momentum across the world, across Asia I should also mention—Singapore stands out. Most teachers in Malaysia have their own laptop in preparation for initiatives like this, and in countries like Korea and even Taiwan there is a lot of early work happening where 1-to-1 deployments are now becoming a normal part of expectations of students at school. DA: How do One Laptop per Child and similar programs affect 1-to-1 initiatives? Dixon: That work, and similar work from Intel with the Classmate PC and others, is to be applauded. It’s extraordinary. It’s the missing piece in that we need to have an affordable device for people in circumstances where they can’t pay for a traditionally commercially available machine, and that has opened up a continuum of pricing categories for young people in schools. At the other end, of course, we’ve seen the launch of the Tablet PC and that’s become very popular. So everything from your sort of fully functional tablet to the $150 or $200 laptop means that affordability is no longer an issue. It’s all moving toward “affordable computing.” DA: So the financial cost of such laptop initiatives is becoming less of a concern? Dixon: Part of what we do is look at ways in which we can make access affordable for all young people and families. This isn’t something that should be the domain of the wealthy. We’ve got to make sure that all kids who have the opportunity to learn this way have access to a computer. So you have to be a little creative and think differently about funding, but we have some basic principles and we have financial models that allow governments and districts to see how they can make it possible for all their students. DA Read more of Zach Miners’ conversation with Bruce Dixon at www.DistrictAdministration.com/brucedixon www.DistrictAdministration.com April 2008 15
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - April 2008