{"pk":2709,"title":"Green Machines and Constructionism: The Rhetoric and Reality of One Laptop Per Child in Sub-Saharan Africa","subtitle":null,"abstract":"This article is an analysis and literature review of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program within the education sector, particularly the deployment of X-O laptops in the continent of Africa. While the project was created to address a specific issue - the digital divide - and undoubtedly had a significant impact in the field of technology, it has specific limitations: it reproduces a Western ideology of individualistic technology use and relies on a strict framework which fails to take local needs into consideration. Moreover, research on technology use in education, beyond X-O laptops, has focused mainly on developed countries. The article concludes that technology is not the panacea for education as envisioned by OLPC; moreover, its rigid mission goals and lack of independent studies ultimately hinder its aim of reducing the digital divide.","language":"en","license":null,"keywords":[{"word":"education technology"},{"word":"developing countries"},{"word":"sub-Saharan Africa"}],"section":"Articles","is_remote":true,"remote_url":"https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8g01s13r","frozenauthors":[{"first_name":"Richard","middle_name":"","last_name":"Bamattre","name_suffix":"","institution":"None currently; alumni of UCLA GSEIS, Social Science and Comparative Education","department":"None"}],"date_submitted":"2013-12-04T14:51:06-05:00","date_accepted":"2013-12-04T14:51:06-05:00","date_published":"2014-06-18T03:00:00-04:00","render_galley":null,"galleys":[{"label":"","type":"","path":"https://journalpub.escholarship.org/gseis_interactions/article/2709/galley/1609/download/"}]}