[geeks] One (Windows) Laptop Per Child

[Mike Meredith]

On Fri, 29 Sep 2006 10:10:35 -0500 (CDT), Lionel Peterson wrote:
> case) and WiFi (again, USB device inside case). It has a power brick,
> Fast Ethernet, and no hand-crank or Play Skool colors.
> 
> Estimated prices fluctuate between $250-400, based on qty.

There's no hand-crank on the OLPC and "Play Skool" colours would seem to
be an advantage for the target market. And 2-4 times the cost is too
much. 

> Seems like a decent idea - it allows schools to build on existing
> WinXP software base, not rely on third-party software developers to
> create software for it, and it has usefulness in so-called first-world

It is both an advantage (existing software) and a disadvantage (o/s
built with adults in mind, traditional s/w bloat). Of course using WinXP
does mean much software is licensed at additional cost.

> countries with wired and WiFi networking.

Of course the P2P mesh network of the OLPC has advantages even in a
disconnected island, and connectivity isn't impossible. Mind you I
suspect teachers might not be so enthusiastic about teaching a classful
of children playing with their mesh :)

> 
> Thoughts?

I don't see a problem with either being successful ... choice is good. 

> Personally I think folks are way to excited about the OLPC from
> MIT/Negroponte - 

Quite probably. Still it's the enthusiasm driving this forward.

> it is a PDA, and it embodies what I call "good-enough
> (for you) engineering", 

I'm not sure I'd call it a PDA ... more a 'work slate'. And what is
wrong with a PDA anyway ? Key question is, can you do useful stuff with
it ? I don't see why not ... useful stuff was done on AppleII's, BBC
micros (in fact some demonstration software written for a 32Kbyte BBC
was still running on PCs in 1998), etc. 

> I can't think of many school districts in
> America that would consider spending the $100-150 price for one of
> those laptops... An argument could be made that for $400 you could buy

Some in education are obsessed with teaching tools that are compatible
with mainstream IT. The problem with this, is that once the child leaves
school, mainstream IT will have moved on from what he/she was using 5
years ago. Using Windows to teach IT has *some* advantages, but a
pure teaching appliance has no real need for compatibility (except for
the possibility of using existing software of course).

> There aren't that many schools in the US or elsewhere (public OR
> private) that deploy laptops widely, and many folks seem to think that
> the third-world should just roll over and adopt a solution we've never
> really tried ourselves.

Perhaps we should have. Actually to a limited extent, the UK did. The UK
school IT market was for many years dominated by the BBC micro, and
Acorn's replacement for that ... the ARM based machines. This was whilst
IBM-compatibles were coming to dominate the rest of the IT market.
Whilst this wasn't laptops, it does demonstrate that a non-mainstream
computer can be useful in education. And didn't the US education have a
similar position with the AppleII after the IBM-compatibles dominated
the mainstream ?

> .. I think the Indian Education Minister was
> right in rejecting the OLPC initiative - he feels there are other
> priorities in the Indian educational system, and I trust his
> judgement.[0]

Perhaps he was right, but it is interesting to note that India now has a
$10-per laptop initiative :-

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/2029816.cms