johnhendron.net: hendron’s digest - a weblog

I have been reading in the mainstream press and blogs now about the OLPC project, the so-called “one laptop per child” initiative. If you don’t know what it is, go read elsewhere.

What’s confusing, tonight I found, is how to get a laptop yourself. They’ll sell you two, you get one (the other is a donation). But their website does not make it clear on how to do this…

The reason I’m commenting on the OLPC project is that I have seen one, I have heard Negroponte talk about it, and I have been asked about obtaining these for our students (or purchasing one for a teacher’s home computer).

Yes, having read something about these; teachers want to buy these $400 machines for their own kids at home.

I feel honored that they’ve come to me for advice. But I am also somewhat disappointed that our teachers and my acquaintances aren’t reading about these things themselves. Do they know how to Google? Likely so, but how often do they “Google”? Are they just too lazy to wade through the commentary and what not, and just want to ask me? Or perhaps, they’ve done some research, but found the answers to their questions too difficult to find due to some poor marketing by OLPC?

I ask them several questions.

• What do you want this to do?
• What do you want your kids to be able to do with it?
• Where will you take it if it breaks?
• Do you want to print?
• How many do you plan to buy?
• Why does your kid need a computer?

No, I don’t ask each and every question, but these are in fact my talking points when the subject comes up.

I think there is a little laziness on the part of some folks not wanting to research this for themselves. Maybe 33%. I think the OLPC could do a much better job at presenting the concept and hardware to the public, and blame them for another 33%. You know, give or take; this is not scientific. I think the last third of inquiry I receive is because the product has weaknesses that people want confirmed by asking someone they think has expertise.

Now, I’m not an expert on the OLPC project or the computer itself. Read this blog for better insight than I alone could provide, but also know, it’s biased. You’ll find right now there’s a lot of controversy over the project. Spending that $400 with a lot of unanswered questions and an uncertain future doesn’t sound like a wise investment, to me.

So, here are some questions/answers I’ve prepared. In the future, if I receive inquiries about the OLPC, I might direct folks to this very post.

1. Would you buy an OLPC yourself? No. The operating system is available for PCs and to me, that is the most interesting component of the project. I have other uses for my $400.
2. Should I buy one for my kid? I don’t know, that is your choice. But before you make up your mind, figure out what it does.
3. What it does? It’s a computer, right?” Right… but it was designed for small hands, to be wireless, and to be used in a social context.
4. So, it just finds the Internet by itself? That might be good, we only have dial-up. Then don’t buy it.
5. Will our schools buy them? I can’t speak for the schools, per se, but at its current development, I wouldn’t recommend we do.
6. If the laptops have Internet, why not? The laptops do have a browser. But a good portion of the websites used by educators rely upon proprietary code that I’m not confident will work well in the OLPC system, i.e., Javascript, Flash, Shockwave, etc., etc.
7. Do you think this is a bad idea? I think we’re finding it’s difficult. The funding that was supposed to be behind this is not coming; the idea of Americans funding the project through donations bothers me; but the basic idea of putting an inexpensive piece of sociable technology in the hands of students, I believe, is awesome.
8. What might make it better? I think communication from the OLPC project could be more concrete and better presented. Look at Apple’s website; it’s easy to read, and you can quickly find-out every detail about their hardware and software. I think time will also make or break the project. The OLPC hardware has the potential to do some very interesting things for learning. I think OLPC can learn from Apple, Microsoft, and others who are fueling the home and business PC markets, but I also think educators and even the PC makers can learn from what comes out of OLPC. There are some very smart people involved in this project.
9. Will this work with my printer at home? It doesn’t appear so. You have to consider that this is not a “PC” in the typical sense.
10. What software does it run? The operating system is a highly customized version of Linux. This page outlines some of the software available for it.

For even more of a hands-on look, Kevin Lim takes a look at an OLPC. What I found interesting in his video was his distinction of the OLPC as an “education tool” rather than a “laptop.”

I do hope OLPC beats the odds and makes for some positive progress in the field of educational technology.

Technorati Tags: education, OLPC

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 5th, 2008 at 12:23 am and is filed under Reflection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.