The OLPC does what it was meant to do, not necessarily what you wanted it to do
There has been lots - I mean *LOTS* and *LOTS* - of press, blogs, forum posts, and news about the OLPC over the past few weeks. Mostly, this has been because of the G1G1 (give one get one) donation program.
This has been both good and not so good. The challenge to all the press is that it has focused on two things - (1) the execution of the G1G1 program and (2) the OLPC software - specifically it’s Sugar interface - and how foreign it is to users of Windows and Mac OS X. I will leave the first along and make a few observations about the second.
The OLPC is designed for your children whom have never seen computers and whom have very little technology in school - probably have very little at all in school for learning beyond the teacher. Compare that with parents who have computers at work *and* home and children who have been around computers literally since birth and you have two very different landscapes. I would agree that kids who start with an OLPC and some day grow up to adults using other computers will need to learn the difference along the way. However, The purpose of the Sugar interface and storing everything via the Journal is that it takes the emphasis off learning the computer and puts it on *learning*. Further, the inherent focus of the OLPC on nature of “constructionist” education means that collaboration will be central to everything the child does with the OLPC does. Further, that collaboration needs consistent metaphors in the software and ways for the teacher to interject class activities with the OLPC and its collaborative capabilities.
A good example of this collaboration took place over Christmas day with the G1G1 owners. One OLPC owner started the “Record” activity and took a picture of themselves and shared the application. This meant everyone in the “class” (defined by being connected to part of an XO School server [1]) could join the activity and see and post their own pictures. At first it was some random photos of owners but it quickly became an exchange of information about who the G1G1 people are and what is important to them - some showed the child in their life who received the XO, some showed greetings, pictures of pets, outdoor shots so you knew what climate they were from, even a “green” picture of an XO running off of a flexible solar panel. What was happening was that users were leaning about the XO and the other XO users through experience rather than rote learning.If this had been a real classroom exercise, those same pictures could have become the basis for cultural and environmental education.
So, the OLPC XO is not at all like a Mac or a PC (sorry guys). It is note meant to be. If you want a Mac, buy a Mac. If you want a PC, buy a PC. If you want to contribute to education in undeveloped countries, donate an OLPC XO. Note, I did not say buy one. And perhaps that is the whole misunderstanding. Some of the G1G1 people “donated” because they wanted an OLPC computer to use as their computer [2].
Eventually, I am guessing the geeks will wipe the OLPC XO software from the machine and replace it with something “more familiar”. Time will tell. But when they do, it will not be a bad thing nor will it be going against the OLPC Foundation mission. I suspect it will prove the OLPC XO device is flexible and able to do more than originally thought. After all, that is what we hope for the children too !
[1] Part of an XO School computer is an enhanced Jabber / XMPP server. This server allows OLPC XOs to be connected over the internet in addition to connection over a Mesh Network.
[2] Personally, I’d be fibbing if I didn’t admit a part of my motivaiton for donating was becuase I thought the OLPC XO is cool and wanted one.
