“每個孩子一臺手提電腦”（One Laptop per Child，簡稱OLPC）是個旨在通過提供廉價筆記本電腦，幫助發(fā)展中國家兒童享受信息化時代教育的慈善計劃。在秘魯，超過48萬臺手提電腦正被送往世界最窮困的地方，為部分全球受教育水平最低的孩子帶來全新的學習體驗。

A fleeting roadside scene in 1)Lima， Peru， sticks in my mind. A very little girl， perhaps four， stood on a narrow 2)traffic island 3)bisecting a 4)congested 5)thoroughfare amid choking dust， 6)soot， and fumes. With the girl was a woman I took to be her mother. The mother， a street peddler， was unpacking a 7)crate full of something. Around them roared 1970s-era buses and 8)battered

vehicles， passing below concrete habitations creeping up dismal， 9)denuded hillsides in one of the city’s vast 10)slums. The child was energetically 11)scooping up plastic bags for her mother， her shaggy brown hair flopping forward.

I thought of her as I passed through steel gates manned by armed guards at Peru’s Ministry of

Education to talk to Oscar Becerra， General Director for Educational Technologies. Peru is 12)poised to deliver 486，500 laptops to its poorest children under the One Laptop per Child program. It is the largest such OLPC purchase in the world. I asked Becerra whether children in Lima’s slums would receive the green-and-white machines. “No，” he said. “They are not poor enough.” At first I thought he was making a hard-hearted joke. But he went on to explain that Lima residents generally have electricity and (in theory) access to city services， even Internet cafés. The laptops are headed to 9，000 tiny schools in remote regions in the 13)Andes， an arduous 12-hour bus ride over rocky roads southeast of Lima， and villages in the Amazon region， days away. By the standards of children in those areas， the girl on the traffic island enjoyed enviable opportunity.

What Becerra told me 14)drove home the true scope of what OLPC is trying to do in a country that， according to a survey by the 15)World Economic Forum， ranks 130th out of 131 countries in math and science education， and 131st in the quality of its primary schools. “There is a long-term social 16)cleavage in Peru，” says Henry Dietz， a political scientist and expert on Peru at 17)the University of Texas at Austin， describing the country’s income inequality and rural poverty. “You get out of those provincial capitals， a half-hour in any direction， and you are in rural Peru， and things are pretty primitive. Electricity is a ‘sometimes’ thing.”

And they’re bringing with them a whole new 18)pedagogy. The computers come loaded with 115 books—literature such as classics， fables， novels and poetry. The laptops’ 19)flash drives also store introductions for teachers， reading-comprehension programs and other educational software， a word processor， art and music programs， and games， including chess and 20)Sudoku. The 21)rugged， low-power hardware includes a camera that can capture video or still images. The computers are Internet ready and can wirelessly relay data to one another.

These tools will land in the hands of first through sixth graders who in many cases never even had books—and whose teachers themselves had little education.

They will not come cheap; Peru is spending about $80 million on the laptops—nearly a third of the education budget normally available for 22)capital expenditures—plus about $2 million for teacher training. Becerra characterized the sum as a special 23)appropriation meant to bring schools up to date. “To distribute all these books would cost five times the cost of the machines，” he estimates. “We are reaching the poorest schools in Peru for the first time in history.”

When I visited Peru in mid-March， distribution of the laptops had not yet begun. But a clue to how the effort might 24)fare can be found in a Peruvian mountain-farming village where， last year， 25)prototypes were handed out to kids in a 26)trial run.

27)Arahuay is a poor village of 742 residents. But as Becerra explained later， it is also “not poor enough” to 28)warrant laptops under the national 29)rollout. Nevertheless， it was here that the Ministry of Education decided to test a 30)preproduction model of the OLPC machines. Arahuay is relatively handy to Lima (battered buses make two trips daily)， and it has a pre-existing Internet connection.

The children were at their desks， 31)pecking away at their now-battered laptops. Kevin Gabino， 11， was following a teacher’s instructions to type a statement of the school’s 32)values into a text file—Be early to school—topped the list. Rosario Carrillo， 10， was performing a Google search for the school’s name， but the town’s Internet connection was so slow that the wait dragged into minutes. Rosario said she uses the laptop to play games， take pictures， draw， perform calculations， write documents， and send e-mails to her elder sister， who works in Lima.

Of course， the kids need to use computers for more standard educational pursuits as well. The school’s principal， Patricia Cornejo， said that assignments often require students to search the Web for basic information， such as facts about local flora and 33)fauna. “I am happy because I see how the children learn，” she said. “The communication between the students is better. They talk to each other about things they saw on the Internet.” Students are directed to educational Web pages; some other sites have been blocked by the ministry， Cornejo said. But one of the biggest benefits she sees is the possibility of access to instructional materials and digital books. “The people are very poor here and don’t have many books.” she added， “Not all kids can buy books.”

I asked nine-year-old Nilton whether he liked his laptop. “Sí!” he replied enthusiastically， as he 34)toted the computer home from school every weekend. It has no electricity， but the laptops can be 35)charged at school， and a charge lasts four to eight hours. Asked about his typical after-school routine， Nilton replied， “First I have lunch， then I change my clothes， then I play with my laptop.” The boy’s father， a 48-year-old who 36)tends a small farm of potatoes and corn， watched with pride. “He knows how to use the computer—he knows how to use every part of it. Above all， it is more knowledge for him.”

I asked Becerra what Peru wanted for children like Nilton. “Our hope for him is that he will have hope，” he said. “So we are giving them the chance to look for a different future—or the same， but by choice， not by force. These children who didn’t have any expectation about life， other than to become farmers， now can think about being engineers， designing computers， being teachers—as any other child should， worldwide.”

If Peru’s effort succeeds， it will become a model for other nations. Peru now has a chance to help Rosario， Nilton， and 486，498 other kids—and， maybe， someday， the little girl on the traffic island in Lima.

在秘魯首都利馬，一閃而過的街頭場景卻一直縈繞在我心頭。那是一個很小的女孩，可能4歲左右，馬路上塞滿了車，她就站在路中間那狹窄的安全島上，被嗆人的塵灰廢氣所包圍。女孩的身邊有一個女人，我想是她媽媽。那位媽媽是個街頭小販，正在打開一個裝滿東西的柳條筐。上個世紀70年代制造的大巴和其他破舊的車輛在她們周圍呼嘯而過，路兩旁荒涼而光禿禿的山坡上遍布水泥樓房，那是利馬最大的貧民窟。女孩起勁地彎身幫媽媽掏出塑料袋，她那蓬松的棕發(fā)猛地滑向前方。

還在想著這個小女孩，我的車已經(jīng)穿過了一道有持槍保安把守的大鐵門，這里是秘魯教育部，我要見的是奧斯卡#8226;貝斯拉先生，秘魯教育部負責教育技術的主管。秘魯教育部將展開名為“每個孩子一臺手提電腦”的計劃，準備把486500臺手提電腦送到秘魯最貧窮的孩子們手中。這是全球最大規(guī)模的OLPC計劃。我問貝斯拉，利馬貧民窟的孩子能否得到這么一臺綠白雙色的手提電腦，他回答說：“不行，他們還不夠窮?！甭牭竭@話，一開始我以為他是在狠著心說笑，但是隨后他解釋說，生活在利馬的孩子通常還能享受到電力，而且（理論上）他們也能接觸到各種城市設施，甚至還有機會進網(wǎng)吧。這些手提電腦將被送往9000個小型學校，它們分布在安第斯山脈的偏遠地區(qū)（從利馬出發(fā)，坐汽車沿東南面的崎嶇山路行駛，得熬12小時才能到達）和亞馬遜流域的村莊里（要好幾天才能抵達）。與那些地區(qū)的孩子的生活水平相比，剛才站在安全島上的小女孩已算是享有“令人羨慕”的機會。

貝斯拉的話讓我明白了在像這樣的一個國家里開展OLPC項目所能真正涵蓋的范圍。世界經(jīng)濟論壇之前對全球兒童教育情況進行過調查，在131個國家中，秘魯?shù)臄?shù)學和科學教育是倒數(shù)第二名，而其小學教育水平更是倒數(shù)第一。亨利#8226;戴爾茲是美國得州大學專門研究秘魯?shù)恼螌W者和專家，談到這個國家收入不均及農村貧困的問題，他說：“長期以來秘魯存在著巨大的社會斷層。從那些省會城市出發(fā)，開車朝任何一個方向前進半小時左右，你就會進入秘魯?shù)泥l(xiāng)村。這些地方非常原始落后，電力供應是‘有時’才有的事情?！?/p>

手提電腦的到來同時給孩子們帶來全新的教學方法。電腦里儲存了115部文學作品，其中有古典文學，也有寓言、小說和詩歌。跟電腦配套的閃存盤上還為老師存儲了教學導論、閱讀理解練習和其他教學軟件，如文字處理軟件、美術及音樂課程軟件，還有一些益智電子游戲，包括國際象棋和數(shù)獨游戲。這套堅固耐用且低功耗的電腦硬件中還包括一個攝像頭，可以用來錄像或者拍照片。所有手提電腦都可以上網(wǎng)，而且彼此之間還可以無線傳輸數(shù)據(jù)。

這些設備將發(fā)到一至六年級的學生手中，這些孩子往往連書本都沒有，而他們的老師本身所受的教育也很少。這些電腦并不便宜，為此秘魯教育部要支付8000萬美元，這幾乎是該國整個教育預算的1/3（一般用于基礎教育設施的投入）。另外教育部還撥出200萬美元用作教師培訓的經(jīng)費。貝斯拉形容，這筆開支是秘魯政府為實現(xiàn)教育現(xiàn)代化所作的專項撥款?！鞍堰@些還原為書本派發(fā)下去，所需的資金是現(xiàn)在的5倍，”他估算道，“這是我們史上首次觸及秘魯最貧困的那些學校?！?/p>

今年3月中旬我訪問秘魯期間，手提電腦的發(fā)放工作還未開始。但項目的開展和成效如何，從秘魯一山區(qū)農村的試點學校那兒大概能看出些端倪，那里的孩子們去年就收到了電腦樣品供他們試用。

阿拉華是個很窮困的村子，有742名村民。但是后來貝斯拉解釋說，這里還“不夠窮”，沒有資格獲得政府首批資助的手提電腦。但它還是被教育部選中作為OLPC樣機使用試點。一個原因是它距離利馬不算遠，每天有破舊的大巴往返兩趟；另一個原因是這里已經(jīng)有互聯(lián)網(wǎng)設施。

孩子們端坐在桌前，雙手連續(xù)敲打著那已被他們用舊了的手提電腦的鍵盤。11歲的凱文#8226;加比諾按照老師的指示將學校的校訓用文檔形式輸入電腦里——“趕早上學”是第一條。10歲的羅薩里奧#8226;卡瑞羅正在用Google搜索自己學校的名字。但是村子里的互聯(lián)網(wǎng)速度太慢，打開網(wǎng)頁需要等待好幾分鐘。羅薩里奧說自己能利用手提電腦玩游戲、拍照、畫圖、計算、寫文檔，還可以發(fā)電子郵件給在利馬工作的姐姐。

當然，孩子們也要利用電腦完成更加標準化的教學目標。學校校長帕特麗夏#8226;科奈約說，教學大綱里經(jīng)常要求孩子們在網(wǎng)絡上搜索基本信息，例如關于秘魯當?shù)氐膭又参?。“看著孩子們通過這樣的方式學習，我很高興”她說，“學生們之間能更好地交流，他們會互相討論自己在網(wǎng)上獲取的信息。” 科奈約說，學生們被引導著去接觸教育性的網(wǎng)站，其他網(wǎng)站被秘魯教育部封鎖了。在她看來，最大的好處是孩子們能在網(wǎng)絡上接觸到眾多輔導材料和電子書。“我們這里的人都很窮，都沒有太多書本?！彼a充說，“不是所有學生都買得起書。”

我問一個9歲的孩子尼爾頓是否喜歡自己的電腦，他興奮地說“是！”每個周末他都把電腦背回家。家里沒有電，不過可以回家前在學校給電腦充電，每次充電后電腦可以運行4到8個小時。問他放學后一般都干什么，尼爾頓回答說：“先吃飯，然后換衣服，接著玩電腦。” 尼爾頓的父親今年48歲，管理著一個出產(chǎn)土豆和玉米的小農場，他驕傲地看著兒子說：“他知道怎么用電腦，每個部分的功能都知道。最重要的是，他學到了更多知識?！?/p>

我問貝斯拉，秘魯政府對于尼爾頓這樣的孩子寄予了什么希望。“我們希望孩子會對自己的人生懷有希望，”他說，“因此我們給機會讓他們展望一個完全不同的未來——或者是跟父輩一樣的生活，不過是出于選擇而不是被迫接受。這些孩子原本對于生活沒有任何期待，就一心當農民，但是現(xiàn)在他們可以夢想未來成為工程師，設計電腦，當教師，就像世界上其他地方的孩子一樣。”

如果秘魯政府的努力能成功，這將為很多國家樹立榜樣。秘魯政府現(xiàn)在有機會幫助羅薩里奧、尼爾頓以及其他486498個孩子。也許有一天那個站在利馬街頭安全島上的小女孩也能受惠。