The Charisma Machine by Morgan G. Ames

Author:Morgan G. Ames [Ames, Morgan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: media lab; technology education; education reform; utopianism; cultural transfer; XO laptop; utopian design; charistmatic technology
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2019-10-04T00:00:00+00:00

Precocious Youth, Supportive Parents, and Environment

Manuelo, Elisa, Isabel, and Nelson were fairly unique at their respective schools, but in 2010, I found multiple students engaging in more creative pursuits on their laptops at a parochial school called Futuro, which was sponsored by an evangelical church in Texas. Futuro followed an American school schedule (seven in the morning to three in the afternoon) and used (evangelically themed) textbooks for lessons—a contrast to other Caacupé schools, which ran two four-hour school days for two different student bodies and generally had few or no textbooks. English lessons were also part of the curriculum, though the level was very rudimentary: Futuro students would manage a “Hello!” and perhaps a “How are you?” with me before slipping back into Spanish. While students did not have to pay to go to Futuro, they did have to score well on an entrance exam—a practice that favors those with the means to prepare. As a result, Futuro attracted many of Caacupé’s more privileged children, whose families had the time and resources to not only have their children take the test but to help them score well.

Almost all of the families of Futuro students who used their XOs more creatively, like Manuelo’s, Elisa’s, and Isabel’s, already had computers at home when they received an XO laptop from Paraguay Educa—though this was a rarity in Caacupé more generally. Moreover, many of them had caretakers, like María and like Isabel’s aunt, who encouraged critical thought regarding media consumption. Thus, reflective computer use was already a part of their lives, and the XO was more likely to fit into those existing practices. For instance, Rosa, the mother of a set of twins in sixth grade who were trying to recreate the Mario Bros. game one scene at a time in Scratch on their home computer, had told her children that she did not want them spending their time playing video games at home—but they were allowed to make them. An articulate former community organizer who made a living as a seamstress, Rosa explained that though she did not have time to learn about computers herself, she still monitored her children’s usage and would have them teach her how to use the laptop so she could stay on top of what they were doing. “I observe a positive change in them” as a result of the program, she told me. “They’re more creative; they’re always creating things and are curious and want to investigate, and to me this is very good. I like it when they’re curious.” At the same time, she did not want her children to get too wrapped up in the computer. An avid environmentalist, she often mentioned wanting to cultivate in her children a connection with nature, something she thought that too many Paraguayans lacked. “I think the world of the computer is constructive and educational, but I believe in contact with nature, in going outside to play, getting dirty. ... They need to know there are other important things in life.

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