Technology -Where'd the kids Learn This?

In the It’s Just What I Wanted Department, a school in impoverished Nigeria received a lovely gift, with all good intentions. They were given 300 laptops, one for each child. That is wonderful, yes? It would be if they had power. On the other hand, they are the first school in the country where each student has his or her own laptop. Some fortunate students have electricity at home, though it is often irregular, those students said they enjoyed browsing the internet and are very happy. In a week those few will all have a MY Space page.Seriously, Nigeria, while the world’s sixth largest exporter of crude oil, has very little electricity, mainly in the cities where it is undependable at best.Most homes and private businesses rely on generators.

The One Laptop Per Child Program was founded by Nicholas Negroponte, an American professor, to provide laptops to all pupils at 100 dollars each by 2008 to developing countries.. The computers, built in China for $100, are expected to be given to between 5 million and 15 million children in China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Egypt, Nigeria, and Thailand, and other countries. So far, India is the only country to turn them down.

Now, we must travel to the good ol’ USA where everyone has dependable electricity, laptops, cell phones, and whatever electronic goodie comes along. I had no idea the young set were using their cell cameras in the exact same way as many of their elders. Technology gone awry in American Grade schools. This came from the Seattle Police Blotter today. I’m not saying the laptops for all would lead to cell phones and then – this, but it bears watching..

I don’t want to give away my antiquity completely, but I recall grade schools as places where only first graders had crushes on one another, from then on, boys considered girls icky and vice versa for a few years. Not now. Today, this installment deals with elementary children who are precocious.

It seems some elementary school children (school unnamed), had been sending photos of themselves back and forth,. These were no mere photos, mind you. These were photos first sent by the boys exposing their genitals, and responded to by the girls with shots of their breasts. “When a principal called in one parent to discuss the issue (and to show him some of the images) the father allegedly lunged across the table and fought the principal for the cell phone. After literally twisting the principal’s arm, the father got the phone and began deleting the evidence before leaving the building. Dad was interviewed by officers”. (who no doubt kept their hands behind their backs) .                   westseattleherald.com grade school has changed!