The OLPC give one, get one program is starting today. For the next 12 days, if you buy an XO laptop for $399, you will get one sent to you and and one sent to a child in a developing nation. Here’s the official release:
Between November 12 and November 26, OLPC is offering a Give One Get One program in the United States and Canada. This is the first time the revolutionary XO laptop has been made available to the general public. For a donation of $399, one XO laptop will be sent to empower a child in a developing nation and one will be sent to the child in your life in recognition of your contribution. $200 of your donation is tax-deductible (your $399 donation minus the fair market value of the XO laptop you will be receiving).
I highly recommend that anyone with a young child in their life takes advantage of this. Not only will you introduce your son (or daughter, or nephew, or neice) to the joys of the web, you will also supporting a worthy cause and donating to developing nations. Plus, it is just pure XOXO. Think about it: for $399, you are helping to raise two digital citizens. Two more voices in our ever expanding global network. Plus, you get 1 year of free T-Mobile wifi:
T-Mobile USA is proud to offer you one-year complimentary access to T-Mobile HotSpot in recognition of your support for the Give One Get One program. As you help children in developing countries stay connected, educated, and enlightened - T-Mobile wants to support you by keeping you connected to those who matter most to you.
Since I already have a beautiful MacBook Pro I don’t plan to get an XOXO laptop. These laptops need not be limited to children. After all, the operating system is based upon Linux which is itself a very robust and efficient system. Plenty of people fully fluent in computing are ordering their own XO laptop. (After all, it really is a steal :P) My dad plans to order one (two?) of his own. Sylvia Martinez, Scott Swanson and Andy Schmitz already have. Are you going to order one? It’d certainly be a great complement to your desktop if you don’t have another laptop already.
I wouldn’t mind seeing you have one, Arthus, just so you could hardware hack the XO and contribute to the OLPC codebase. Of course, I suppose you could always purloin one of dad’s units for that…. It is implementation of killer courseware in Sugar that will complete the OLPC mission, and that takes *all* of us. Sylvia, my team at IMSA, you… everyone who wants to make a difference for global education and (r)evolution.
Every time I see one, I get more and more assured that this is the platform for the future of education… and more and more concerned that the software solution is not quite ready yet. We’re running out of time; countries are starting to balk, and we can’t let Microsoft, Intel, or any of the competitors who want to sink OLPC for their own mercantile gain get the foothold they need to break the worldwide momentum of this project. G1G1 was a brilliant way to re-inject hardware and media momentum, but we need the backend tail from it; the software momentum surge that can happen if even half of these domestic XOs find their way to students, home hobbyists, and others who will dabble, dink, and drive the code onward.
People want to know why I am buying one. I just wish I could buy ten.
Arthus, I am so contemplating donating to this cause. I agree with Scott that you should get your hands on one of these in order to contribute what you can to the community that will ultimately arise. My daughter (now 4) received a V-tech “computer” for her birthday, but I have always wanted to introduce a Linux machine to her. In fact, I did about a year ago, however we ran out of room so the XO might be a great alternative. I also want one to play with to learn more about the project as well as to possibly contribute to the community as well. At this point, I am leaning heavily towards donating. But I will sleep on it tonight. Maybe I’ll let you know in the morning. Thanks for sharing about this great project!
@Scott: Ha… yes, this certainly is a very hopeful step forward in regards to open source education.
We really do need a global revolution for education. I agree, this probably is one of the platforms for the future of education. However, I also think the future of education is more cross-compatible (web-based) so that students in Africa on XO laptops can collaborate with students in the U.S. on $2,400 MacBook Pros.
Despite Microsoft and Intel’s best efforts, I doubt this project is going to fail. After all, they made the most intelligent move ever. Instead of trying to introduce (relatively weak) laptops to every kid in the U.S. (starting with the impoverished) they took the laptops where it will not be noticed… where something 5 times as slow would still be amazing. When the first world sees this success, I have little doubt that we will quickly hop on to 1:1 laptop programs. (Maine already has)
In terms of me coding on it, I’d love to muck around in it. The interface is already pretty amazing and represents a great step forward in usability. Hopefully, the Linux distro will eventually be released (with help from hackers) so that I can run it on my testing machine and see how it all works under the hood. In the meantime, I’m sure someone I know will end up letting me play around with it. (Either gradster1 or my Dad)
I’m looking forward to more adventures in Linux.
Unfortunately, I don’t have $400 to buy another laptop at the moment… but I’ll find ways around that.
@Brian: Sounds like a good idea. I think your daughter would love it. Plus, you get the good will which comes from donating to a worthy and bringing another to the “light side” of computing (your daughter grows up to love Linux). Keep us updated to your decision!
Arthus, a couple of points:
1. You can run a development distro under qemu or vmware right now. Check out http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OS_images_for_emulation for details.
2. Maine’s laptop initiative pre-dates the OLPC one, and in fact was one of the great “existence proofs” for OLPC. Check out organizations like http://www.aalf.org/ and http://www.mcmel.org/ for details.
3. I believe you are spot on when it comes to the global collaboration being key. It’s not the tool — the XOs are fancy pencils, a point I make all the time in conferences. But by ghod, what the pencil did for edu beyond the chisel or even stylus…. The tool isn’t the revolution; it provides for the revolution. The revolution is in our hearts and minds, what we do with it.
Yes, it is very important to keep the focus off the tool and on the collaboration. Otherwise, we might as well give everyone pencils. (Though the OLPC initiative is significantly cheaper than the amount paper would cost) I need to think on this even more… how we keep everyone focused on the message rather than the messenger.
Yup, you got me - I’m getting one as well.
But I don’t agree that it’s “just a tool”. In certain circumstances, unimaginative use of computers render them tool-like in many schools. But there is so much more, and I think that’s what OLPC is about. These are more than cheap machines for kids. The machine was designed with an educational vision in mind, to extend the mind of the user in ways never before imagined.
I think the “just a tool” mantra binds us to a past use of computers that ultimately is comforting, but limiting. Seymour Papert wrote about the computer as an “object to think with” with unlimited capacity to become exactly what the user needs at any moment without being prescriptive. But this only happens with well designed hardware and software that puts the user in charge of an environment of unlmited potential.
OLPC is a grand experiment on a scale never attempted before. Who wouldn’t want to be a part of that!
Well, of course, Sylvia is right… while I usually cheerfully confess to being wrong, I’d like to say that in this case I think we’re both right. The XO is the tool, the platform on which OLPC is built. You’re right that OLPC is beyond anything we’ve ever seen; birthed from the ideas of Papert and other visionaries, I think we’re in agreement that this has the possibility to transform the human race. I use the “just a tool” mantra to keep scared educators from wigging out completely, and it is limiting if you use that as the end-all, be-all of what technology is. But just as there is a difference between a whittled bison bone and a drill press (though both might be designed as tools for making holes), what you can do with each is radically different, and the difference between information/learning tools is equally as profound.
You are both completely right. Sylvia, thanks for keeping us from falling into the “just a tool” mantra. I’m excited to hear that you will be getting one.
Now that I have had a chance to play around with the operating system, I must agree. There is very little likelihood of OLPC just becoming a tool. Thankfully, collaboration is integrated throughout the system. In almost every application, kids are given the choice to collaborate upon it with “their neighborhood.” I can see it now… sitting around in a cirlce and developing a story together, writing a song.
Indeed, I am almost positive the XO will !
P.S. In the first 10 hours, 3 days worth of laptops were already order. If you’re going to order one, you better get on it! (I recommend you play around with the virtual machine first though)
I think this is a good idea it puts technology in the hands of those who need it most, and allows them too connect to the world, a place that they might not have otherwise been able to experience.
Check out this blog - Bill Kerr. You should definately be following his etoys/squeak posts.
http://billkerr2.blogspot.com/
Bill’s a great teacher in Australia and a proponent of teaching kids to program and design games. I talked about him a couple of times in my blog:
http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/04/23/game-design-as-an-educational-activity/
http://blog.genyes.com/index.php/2007/04/30/game-making-with-students-resources-rationale-from-australia/
Arthus,
I got to see a little of the laptop at the NECC conference, and it seems that it the operating system really was set up with collaboration in mind.
When students launch a function, it automatically networks to other students nearby doing the same function.
In early roll out plans, there was some talk of introducing it to parents as well as students in the villages, which I hope is what happens, so the whole community is involved.
I think it’s great you are promoting this, too!
@BAM Yes, it certainly does. By putting the technology in the hands of those who need it we are given the greatest opportunity to improve the world we ever have.
@Carolyn Foote: Cool, glad to hear that you got a chance to see it. I too hope that some get into the hands of village parents too. After all, everyone stands to benefit from this.
I’ve been encouraging everyone I know with children to consider buying a laptop.
Hi folks,
Thanks for your post about the new XO laptop from the OLPC campaign. We at Razoo really support this kind of creative solution, so much so that we’re including it in our “Good Travels” contest.
The “Good Travels” contest encourages travelers to do good while one the road. As part of the contest, five 2nd prize winners will receive the new XO laptop (and 5 laptops will be donated to children in developing nations).
(By the way, the grand prize of the contest is a trip for two anywhere in the world to put good into action, via ResponsibleTravel.com.)
You can learn more about it and enter here: http://beta.razoo.com/good_travels
Cheers,
rebecca
Razoo. Come Together, Change Your World.
http://blog.razoo.com
I promised myself to let you know if I made a donation. I just made my PayPal donation 5 minutes ago. After some reading, some thought, and little doubt on my part, I feel it’s the right thing to do for education, not to mention the perk of starting my daughter off with a device that is built around the concept of collaboration.
What I am wondering is that those of us making a donation are few and far between. Don’t users have to be in close proximity? Will this hinder the collaborative experience for her?
Very glad to hear that Brian.
In terms of collaboration, I think you can do so via mesh networking and the internet, though I have yet to see any concrete evidence of such.
Actually, users aren’t as few as you would imagine, they have already sold 3 or 4 days worth. Still, it is something to consider that she might not have the full collaborative experience. But if you have a wireless network in place she should be fine.
Brian - although the mesh works easiest if you have other machines around, all that’s happening is the XO is creating an ad-hoc Wifi access point called “olpc-mesh”. It can attach to other (unencrypted) networks just fine for internet access and there’s still a fair degree of collaboration that can happen that way (browser-based). Also, I would not be surprised if someone came out with a “mesh bridge” to tunnel the mesh over the internet to give us a virtual mesh here in the US. (Actually, for all I know, someone put that in the last 200 revs of the developer image I haven’t tracked carefully.) Alternatively, you can run an XO server (or whatever they’re calling it this week) to get the auto-uplink the the Great Mesh in the Sky (can you tell I haven’t looked at that part of the project in months and months?)
There’s still plenty of utility. And, blessedly, there is still the View Source button, from which so much self-discovery shall come; even without the networking, that alone, coupled with a child’s imagination, is a payoff far beyond the small cost of the donation and the tagalong XO.
Thanks Scott, sounds like it should be relatively easy to figure out collaboration here in the United States.
I might have to take a look at the source and see what I can do in terms of supporting U.S. users in their collaborative efforts. Ideally, we should be able to collaborate across the world (via the “great mesh in the sky”) with anyone, including kids in Africa, just as easily as if they were sitting across the room from us.
I look forward to following this project as people start to receive there machines.
(P.S. 3 more people I know have/are going to order their XO laptops)
Gentlemen, all good stuff here. Thanks for addressing my concern about collaboration. I knew about the Internet access, and we do have an wireless environment here at home, but was curious about the collaboration with other XO laptop users. The “Great Mesh in the Sky” sounds like a great idea.
Locally at my work, I have a colleague who is helping to lead a connection with students in Uganda around and an organization called Conservation Through Public Health (CTPH) in order to educate local communities around Uganda about their health practices and their impact on the environment and animals (especially the Mountain Gorilla). At this time I don’t know if there has been any mention of the XO Laptops for the schools and children of Uganda within this project. I’ll be sure to put a bug in my colleagues ear. He also may be joining the fun by making a donation.
Thanks for continuing the conversation.
@Brian Sounds like things will work out well..
CTPH looks like it is doing some great thins regarding animal health. I think the XO laptops will certainly be a boost to any educational projects. Hopefully, students will be able to expand their understand of everything through access to the wealth of information available on the web.
In terms of donations, the more the merrier. Having used the operating system virtualized on my laptop, I can say it is certainly a very good environment for learning.
Just curious what you think about the other low cost alternative computers. A lot of the fuss/buzz has been over the XO (which I agree is AWESOME) but there are a lot of other computers out there for dirt cheap; some are even making more headway than OLPC in selling computers to developing nations.
I.e.
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=7754614
http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1=24&l2=0&l3=0&l4=0&model=1907&modelmenu=1
http://www.intel.com/intel/worldahead/classmatepc/
The mission and clever addons (wifi, handcrank, etc.) might not be there, but the end result, I’d argue, is the same.
Joe,
The mission is important, because it drives what kids can do with these computers. The XO is fundamentally different than just another low cost box, unless you are looking to install training software. The XO is about doing collaborative, creative work, other low cost machines are about emulating the adult world of work.
David Thornburg makes this point better than I can here:
http://www.districtadministration.com/pulse/commentpost.aspx?news=no&postid=48676
While there are other computers out there sold cheaply, that’s not all OLPC is about. As we mentioned above, it is so much more than a tool. OLPC is about a vision - students everywhere having the ability to collaborate, contribute, and computer. Without this vision, the XO would just be another tool - 21st century pens. That’s basically what those other machines are, we might as well just hand kids in developing nations some pens and paper.
Besides, I don’t particularly want to entrust the hope of a better, more just world to some corporations. Well, maybe Google. By a stretch, Intel or ASUS. But, Walmart…. honestly.
@Sylvia: Thanks for the link, I especially like the last line, “To suggest, for one instant, that a user interface designed for the corporate world is optimal for students engaged in inquiry-driven project-based learning is, at best, dangerous.”
Touche!
It’s interesting to see though, none of the cheap computers I listed are running windows…could the tide be changing. Or will Walmart brand linux just become the new Windows? Let’s hope not!
Joe, I don’t particularly see it as any ideological change. Instead, it’s simple business:
It’s all about the dollars, for Walmart. “Save Money”