<incom> XO thoughts

[mark bartlett]

steve,

could you comment on the social/cultural significance, for kids [of  
what ages], of the functionality you find operable.

mark


On Jan 7, 2008, at 7:47 PM, Steve Cisler wrote:

> People in US and Canadawho wanted an XO  were offered the give one  
> get one program in November and December of last year. For about  
> $400 the donor received an XO and one was sent to a school in  
> countries such as Haiti, Cambodia, Rwanda, and Afghanistan. Through  
> this program 167,000 machines were sold, with half going to donors.
>
> I got one in mid-December. The Economist has a very negative review  
> about the machine, but I am quite impressed with all they have  
> stuffed into a 1+ Kg device costing less than $200. The keyboard is  
> about right for an 8 year old, so I can't touch type. You can  
> attach a USB keyboard as well as a mouse. The trackpad has some  
> bugs which everyone assumes/hopes will be fixed in a short time.
>
> I am most interested in the XO as an e-book reader. I was able to  
> connect to both open and secure wifi networks without too much  
> trouble.  I downloaded a 2.7 Mb UNCTAD report on least developed  
> countries and was able to read it after adjusting the size of the  
> pdf image. The XO screen can be rotated 90 degrees to be read in a  
> flat mode, but you lose some of the width you have when reading it  
> in the normal screen mode.  I did a short video on the Internet  
> Archive which has put some of their scanned children's books on the  
> XO, but there is no large library of these for the XO. I hope it  
> will be developed country by country. One of the most important  
> features is that in black/white screen mode you can read the text  
> in sunlight. That's a real breakthrough.
>
> Bundled with the XO are many applications including several for  
> playing and editing music. I need better documentation and that  
> seems to be in development. There are programming tools, games,  
> paint programs, write, and camera and mike for taking pictures and  
> making short video clips. Because I am not near any other XO at  
> this time, I have not tried any kind of networking.  In Yahoo mail  
> I was not able to attach any file and mail it. Nor did the RSS  
> reader work. According to the olpcnews.com forums only one other  
> person has had any luck with the RSS reader. So there is quite a  
> lot to correct and fill out.
>
> I won't comment on the Intel-OLPC soap opera except to say that  
> last year I did play with the Classmate. It will probably work okay  
> in those schools where they have a regular supply of electricity.  
> The price is higher, and it's being sold in a different way. It  
> fits into the education bureaucracies more easily than the radical  
> XO. I think people are reluctant to try something that different  
> and they see the Classmate as a cheap Wintel machine for school  
> kids--not too disruptive and no disruptive talk about constructivism.
>
>
>
>
> Steve Cisler
> Center for Science, Technology, and Society
> Santa Clara University
> http://scu.edu/sts/
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