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Hundred-dollar laptop, revisited: The next-generation version of the One Laptop per Child machine will dispense with keypads. It can be folded flat to make one larger screen (left); here, two children could play a game, each using the touch-screen capability. Or it can be held on its side and used as an electronic book (right).
One Laptop per Child
The extra cost of $10 for the Windows version is not trivial, he says: "If I have 10 dollars, I will decide what to do with it." Right now, Becerra is scrambling to find funds to buy thousands of small solar-powered rechargers--at $20 each--for machines that he is deploying to villages that lack electricity.
Some open-source software advocates see an additional high cost of adding Windows. Richard Stallman, a pioneer of the GNU operating system and founder of the Free Software Foundation, says that he is now motivated to try to ignite grassroots opposition. "It's an issue of freedom versus power," he said in a telephone interview from Taiwan. "Proprietary software is under the power of its developer, and it puts the user under the power of the developer. This is like handing out samples of an addictive drug--not something that schools ought to do."
But executives of OLPC and other observers defend the action, noting that since the OLPC educational software platform, known as Sugar, will now run on Windows, the move will promote OLPC's mission far more widely. "The open-source community continues writing software for the Sugar interface," Charles Kane, OLPC's new president, said yesterday. "There is a community in the Linux world that continues to contribute to the ongoing success of this." But, he added, with the existing XOs, "we're trying to make a transition in a form that makes us successful in the marketplace."
Mary Lou Jepsen is developing technology originally created for the $100 laptop project.
Intel's new integrated power management could dramatically reduce power consumption in your laptop by shutting down operations not being used.
One Laptop per Child inks a deal with Microsoft to put Windows on the "100-dollar" machine.
Does the new model still run the same software & allow local area networking or is it just an e-book reader?
I love the dual-touchscreen concept. It will allow so many new applications. And if they can actually deliver that kind of power usage at that price...wow! Plus, this web site regularly has articles describing noticeable advances in electricity storage -- either batteries or capacitors -- so a student might use this laptop all week on one charge. Then you don't need to have a generator in each laptop.
Star Trek II touch displays / keyboards
A display that is a keyboard.
A keyboard that is really a display.
So much like the wall and desk / countertop versions seen in Star Trek the 2'nd Generation!
So cool.
Looks like each half will simply be a mirror of the other.
Gonna' be a lotta' fun, ganging numbers of the basic unit into bigger widgets!
It's so great to see such advances coming out of MIT. Can't wait to see how this impacts the lives of children living in developing nations. Bravo!
Not so good for typing but does that matter?
The first thing I thought when I saw this was that it would be hopeless for typing. I'm sure that will be the case and I hope they consider shipping them with external keyboards for older kids. Having said that & thought about it for a minute and I thought "how much typing will a primary school student really do?". Probably not much. They don't write big assignments or big emails. So it may well be that the dual screen concept is more useful than a screen + keyboard. It's hard to know without trying it for yourself. Certainly the 'book' form factor would be great for reading, well, books - which is one of the big reasons for the OLPC computers. Smaller is also better.
Definitely cool
Benjamin
The OLPC is not a place for bleeding edge technology. If dual touch screens are a good idea, let it be pioneered by a high-end machine, proven to work and be of value, and then mass-produced to lower the cost. What next? A built-in video projector?
This is hardly high edge technology. Litton Data Systems delivered hand held units with touch screens that put up a keyboard when required, before 1970.
Leon
Well it's only one screen but I think the screen based keyboard concept has been proven a success in the marketplace with a large number of adults with disposable income; iPhone.
What a great opportunity for Peru and Peruvian children!! Congratulations to the Ministry of Education for it's far sighted planning.
I visited my son and family in Lima this past February/March and became aware of the problems of the local public school system. My granddaughter has been attending a good private school in Lima - an option not available to poor families. Let's hope the laptop project really takes off and succeeds.
(My son has been working with a micro-capital organization and my daughter-in-law has been teaching advanced English to Peruvian lawyers.)
Bob Summers,Sc.D.,'54 (AA-XVI)
Again, no mention of any relevant pedagogical experiment in the horizon involving these devices, reinforcing the perception that this whole endeavor is mostly focused on technology and new gadgets, as opposed to really improving education.
So far, people are being asked to believe (i.e., have faith) in the project's claims, without being given any empirical evidence. And that comes from MIT, where one would expect the scientific discipline of argument to be second nature.
Never mind, now that Microsoft is on board, the journey ahead is easily predictable, for the next release (there will always be) of OLPC Windows will require more powerful processors to support it, and everyone will have to replace the old ones "to keep up with the new, wondeful technological developments".
Government officials on tight budgets (actually, all Windows users) have been experiencing this cyclical phenomenon with ordinary PCs, and many have migrated to Linux as an obvious alternative. They now have a new, even stronger reason to be cautious about the (so far untested) educational claims of the OLPC project, and this is really all I would ask of them.
Personally, I don't think that it is the responsibility of the technology manufacturer to teach pedagogy to education professionals. The best way that a technology innovator can effect change is by partnering with educators and give them tools that will allow them to provide richer educational experiences.
That is true, but the GOAL of this project is laptops for children to learn with. Relevance to what educators need in the target countries seems critical.
This does seem like a departure from the programs philosophy. Already phasing out the first design? It seemed like simplicity and standard was a priority above "cutting edge"
Well it is nice to see such great innovation, but c'mon, really? It's now obvious that XO's aren't just going to third-world countries first. I personally think it's non-sense that American's are getting stuck with the bill to fund this new device that will compete with cutting edge markets. Why is Egypt getting special consideration for their choice of Microsoft? If they were really in "emergency" need of these devices like One Laptop Per Child claims, then they should switch to free, open-source software and quit wasting money on a proprietary OS.
What about the original goal of $100? These things are still going for $199 ($400 if you want one for your kid too). I wouldn't mind paying the $400 if they would at least upgrade the existing processing and storage in current XO's to a reasonable spec - 433 MHz might be good enough for this desperate third-world scenario, but my son probably couldn't even play flash games on pbskids.org with that little speed.
I would love to (be forced to) send an XO to another child who would benefit from it to get my son one too. However, considering what's really going on, this just isn't fair. We are funding the Dynabook; not donating educational tools. Don't believe me? Check this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynabook
I was part of the 'Green Machine B1G1'. Excited to be on the edge of a wonderful idea.
Maybe the new version isn't so much a walk away, but an extension of what is needed. More kids HERE need to read, to interact with each other other than spamming.
Maybe I'm still a die hard optimist. The sorrow of commercialism can kill it off so quickly until the quieter voice comes forward, whispering, "Maybe".
Manufacturing in the United States is in trouble. That's bad news not just for the country's economy but for the future of innovation.
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MakeSense
99 Comments
Windows -- optional, right?
Why does every granny conversation about the optional Windows OS have to be included in an article? If it's optional, some will opt to not have it because it costs more. Done.
Here's an interesting comment: "Proprietary software is under the power of its developer, and it puts the user under the power of the developer. This is like handing out samples of an addictive drug--not something that schools ought to do."
Aren't most people who say such things ranting on street corners that the end is nigh? I can't even make sense of that jibberish.
Reply
johnalphonse
78 Comments
Re: Windows -- optional, right?
Gibberish? Can you just say "monopoly"?
Reply
daniel007
4 Comments
Re: Windows -- optional, right?
right- and of course the word processor will default to an open, storage efficient,user friendly format like docx
I work in a college setting- when you ask people NOT to send you documents in a non-open format you get replies like "I thought everyone was upgraded to office 2007." Ask them why they are using docx? Does it provide some features they need? It is an "option"- but when schools and businesses use it because "everyone" else uses it, not because of its compelling features... the state has a contract for unquestioned "upgrades". Do we need school kid's computers to sneak in proprietary formats and non-open standards they will view as the "standard"
Embrace, extend, extinguish?
Maybe paranoid, maybe not.
Options are fine- just so everyone is aware of the fine print, and all motivations are out in the open. Do the demonstrated philosophies of a particular software product jive with the values of the OLPC project?
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