Subscribe"But we also found that they would tend to plateau out. They would surf the Web -- Disney.com is very popular with them because they like games. And they would use [Microsoft] Paint. It's very, very popular with all of them.While it's true that groups of kids can use an object oriented interface pretty naturally (and one would hope that good interfaces would be this "natural"), there seems to be a point where at least some direction and intervention in the form of additional information and guidance is needed. Maybe it could be programmed into the Hole-in-the-Wall itself, and not require teachers. I don't know. It probably deserves some investigation.
Because these are deprived children who do not have easy access to paper and paint. Every child likes to paint, so they would do it with that program. However, that's all they could do. So I intervened, and I played an MP3 [digital-music file] for them. They were astonished to hear music come out of the computer for the first time. They said, "Oh, does it work like a TV or radio?" I said, in keeping with my approach, "Well, I know how to get there but I don't know how it works." Then I [left]."
Q: Have you produced any products?I picked this for you, Rothko, as prime snark fodder, and I hope you enjoy it...:-)
A: The MIT Media Lab is not in the business of making products, but we do work with many companies who make products. We have been told that we inspired or otherwise influenced products, such as Hasbro/iRobot's My Real Baby. (The development effort for this product was led by Jonathan Klein, an alumnus of our group.)
"The teachers were eager to show me the computer room. With five computers, they have one for every 400 girls.The writer of this article goes on to quote other souces with alternate views of girls education in the madrassas of Pakistan, and concludes the piece with a direct reference to the conservative Islamic clerics who supervise this system of education:
When I ask if they have access to the internet, the teachers laugh. "No, that is not possible for us," says Binte Rafiq.
"[We teach them] just only how to shut down the computer, and how to start it. Basic IT."
The teachers say they cannot afford more computers because the madrassa relies completely on private donations.
But at the same time they showed me construction work to add extra rooms, so they can take in even more students.
The teachers say much of the money they get comes from people who visit the madrassa, and are impressed by the work they're doing.
The madrassa's vice president, Abdul Rashid Ghazi, says there has been a change of thinking among religious leaders about girls education.
"We are told that we, religious people, are against women's education. But we have proved that we are not."
Asked about the curriculum, he said, "Islam is enough. It is a complete code for modern life." "
"And the clerics claim they have also changed their views about girls' education.Of course I can't know that the choices culturally influential people like Pakistan's Islamic clerics make for the education of children are "wrong," but they are not ones I endorse, nor, I think, based on what I've read, do those in the Media Lab, including Negroponte.
They seem to have concluded that what they teach a girl, she will teach her children. And many parents are keen to send their daughters to madrassas because they offer free lessons, food and lodging.
Others, however, send their children there because they do not want them to lose their Islamic identity.
For the girls learning to recite the Koran at the Jamia Hafza Madrassa, there seems little risk of that."
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Because it doesn't appear to be a cheap toy, MIT Media Labs director Nicholas Negroponte believes they will be highly desirable, and develop in each child a pride of ownership that will make them protective of the devices. And at the same time, he feels that commercial licenses to allow commercial organizations to manufacture and sell the devices at a low profit could still inhibit "grey markets" for the machines, by removing most of the profit.
posted by paulsc at 6:44 PM on September 29, 2005