Software and content prez Walter Bender, chief tech officer and display maven Mary Lou Jepsen and others on the OLPC team talk about the (eventual) $100 laptop and their roles in its development. Length of this YiouTube video is around six minutes. Don’t forget to watch the second part. Also see the latest OLPC newsletter, discussing, among other things, the new B3 machines, which “are close to final, feature the Geode LX processor, improved keyboard and touch pad, many electrical and mechanical enhancements, and a brightly colored XO logo on the back.” Speaking of interesting hardware for reading e-books, check out Branko’s post on flash memory if you haven’t see it yet—and the thoughtful comments that follow.
Related: In the unofficial OLPC News, a Brazilian guest writer named Mario Miyojim tells how he bought a 1962 Britannica and used it to help prepare himself for “the top engineering school in the country.” But his real excitement is over e-books as a replacement for p-books. “My education would have been so much faster, richer and more exciting. And that is the opportunity that millions of children will have. Children are similar regardless of the circumstances surrounding them, like puppies are similar in any place in the world…
“The schools that use the OLPC will change the role of teachers to be just monitors and instructors on how each child should use the little PC, so that the children will self-learn and communicate among themselves creatively. Books on paper are expensive for any nation, and change too slowly to the dynamics of modern children. The excellent daylight screen of the OLPC will be like the pages of paper books.
“The children will not waste time and energy trying to improve their handwriting when their ideas are asking to come out and ‘be put on paper,’ or ‘be recorded on screen,’ or ‘be recorded into a speech file.’ I see unlimited possibilities for this little machine that can revolutionize education in the world.”
I hope that paper books are around a long time, but sentiments like Mario’s are something to think about next time you run across someone of the paper-books-or-nothing school.
For schools, libraries and publishers in developing countries, the $100 laptop and similar machines could be a godsend if they’re deployed properly.
Also of interest: Other OLPC videos on YouTube.
Don’t forget to watch the second part of that podcast too. Also on the tube.
Re 2nd part – added direct link. Thanks, Branko. – D