[Edu-sig] OLPC (was FYI: PataPata postmortem link)

[Bert Freudenberg]

On Nov 29, 2006, at 14:39 , Arthur wrote:

> Bert Freudenberg wrote:
>
>> On Nov 29, 2006, at 13:00 , Arthur wrote:
>>
>>  I fear not only that OLPC is turning into a toy,  but a toy for the
>>> wrong follks, folks who have enough toys,  rooms full of them,    
>>> lost in
>>> their toys, blinking and whizzing  hynoptic.
>>>
>>
>> Would you agree that the software (and not the greenish toy-like   
>> hardware) would make all the difference between that little  
>> machine  being a toy and it being a serious platform for  
>> education? Why, then,  are so few folks working on actual  
>> educational software for it? So  far, you can count the  
>> specifically educational activities on the  OLPC on one hand. Even  
>> if you lost most fingers.
>>
>> - Bert -
>>
> Not sure what are saying.  Just checked my facts:
>
> Squeak, and Scratch on top of Squeak seemed to be the done deal  
> centerpieces.

Squeak (actually, Etoys) is there, and it is indeed the only  
educational activity I can see at the moment. Which prompted my  
message - I can imagine a lot of people with different ideas, but why  
are they so silent? Why don't they create a project on dev.laptop.org  
and start hacking? You surely would not want to leave the territory  
to us Etoys folks, would you?

Haven't heard of Scratch being on the machine, there certainly is no  
specific OLPC Scratch activity, yet.

> You wouldn't be implying - God forbid - that this is not state of  
> the art, best practices, educational software.

I was implying that this is edu-sig, and since Python is on the  
laptop (actually as the major language, which is *not* Squeak), why  
isn't there anyone else contributing? It's not like OLPC was a closed  
project. At the current state of affairs you could get *anything*  
onto it. So are you dismissing the whole idea just because the lauded  
head honchos are constructionists? Contribute your own!

> Just that I see these matters as having next to nothing to do with  
> electronics. More than nothing to do with electronics.

Granted. Still, you are an electronic mailing list discussing  
educational topics as applied to an electronic device - the idea does  
not seem too far-fetched to me.

> That the Wizards think they can construct this reality  
> electronically is not only absurd, in my view, but an absolute -  
> almost tragic -  distraction from more coherent and human to human  
> based efforts toward these espoused ends.  Which I might see in the  
> end to have maybe a 4% electronic component.

Whatever human-to-human based efforts you (or anyone) are pursuing,  
by all means, continue. As has been pointed out elsewhere, this is  
not a zero-sum game. Virtually nobody involved in the OLPC project  
would instead be going to Brazil and become a teacher. So why not let  
everyone do what they do best, and enjoy doing?

- Bert -