Can you really make Steve Jobs with a laptop?

I don't have a ton of time here, since I am *still* plugging away at the OLPC paper, but anyways.

So mike tipped me off to this incredibly apropo and I want to say trenchant, even though I don't really know what that means, blog entry by Ivan Krstić discussing (still) the problems that plague the OLPC project.

(This is partly why my paper never ends, the problems ne'er seem to either)

So Ivan links to this article in the NYtimes about how 1-to-1 laptop programs are being abandoned in schools stateside, as students show no real sign of improvement.

Which led me to read this quote from Mark Warschauer, an education professor at the University of California at Irvine:

“Where laptops and Internet use make a difference are in innovation, creativity, autonomy and independent research,� he said. “If the goal is to get kids up to basic standard levels, then maybe laptops are not the tool. But if the goal is to create the George Lucas and Steve Jobs of the future, then laptops are extremely useful.�

And I just about threw up the very tasty guacamole and goat cheese sandwich I ate for dinner.

Okay so many objections I don't know where to start - Let's start with #1. Not everyone is going to be Steve Jobs or George Lucas. Most of us, even if we try very very hard, come out as a thrilling combination of Ned Flanders and Homer Simpson. It's just a fact of life, genii, mes amies are born - they are not made by having laptops easily available. #2/ Okay but presuming you have your nascent little genius sitting there, eyes shining forehead bulging ever so slightly with the weight of all that goodamn smartness just waiting to unleash itself on us poor plebs...Does this person really need a laptop - or will their innate capacity to do weird unexpected shit that turns out to be really smart just end up expressing itself willy nilly using what ever resources happen to be around? No, no you say, but that laptop will make it better and easier for them to be a genius won't it? I would suggest that if you are already a smart cookie, then the laptop will only be useful if you happen to be laptop smart. You may prefer a paper and pencil, or a saxophone, or set of ballet slippers or a box of lego. Got it? Whatever available resource catches one's fancy, not necessarily a laptop.

I just signed on to teach two workshops this summer, of two hours each. They are ostensibly research workshops. I'll be taking some *under-motivated* young adults and giving them a tutorial about research methods and learning strategies. I am actually really excited about tis workshop because it's the least structured thing I have ever been asked to do. The end goal is not a website, nor is it an understanding of the ways Open-source technology can better their experience of the world. In fact the end goals should stay as fuzzy as 'research skills' until the workshop itself.

Which is just dandy, in fact I told the woman who hired me that the first thing I and the under-motivated youth will do is go sit in a park for 45 minutes and shoot the shit, (well I didn't call it shooting the shit I called it 'engage in discussion'). Why? because the first part of any of my favorite research projects or creative ideas has come from sitting around at tables with friends talking, with nary a laptop in sight.

Once I have gotten the under-motivated youth sitting in a circle with drinks (non-alcoholic) and perhaps a ciggie or two, then perhaps we will discuss observational techniques, ie; people watching, day-dreaming, meditative thought, doodling, reading the paper on the metro etc.. Then maybe we'll talk about how everyone likes to organize their thoughts. Finally we may actually start spit-balling some ideas that could use a bit of elaboration (the genuine not to be missed experience of shooting the shit). Once the "on the ground research" is finished, we may get up and go to the computers where I will show them how to take the richness of their interior and social experience of learning, and find certain parallels on the interwebs.

I will not show the students the internet and expect that by it's very presence in their gaze they will suddenly feel creative and stimulated. Because that my dears, is total fucking bull-hockey.

Okay back to the OLPC-hemoth.