OLPC To Roll Out Laptops to Colombia
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According to information released by the non-profit group One Laptop per Child, Caldas, a state in Colombia, has ordered 65,000 XO laptops in an effort to get laptops in the hands of school-aged children.
According to remarks from Mario Aristizabal, governor of Caldas, released yesterday, "My government and our State legislators are fully committed to giving each and every child of primary school age the same opportunity to access knowledge as the most privileged children in New York, Berlin or Tokyo. The One Laptop per Child program is the right vehicle to reach that goal and its potential socio-economic impact cannot be under-emphasized."
OLPC said the first 15,000 units will be "deployed later in 2008 will be in Caldas's smaller towns and rural areas." The remaining 50,000 are expected to be rolled out by the end of 2009. The organization is working out a separate arrangement for distribution of the laptops in the capital "so that total coverage of the State is achieved."
As we reported previously, OLPC also released a roadmap for near-term development of the XO laptop, including the XO-1.5 and XO-2. The XO-1.5 is expected to launch in the spring of next year, with the radically redesigned XO-2 slated for 2010. (An OLPC representative told us the Colombia deployments will consist mostly of XO-1 models.) Further information about the next-generation XO laptops can be found here.
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About the author: David Nagel is the executive editor for 1105 Media's online education technology publications, including THE Journal and Campus Technology. He can be reached at dnagel@1105media.com.
Proposals for articles and tips for news stories, as well as questions and comments about this publication, should be submitted to David Nagel, executive editor, at dnagel@1105media.com.