April 2, 2014

“The cost of making computers is falling rapidly. Today a very good educational computer could be manufactured for a thousand dollars. By the end of this decade a very very much more powerful computer will cost only a few hundred dollars. Thus the cost of supplying each child with a personal computer would be a relatively small percentage of the total cost of education. I’m sure that it is quite plausible that by the end of the decade it would be as little as two or three percent of what it would cost to carry out today’s traditional education. Thus the effectiveness factor does not have to be very large in order for the strategy of a computer per child to be cost effective.”

Papert. S. (1980). Paper for the President’s [Carter] Commission for a National Agenda for the 80’s. June 1980.


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