[Edu-sig] OLPC G1G1 sales start today

[Laura Creighton]

Paul: look at 
http://www.gapminder.org/

see the videos.  Ted 2007 in particular.

There is no 'developing world' /developed world split any more.

Laura who did not have time to readx all you wrote, but
that caught my eye.  Its not simply condescending to refer to
them as the developing world -- because they excell in non-monetary
things, its condescending because they have largely caught up in monetary
things and you apparantly haven't noticed, like most people.

Laura


In a message of Mon, 12 Nov 2007 18:48:33 EST, "Paul D. Fernhout" writes:
>Paul D. Fernhout wrote:
>> For a more typical home user, especially one who does not already know 
>and
>> like GNU/Linux, I'm not sure if it would meet expectations in the devel
>oping
>> world as other than either as special purpose device (like used as an e
>book
>> reader or robot controller) or alternatively, for a family who buys sev
>eral,
>> as a family activity to use some of the built in "connectivist" softwar
>e
>> (either what is there now or what might be speculatively available in t
>he
>> future). 
>
>That should have read "in the developed world", meaning like the USA. And
> I
>really should not be using "developed" / "developing" as they are loaded
>terms (even though the OLPC project uses them too), since there is a lot 
>the
>USA can learn from other countries, including poor ones, some of whom ran
>k
>higher in overall happiness in various surveys -- here's a different one:
>  http://worlddatabaseofhappiness.eur.nl/
>
>On using Java/Jython and the OLPC:
>  "Pepper on the OLPC"
>   http://www.pepper.com/linux/olpc.html
>"A technology preview of a special version of the Pepper environment is n
>ow
>available for the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) XO laptop. This version of
>Pepper for OLPC runs on the XO laptop and replaces the standard Sugar
>environment while retaining the XO's Fedora-based Linux distribution. ...
>The Pepper environment is written primarily in Java, though it includes o
>pen
>source components like Mozilla and Java that are written in C or C++. The
>Pepper application framework supports Java, C, C++, XUL, HTML, etc. We're
>also working on adding Python support soon. ... We'll be making the sourc
>e
>code for the Pepper for OLPC environment available soon. We're planning t
>o
>release it under an LGPL license. We'll also be sponsoring an open source
>community to maintain the Pepper for OLPC environment."
>
>Using Pepper (if it is indeed released under the LGPL as announced above)
>,
>which is an environment built in Java and including JVM 1.5, I hope I can
>run Jython on the OLPC. I'll have to try it and see. Maybe the Pepper peo
>ple
>do not know about Jython? Of course, software written there in Jython is 
>not
>going to run on the regular OLPC environment (which is CPython+pyGTK).
>
>An informative pro-OLPC post at Slashdot:
>  "Worth Careful consideration"
>  http://hardware.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=357665&cid=21325111
>An excerpt: "While you can certainly waste time and goof off on the web,
>there is also a wealth of instructional material, learning material, free
>encyclopedias, and help of all kinds to be had on message boards. Childre
>n
>could learn, for example, methods of improving local sanitation,
>agricultural techniques, and health information which could end up saving
>the developed world millions or billions of dollars in humanitarian aid.
>They could also learn other languages which could open up entire worlds t
>o
>them. Even if they didn't have the internet, they could learn how to
>program, how to compute, make art, photographs, drawings, and a whole bun
>ch
>of other stuff with it. Not to mention the fun factor. It's not an
>educational panacea but it WILL change the world. "
>
>And as another slashdot poster says, you can't buy that many paper textbo
>oks
>for $200, especially compared to what you can cram into 1GB of Flash (or
>even more if you get the files from local servers and delete old ones). A
>nd
>paper books have their own problems in areas of high humidity (mold, chew
>ed
>by rodents, fade in the sun, etc.). I think a lot of the economics that
>governments are considering for deploying OLPC have more to do with
>replacing plain old paper textbooks with a single laptop than any of the
>issues of connectivity or simulation or learning to program which are mor
>e
>the sorts of things we think about for computers in, say, the USA or Euro
>pe,
>where we pretty much take purchasing textbooks and access to local librar
>ies
>of tens of thousands of printed books for granted. Still, even for USA
>schools, OLPCs may make sense if they save money on textbooks. So, USA
>school districts could save money of textbooks (if they were free, as in 
>here:)
>   "Global Text Project – Wiki Textbooks"
>   http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/05/230201
>   http://globaltext.org/
>(or even just at direct author royalty cost) and kids get Python and
>educational simulations thrown in as a bonus. Plus, they get a lighter lo
>ad
>and less back pain.
>  "Heavy backpacks lead to early strain and pain for schoolkids"
>http://cnnstudentnews.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/02/13/backpack.pai
>n.ap/
>
>Anyway, as an ebook reader alone the OLPC might be worth the US$425 cost,
>which is only a $100 more than what a Sony Reader costs with an extra
>waterproof cover, and that amount is less than the more flexible (but
>heavier) iRex Iliad. See:
>  http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=5664
>I think key to happiness with the OLPC in the USA is reduced expectations
>.
>Consider that for $425, you get an OLPC ebook reader than runs Python, an
>d
>then some kid somewhere else with limited access to books gets one too. I
>'ll
>be curious to compare them side-by-side with an ebook reader. Maybe if th
>at
>eight year old reviewer was asked -- would you rather carry a three pound
>OLPC XO-1 back and forth to activities or two or three times as much weig
>ht
>in textbooks in your backpack, they might have gone for the OLPC.
>
>--Paul Fernhout
>
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