One Laptop Per Child

When I first saw this I thought it must be a joke. But no, it's completely serious. For just $400 you can give a laptop in Africa (and get one yourself). Here's a blurb from the website:

"The mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is to empower the children of developing countries to learn by providing one connected laptop to every school-age child. In order to accomplish our goal, we need people who believe in what we’re doing and want to help make education for the world’s children a priority, not a privilege."

Ah yes, the laptop--the staple of education. How did we ever learn with it? Seriously, I applaud them for trying to do something, but is this really the right way? My children don't have laptops and I imagine they won't have one for a long time. Will the children of Africa suddenly be educated if they have a laptop? I think our resources might be better directed toward training teachers in Africa, or fighting some of the factors that distract kids away from education like AIDS and starvation. Connectivity in comparison seems a tad lower of the list.