Will this machine really do anything to improve education in developing countries? Photograph: William B. Plowman/AP
The vision of giving children in the developing world laptops to transform their educational prospects, promoted by One Laptop Per Child, has inspired some and exasperated others.
Now after years of not quite getting the idea off the ground OLPC founder Nick Negroponte has come with the idea of Get one, give one (G1G1) - you buy one of the laptops and the company then gives one to a child in a developing country.
The move has generated enthusiasm from bloggers like Ethan Zuckerman while in Scotland one local education authority has apparently inquired whether the American-based OLPC scheme would be compatible with the Scottish Schools Digital Network, known as Glow which aims to link every school in the country and provide instant, 'anytime anywhere' access to resources for teachers and learners.
But while there has been plenty of techie argument about the laptops - will the wind-up mechanism to power it in areas without electricity actually work? for instance - there are more fundamental critics.
Lee Felsenstein, for instance, gives a thoughtful critique of the OLPC scheme, arguing that a top down approach that does not take account of local cultural and social attitudes is destined to fail.
Can it work?
