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[-] nslatz@lemmy.world 70 points 5 months ago

There was a story years ago about some scientists who dropped a box of tablets into a village somewhere that had no previous contact with modern tech. They went back some time later, and the kids had figured out, not only how to use them, but had networked them too. I wonder what ever happened with that, or if it was even true? I suppose I should google it.

[-] nslatz@lemmy.world 48 points 5 months ago
[-] DessertStorms@kbin.social 30 points 5 months ago

“We left the boxes in the village. Closed. Taped shut. No instruction, no human being. I thought, the kids will play with the boxes!

Jfc, the racism oozing from that statement.. 🤢

[-] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 31 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

What happens if you drop off a thousand Motorola Xoom tablet PCs in a village with kids who have never even seen a printed word? Within five months, they’ll have taught themselves to customize the software, reactivate disabled features and, perhaps, start down the path of learning to read.

Even this first paragraph by the author. These kids clearly already know how to fucking read, there’s written words in the background of the photos, including stuff that looks written by a child.

[-] DessertStorms@kbin.social 19 points 5 months ago* (last edited 5 months ago)

Yeah, the whole framing is just so white-saviour/noble savage esque..

E: and before I get a "well how are they supposed to frame it??!1" - "kids given tablets for the first time easily learn not only how to use them, but personalise them too". Simple.

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 8 points 5 months ago

The first bolded part, that's just lol. But for the second, the youth literacy rate there is 55%. It's low enough that it might not be that horrible of an assumption. But combined with the first part, yeah...

[-] LemmysMum@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago
[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 2 points 5 months ago

Not sure what the US has to do with this. But I guess if you wanted to compare the literacy rates, Ethiopia is at 51.8 adult literacy rate and the US at 86%.

Not sure what we get out of that comparison though.

[-] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 5 months ago

That line reads like some Boomer who has no idea how computers work. Doing what they did to those tablets required the prior ability to read.

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

whoever dropped off those tablets and wrote this article should probably try it again on North Sentinel Island. I think that's the effect they were hoping for.

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

I think it was about the kids never having seen computers, so the tablets would be meaningless to them.

And boxes are fun

[-] jaybone@lemmy.world 3 points 5 months ago

My cat likes to play with boxes.

But she likes to play on the keyboard too… 🤔

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 32 points 5 months ago

a village with no modern technology. How did they keep the tablets charged?

[-] Interstellar_1@pawb.social 12 points 5 months ago
[-] Interstellar_1@pawb.social 17 points 5 months ago
[-] princessnorah@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 5 months ago

I wouldn’t even count early computers as modern technology. If it took up an entire room, that’s not really modern.

[-] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 5 points 5 months ago

Ethiopian village running a mainframe

[-] OneCardboardBox 4 points 5 months ago

Every morning at 4am, the village children wake up. With swatters in hand, they race into the memory banks, ready to debug the relays before the morning batch job is run.

[-] LemmyKnowsBest@lemmy.world 2 points 5 months ago

https://feddit.uk/comment/6006965 They were given solar chargers with the tablets.

this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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