The FISL congress is over and it was great talking to the enormous amount of people who showed interest in the XO learning laptop and the OLPC project. It was nice to see people’s interest turn into large smiles by the time I was done explaining the project and answering their questions. Many stayed for fifteen minute or more and some even came back multiple times to play around with the machines and ask more questions.
However the one thing that made this trip truly wonderful was seeing the laptop in action at one of the trial schools in Porto Alegre.
Here, in this school, with a library no bigger than the size of a small classroom mostly filled with desks, we found enthusiastic children happy to see us. Now with the laptop and the Internet, children in the school have access to information which would fill their library a hundred times over.
One of the things we first noticed when walking into a classroom of kids using the laptops was the way the kids personalized their computers with stickers.
The white surfaces of the laptop offered perfect canvas for their creativity, which was as vibrant as any grade school child I have ever met.
We went around talking to children, mostly with the teachers translating for those of us who did not speak Portuguese.
They were also happy to listen to English. For those of them who have learned a bit, hearing from a native speaker can be very helpful. “What is your name?” was a question asked many times.
I wasn’t the only one taking pictures. One of the children’s favorite activity was taking pictures with the XO’s built in camera. Perhaps they will use them to create a photo journal – just as I am doing.
The teachers themselves are enthusiastic about the project. Many of these children do not have toys at home, let alone computers. The school has implemented a toy program where children who are more privileged than others donate their toys to a shared toy chest. They recognize that it is important for a child to play. The teachers are keen to give these kids as much as they are able.
But even with play one thing that amazed me during my trip to the school was when the kids were let out into the courtyard. While some of them went running around playing games a good portion of them sat down outside with their laptops and continued to work…
…in groups.
Each child was different, bringing a smile to my face with their creativity, intelligence and yes, funny antics.
Some of the children were able to make it to the congress, walking around the showroom with their XO’s and showing attendees what they liked best about the laptop.
The experience made the long hours working the booth worth it. It also affirmed to me the real reasons I decided to work on the project when given the chance to switch from Red Hat’s desktop group.
Look for video taken at the school a day after I had visited in Red Hat Magazine some time in the future.
[read this post in: ar de es fr it ja ko pt ru zh-CN ]
This is awesome! You have been dugged
http://digg.com/linux_unix/The_XO_from_OLPC_project_in_the_Real_World
Comment by Rafael Jannone — April 16, 2007 @ 3:16 pm
This is really inspirational to see. I can’t wait to see the video, and learn more details about how these students are using the XO, what they like/dislike about it, etc.
You all are doing great work!
Comment by Sandy — April 16, 2007 @ 3:34 pm
Yeah, it’s great to see the XO out there being used by its intended audience in the wild.
Good job!
Comment by Andrew Clayton — April 16, 2007 @ 3:43 pm
This post is the best answer to all those who criticized this project because you should’ve spent the money in food and medical aids instead of laptops.
Those children don’t eat grass nor drink muddy water from a well 10 km away from their homes.
Their experience is not so different from the experience of my mother in the ’50s here in Italy, there were jobs, homes, the basic services were guaranteed, but there wasn’t too much money for the rest.
This project can bring to those children what otherwise they’re going to miss the most in this century: knowledge and access to the rest of the world.
Comment by Giacomo — April 16, 2007 @ 5:36 pm
Damn, I mistyped the security code TWICE and have to start over again. It should keep the comment’s content when clicking “back”. And the characters are damn difficult to guess!
I said that initiatives like these really touch me. I wish I worked on this project.
When a society needs to pass beyond the bare need for food, education is a must. Now these children have a very powerful tool to help progress their community
Comment by Topopardo — April 16, 2007 @ 6:24 pm
Great pics, lots of enthusiasm. However I’d like to see posted some screenshots of content that has been explored during these sessions, or comments/feedback about the Sugar UI from the kids. Let’s not forget this is an educational effort, not some “free gadget” event.
Comment by Nick — April 16, 2007 @ 7:06 pm
Nick,
LEC (an orginization run through the local univeristy) is compiling reports and video and working with teachers to help us understand what is needed. In fact most of the people from LEC are phycology majors and not techies.
Topopardo,
I finaly moved to the math spam filter which should be better (back seems to work) unless of course you are bad at math
There is no reason you can’t work on the project. It is open and anyone can contribute. Hopefully some kids will grow up to do just that.
Comment by J5 — April 16, 2007 @ 7:15 pm
J5,
Thanks for the comment. I really look forward, as an educator, to knowing the results of such reports. I am sure you will do a great job in transferring that feedback back into the X0.
Comment by Nick — April 16, 2007 @ 7:27 pm
Two comments. One, why is the button configuration identical to that of a Playstation controller? Sony must have a patent/trademark on that (not that they’re likely to sue, but it is something that is pretty easy to rectify). Two, that d-pad looks absolutely abysmal.
I know gaming is far from the primary function of the OLPC, but still, if it is going out to tens of millions of children, get it right.
Comment by Luciani — April 17, 2007 @ 12:34 am
things since these cause that it raises to me happy in the mornings
Comment by Ricardo Fuentes — April 17, 2007 @ 12:50 am
The above blog is providing valuable information on the XO in the Real World. The FISL congress is over and it was great talking to the enormous amount of people who showed interest in the XO learning laptops and the OLPC project. It was nice to see people’s interest turn into large smiles by the time I was done explaining the project and answering their questions.if you want to know detailed information on laptops……….
Comment by gene — April 17, 2007 @ 2:58 am
Luciani,
The buttons are being changed I belive. I am not sure who chose the layout but mecanical design like that and other little bugs are being fixed in Btest-3.
Not sure what the issue is with the D-Pad is though. It works quite nice. The issue most people find is that they are too small but then again they are made for smaller hands…
Comment by J5 — April 17, 2007 @ 7:43 am
Re: You have been dugged.
Even better, you have made it onto the news links on Groklaw. Prepare to be groklawed which can be worse than a good /.ing.
Comment by LocoYokel — April 17, 2007 @ 8:41 am
Hi! I work at LEC, and we meet when you visited our lab. I dont talk with you in the booth on FISL, because I don’t speak english, but I can write something that you understand. I’m happy that you liked the visit, and much more for you liked our work with XO’s in the school. When we work in the development context, sometimes we don’t know, how our work will intervene in the users life. In this case, the impact will be big, and I hope that we can do and incredible job together.
Comment by Robson — April 17, 2007 @ 3:30 pm
Nick:
Im Bruno Sperb, from LEC´s team (one of the psychologists who work with the students in classroom). The educational effort that we are all engaged could not be bigger.
Feedbacks are being given every to OLPC team weekly (even daily), based on the interactions of children and teachers with the XO.
Some of the educational results (children´s projects and researches, just in portuguese, tough) can be seen in our virtual environment called AMADIS (uca.lec.ufrgs.br/amadis). Its like an orkut of learning, where children are posting their diary, learning projects, pictures and, in the next days, websites.
Videos are being posted as well in the youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRpCmV5zHYo), and we are making the next ones aiming exactly more secures feedbaks from the children about the XO.
Bruno
Comment by Bruno Sperb — April 17, 2007 @ 5:57 pm
J5, these pics of the X0 team with real end users really touched me.
Congratulations to the OLPC team!
Comment by Jordi — April 18, 2007 @ 7:43 am
Really wonderful pictures. You have been featured at http://olpc.com
Comment by Pascal — April 18, 2007 @ 10:21 am
I am from Argentina, and I lived in Brasil for three and a half years from 99-2002. I am now living back in Buenos Aires now. I hope somebody from my country is participating in your project too. What is really sad is that most teachers here will need to learn how to use a computer first, since most of them are not only computer illiterate, but very mediocre to say the least. Teachers need excuses to justify why their students are so dumb. I guess the lack of computers is a great way to justify their own failure. I wonder how kids in the 70’s learned without computers.
Comment by Axel — April 27, 2007 @ 9:27 pm
Axel, it is funny you say that teachers need excuses, that they will say the lack of computers is why they fail. This week the big story in the US are schools -dropping- their (non-XO) laptops, saying they are getting in the way of teaching. They say they don’t help them teach, they break and take money from other teaching needs.
Bad teachers give excuses, no matter where they are. The XO is different because it empowers the *student*, not the teacher.
Comment by Jeff Rush — May 9, 2007 @ 11:23 pm
why cant we just have these at le bocage international school.
Comment by sara — August 18, 2007 @ 2:29 am
There is no reason you can’t work on the project. It is open and anyone can contribute. Hopefully some kids will grow up to do just that
Comment by polin povel — November 2, 2007 @ 5:27 am