New Technology in Developing Countries: A Critique of the One-Laptop-Per-Child Program

Abstract

The one-laptop-per-child (OLPC) project offers no rationale for its view that there should be no sharing in schools. It is certainly not because this view requires no defense. On the contrary, the author shows that the program causes so much to be invested in computers that other educational inputs are entirely neglected and in some cases this is also true of sectors other than education. The OLPC requires poor countries to use fewer students per computer than is recommended even in the developed countries. The author argues, by contrast, in favor of what is defined as a balanced pattern of sharing that reflects the level of per capita income in poor relative to rich countries. The higher is per capita income the less is the need to rely on sharing arrangements and conversely.