Nicholas Negroponte on One Laptop per Child, two years on

The Failure of One Laptop Per Child "25 million laptops later," Mashable announced today, "One Laptop Per Child doesn't increase test scores." "Error Message," reads the headline from The Economist: "A disappointing return from an investment in computing." The tenor of these stories feels like a grand "Gotcha!" One Laptop Per Child was a good idea, a noble and ambitious one at that. Arguably more significant than the competition OLPC faces from these low-cost tablets and netbooks: 95% of the world's population now owns a cellphone, by some estimates (See Wikipedia's list of mobile phone penetration, broken down by country). The mission of the non-profit organization always stressed something broader, bigger -- One Laptop per Child meant empowerment, engagement, and education: We aim to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. No mention of improving standardized test scores in there, you'll notice. The study links that boost in cognitive skills to "increased interaction with technology."

One Laptop per Child