Jan 5 2008
OLPC More Problems but Still Anticipation…
Well the new term is a coupe of days away and this weblog is now finally beginning to take shape after changing themes from my old but now quite redundant Kiwi theme to the Morning After theme by Arun. Is it any good, well yes but a little tricky to setup and I am still unsure about the Internet Explorer compatibility. Over the net month or so I will begin to add to the site to get it as feature rich as under the old theme, but mainly I hope it has simplified the reading of the content.
I am still waiting for the delivery of my OLPC or XO laptop. How did I manage to order one from the UK, well luckily through a parent I was able to order from here and when they return from Alabama in the New Year they will bring the laptop with them. It is disappointing the continuing problems and negative feelings that the OLPC program is engendering. A recent article from May Wong brings up the probably inevitable news that the Intel chip maker has split from the program. All over the web is the other news that might begin to spell the end of the XO laptop program, is from Nigeria where a keyboard manufacturer is sueing the program for supposedly reverse engineering the keyboard drivers. Is everyone forgetting this is a non for profit organisation? Anyway I hope that I will enjoy playing with the XO laptop when it arrives, and use it within my classes to discuss and widen understanding of the digital divide.
Apart from waiting for the OLPC program I am anticipating introducing WIKI’s back into my classes after a long break. Last year when I used TikiWiki within a GCSE class, it was a resounding success and led to ideas that this sort of collaborative e-learning tool could be very effective and maybe even more effective than my extensive use of weblogs within the classroom. I have decided to go away from TikiWiki not due to its functionality but simply it was too erratic to control, almost lockingout all users at one stage due to a strange php error. I have recently setup MediaWiki on my server at ConstructICT but have again decided that apart from the fact that MediaWiki is much more robust it will not offer all the features that some other Web 2.0 solutions offer. So at the moment with the new ad free offers from wetpaint wiki I have opted to use this provider. There is a fabulous example of the use of Wetpaint from Shanghai American School called Wikinomics. However it is very much used as a class portal, rather than a bringing together of students to collaborate on activities. Anyway much more to come, will have to check it gets throught the school filter though?
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