May 3 2008
OLPC/XO – Review Part 2
After my initial review, I decided as a few other bloggers have done to place the XO laptop in the hands of some students to see what there views were. Some initial comments from students were from two viewpoints. Those that had seen or heard me discussing this laptop as one for third world children and so were able to see that this was not a laptop to be viewed in competition with for example a MacBook. And those that did not really understand the principles behind the laptop and so asked questions such as how big is the hard-drive, or where is the DVD drive to play movies.
The lower school IT teacher, very much a Linux Guru, loved playing with the XO however he had many reservations as to its security and features. The Firefox browser that is embedded within the OS of the laptop, does confuse and still however we tried we were unable to alter the proxy settings which is inhibiting our ability to connect to the network at school.
Hopefully as part of a review of the curriculum especially at IB level I will be able to include areas related to the Digital Divide and maybe its importance within world development today.
After some initial comments one student volunteered to review the laptop in more detail, so read his viewpoints below (note name of student has been deleted for internet saftey reasons):-
My name is (*********) and I am doing a review on the XO laptop. I am 13 years old and go to ACS Egham International School. The XO laptop was created for the poor people of Africa to be used as a communicational device for them to contact people of the World. It is also an educational device for children in 3rd world countries and schools in remote places where they have no electricity as it can run on a crank or Solar panel. It is able to run on simple Solar panels as this laptop runs on approximately 1 watt of electricity and this makes it very ‘green’ for the environment. Typical laptops use much more energy in order to run.
When I did the review on the XO laptop I found that it was easy to open the laptop and start it as the ‘On’ button is clearly marked. I found it confusing to navigate as the symbols were not as clearly marked or distinguishable as on most modern laptops. This may have been because it is different to the Windows Operating system in layout and the XO has several basic screens. The XO laptop has good WiFi communication ability as it can pick up almost all Wireless networks in my experience.
The XO laptop was designed to be very tough and robust physically as it is intended for use in dusty, hot climates where it may be dropped or damaged easily. Some of the features on this laptop are quite good as the screen can turn around whilst running and it even has a camera. The ports are protected by extra plastic. I was requested to test the Paint software and found this easy to follow and understand.
I tested opening a Pdf document and found this to be hard and complicated. Exactly the right formats were required in order to open the Pdf file for reading and use. When I created a piece of music in Tam Tam, I found it fun and inventive but confusing because I am not used to the software. I have however, previously created music on a Mac so am used to the concept of creating music if not the Tam Tam approach.
I think the ‘XO’ is a nice idea as it is a laptop available to all and for every purchase, a laptop is sent to places in Africa where communication is currently limited, ie schools etc,. The principle of distributing laptops in Africa opens up the World to the people in more remote places of the Globe. I believe the XO laptop could be a good learning aid for underprivileged children and adults.
Currently the XO is rather confusing but could be made easier to navigate with clearer icons. I think that the laptop overall is quite a good idea and is very good for the enabling them to contact people in the west.
My comments on this laptop would be it is a step forward in global connection but may just need a few tweaks to make sure it is useable by all internationally. Currently it would appeal to the 3rd world users more and would need some improvements to make it compatible with most Western computers, making communication between both users possible.
I think that the laptop shall make a difference in the schools of the 3rd world country but to the country on a whole the difference would be far smaller. In the 3rd world country’s most of their problems are not education but a lack of money. This laptop could be used as communicational device to trade things with a better price for the producer but it would cause them much hassle and time. If a government decided to invest in the laptops and send them to 3rd world countries I think they would be wasting their money, as there are much bigger problems such as aids, poor water, no water, lack of food and poverty the list goes on. So if you like the idea of helping poor people in 3rd world countries whist getting a laptop then go ahead but I do not think it is a revolutionary ideas that will change the world and end all poverty and have world peace and fairness.
P.S. Interesting news from Negroponte that OLPC will now work with Microsoft to put the Windows Operating System onto XO laptops. Met with alot of derision in the press, but I wonder what the pupil above might make of the decison?
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