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It’s springtime in Cambridge, and there is change in the air. Walter Bender, my mentor and OLPC’s longtime president, resigned last month and is looking for new ways to support the project’s educational mission.
A storm of discussion followed recent statements about OLPC pursuing XOs that could dual-boot Linux and Windows, with flame wars about being subverted by Microsoft, OLPC’s educational focus, and the reported uselessness of proprietary tools and systems for learning. A lot of useful conversations were started, some of them spawning a new mailing list focused specifically on education; but in the short term there was a lot of smoke that had nothing to do with education at all. I have been dismayed by the willingness of many people to exaggerate what is known about how the world and education work, in order to fit their preferred narrative…
Leslie Hawthorn commented astutely it is precisely the failure of a grand, sweeping narrative that has been most distracting from a new and wonderful global meme — something which needs swift repair.
Meanwhile, Nepal has started their second laptop deployment, to much fanfare and colorful reception. Some photos from the weekend’s unwrapping, care of Ties Stuij:
And, finally, here are some quaint turn-of-century sugarlabs for your delectation.