The rest of the World ( well ... a bit of it) moves on

Two news items brought to me by my colleague Tricia today following my blog post about laptops in Venezuela.

Firstly one from Italy where an experiment is taking place in one school in Turin to replace all of their books with computers ... for a year. The mini laptops, which run Windows software, weigh less than a kilogram, can be dropped from a height of one-and-a-half metres and are waterproof. Instead of spending the equivalent of $700 (£400) a year on books, the laptops, built by the Italian company Olidata, cost less than $400 (£228).

And secondly news from Ghana that all children between the ages of 5 and 12 in public schools are to be provided with a personal computer. Speaking at the 14th annual Teachers Awards ceremony in Sunyani yesterday, President Kufuor announced that the first batch of 10,000 units of what he described as “Magic Computers for Children” would soon arrive in the country in fulfilment of the government’s promise.

Shift happens ...

PS

Brian Smith has an interesting take on 'one laptop per child'