1:1 Laptops: Learning with the Hundred-Dollar Laptop

Suppose that one could put a connected, portable computer into the hands of all the children of the world who lack access to the kind of education that would prepare them for participation in a modern, knowledge-based society. Would you use the computers to put the children through the standard curriculum of "developed" countries? This project—a complex undertaking—sets out to design radically different approaches. Some of its components, such as theoretical studies of the epistemology of learning, extend work we have pursued in the past. A component not undertaken before is developing a scientific basis for the design and implementation of a whole essentially new curriculum—or more likely, the process through which such a curriculum will evolve. Experiences such as the pilot program, which implemented a 1:1 computer infrastructure in a small rural community in Costa Rica, are been developed and studied.