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| The $100 laptop @ ISDE5 |
The International Symposium on Digital Earth was an opportunity for a few hundred experts and other interested individuals to get together, see and discuss ways in which online information systems are making it possible to explore our planet.
The most obvious, to me, being Google Earth. But there are lots and lots of others.
As I walked into UC Berkeley to register, I stumbled across Ed Cherlin, who I’ve known for a few years as a knowledgeable and good-hearted promoter of the Simputer (Simple Computer). This time he was wearing a volunteer staff shirt for ISDE5 and carrying an XO (the “$100 computer”) in his hand. Hmm, an XO. Time to talk to Ed I think!
Here’s what Ed had to say…
| Play the interview: | |
You may want to peruse these links while listening (audio 16 minutes 33 seconds):
- OLPC: One Laptop Per Child
- OLPC News: Other views on the project
- Seymour Papert (you know, I’ve only met him once, but his ideas were new when I was a graduate student and he is certainly one of the stimulating thinkers in my primary field of study and practice). Early experiments involved a programming language called Logo [see also the Logo Foundation] and a “turtle” device.
- Constructionist theory of learning (also see constructivist)
- Alan Kay – if you don’t know (of) Alan, just read this and explore from there
- Sugar – the interface for the laptop
Nice post to ping upon, the OLPC is a blog item in itself, which I’ve been meaning to write about, but I’ll have to wait until this akismet mess is cleared. As it is, I’m trying a new tactic here, as you can see by the data. Will set up at the outpost in a few minutes, with a diff. IP address and try this same post again. Thanks, Sky. –A.
I love OLPC and its “competitors” – the idea has been around, and it will be tough to get enough software in place for it, and also tough to do maintenance on systems when they’re in the field, but it’s a valiant effort!