Illiterate Kids In India Figure Out Computers
from the interesting-experiments dept
A very interesting article about an experiment in India where people set up an outdoor computer near slums. Illiterate kids found the computers and started playing with them. They figured out what was going on pretty quickly, and it didn’t take them long to figure out how to connect to the internet, draw pictures, download MP3s and games. Everywhere they set up one of these computers the results were almost exactly the same.
Comments on “Illiterate Kids In India Figure Out Computers”
wow - not
Wow, clicking on the explorer icon and learning to surf in mere weeks, could they all be secret cloned-kids from einstein??? The “blurb” makes it sound like these kids are all CCNA’s, then you read the article and the kids learned to surf the web and run MS-Paint. Not exactly on the same level as the cure for cancer. Why this seems special, or that the kids in India are special lacks anytype of science to back it up. I’m guessing monkeys (not to slam kids in India or anywhere else) given the same setup would produce similiar results.
To top it off, the article ends with a paragraph that first says that computers are not intutative and hard to use, then follows up with the statement that kids that can’t speak english were able to figure them out. What’s wrong with that logic???
Re: wow - not
I can see why you think this is not a big deal. And it really isn’t. However: I work for a computer refurbisher. We work with P2s, mostly, and we sell them at low cost to families and organizations in need. I’ve worked at every level in this company: bench tech, support, delivery, desk job, so I’ve seen it all. Compared to ~20-30% of our customers, these kids are smart. Very smart.