One Laptop Per Child News Comments

Comment on OLPC Australia's Recipe for One Education: Seed and Grow

2012-05-21T21:49:12Z

I imagine you and Sam Varghese would get along really well... :-)

Comment on OLPC Australia's Recipe for One Education: Seed and Grow

2012-05-21T21:28:39Z

Ever since the media wrote about the study - and conclusions were uniform across the spectrum as to the fact that the OLPC program is of zero value in education - the OLPC has been trying to spin this way and that in order to try and hose down evidence that is out there on the net, evidence that clearly indicates that the whole project is just tampering with the early years of the most vulnerable in our world - children in poor and developing countries.

http://www.itwire.com/opinion-and-analysis/open-sauce/54374-olpc-no-proof-but-more-spin-on-education

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-21T21:24:43Z

Nicho-lies Negroponzi, the scammer, deserves his failures. The man is a liar, without any regard for common sense.

What is most amazing, though, is that he can still get some clueless souls to invest time and energy on his silly projects.

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-16T10:10:12Z

As a former development professional and anthropologist I am sickened on just about every level by this. From its "gods must be crazy" theme and storyline through the stubborn belief in western technological magic as opposed to REAL IMPERICAL SCIENCE based knowledge which knows very well what does and doesn't work in education in difficult settings. I personally setup high-impact very low-cost education projects for Sahelian pastoralists, and know that the key is getting the community involved and assisting them to educate themselves and there children. This specific project provided a full year of education to out of school children (where they learned to read write, do maths, history) all for about $60 per child per year spent ONLY ON CAPACITY BUILDING, the one thing that Negroponte thinks is unneccesary. Dropping stripped down smartphones out of the sky is not the answer and shows a breathtaking ignorance of what a successful project needs. Don't hold your breath for any objective analysis of this "pilot".
Humbug. The OLPC project originally had such possibility.

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-15T18:49:15Z

"These people have never even seen words."

Classic!

(How can a reporter write something like that with a straight face? Is there no critical faculty or are these "journalists" just stenographers?)

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-15T18:04:12Z

Thanks for the link, great to be able to learn a little more about the project.

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-15T16:33:33Z

More details are coming out:

http://www.itproportal.com/2012/05/15/one-tablet-per-child-technology-making-a-difference/

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-15T09:42:02Z

I wonder what the colleague scientists, antropologists and environmentalists think of this...

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-15T00:54:18Z

Mike, thanks a lot for the heads-up. Can't wait to catch the recording of Mitra's talk!

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-15T00:42:57Z

More might be revealed when Sugata Mitra (who has been doing research with Nicholas) when he does a talk at the MIT Media Lab this Wednesday, May 16, 2012 4:30-6:00pm eastern. The title of the talk: "Is Education Obsolete?" The site says, "This one-hour talk and discussion will travel through 13 years of experiments that raise the questions [on learning] above. It is in this context that we will look at the future of learning and its effects around the world, in countries that are developing and countries that have stopped developing." The talk will be live streamed and archived here: http://j.mp/Jf76Fh

Comment on Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-14T23:45:53Z

So they are not even XO's? I guess the 3.0 is not available - begs the next question of what version of Android they are running - not perhaps something the villagers themselves would be concerned about I suppose.
Actually if its a motorola, it could very well be the ET1: http://www.engadget.com/2011/10/10/motorola-unveils-rugged-et1-android-tablet-for-enterprise-types/
or the Xoom 2 which is at least water resistant (but larger at 10 inches) - neither of which are low cost devices by any means.

More to the point is the reports on the pilots progress - learning to turn it on or rote repeat alphabet may seem massive if in fact the starting point was zero - but now they know these things, what is the benefit to the village? Was an environmental impact study done first or is the only benefit to the researcher?

Thanks for finding and sharing Christoph.

Comment on Intel's Studybook Tablet - A Strong Competitor to OLPC's XO 3.0

2012-05-05T23:34:58Z

We have had this discussion before. I see no reason to change the conclusions I came to then, namely that computers from Intel and others can only be considered competitive with OLPC XOs if you are asking the wrong questions.

The most serious mistakes are not made as a result of wrong answers. The truly dangerous thing is asking the wrong questions.

Men, Ideas and Politics, by Peter Drucker, Harvard Business Review Press, 2010

If you want a commercial computer that runs Windows or Android plus commercial apps and commercial education software, then you think that the Intel Classmate or this Intel tablet looks good. But if you want a computer that has some degree of mesh networking, that is extremely rugged, that runs collaborative Free Software for education in a user interface designed for children, that is environmentally friendly, that has an option for solar power, then you are looking for the XO-3.

Comment on Intel's Studybook Tablet - A Strong Competitor to OLPC's XO 3.0

2012-05-05T08:54:19Z

Jonathan, in general Intel provides these reference designs and then manufacturers and resellers come up with their own products based on them. Regarding teacher PD I'm not sure whether Intel does that itself but I would assume that they have some in-house expertise which is available to buyers of their Learning Series products.

Comment on How to Purchase OLPC XO-1.75 Laptops

2012-05-05T08:48:14Z

Well, that's always a possibility but someone would have to organize it...

Comment on Intel's Studybook Tablet - A Strong Competitor to OLPC's XO 3.0

2012-05-04T23:48:29Z

Hi Christoph - thanks for sharing the video which gives a good indication of what the Android version may be like (can't imagine the horror of trying to use Win7 on a 7" screen).
The ruggedness and splash-resistance will be great; I'm just not sure what else it brings if the educational software is also available elsewhere? Tell me does Intel build this, or will others? And is it known if they also supply teacher PD?