Never mind the technology, where’s the learning?

In a bilateral trade deal between Venezuela and Portugal worth $3bn (£1.66bn) every 6 to 10 year old in Venezuela will get a laptop based on the Intel Classmate, the rival machine to the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) project. Called Magalhães (Magellan), the laptops have built in digital cameras, a broadband internet connection, and a version of Linux developed in Venezuela. Manufacture is in Portugal. Portugal have already earmarked 500,000 of the laptops for their own students in a means-tested scheme which provides the lowest income families with free laptops and those on higher incomes paying $20 and $50 respectively. The Venezuelan roll-out will be the largest government scheme yet to provide laptops for learners.