In praise of the OLPC laptop effort: A long answer to Ficbot
Ficbot, a Toronto educator who spends hours and hours each week around kids, has weighed in with a not-so-positive assessment of the XO-1, the One Laptop Per Child machine. And I do mean weighed in, for one of her criticisms is that even at several pounds, it’s just plain too heavy.
Now, for a different perspective, you can also check out a long, thoughtful post that HeavyG has just made in defense of the XO-1. Excerpt: “I can certainly understand why the XO may not appeal to jaded, wealthy pc users with years of pc experience and ownership. Again, we are not the intended audience and anyone that can’t think outside of their box of experience will miss the beauty of the OLPC XO.”
I’m in the middle of the debate. I love the OLPC hardware—the kid-friendly, green-and-white plastic case and the guts inside. Yet I find the software sadly lacking for common tasks such as e-booking, and I suspect that children in developing countries would feel the same—unless tech-savvy, helpful tutors were near by. Reality not, in most situations!
I want the machine to allow kids to develop as programmers and in other ways. But the software needs to be toaster-simple for those with other ambitions—a goal that OLPC is far from achieving. The issue isn’t just the interface. There are also pesky little details, such as a software-related problem that makes it difficult for many OLPC owners to control the cursor.
Meanwhile, many thanks to Ficbot, HeavyG and Ron-Hale Evans for sharing their thoughts.
August 5th, 2008 at 11:15 am
I think I’m missing something here. Where’s the link to the Heavy G defense of the OLPC?
August 5th, 2008 at 11:24 am
You are, Chris. See this link. I’ve inserted the link in the piece. Not sure if the link got dumped or I sinned. Thanks. David