#242 Poster

Monday 16 April 15:00 - 17:15 Bar/Conservatory

Economics of Open Courseware

Edward Cherlin, Sugar Labs, US

Conference Theme: Impact

Summary: Computers with Free Software and Open Courseware now cost less than printed textbooks. Is that enough for them to be adopted?

Abstract: The One Laptop Per Child XO was the first computer for education costing less than $200, but now computers costing less than $100 are proliferating. In the developed countries, that is less than the cost of one or two printed textbooks. Even in most of the Least Developed Countries textbooks for three or four years of school (the expected lifetime of such computers) cost more than this.
Therefore one-to-one computing with Open Courseware promises better education at lower cost. Is this enough for countries (or states or provinces in larger countries) to adopt it? Only if the other costs are manageable, notably electricity, Internet, and maintenance, and only if other excuses for not proceeding can be overcome. In November 2011 the island of Niue announced that it was ending its successful OLPC program, claiming that it could not afford to repair the computers and provide a satellite Internet connection to its schools. At the same time, Africa is experiencing a bandwidth bonanza, with nine separate fiber optic cables down both coasts, and rapid buildout into the interior, while several African countries are intent on providing laptops or tablets to all of their students.
How does all of this fit together? What else is happening? What is not happening, and why not?