Ask Slashdot: Teaching Typing With Limited Electricity, Computers? 325
An anonymous reader writes "I am tasked with developing a service project to teach students in a Bangladeshi village how to type. The school has about 500 students, 12 computers donated to them in 2006, and a limited electricity supply. The students will be given job placement opportunities at a local firm in the city once they reach a certain proficiency. Therefore, we are trying to teach as many of them typing skills as possible. The problem: limited electricity, limited computers, many kids. I have some additional funding collected through donations. Instead of buying more computers, I am looking for a cost effective way that does not need a steady flow of electricity. I realize that to teach typing, I do not need a computer. I could achieve the same using a keyboard connected to a display. A solar powered calculator is a perfect example of a cheap device which has a numpad for input and an LCD for display. But so far I have not come across a device that has a qwerty keyboard and an LCD to display what's typed. I know there are some gaming keyboards that have LCDs built in but they are quite expensive. I am aiming to build a device that cost below USD 50. I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market. I also considered OLPC but it is double my anticipated budget. Do you have other suggestions?" Considering that (at least in China) sub-$50 Android tablets with capacitive screens are already here, I wish the Alphasmart line was cheaper, but apparently it currently starts at $169.
Did any of you even read the question? (Score:2, Informative)
"I considered using typewriters but they are in limited supply on the market"
" I also considered OLPC but it is double my anticipated budget."
"Do you have other suggestions?"
AlphaSmart (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Typewriter (Score:5, Informative)
My point is: stop being obsessed with technology: anyone in the third world can have a photocopy of a picture of a keyboad, and probably has the motivation to try and learn with it. Once a week, use a real machine to test their progress if you have to. (Yes I have visited third world countries).
You have defined a null set (Score:3, Informative)
You have effectively eliminated all of the commercial solutions with your boundary conditions. You indicate that you don't have reliable power - that means you need a power generation device - or a power storage device - as part of your kit, or a device which does not require external power, but you have ruled out typewriters.
You have $50, total, per piece, into which you would like to provide a monitor of some type. Given that you need a display device, a power supply, and a usable input interface, you have nearly priced yourself out of the market with this parameter alone. To that you need to add a keyboard and an interface (a raspberry pi would work) to the display. But even at the rock bottom price of a Pi, you've in for $30-35 between these two devices.
I suppose if you can come up with a display with a DVI or HDMI input, plus a power supply, for under $20, you can get close. With the world market these days, if you need it to be cheaper than a COTS solution (commercial off the shelf) - you need a different budget or enough units to justify hardware production runs.
Have you considered seeing if Dell will ship you a crate of 6 year old laptops for $40 a piece, and you can throw away or keep for salvage the ones which don't work?
Re:Here's an idea (Score:5, Informative)
That is a myth that the last typewriter factory in the world shut down. They are still very much in use (and demand) in the Third World.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/04/26/worlds-last-typewriter-factory-closes_n_853670.html [huffingtonpost.com]
The very fact that this question is being asked just reeks of stupidity. You just DON'T go straight from stone age to 21st century, especially without electricity. Buy some manual typewriters. C'mon man....
Necron69
Re:Here's an idea (Score:2, Informative)
Some more thoughts for the next stage - moving them onto actual "computers". You might want to looking into re-purpose one or more of the 12 PCs as a *NIX box using your favourite distro (via LiveCD if need be), then running some dumb terminals off it. With an RS-232 port board and a bunch of Wyse terminals you could easily run a whole classroom from a single decently specified server box, or even some more modern terminals that have Ethernet. Dumb terminals are still quite common in India and other countries I've been too in the region, so I'd imagine they wouldn't be too hard or expensive to obtain across the border in Bangladesh. Ask around too - maybe a local company that has upgraded to PCs might have some in a store room they'd be willing to donate for some favourable press... Alternatively, if you can get hold of some extra graphics adapters, monitors and keyboards, you could take a look at this tutorial [linuxgazette.net] that walks you through building a six-headed Linux box - one server, six keyboards & monitors and (more importantly) concurrent users. That's all going to need some power, but a heck of a lot less than an equivalent number of stand-alone PCs.
Re:"One laptop" program may be what you want (Score:4, Informative)