On 12 December 2012 21:31, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com> wrote:
http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-e…
A village of illiterate Ethiopian children given OLPC tablets with
software on taught themselves to read from the gadgets, so Nicholas
Negroponte claims.
Well the claims can safely be assumed to be false. Even as far back as
colonial times Huntley & Palmers packaging ended up everywhere.
Europeans had this weird habit of printing stuff on useful materials
like iron and steel so it tended to move around.
Depending on how you view the Rongorongo situation its possible that
people can derive writing from very limited contact and the Cherokee
syllabary can be considered further evidence but I doubt that is what
is going on in this case.
--
geni