[photopress:thumb_laptophandside.jpg,full,alignright]Intel has announced it will help train a million Chinese teachers in information technology. This will help them understand the subject and, in turn, pass that information on to students. (Although the thought occurs that very possibly the students would sometimes be better able to teach the teachers.)
Intel has already done much work in this area helped with the training of about 72 thousand Chinese teachers and a large number of undergraduates.
This is major stuff. It will work as a supplement to its current educational cooperation program with the Ministry of Education. Not only will Intel help with the teaching. It will donate 10,000 PCs to schools in Chinese rural areas. These will have Microsoft software and Internet access. All this before 2008.
The Ministry of Education will also provide courseware programs to these schools.
Craig Barrett, CEO of Intel, said, ‘Now our cooperation with the MOE is complete.’
Wu Qidi, Vice Minister of Education, expressed China’s gratitude to the company.
So where do this leave Nicholas Negroponte and the One Laptop Per Child Project? Earlier last month it was announced that the scheme was being discussed with five countries — among them China — to distribute up to 15 million test systems to children.
Nicholas Negroponte said a goal of the project is to make the low-cost PC idea a grassroots movement that will spread in popularity, like the Linux operating system or the Wikipedia free online encyclopedia. ‘This is open-source education. It’s a big issue.’
Power for the new systems will be provided through either conventional electric current, batteries or by a windup crank attached to the side of the notebooks.
Now we come to the cruch. These machines will run a version of the Linux operating system and will also include other applications, some developed by MIT researchers. No mention is made of Intel chips or Microsoft programs.
Five companies are working with MIT to develop an initial 5 million to 15 million test units within the year: Google, Advanced Micro Devices, News Corp., Red Hat and BrightStar.
Note carefully that Intel and Microsoft are again not mentioned in that happy group of warriors. This is not to suggest that Intel’s offer is not perfectly genuine and from the heart. But the idea of AMD chips and Linux operating systems being offered on computers to school children could not have made delighted the boards of Intel or Microsoft.
Source: China News