One Laptop Per Child XO machine as a Tool to Preserve Language and Culture

[Dave Pearson]

"The development team at One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Nepal have been working
hard on developing various learning activities for children using the XO
laptop. A significant area in which they have been making progress has been
in creating activities to help children learn their local dialect. The first
dialect to be setup for use on the XO is Limbu. This is a Tibeto-Burman
language spoken by more than 300,000 people in eastern Nepal as well as
parts of Myanmar, Bhutan and India.

This is a really exciting development and is a positive counter to concerns
that the OLPC project will only serve to homogenise indigenous cultures. In
fact, the project may aid the long term preservation and viability of
minority dialects and culture which are no longer part of the curriculum in
the traditional school teaching models."

http://olpcnepal.blogspot.com/2007/03/xo-as-tool-to-preserve-languageculture
.html 

Dave Pearson