children to be able to do things we would call “constructionism.” But inside school, outside school, peer to peer, communicating with other children and basically using education as the long-term solution to economic development which in turn leads to everything from world peace to a better environment.

Chris Walsh: So this is a bold initiative obviously, that's why it gets so much press. You've got lots of skeptics out there talking about the technology--pieces of it, talking about the dollar amount, talking about the impact that it could actually have. What do you say to all those skeptics out there about why this should be done and why it can be done?

Dr. Negroponte: There are very few skeptics that are deeply skeptical except for self-interest. Yes, it's a little bit at the edge...we're probably a little early. A hundred dollars is too expensive for most places.

Chris Walsh: Yeah, that's a hundred billion dollars, right?

Dr. Negroponte: Well, a hundred billion dollars isn't so much money, but that's an F-14. You're talking about...we're not talking about...if you look at it from that point...

Chris Walsh: Absolutely, but we already spend in this country 6-7 billion on education technology just in the United States.

Dr. Negroponte: And...you also have to advertise this. So when you look at a hundred dollar laptop, you advertise it over five years—let's pretend that's twenty dollars a year, no interest—Brazil and China both spend nineteen dollars per year per child in textbooks. So you could take the hundred dollar laptop, and economically justify it as an alternate textbook delivery plus these are updated textbooks plus it's any book, it's not just a selected few plus it's so-on and so forth. So you could take the hundred dollar laptop, and say it's a Trojan horse. A Trojan horse is electronic books, and then at night, the kids come out, and fold it, and use it as a laptop with Google and Internet access. That's not the approach we're taking but, if you wanted to, it would work just as well in terms of the economics and the distribution.

Chris Walsh: And clearly, theres other people doing things like this. Encyclomedia project in Mexico, we heard about yesterday, is a massive project delivering curriculum digitally to kids. So clearly, there is support out there for this...what's the first step though? So you've got this huge initiative, how are you going to really get going after you really build this thing?

Dr. Negroponte: The first step is to get five to ten million units launched in at least four or five countries...probably more...at least one country on every continent; this is a global project so it's not just Central American countries or African countries. And...when they are ready, we launch. This isn't going to happen incrementally. We're not going to find a hundred thousand users in Mexico and then eighty thousand users in South Africa and then another sixty thousand in Indonesia...this is going to happen as one big launch when people have signed up with irrevocable letters of credit and so on that gets it launched. That's why we're talking to big countries; we're not talking to the little countries. The big countries launch it, then in six months...eight months...a year from now, smaller countries can benefit from the momentum and can benefit from the lower price.

Chris Walsh: Absolutely. Well, I know we're both on a tight schedule here today, but I want to thank you for stopping by and before we go...give us one word or one phrase that you really want people to remember when they think about the One Laptop per Child initiative.

Dr. Negroponte: Ya know...”One Laptop per Child” is a pretty good phrase! We used it in our name so maybe you should just remember that.

Chris Walsh: Okay, one laptop it is! Thank you so much for coming by, I appreciate it. And best of luck as you finish up the work...lots to do. This is Chris Welsh with NECC live...we'll see you soon!