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“每个孩子一台手提电脑”（One Laptop per Child，简称OLPC）是个旨在通过提供廉价笔记本电脑，帮助发展中国家儿童享受信息化时代教育的慈善计划。在秘鲁，超过48万台手提电脑正被送往世界最穷困的地方，为部分全球受教育水平最低的孩子带来全新的学习体验。
A fleeting roadside scene in 1)Lima, Peru, sticks in my mind. A very little girl, perhaps four, stood on a narrow 2)traffic island 3)bisecting a 4)congested 5)thoroughfare amid choking dust, 6)soot, and fumes. With the girl was a woman I took to be her mother. The mother, a street peddler, was unpacking a 7)crate full of something. Around them roared 1970s-era buses and 8)battered
vehicles, passing below concrete habitations creeping up dismal, 9)denuded hillsides in one of the city’s vast 10)slums. The child was energetically 11)scooping up plastic bags for her mother, her shaggy brown hair flopping forward.
I thought of her as I passed through steel gates manned by armed guards at Peru’s Ministry of
Education to talk to Oscar Becerra, General Director for Educational Technologies. Peru is 12)poised to deliver 486,500 laptops to its poorest children under the One Laptop per Child program. It is the largest such OLPC purchase in the world. I asked Becerra whether children in Lima’s slums would receive the green-and-white machines. “No,” he said. “They are not poor enough.” At first I thought he was making a hard-hearted joke. But he went on to explain that Lima residents generally have electricity and (in theory) access to city services, even Internet cafés. The laptops are headed to 9,000 tiny schools in remote regions in the 13)Andes, an arduous 12-hour bus ride over rocky roads southeast of Lima, and villages in the Amazon region, days away. By the standards of children in those areas, the girl on the traffic island enjoyed enviable opportunity.
What Becerra told me 14)drove home the true scope of what OLPC is trying to do in a country that, according to a survey by the 15)World Economic Forum, ranks 130th out of 131 countries in math and science education, and 131st in the quality of its primary schools. “There is a long-term social 16)cleavage in Peru,” says Henry Dietz, a political scientist and expert on Peru at 17)the University of Texas at Austin, describing the country’s income inequality and rural poverty. “You get out of those provincial capitals, a half-hour in any direction, and you are in rural Peru, and things are pretty primitive. Electricity is a ‘sometimes’ thing.”
And they’re bringing with them a whole new 18)pedagogy. The computers come loaded with 115 books—literature such as classics, fables, novels and poetry. The laptops’ 19)flash drives also store introductions for teachers, reading-comprehension programs and other educational software, a word processor, art and music programs, and games, including chess and 20)Sudoku. The 21)rugged, low-power hardware includes a camera that can capture video or still images. The computers are Internet ready and can wirelessly relay data to one another.
These tools will land in the hands of first through sixth graders who in many cases never even had books—and whose teachers themselves had little education.
They will not come cheap; Peru is spending about $80 million on the laptops—nearly a third of the education budget normally available for 22)capital expenditures—plus about $2 million for teacher training. Becerra characterized the sum as a special 23)appropriation meant to bring schools up to date. “To distribute all these books would cost five times the cost of the machines,” he estimates. “We are reaching the poorest schools in Peru for the first time in history.”
When I visited Peru in mid-March, distribution of the laptops had not yet begun. But a clue to how the effort might 24)fare can be found in a Peruvian mountain-farming village where, last year, 25)prototypes were handed out to kids in a 26)trial run.
27)Arahuay is a poor village of 742 residents. But as Becerra explained later, it is also “not poor enough” to 28)warrant laptops under the national 29)rollout. Nevertheless, it was here that the Ministry of Education decided to test a 30)preproduction model of the OLPC machines. Arahuay is relatively handy to Lima (battered buses make two trips daily), and it has a pre-existing Internet connection.
The children were at their desks, 31)pecking away at their now-battered laptops. Kevin Gabino, 11, was following a teacher’s instructions to type a statement of the school’s 32)values into a text file—Be early to school—topped the list. Rosario Carrillo, 10, was performing a Google search for the school’s name, but the town’s Internet connection was so slow that the wait dragged into minutes. Rosario said she uses the laptop to play games, take pictures, draw, perform calculations, write documents, and send e-mails to her elder sister, who works in Lima.
Of course, the kids need to use computers for more standard educational pursuits as well. The school’s principal, Patricia Cornejo, said that assignments often require students to search the Web for basic information, such as facts about local flora and 33)fauna. “I am happy because I see how the children learn,” she said. “The communication between the students is better. They talk to each other about things they saw on the Internet.” Students are directed to educational Web pages; some other sites have been blocked by the ministry, Cornejo said. But one of the biggest benefits she sees is the possibility of access to instructional materials and digital books. “The people are very poor here and don’t have many books.” she added, “Not all kids can buy books.”
I asked nine-year-old Nilton whether he liked his laptop. “Sí!” he replied enthusiastically, as he 34)toted the computer home from school every weekend. It has no electricity, but the laptops can be 35)charged at school, and a charge lasts four to eight hours. Asked about his typical after-school routine, Nilton replied, “First I have lunch, then I change my clothes, then I play with my laptop.” The boy’s father, a 48-year-old who 36)tends a small farm of potatoes and corn, watched with pride. “He knows how to use the computer—he knows how to use every part of it. Above all, it is more knowledge for him.”
I asked Becerra what Peru wanted for children like Nilton. “Our hope for him is that he will have hope,” he said. “So we are giving them the chance to look for a different future—or the same, but by choice, not by force. These children who didn’t have any expectation about life, other than to become farmers, now can think about being engineers, designing computers, being teachers—as any other child should, worldwide.”
If Peru’s effort succeeds, it will become a model for other nations. Peru now has a chance to help Rosario, Nilton, and 486,498 other kids—and, maybe, someday, the little girl on the traffic island in Lima.
在秘鲁首都利马，一闪而过的街头场景却一直萦绕在我心头。那是一个很小的女孩，可能4岁左右，马路上塞满了车，她就站在路中间那狭窄的安全岛上，被呛人的尘灰废气所包围。女孩的身边有一个女人，我想是她妈妈。那位妈妈是个街头小贩，正在打开一个装满东西的柳条筐。上个世纪70年代制造的大巴和其他破旧的车辆在她们周围呼啸而过，路两旁荒凉而光秃秃的山坡上遍布水泥楼房，那是利马最大的贫民窟。女孩起劲地弯身帮妈妈掏出塑料袋，她那蓬松的棕发猛地滑向前方。
还在想着这个小女孩，我的车已经穿过了一道有持枪保安把守的大铁门，这里是秘鲁教育部，我要见的是奥斯卡•贝斯拉先生，秘鲁教育部负责教育技术的主管。秘鲁教育部将展开名为“每个孩子一台手提电脑”的计划，准备把486500台手提电脑送到秘鲁最贫穷的孩子们手中。这是全球最大规模的OLPC计划。我问贝斯拉，利马贫民窟的孩子能否得到这么一台绿白双色的手提电脑，他回答说：“不行，他们还不够穷。”听到这话，一开始我以为他是在狠着心说笑，但是随后他解释说，生活在利马的孩子通常还能享受到电力，而且（理论上）他们也能接触到各种城市设施，甚至还有机会进网吧。这些手提电脑将被送往9000个小型学校，它们分布在安第斯山脉的偏远地区（从利马出发，坐汽车沿东南面的崎岖山路行驶，得熬12小时才能到达）和亚马逊流域的村庄里（要好几天才能抵达）。与那些地区的孩子的生活水平相比，刚才站在安全岛上的小女孩已算是享有“令人羡慕”的机会。
贝斯拉的话让我明白了在像这样的一个国家里开展OLPC项目所能真正涵盖的范围。世界经济论坛之前对全球儿童教育情况进行过调查，在131个国家中，秘鲁的数学和科学教育是倒数第二名，而其小学教育水平更是倒数第一。亨利•戴尔兹是美国得州大学专门研究秘鲁的政治学者和专家，谈到这个国家收入不均及农村贫困的问题，他说：“长期以来秘鲁存在着巨大的社会断层。从那些省会城市出发，开车朝任何一个方向前进半小时左右，你就会进入秘鲁的乡村。这些地方非常原始落后，电力供应是‘有时’才有的事情。”
手提电脑的到来同时给孩子们带来全新的教学方法。电脑里储存了115部文学作品，其中有古典文学，也有寓言、小说和诗歌。跟电脑配套的闪存盘上还为老师存储了教学导论、阅读理解练习和其他教学软件，如文字处理软件、美术及音乐课程软件，还有一些益智电子游戏，包括国际象棋和数独游戏。这套坚固耐用且低功耗的电脑硬件中还包括一个摄像头，可以用来录像或者拍照片。所有手提电脑都可以上网，而且彼此之间还可以无线传输数据。
这些设备将发到一至六年级的学生手中，这些孩子往往连书本都没有，而他们的老师本身所受的教育也很少。这些电脑并不便宜，为此秘鲁教育部要支付8000万美元，这几乎是该国整个教育预算的1/3（一般用于基础教育设施的投入）。另外教育部还拨出200万美元用作教师培训的经费。贝斯拉形容，这笔开支是秘鲁政府为实现教育现代化所作的专项拨款。“把这些还原为书本派发下去，所需的资金是现在的5倍，”他估算道，“这是我们史上首次触及秘鲁最贫困的那些学校。”
今年3月中旬我访问秘鲁期间，手提电脑的发放工作还未开始。但项目的开展和成效如何，从秘鲁一山区农村的试点学校那儿大概能看出些端倪，那里的孩子们去年就收到了电脑样品供他们试用。
阿拉华是个很穷困的村子，有742名村民。但是后来贝斯拉解释说，这里还“不够穷”，没有资格获得政府首批资助的手提电脑。但它还是被教育部选中作为OLPC样机使用试点。一个原因是它距离利马不算远，每天有破旧的大巴往返两趟；另一个原因是这里已经有互联网设施。
孩子们端坐在桌前，双手连续敲打着那已被他们用旧了的手提电脑的键盘。11岁的凯文•加比诺按照老师的指示将学校的校训用文档形式输入电脑里——“赶早上学”是第一条。10岁的罗萨里奥•卡瑞罗正在用Google搜索自己学校的名字。但是村子里的互联网速度太慢，打开网页需要等待好几分钟。罗萨里奥说自己能利用手提电脑玩游戏、拍照、画图、计算、写文档，还可以发电子邮件给在利马工作的姐姐。
当然，孩子们也要利用电脑完成更加标准化的教学目标。学校校长帕特丽夏•科奈约说，教学大纲里经常要求孩子们在网络上搜索基本信息，例如关于秘鲁当地的动植物。“看着孩子们通过这样的方式学习，我很高兴”她说，“学生们之间能更好地交流，他们会互相讨论自己在网上获取的信息。” 科奈约说，学生们被引导着去接触教育性的网站，其他网站被秘鲁教育部封锁了。在她看来，最大的好处是孩子们能在网络上接触到众多辅导材料和电子书。“我们这里的人都很穷，都没有太多书本。”她补充说，“不是所有学生都买得起书。”
我问一个9岁的孩子尼尔顿是否喜欢自己的电脑，他兴奋地说“是！”每个周末他都把电脑背回家。家里没有电，不过可以回家前在学校给电脑充电，每次充电后电脑可以运行4到8个小时。问他放学后一般都干什么，尼尔顿回答说：“先吃饭，然后换衣服，接着玩电脑。” 尼尔顿的父亲今年48岁，管理着一个出产土豆和玉米的小农场，他骄傲地看着儿子说：“他知道怎么用电脑，每个部分的功能都知道。最重要的是，他学到了更多知识。”
我问贝斯拉，秘鲁政府对于尼尔顿这样的孩子寄予了什么希望。“我们希望孩子会对自己的人生怀有希望，”他说，“因此我们给机会让他们展望一个完全不同的未来——或者是跟父辈一样的生活，不过是出于选择而不是被迫接受。这些孩子原本对于生活没有任何期待，就一心当农民，但是现在他们可以梦想未来成为工程师，设计电脑，当教师，就像世界上其他地方的孩子一样。”
如果秘鲁政府的努力能成功，这将为很多国家树立榜样。秘鲁政府现在有机会帮助罗萨里奥、尼尔顿以及其他486498个孩子。也许有一天那个站在利马街头安全岛上的小女孩也能受惠。
A fleeting roadside scene in 1)Lima, Peru, sticks in my mind. A very little girl, perhaps four, stood on a narrow 2)traffic island 3)bisecting a 4)congested 5)thoroughfare amid choking dust, 6)soot, and fumes. With the girl was a woman I took to be her mother. The mother, a street peddler, was unpacking a 7)crate full of something. Around them roared 1970s-era buses and 8)battered
vehicles, passing below concrete habitations creeping up dismal, 9)denuded hillsides in one of the city’s vast 10)slums. The child was energetically 11)scooping up plastic bags for her mother, her shaggy brown hair flopping forward.
I thought of her as I passed through steel gates manned by armed guards at Peru’s Ministry of
Education to talk to Oscar Becerra, General Director for Educational Technologies. Peru is 12)poised to deliver 486,500 laptops to its poorest children under the One Laptop per Child program. It is the largest such OLPC purchase in the world. I asked Becerra whether children in Lima’s slums would receive the green-and-white machines. “No,” he said. “They are not poor enough.” At first I thought he was making a hard-hearted joke. But he went on to explain that Lima residents generally have electricity and (in theory) access to city services, even Internet cafés. The laptops are headed to 9,000 tiny schools in remote regions in the 13)Andes, an arduous 12-hour bus ride over rocky roads southeast of Lima, and villages in the Amazon region, days away. By the standards of children in those areas, the girl on the traffic island enjoyed enviable opportunity.
What Becerra told me 14)drove home the true scope of what OLPC is trying to do in a country that, according to a survey by the 15)World Economic Forum, ranks 130th out of 131 countries in math and science education, and 131st in the quality of its primary schools. “There is a long-term social 16)cleavage in Peru,” says Henry Dietz, a political scientist and expert on Peru at 17)the University of Texas at Austin, describing the country’s income inequality and rural poverty. “You get out of those provincial capitals, a half-hour in any direction, and you are in rural Peru, and things are pretty primitive. Electricity is a ‘sometimes’ thing.”
And they’re bringing with them a whole new 18)pedagogy. The computers come loaded with 115 books—literature such as classics, fables, novels and poetry. The laptops’ 19)flash drives also store introductions for teachers, reading-comprehension programs and other educational software, a word processor, art and music programs, and games, including chess and 20)Sudoku. The 21)rugged, low-power hardware includes a camera that can capture video or still images. The computers are Internet ready and can wirelessly relay data to one another.
These tools will land in the hands of first through sixth graders who in many cases never even had books—and whose teachers themselves had little education.
They will not come cheap; Peru is spending about $80 million on the laptops—nearly a third of the education budget normally available for 22)capital expenditures—plus about $2 million for teacher training. Becerra characterized the sum as a special 23)appropriation meant to bring schools up to date. “To distribute all these books would cost five times the cost of the machines,” he estimates. “We are reaching the poorest schools in Peru for the first time in history.”
When I visited Peru in mid-March, distribution of the laptops had not yet begun. But a clue to how the effort might 24)fare can be found in a Peruvian mountain-farming village where, last year, 25)prototypes were handed out to kids in a 26)trial run.
27)Arahuay is a poor village of 742 residents. But as Becerra explained later, it is also “not poor enough” to 28)warrant laptops under the national 29)rollout. Nevertheless, it was here that the Ministry of Education decided to test a 30)preproduction model of the OLPC machines. Arahuay is relatively handy to Lima (battered buses make two trips daily), and it has a pre-existing Internet connection.
The children were at their desks, 31)pecking away at their now-battered laptops. Kevin Gabino, 11, was following a teacher’s instructions to type a statement of the school’s 32)values into a text file—Be early to school—topped the list. Rosario Carrillo, 10, was performing a Google search for the school’s name, but the town’s Internet connection was so slow that the wait dragged into minutes. Rosario said she uses the laptop to play games, take pictures, draw, perform calculations, write documents, and send e-mails to her elder sister, who works in Lima.
Of course, the kids need to use computers for more standard educational pursuits as well. The school’s principal, Patricia Cornejo, said that assignments often require students to search the Web for basic information, such as facts about local flora and 33)fauna. “I am happy because I see how the children learn,” she said. “The communication between the students is better. They talk to each other about things they saw on the Internet.” Students are directed to educational Web pages; some other sites have been blocked by the ministry, Cornejo said. But one of the biggest benefits she sees is the possibility of access to instructional materials and digital books. “The people are very poor here and don’t have many books.” she added, “Not all kids can buy books.”
I asked nine-year-old Nilton whether he liked his laptop. “Sí!” he replied enthusiastically, as he 34)toted the computer home from school every weekend. It has no electricity, but the laptops can be 35)charged at school, and a charge lasts four to eight hours. Asked about his typical after-school routine, Nilton replied, “First I have lunch, then I change my clothes, then I play with my laptop.” The boy’s father, a 48-year-old who 36)tends a small farm of potatoes and corn, watched with pride. “He knows how to use the computer—he knows how to use every part of it. Above all, it is more knowledge for him.”
I asked Becerra what Peru wanted for children like Nilton. “Our hope for him is that he will have hope,” he said. “So we are giving them the chance to look for a different future—or the same, but by choice, not by force. These children who didn’t have any expectation about life, other than to become farmers, now can think about being engineers, designing computers, being teachers—as any other child should, worldwide.”
If Peru’s effort succeeds, it will become a model for other nations. Peru now has a chance to help Rosario, Nilton, and 486,498 other kids—and, maybe, someday, the little girl on the traffic island in Lima.
在秘鲁首都利马，一闪而过的街头场景却一直萦绕在我心头。那是一个很小的女孩，可能4岁左右，马路上塞满了车，她就站在路中间那狭窄的安全岛上，被呛人的尘灰废气所包围。女孩的身边有一个女人，我想是她妈妈。那位妈妈是个街头小贩，正在打开一个装满东西的柳条筐。上个世纪70年代制造的大巴和其他破旧的车辆在她们周围呼啸而过，路两旁荒凉而光秃秃的山坡上遍布水泥楼房，那是利马最大的贫民窟。女孩起劲地弯身帮妈妈掏出塑料袋，她那蓬松的棕发猛地滑向前方。
还在想着这个小女孩，我的车已经穿过了一道有持枪保安把守的大铁门，这里是秘鲁教育部，我要见的是奥斯卡•贝斯拉先生，秘鲁教育部负责教育技术的主管。秘鲁教育部将展开名为“每个孩子一台手提电脑”的计划，准备把486500台手提电脑送到秘鲁最贫穷的孩子们手中。这是全球最大规模的OLPC计划。我问贝斯拉，利马贫民窟的孩子能否得到这么一台绿白双色的手提电脑，他回答说：“不行，他们还不够穷。”听到这话，一开始我以为他是在狠着心说笑，但是随后他解释说，生活在利马的孩子通常还能享受到电力，而且（理论上）他们也能接触到各种城市设施，甚至还有机会进网吧。这些手提电脑将被送往9000个小型学校，它们分布在安第斯山脉的偏远地区（从利马出发，坐汽车沿东南面的崎岖山路行驶，得熬12小时才能到达）和亚马逊流域的村庄里（要好几天才能抵达）。与那些地区的孩子的生活水平相比，刚才站在安全岛上的小女孩已算是享有“令人羡慕”的机会。
贝斯拉的话让我明白了在像这样的一个国家里开展OLPC项目所能真正涵盖的范围。世界经济论坛之前对全球儿童教育情况进行过调查，在131个国家中，秘鲁的数学和科学教育是倒数第二名，而其小学教育水平更是倒数第一。亨利•戴尔兹是美国得州大学专门研究秘鲁的政治学者和专家，谈到这个国家收入不均及农村贫困的问题，他说：“长期以来秘鲁存在着巨大的社会断层。从那些省会城市出发，开车朝任何一个方向前进半小时左右，你就会进入秘鲁的乡村。这些地方非常原始落后，电力供应是‘有时’才有的事情。”
手提电脑的到来同时给孩子们带来全新的教学方法。电脑里储存了115部文学作品，其中有古典文学，也有寓言、小说和诗歌。跟电脑配套的闪存盘上还为老师存储了教学导论、阅读理解练习和其他教学软件，如文字处理软件、美术及音乐课程软件，还有一些益智电子游戏，包括国际象棋和数独游戏。这套坚固耐用且低功耗的电脑硬件中还包括一个摄像头，可以用来录像或者拍照片。所有手提电脑都可以上网，而且彼此之间还可以无线传输数据。
这些设备将发到一至六年级的学生手中，这些孩子往往连书本都没有，而他们的老师本身所受的教育也很少。这些电脑并不便宜，为此秘鲁教育部要支付8000万美元，这几乎是该国整个教育预算的1/3（一般用于基础教育设施的投入）。另外教育部还拨出200万美元用作教师培训的经费。贝斯拉形容，这笔开支是秘鲁政府为实现教育现代化所作的专项拨款。“把这些还原为书本派发下去，所需的资金是现在的5倍，”他估算道，“这是我们史上首次触及秘鲁最贫困的那些学校。”
今年3月中旬我访问秘鲁期间，手提电脑的发放工作还未开始。但项目的开展和成效如何，从秘鲁一山区农村的试点学校那儿大概能看出些端倪，那里的孩子们去年就收到了电脑样品供他们试用。
阿拉华是个很穷困的村子，有742名村民。但是后来贝斯拉解释说，这里还“不够穷”，没有资格获得政府首批资助的手提电脑。但它还是被教育部选中作为OLPC样机使用试点。一个原因是它距离利马不算远，每天有破旧的大巴往返两趟；另一个原因是这里已经有互联网设施。
孩子们端坐在桌前，双手连续敲打着那已被他们用旧了的手提电脑的键盘。11岁的凯文•加比诺按照老师的指示将学校的校训用文档形式输入电脑里——“赶早上学”是第一条。10岁的罗萨里奥•卡瑞罗正在用Google搜索自己学校的名字。但是村子里的互联网速度太慢，打开网页需要等待好几分钟。罗萨里奥说自己能利用手提电脑玩游戏、拍照、画图、计算、写文档，还可以发电子邮件给在利马工作的姐姐。
当然，孩子们也要利用电脑完成更加标准化的教学目标。学校校长帕特丽夏•科奈约说，教学大纲里经常要求孩子们在网络上搜索基本信息，例如关于秘鲁当地的动植物。“看着孩子们通过这样的方式学习，我很高兴”她说，“学生们之间能更好地交流，他们会互相讨论自己在网上获取的信息。” 科奈约说，学生们被引导着去接触教育性的网站，其他网站被秘鲁教育部封锁了。在她看来，最大的好处是孩子们能在网络上接触到众多辅导材料和电子书。“我们这里的人都很穷，都没有太多书本。”她补充说，“不是所有学生都买得起书。”
我问一个9岁的孩子尼尔顿是否喜欢自己的电脑，他兴奋地说“是！”每个周末他都把电脑背回家。家里没有电，不过可以回家前在学校给电脑充电，每次充电后电脑可以运行4到8个小时。问他放学后一般都干什么，尼尔顿回答说：“先吃饭，然后换衣服，接着玩电脑。” 尼尔顿的父亲今年48岁，管理着一个出产土豆和玉米的小农场，他骄傲地看着儿子说：“他知道怎么用电脑，每个部分的功能都知道。最重要的是，他学到了更多知识。”
我问贝斯拉，秘鲁政府对于尼尔顿这样的孩子寄予了什么希望。“我们希望孩子会对自己的人生怀有希望，”他说，“因此我们给机会让他们展望一个完全不同的未来——或者是跟父辈一样的生活，不过是出于选择而不是被迫接受。这些孩子原本对于生活没有任何期待，就一心当农民，但是现在他们可以梦想未来成为工程师，设计电脑，当教师，就像世界上其他地方的孩子一样。”
如果秘鲁政府的努力能成功，这将为很多国家树立榜样。秘鲁政府现在有机会帮助罗萨里奥、尼尔顿以及其他486498个孩子。也许有一天那个站在利马街头安全岛上的小女孩也能受惠。