[Edu-sig] OLPC: first thoughts on the first keynote at Pycon

[Vern Ceder]

I would second Andre's assessment. It just may have been one of the best 
keynotes of any PyCon, whatever you think of OLPC. And I think most 
people in the room ended up with a pretty positive feeling for what the 
OLPC folks want to do.

Vern

Andre Roberge wrote:
> I just attended a great talk on OLPC.  I thought I should share my
> first reactions with folks not fortunate enough to be able to attend.
> 
> BTW, if anyone feels this is a bit of an abuse of this list, feel free
> to let me know (I won't be offended).  I recognize that these are not
> well polished notes and perhaps should rather find their way on my
> blog.
> 
> 
> The first part was about school and learning - great stuff.  Goal:
> changing the way kids learn (no mention as this point about laptops).
> Art would have been pleasantly surprised.  This was done in a
> "non-preachy" way, unlike the way some home-schooling advocates
> present their stuff. (no offense meant to anyone on this list).
> 
> A big chunk of the talk dealt with technical/hardware issues - all
> done in a very relevant way, but not exactly relevant for edu-sig.
> 
> Some excellent reasons were given as to why Python was chosen as *the*
> development language.  There is actually a button on the keyboard
> which is meant to "display the source"; click on it and you're
> presented with the actual Python source code used to run the
> application being viewed/used.  The user can then modify the source
> (like smalltalk I guess, like Paul F. [?] sometimes mentions on this
> list) and run the modified version.
> 
> One open issue (as I understand it) is that of finding the "best
> practice" for plugins.  The idea is that the core programs should be
> as small as possible but easy to extend via plugins.  I thought that
> there already was a "well known and best way" to design plugins - and
> it was on my list of things to learn about (to eventually incorporate
> rurple within crunchy).
> 
> There is a real need to have more people involved in the development.
> This project presents a real opportunity to "make a real difference"
> to a lot of kids out there.
> 
> Overall, I was extremely impressed with the talk - it was a job well
> done and a fantastic start to the conference.
> 
> André
> _______________________________________________
> Edu-sig mailing list
> Edu-sig at python.org
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/edu-sig