MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop

MIT Media Lab: $100 Laptop

The following quote is from the Bangkok Post. It is a large jump from an academic idea to implementation....

"Govt to spend over B3bn on pupil's PCs

500,000 laptops to be given away in scheme

PREEYANAT PHANAYANGGOOR

The government plans to allocate a budget of around 3.2-3.5 billion baht for the first 500,000 personal computers to be given free of charge to schoolchildren, said the new government spokesman, Surapong Suebwonglee.

Mr Surapong said laptop computers, developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology at a cost of less than US$100 (4,183 baht), would be distributed to try to change the way primary and secondary students learn.

He said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra had ordered the Education and the Information and Communication Technology ministries to come up with the details and speed up e-textbook software development to complement the One Laptop Per Child scheme.

Mr Thaksin told a seminar for 101 administrators of Thai Rath Wittaya Schools on Tuesday that specialists from the US had said they could produce a personal computer costing $100.

According to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab, the full-colour, full-screen laptops will be Linux-based and able to use alternative power (including wind-up).

The specifications include a 500MHz central processing unit, a 1GB hard disk and a 1-megapixel display screen.

The computers will be WiFi- and cell-phone-enabled, with USB ports, but will not be able to store huge amounts of data. The prototype is expected to be available by year-end.

Thailand will join countries such as China and Brazil that earlier held initial discussions with Media Lab.

The Ministry of Education will this year conduct a feasibility study on the demand from Thai schoolchildren before beta-testing in selected lower-secondary schools, said Education Minister Chaturon Chaisaeng.

Minister of Science and Technology Pravich Rattanapian said that the National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec) could provide free Thai-language open-source applications to laptops in the scheme.

If implemented, the project will be Thailand's first large-scale effort to provide free laptop computers to schoolchildren. The Thaksin government's previous low-cost computer project sold desktop and laptop computers to general users for less than Bt20,000."