In this bit, when I use the tern 'Western', it really means Britain, western Europe and North America. As in 'Western Culture is very popular.'
I think the verdict is not in yet on the success of this and, at this point, I am skeptical. I think computers should not be the primary learning tool for elementary-aged kids. By the time they reach high school, more computer-based training may well be appropriate and effective, but not for elementary kids.
Your point is well made. Conventional wisdom is to give older kids better tools. But in this case then kids will have material that otherwise would not be available even at a beginners level.
This not about teaching children in former colonial countries where the language is English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish, Portuguese or any of the major western languages. Little literature is available in the native languages. The translations of the Western literature is expensive and clashes with natives concepts. These computers allow the teachers to produce material in a native language quickly and distribute to all the kids.
This is very important for younger children.Now, those remarks are absurd. If nudity is more common in poor countries, it's due to poverty and culture. To associate that with porn is just absurd. Besides, these kids, at the age portrayed on the website, are too young to have any interest in porn.
Yes, I should not have said that.
I see a multitude of potential downfalls here. Lots of dead batteries. Messed up computers - malware, viruses, and various malfunctions due to kids using devices they have no training to use and probably do not have any significant technical support.
The laptops can be powered my other energy sources. The have a very light power requirement. These are not really scaled down laptops. They should be called 'smart slates' because the idea of children writing on an erasable slate is really an old and proven concept for young children. The principal usage is learning to read and writ their own language. And learn to use a keyboard also.
They are not going to be downloading materials not suitable for the primary classroom. Older children might. The younger children need access to more fundamental things. Yes, it may be a internet type connection, but it really is a WAN limited to sites that have materials for the native languages classroom. The reason for the internet is due to isolation from the major metropolis in such countries. It is not to let little children learn about the whole world before that can read and write their own language.
To promote the concept, the idea is being presented to western sponsors in terms that we understand. Internet, Video, Wi-Fi. Color display, Solid sate memory, WAN and ad-hoc wireless. The little laptops have these features, but the real value is as a teaching instrument every child can use. They are nearly indestructible.
NIH -(Not Invented Here)BTW; The screen is readable is sunlight. Try that with your laptop or iPad. They are well-designed. Low-cost does not have to be cheap.
Yes, the project can fail. It will fail if it follows the trail of commercial enterprise. It is not a scheme to make money from the poor or to stratified their society or create political division.
It is an honest attempt to help the lessor ones with no selfish gain. But, for many, it is hard to link that concept with modem technology.
Computers are to make us aristocrats - Right? 
