RIO DE JANEIRO - Brazil is one of the most advanced countries in the project to bring laptops to public school students from Latin American, Asia and Africa countries. This opinion is held by Nicholas Negroponte, president and founder of the MediaLab of Massachusetts Technology Institute (MIT). Negroponte created the XO, an inexpensive laptop (around US$ 180, R$ 336), designed for students.
In an interview to "Globo Online", the founder the NGO "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) states that Latin America is one of the areas that presented the warmest welcome to the project, especially Brazil, a "very creative" country.
Negroponte is pleased with results of tests carried out since March with XO in a public school of Porto Alegre (RS).
"The staff (school teachers) understands and applies educational projects based on constructivism. Because of that, we are really testing the laptops without concerns to construct an educational model in parallel or teaching teachers how to teach.
The OLPC project is "educational", according to its founder, and it aims more than just provide laptops. It is grounded on five basic principles: encourage experiences during the learning process; construction of critical thinking; new roles for the teacher and for students; organization and collaboration; and learn by doing.
"The pedagogic concept of the OLPC project is based on localized content, in contexts related to the real life o each community. We defend the idea that children must learn and learn, "learn by doing", which are opposed to the model based on the passive and hierarchical imposition of contents. Because of that, the OLPC's prototype is based on free software, in open architectures and on proposals of the medium where it (the project) is inserted. XO may be programmed to do anything resulting in education return for the communities", he states.
In an interview to "Globo Online", the founder the NGO "One Laptop per Child" (OLPC) states that Latin America is one of the areas that presented the warmest welcome to the project, especially Brazil, a "very creative" country.
Negroponte is pleased with results of tests carried out since March with XO in a public school of Porto Alegre (RS).
"The staff (school teachers) understands and applies educational projects based on constructivism. Because of that, we are really testing the laptops without concerns to construct an educational model in parallel or teaching teachers how to teach.
The OLPC project is "educational", according to its founder, and it aims more than just provide laptops. It is grounded on five basic principles: encourage experiences during the learning process; construction of critical thinking; new roles for the teacher and for students; organization and collaboration; and learn by doing.
"The pedagogic concept of the OLPC project is based on localized content, in contexts related to the real life o each community. We defend the idea that children must learn and learn, "learn by doing", which are opposed to the model based on the passive and hierarchical imposition of contents. Because of that, the OLPC's prototype is based on free software, in open architectures and on proposals of the medium where it (the project) is inserted. XO may be programmed to do anything resulting in education return for the communities", he states.
