Donkeys and Elephants and Delegates,oh my!
Check out the most popular
One Laptop per Child project update
0xdeadbeef.com — Christopher Blizzard wrote up a long update on where they are in the software and hardware for the Linux-based OLPC project. They've gotten a lot done, but he doesn't think that's been communicated to the outside world very well. So, for the first time, here's an update of where they are. Hopefully he'll be able to do this on a regular basis.
jrepin- 384 diggs
- digg it
- Langford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4It's surprising to think they are going to get so much out of what is supposed to be a $100 dollar system.
- dancpsu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2$100 (which is not even the real price) is still too expensive. The technological classroom is not going to develop out of laptops, it's going to develop from the "clicker" systems.
A classroom doesn't need $130 laptops per kid that replaces $10 books (marked up to $80 by textbook publishers). It needs a system to help the inefficiencies in the classroom. Worksheets, busy-work, classroom interaction through hand-raising, and classroom management techniques are all horrid inefficiencies in the classroom that could be sped up 100-fold with portable computers.
Textbooks are already great at what they do. A pencil and paper make a much better learning tool than a computer. For grading, and feedback however, textbooks and paper are horrible. Computers are far better, and a $20 RF remote (with a tiny LCD feedback screen) solves the biggest problems without the extra complexity of a full laptop. - Langford, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I work as a technology specialist at a university, and it's my job to promote technology use, but between you, me, and the lamppost, I mostly agree with you. I can see some very good uses for computers in school, but for the most practical uses textbooks are far superior. In the end quality education depends on good teachers and properly motivated students. A lot of it is just politically motivated. The only way I could really the laptops replacing textbooks, is in a situation where the systems wee packed with a bunch of public domain textbooks. I can't speak for everyplace, but for some reason educators around here seem to fear anything free, so it would be a hard sell around here.
As far as a village in a far away nation is concerned, they may have more of a legitimate use for these systems. That's assuming they have Internet connectivity, because it will allow them to gain access to teachers and courses remotely in real time that they may not have access to locally. Without that real-time connectivity however, it may as well be books.
The clicker system you mention sounds a lot like the idea behind scantrons. I can envision a few ways it would be better and worse than it. - SamuelRye, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@dancpsu
The OLPC is not only meant for the classroom! One of the issues that was brought up by the designers was using the 2B1 as a communication tool. Being connected to the internet is pretty critical, but even without the internet these devices can form a network. In many places there are no doctors or nurses, so if someone gets hurt they have no one to help. I hear cell phones are changing this, but they are still highly dependant on existing infrastructure (or satellites). the OLPCs will form a network and allow villages to communicate with eachother instantly. There is a hell of a lot more to this device than e-books.
- dancpsu, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2$100 (which is not even the real price) is still too expensive. The technological classroom is not going to develop out of laptops, it's going to develop from the "clicker" systems.
- tsaylor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5good to know that python is in there.
- dattaway, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6That's a lot of work being done to make a good system. I wonder how many patent holders are going to want to steal that hard work from them and claim it as theirs.
- totorototoro, on 10/12/2007, -4/+2Dugg just for avoiding the bogus "$100 laptop" tag they still try to pin on it.
- JrGhoull, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3we may not need this thing quiet as much as the people in the 3rd world countries do...but we could certainly use this quiet a bit. the public school system is underfunded and overcrowded. with something like this in place and used just right, it could change everything!
- 1911wolf, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2They need to step it up several notches. More and more CA schools will be handing out new Macbooks to students this year.
- ajslugger83, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0I don't think its a good idea to give every child fully functional laptops, I can just picture the children in the classroom surfing the net or playing games instead of paying attention to what the teacher is saying. This would especially be a problem for children who have adhd. Instead of giving children fully functional laptops I think it would be a better idea to give them devices only capable of word processing such as alphasmarts.
- dancpsu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't even think word-processing is necessarily a good thing for students before college. The writing process is something that needs to be internalized and writing by hand forces you to think more about what you write. With modern spell-checkers, grammar checkers, and internet cut-and-paste abilities, laptops in English class may as well be calculators in math class--the student doesn't even have to go through the effort of manually copying from the encyclopedia.
Technology helps in giving students instant feedback on work, research, and questions. Everything else is better done with books and paper.
- dancpsu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I don't even think word-processing is necessarily a good thing for students before college. The writing process is something that needs to be internalized and writing by hand forces you to think more about what you write. With modern spell-checkers, grammar checkers, and internet cut-and-paste abilities, laptops in English class may as well be calculators in math class--the student doesn't even have to go through the effort of manually copying from the encyclopedia.
- popfrogs, on 10/12/2007, -5/+1I think a cooler idea is the one condom one future parent program. Particularly in broke, overpopulated countries. Or the one meal one child program. Seriously, if you don't have running water or anything to eat, how much good will a laptop do you?
- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh FFS, when will you people understand this - IT'S NOT THAT BLACK AND WHITE!
Jesus, what's wrong with you? It's like saying that everyone in the Western world lives in a palace with servants!
Not everyone in the developing world is in the position you describe. Not everyone is starving to death.
You see, once you get over the short-term problems of disease epidemics and starvation, you need to be able to build up your nation, educate your people and develop. That's the "market", if you will, that these laptops are aimed at. Poor, yes, dying, no.
- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Oh FFS, when will you people understand this - IT'S NOT THAT BLACK AND WHITE!
- dtfinch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you scroll down, you'll see Theo de Raadt (OpenBSD) has a lot to say about their choice of wireless chipset.
- Sabot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6It seems that there is so much negative feedback on a project that hopes to bring low cost laptops to poor people. Hey ***** this is a free market. If people want to work on this type of project, leave them alone and let them roll it out. If you don't like it don't buy it.
I guess it is ok if Apple works on 80 different ipods that do all kinds of crap, but god forbid that someone try to bring tech to countries that don't have a lot of money.
Stop spreading your FUD! - zone, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1it's gonna be 2 years now... by the time they release it they better add better new components or give it a price cut..
- videoCT, on 10/12/2007, -2/+0so let me get this straight - millions of kids around the world and right here at home in the USA go to bed hungry everyday and lack basic health care - but giving them a laptop is a priority? So I guess if we send laptops to African villages they can go online and order take out food?
Where is the "$100 health plan for every child" ?
Where is the "$100 well and water filtration system for every village" ?
Where is the "$100 a week food plan for every family at or below the pverty level" ?
A $100 laptop would be cool, but I would be curious to see sttistics which show laptops make kids do better in school.- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well if you're an irrigation engineer, why don't you go help out with that?
The rest of us are doing our best to help out with things we CAN do, which would appear to be more than you are doing.
There's plenty of organisations working on other aspects, this one isn't. Being geeks, we can help out with technology and communications, rather than medicine, water supplies and so on. If you can help with those things, why not shut the hell up and get to it!
- Flamekebab, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Well if you're an irrigation engineer, why don't you go help out with that?
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2008 —
Content posted by