NY Times Tests the XO

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The New York Times is simply gushing over the XO (OLPC). Apparently the device is pretty rugged, the video shows the author dropping it as well as throwing water and dirt on it. Too bad poor kids in this country can’t participate in the “Give one, Get one” program.

The program is called “Give 1, Get 1,” and it works like this. You pay $400 (www.xogiving.org). One XO laptop (and a tax deduction) comes to you by Christmas, and a second is sent to a student in a poor country.
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I know I may seem "down" on the XO but it just seems short sighted that schools in our country need books and supplies...let alone a laptop for each kid....it'd be nice if we would designate one for kids in the US and Canada. :confused:
 
Steve said:
I know I may seem "down" on the XO but it just seems short sighted that schools in our country need books and supplies...let alone a laptop for each kid....it'd be nice if we would designate one for kids in the US and Canada. :confused:
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/rant.
I agree with your sentiment. I, however think that the U.S.A. should be able to take care of our own kids. If we would spend less money on missiles and bombs we could eliminate the poverty in our own country. If we took a good chunk of "defense" money and invested it in the infrastructure and education in some of the poorer parts of the world we would eliminate the real underlying causes/ needs for the bombs in the first place.
/rant over.

The initiative says "One laptop per child" I think this includes kids in the states, although, be it eventually.

Maybe someone could set up a charity that donates the bought laptops to kids here in the USA. Let the OLPC decide where the other one goes.
 
I know the reasons why they did this...


But does anyone see any irony on making these things water resistant?
 
I went to Ohio Linux Fest last week. Someone brought one in. It was pretty nifty. They are smaller than they look. It kinda felt like one of my sons toys.
 
JOESKURTU said:
/rant.
I agree with your sentiment. I, however think that the U.S.A. should be able to take care of our own kids. If we would spend less money on missiles and bombs we could eliminate the poverty in our own country. If we took a good chunk of "defense" money and invested it in the infrastructure and education in some of the poorer parts of the world we would eliminate the real underlying causes/ needs for the bombs in the first place.
/rant over.

The initiative says "One laptop per child" I think this includes kids in the states, although, be it eventually.

Maybe someone could set up a charity that donates the bought laptops to kids here in the USA. Let the OLPC decide where the other one goes.
Click to expand...
I gotta agree there, here in Kansas City, the city is more worried about getting stadiums and arenas than they are making sure the school district has what it needs. Everyone complains about crime but when it comes time to decide to build a new jail ar a new arena they choose the arena. The Kansas City Chiefs is asking the city/county for over $140 million dollars to put a roof on the Stadium, they will probably get it, but the school district is in a shambles. the people of the United states have decided, Education takes a back seat to everything else, and its the "People" that let it happen, if they wanted every kid to havethere own book, they would have it theres more then enough money if people would just pull there heads out of there asses and say I would rather have good education for my kids than have a football team with a brand new stadium.
 
But does anyone see any irony on making these things water resistant?
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That many of the poorer nations that would be covered by the OLPC program are in arid, dry (ie: the DESERT) regions w/ no running water, not necessarily rivers/streams/lakes/etc - IOW no way to take advantage of such a "feature"?
 
kush said:
That many of the poorer nations that would be covered by the OLPC program are in arid, dry (ie: the DESERT) regions w/ no running water, not necessarily rivers/streams/lakes/etc - IOW no way to take advantage of such a "feature"?
Click to expand...

Even then still a good feature to have because water resistant also means sealed tight, which means keeping everything else out including dust, even bugs. And then even if something did get spilled on it.
 
Steve said:
I know I may seem "down" on the XO but it just seems short sighted that schools in our country need books and supplies...let alone a laptop for each kid....it'd be nice if we would designate one for kids in the US and Canada. :confused:
Click to expand...

With the PDF reader and the sharing feature, this laptop is a solution for books and some supplies. Part of the problem is that many people still consider laptops luxury items. The XO seeks to change that thinking to laptops as versatile tools for education and learning. They don't have to be 'luxury' or rare, even in poorer countries.
 
Has anybody answered the question of, "Why does every child in the world need a laptop?". There is a big difference between a need and a want, and I don't think kids NEED them.
 
I liked this quote from the NY Times article:

"[ Critics fear that the poorest countries need food, malaria protection and clean water far more than computers.

Nicholas Negroponte’s, response: “Nobody I know would say, ‘By the way, let’s hold off on education.’ Education happens to be a solution to all of those same problems.” ]"

Well said indeed. :)
 
I think that first of all, some of you dont get that in some countries they dont even have paper,pencils,chalk, or anything else to learn with.
This small laptop can afford simple learning that doesnt exist currently.
If the network works like it says, the children could learn from remote locations,together.

I signed up for 2 of them. If I get one, I'm sure as hell taking it to my local school district and impress on them what can be accomplished for a small amount of money. I hope they will get it.
 
The laptops are great and all but you do have to wonder what 200 raw dollars per child for their school system could accomplish.
On the bright side though, this could really improve the childrens' intelligence if given at an early developmental period.
 
magoo said:
I think that first of all, some of you dont get that in some countries they dont even have paper,pencils,chalk, or anything else to learn with.
This small laptop can afford simple learning that doesnt exist currently.
If the network works like it says, the children could learn from remote locations,together.

I signed up for 2 of them. If I get one, I'm sure as hell taking it to my local school district and impress on them what can be accomplished for a small amount of money. I hope they will get it.
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School districts are flat broke. They operate on a budget designed to give them enough to maintain themselves not become better. Atleast around here. My mother is a teacher and if she wants fancy stuff for the classroom she has to buy it herself on her 40k a year ( *Wave at the janitors who make as much or more)
 
Everyone complains about crime but when it comes time to decide to build a new jail ar a new arena they choose the arena
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Is another jail really the solution? Can we drag out the drug war funding, non-violent prisoner overcrowding our jails, argument please? :)
 
kids in africa don't need a laptop, they need some freaking bread... and goverments they don't have to run from

sometimes i feel as americans we like to try to just throw technology and money at things to make them go away... laptops for kids seems so frivolous... they don't have any infrastructure in place to even use them... a place to plug (power? hand crank! network? what now?) them in?

these people don't have friggin toilets...




i've often wondered what would happen if bill gates took all of the billions he dumps into africa and just bought himself an army, conquered africa, and became a righteous dictator....

seems like he'd do more good that way...
 
kush said:
That many of the poorer nations that would be covered by the OLPC program are in arid, dry (ie: the DESERT) regions w/ no running water, not necessarily rivers/streams/lakes/etc - IOW no way to take advantage of such a "feature"?
Click to expand...

Others are in jungle type environments, with leaky roofs. Without waterproofing they'd be useless there. If there's enough customer buyin it might be worth forking the production line into two different models, but since most of the same features that give waterproofing are also needed to keep dust out in the arid regions I don't think there's any significant savings to be made there.


On a tangent, if it was large enough to have an adult sized keyboard I'd probably get one. One of my hobbies is astronomy. Instead of paper star charts I'd like to be able to have electronic ones with me when I observe. The problem is that anything outside on a clear night is going to get covered with dew/frost which are bad for normal electronics. At $1500-2000 new for otherwise entry level hardware a ruggedized laptop is well over what I'm willing to spend.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
School districts are flat broke. They operate on a budget designed to give them enough to maintain themselves not become better. Atleast around here. My mother is a teacher and if she wants fancy stuff for the classroom she has to buy it herself on her 40k a year ( *Wave at the janitors who make as much or more)
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Please, my school district gets 5-7% increases in their budget annually. I'm not sure what they do with the money, but I havent seen my kids bragging about much new in their classrooms year over year.
My kids are responsible for their own supplies and primarily use uesd textbooks.
Their school based computers can run Powerpoint because they are too weak.
This XO could probably kick the butt of anything in their class. Their class hamster could run on the wheel and provide the electricity.
40K a year with 3 months off.....not to mention 12 month health coverage and a full pension.......that is pretty fine if you ask me.
 
40k a year after several years in. Usually ends up working 10 - 12 hour days by the time you finish grading papers, preparing the lesson plans, cleaning up etc... They only get about 1 month of that vacation since they are kept up there long after the students are let out and have to start back up much earlier getting ready. All of that for a 4 year degree and constant continuing education sounds like crap to me.

I recently graduated with a degree in psych and got an offer to teach. Knowing how things are from my mother I immediately threw it away. I dont have the passion to put in long hours and hard work educating other peoples progeny for chump change.

Just for this I asked how much they get for their classrooms. I was told 200 at the beggining of the year and a little bit here and there as they go along. They do get some budget computers but VERY often they stop working (little kids wreak chaos) and dont get fixed for several months unless I go do it.
 
Jakalwarrior said:
40k a year after several years in. Usually ends up working 10 - 12 hour days by the time you finish grading papers, preparing the lesson plans, cleaning up etc... They only get about 1 month of that vacation since they are kept up there long after the students are let out and have to start back up much earlier getting ready. All of that for a 4 year degree and constant continuing education sounds like crap to me.

I recently graduated with a degree in psych and got an offer to teach. Knowing how things are from my mother I immediately threw it away. I dont have the passion to put in long hours and hard work educating other peoples progeny for chump change.

Just for this I asked how much they get for their classrooms. I was told 200 at the beggining of the year and a little bit here and there as they go along. They do get some budget computers but VERY often they stop working (little kids wreak chaos) and dont get fixed for several months unless I go do it.
Click to expand...


I believe you can blame the union for eating up a huge portion of their salary. Another thing worth noting is that 1 month of vacation time (lets just say the other two months are worked into the rest of the year) is still GREAT compared to most jobs out there. Most people see 5-15 days of vacation a year. It's not always about the check that is handed out, it's about the passion of teaching, the benefits, and the 3 months a year + many holidays... also it's got great hours.

I don't know many teachers who spends hours before or after class preparing themselfs.... I suppose it would depend on the course, school, culture, and level.

But yes it's sad that our teachers today are underpaid that even the janitors are making as much as them... although I can't hardly imagine comparing janitorial work at a school vs teaching :D
 
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