one laptop per child (australia) & the xo
DESCRIPTION
A presentation given to the Rotary Sunrise club in Canberra, Australia on the 2nd of April outlining the OLPC (One Laptop per Child) project, its aims and achievements as well as showcasing the XO laptop and its features.TRANSCRIPT
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Pascal Simon Klein
April 2nd 2008Rotary Sunrise, Canberra
I’m Pascal Klein
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Introduction
I…
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
• work as a designer for a small web-dev company;• try to use, and support Open Source soware;• value my education;• have my interested piqued by the OLPC project.
e OLPC association?
“It’s an education project, not a laptop project.”— Nicholas Negroponte
Our goal: to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves.
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Laptops?Many of the recipient children live in developing countries. Why laptops?
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Laptops are a window and a tool: a window into the world and a tool with which to think. ey are a wonderful way for all children to learn through independent interaction and exploration.
Or:One Laptop per Child is a project about the transformation of education. It’s about giving children who don’t have the opportunity for learning that opportunity. So it’s about access, it’s about equity, and it’s about giving the next generation of children in the developing world a bright and open future.”
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
—Walter Bender, President 24 Apr 2007
“
Children lack opportunity, not capability
High-quality education for all is essential to provide a fair, equitable, economically and viable society; access to laptops—on a sufficient scale—provides real benefits for learning.
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Children in under-developed and developing countries are just as capable of learning as children in developed countries (and visa-versa – more on that later).
Presumptions
• classrooms;
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Schools
• electricity;• teachers;• books & materials;
• motivated;Teachers
• experienced;• valued by society;• educated;
Presumptions (cont’d)
• electricity;
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Home
• place to study;• literate;Parents
• educated;• help their children.
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Most of these presumptions are wrong, even in Australia.
When designing a laptop for children, these considerations are vital to success.
Tangible features
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
• sturdy design: survives open-air travel in harsh env.;• water and sand protected keyboard;• world’s most advanced screen;
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
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Tangible features
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
• sturdy design: survives open-air travel in harsh env.;• water and sand protected keyboard;• world’s most advanced screen;• e-book mode;
• inbuilt camera, microphone and speakers;• wireless aerials – extends wireless access to 2km.
• work’s most advanced laptop battery;
Wireless mesh network
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
• automatically builds its own network and advertises it;• other XOs will automatically interact with neighbours;• share activities;
› collaborate on the same document in real time;• network extension – furthers range.
e soware
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
› attracts developers and contributers;• uses a custom graphical interface called Sugar…
• the XO runs Linux as an operating system;› it’s established and optimized for the computer;› dramatically reduces cost;
…Sugar!
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
• high-contrast, monochrome icons (due to screen);
• simplified: designed for children;• “journal-based” – activities are recorded in a journal;
• many applications:› simple web browser, document viewer, chat client;› music compositors, synthesizer;› sound and image recorder, utilities.
Educational information
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
• not only textual: photos, audio and video also inc.;
• selected and appropriate Wikipedia articles;• multi-lingual;
• covers science, culture, technology, geography, …;
• easiest to contribute to!;• Internet collaboration.
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
Fundamentally: it’s built for children and their learning.
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
…kids not just in developing countries!
One Laptop per Child HTTP://LAPTOP.ORG
ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD
…Australia?
ank you for your timehttp://www.laptop.org/
http://wiki.laptop.org/
Pia Waugh EMAIL: [email protected]
http://olpc.org.au/
Simon Pascal Klein EMAIL: [email protected]