My Life With IT

A quick look at the UI of the USD100 laptop by Jeff Atwood at Coding Horror. I was wondering what sort of UI that Mr Negroponte had in mind and Jeff has kindly provided the screenshot of the UI. I have read about this being mass built for the kids in Libya, if my memory serves me correct.

The one thing that sticks to my mind is that Mr Negroponte stated in the article the following:

“In fact, one of the saddest but most common conditions in elementary school computer labs (when they exist in the developing world), is the children are being trained to use Word, Excel and PowerPoint,” Negroponte wrote in an e-mail interview. “I consider that criminal, because children should be making things, communicating, exploring, sharing, not running office automation tools.”

Which I didn’t realise until he stated his main objective behind making the One Laptop campaign. The kids are being taught Word, Excel and PowerPoint, software that we are using now. The kids are only 7 to 10 and they are being trained to be office workers 10 years ahead.

I wonder if there are any kids being taught to learn Java or JavaScript from age 7 onwards. I wonder if we’re moving towards a society of nothing but office automation humans who don’t know how to enjoy the simple life any more.