Linked by Thom Holwerda on Wed 14th May 2008 09:02 UTC
Back in November of 2006, I wrote a piece about the One Laptop Per Child Project. I was afraid that the project's focus on creating a whole new paradigm (the Sugar UI) would ultimately intervene with the actual goal of the project: teaching stuff to kids. Ivan Krstic, former director of security architecture at OLPC, wrote an essay in which he heavily criticises the OLPC project.
Permalink for comment 314110
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Recent Original Stories
Recent Comments
Headlines
Random Comments
Random Stories
Random OS Link
Member since:
2005-11-18
Don't forget that only a fraction of children is interested in learning how their computer works. If you want to be a doctor or architect, it is likely that you are not interested in how your webcam software works.
While I do agree that it is a bonus for free software (besides a low price point), the primary goal should be education. In terms of education, having good (electronic?) text books available is much more important, besides that a computer is just an educational tool, and it should be good at that.
An operating system or platform for such devices should be easy to use, use little power, and not add much to the costs. If a modified OS X (what Apple appears to have offered) fulfills those requirements, it seems to be a viable option as well. And I am not sure why they would've let that option pass.
In this case I think it is important to forget our own agendas, and think about the primary goal: education.
Edited 2008-05-14 11:12 UTC