'One Laptop Per Child' project now reality in 1 South American classroom

'ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD' PROJECT NOW A REALITY IN 1 SOUTH AMERICAN CLASSROOM
[SOURCE: Associated Press]
A Uruguay classroom is one of the first beneficiaries of the "One Laptop Per Child" project, which hopes to put low-cost portable PCs in the hands of children in developing countries. Still in a pilot phase, the group has also placed machines at one school in Nigeria and another in Thailand. At the only public elementary school in this community of 1,300 people, children who never used computers are now being exposed to the digital age. "There are 1 billion school-age children in the developing world and most don't have an opportunity to learn," said Walter Bender, president of software for the One Laptop project. "We're trying to go where there's an education gap, as technology happens to be a vehicle to bridge that gap." The laptops currently cost about $175, though the project believes the price will drop to $100 price once the machines are mass-manufactured. Bender said he even hopes the price might be driven down "some day" to $50 each. And while the first computers to Uruguay were donated, the rest are to be bought by the government, which has budgeted $15 million for the program.
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