The world watches as the adults fight over power. Who will run the country of Napal, what will the political solutions bring to the people, what will it mean to the children? I know I’m not the first to recognize the incredible beauty of the country, just look at these beautiful pictures in Nepal’s Open Learning Exchange first learning activity, developed in Squeak to be used in OLPC. We can only hope that the people that win power, during this difficult time, will concentrate on the children, on education, and on happiness and enlightenment for all.
The Program itself is beautifully done. I found myself learning how to say the numbers. This Tiger was really fun, and kinda difficult to reconstruct.
This is a very good example of what technology can give to children, and how the local community can participate to help educate their youngest members.
Read it from the creators:
“The word in Devanagari script at the top is “E-Paati.” OLE Nepal’s General Secretary created this term. “Karipaati” means blackboard and we use “E-Paati” to refer to any kind of computer, such as a desktop, laptop, or PDA. OLE Nepal’s unofficial slogan right now is “From Karipaati to E-Paati.” We think this slogan expresses that using laptops in schools in simply the next logical step in education. We prefer the E-Paati over “laptop” or “computer” because both are seen as luxuries in Nepal. Karipaatis are not seen as luxuries but essential to education. We hope to convince the Nepali public that in this day in age E-paatis are essential to a quality education. “
This level of understanding of local conditions can only come from the local people themselves. Developing an education platform and making the tools available throughout the world far surpasses the value of a cheap laptop. This is only one of what will be thousands of projects that will change the planet. The $100 Laptop came first but everything else comes now. The software will easily surpass the value of the computer! As Nicholas Negroponte is fond of saying, “This is an education project, not a laptop project.” We couldn’t agree more, and we are proud that Squeak and EToys are a part of this terrific project. Today is a good day to celebrate E-Paati!
Recess!! Learning at play.
26 October, 2007
Bill Kerr tells us about a really cool new project from Mark Shuttleworth’s Foundation called Kusasa.
Check out Bills comments about learning from Play, and please be sure to follow the links on his post, they are very interesting.
See Bert and OLPC on German TV (in German)
17 October, 2007
Check out Bert and Olpc on the tagesschau.de. The video is in German. Notice the link on the left “100-Dollar-Laptop” that will take you right to the clip. Feel free to skip the computer salesman’s comments. Who knows where they got this guy from! The project must be looking up if this is the best they can do. It’s like the debate about global warming in the U.S.A. For a long time we’d hear that scientists have reached a global consensus, all except Joe – from the Wyoming Science Club who says global warming doesn’t exist.
This is a very exciting time for olpc. Congratulations everyone.
Pretty Cool NYTimes OLPC Review
5 October, 2007
David Pogue at NYTimes reviews the One Laptop Per Child computer. Don’t miss the video clip, it’s very cool.
OLPC on TV
20 August, 2007
From: Michael Haupt,
The German/Swiss/Austrian TV station 3sat has a weekly 30-minute show called “neues” (roughly translated “new things”) which deals with IT-related information. Yesterday’s show was focusing on bringing IT to isolated regions and emerging nations as well as developing countries. The show featured an article on mesh networks in Ecuador and the Linux4Africa project.
Linux4Africa is a German project collecting old but functional hardware. The components are cleaned, repaired (if necessary), bestowed with an Edubuntu Linux installation, and sent to Tanzania and Moçambique.
12 of the show’s 30 minutes were dedicated to an extensive coverage of the OLPC project. Etoys and Squeak were mentioned several times during the feature. The project itself was introduced, and Bert Freudenberg was interviewed about the technical features of the XO laptop, which was presented in detail.
There were also two interviews in the studio. Two members of GTZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit; German Society for Technical Cooperation) responsible for XO distribution in Ethiopia talked about the project in general and about the impressive progress children made when working with the XO.
The other interview – which filled the first slot in the OLPC coverage – featured two students from Hasso Plattner Institute, Potsdam, who have developed strategic and skill-improving games for the XO in the Software Architecture Group‘s course on software architectures.
All in all, the editorial staff at 3sat did a tremendous job in preparing this show. To the writer’s knowledge, this was the first time the OLPC project was presented at such a level of detail in German television. Germany being a country where the the project has no actual lobby, it is important to have such media coverage – it would be nice to see much, much more of it.
The entire show can be watched online (in German).
OLPC – The $100 Laptop – Goes into Production
23 July, 2007
Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production. Check out the BBC Article.
SqueakFest ’07 – Register Now!
30 June, 2007
From Kim Rose, Viewpoints Research Institute:
Greetings –
Online registration is now available for SqueakFest ’07!
http://imamp.colum.edu/eceim/squeakfest07/index.php
We’re putting together a great three day program including hands-on workshops, panels, presentations, casual sharing time and fun social events.
Alan Kay will give a talk about the One Laptop Per Child Initiative, the “xo” machine and Squeak Etoys on this platform.
Registration for the entire program is $125.00. Please register
early as this will be helpful for our planning. We also encourage
you to BOOK YOUR HOTEL ROOM(s) EARLY! Chicago will host numerous summer events and hotels are already near capacity for August 1-3.
Some suggested accomodations appear on the SqueakFest website:
http://imamp.colum.edu/eceim/squeakfest07/accommodations.php
Please forward this email to anyone you know that may be interested in attending.
Come join us in Chicago! We look forward to seeing you there.
cheers,
Kim
If you can’t take the HEAT!
25 June, 2007
You know what they say, “If you can’t take the heat, get out of the laptop for the worlds children business!” Pictured above is the OLPC computer running day and night (look closely and notice the Squeak E-Toys running) at scorching temperatures 52C (125F) during the day time and 22C (72F) at night. Just image running your computer laptop in an oven all day!
Sophie-Croquet?
29 May, 2007
Minding Your Business With Smalltalk (Part 3 of 4)
17 May, 2007
Previously we spoke with Michael Rueger and Steve Hunter. From Michael we found out about the perspective of writing and supporting open source software. From Steve we found out what it is like being a consumer of open source software. Today we talk with Bert Freudenberg. From Bert we hope to learn what it is like being a Smalltalk programmer contributing to open source.
