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

[Bert Freudenberg]

On Dec 3, 2006, at 20:34 , Winston Wolff wrote:

> On Nov 29, 2006, at 10:41 AM, Arthur wrote:
>
>> Over the years, what I have discovered about "educational  
>> software" is
>> that most of it is junk, and the really useful things to connect kids
>> with are the open-ended packages which provide an avenue for their
>> creativity and sense of mastery over aspects of the real or digital
>> world -- so, for example, learning to write with a word processor is
>> much better than playing some silly flash-words game, and using
>> Photoshop or the GIMP is probably much better than using some silly
>> math-blaster game or even the award winning Oregon Trail (which is
>> pretty good as those things go).
>> """
>
> I definitely have to agree with Arthur on this point.  I'm working  
> on some "educational software" at the moment, but it's really a  
> simple development environment for people learning Python.  I.e. an  
> open-ended tool, not a product that teaches.  I've been pondering  
> the question of what is good educational software full time for  
> half a dozen years now, and I still don't know how to answer it.

I think Paul (quoted by Arthur above) touched a really good point.  
Most so-called "educational" (or worse, "edutainment") software is  
stupid to a degree that one might consider harmful. Tools that can be  
used creatively are much more important. And although programming is  
creative by definition and should definitely be possible on the OLPC  
laptop, I think learning to program is not the most important  
creative activity, there could be a lot more. For example, the ebook- 
reader is going to be a wiki, allowing to annotate and discuss books.  
Also, a wiki-like journal is at the core of the user model.

> Furthermore, Bert's question about why aren't people writing for  
> OLPC right now when it is open software, I might ask the same about  
> my tools, which are freely available with an MIT license at http:// 
> stratotools.python-hosting.com.  I'm giving it away for free, why  
> isn't anybody using it?  But that's not a fair question.  There's  
> so much free stuff out there now, it is really up to the developer  
> to sell their platform.  But I presume your question was  
> rhetorical, and for the purpose of selling your platform?

Not really, it was an honest question (and it's not "my" platform  
anyway, I am simply hacking in one of the OLPC projects). Free stuff  
being available does not quite suffice, it would have to be brought  
into a form fitting the target. But that should still be much less  
effort that writing completely new things.

- Bert -