Technology is extremely important to the education of today's students. One company that makes this their mission is One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). This group gives self contained, rugged and connected laptops to some of the poorest children in the world, hoping to create educational opportunities never before provided. If knowledge is power, than think of how powerful a tool is that has access to endless information. Now put this tool in the hands of a poor, first world child who is taught how to use this tool. With this one powerful combination the possibilities are endless.
In ten years, the children who were given this opportunity will probably be instrumental in the progression of their hometowns and countries. These children could be the hope for ending poverty and other problems effecting those areas. A person who grows up in these sad circumstances and has a modern education is far more likely to solve the area's problems than some outsider on a charity mission. These children may have the opportunity to spread firsthand accounts of this struggle to the world and ways of combating it.
Often we teach our children in the same ways we were taught. If the resources are available, in ten years this act of giving poor children a laptop could be self proliferating. The parents who grew up with this opportunity would probably try to provide the same or better opportunities for their children. This cycle of education could be the solution to many of the world's current problems. Education so often seems to be the key to solving problems, OLPC may very well have set in motion the very thing these countries need to succeed. I hope that other organizations take a hint from OLPC and create more programs that spread technology and expand education to anyone and everyone on the planet. These organizations would be helping the world while creating the possibility of life long customers. It would be a win win situation.
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