One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978
description
Transcript of One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978
One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978
Basser Seminar 26 July 2009Basser School of Information Technology
University of Sydney
Lee FelsensteinFonly LLC
Palo Alto, [email protected]
What do you mean “revolution?”
Event that:
Overthrows an existing order Involves efforts of large numbers of people Opens long-term possibilities in an unexpected
manner
What Existing Order?
The Computer Priesthood IBM hegemonic Large machines – high cost Proprietary software, OS, hardware, support Software prepared by experts to lessor's
specifications “End User” always a business or government
agency
Opening shot - TV Typewriter (1973)
Build-it-yourself article Complex documentation
sent to interested correspondents ($2 fee)
Normal response – 20 10,000 paid responses! Large pent-up demand
– But for what?
Ideology - “Computer Lib”
Ted Nelson (1974)
• Modeled after Whole Earth Catalog
• “You Can and Must Understand Computers NOW”
• Started thousands off to learn about hardware and software
Breakthrough - Altair (1975)
• Incomplete kit offered for less than cost of CPU chip
• Runaway best seller
• Users embarked upon learning project of unknown duration and scope
• Nearly empty box
Clubs and Shared Software
• Necessary mutual teaching
• Software seen as means to end of having working computer
• Altair Basic widely shared – became the standard despite Gates' complaints
Interoperability - CP/M
• Gary Kildall, PhD (pictured)
• Allowed software to run on various computers
• Enabled the personal computer industry (Harold Evans)
• No computer company had previously seen the point
Interactivity• Shared Memory Display
(VDM-1 shown) enabled fast user interaction
– Computer games!
• Visi-Calc spreadsheet arguably an interactive computer accounting game
• No computer company had previously seen the point
Growth and Triumph – IBM opens up
• 1976 – Sol-20 (complete system)
• 1977 – Apple II (graphics)
• 1981 – Osborne (portability, bundled SW)
• 1981 – IBM-PC – adopts open architecture
OLPC definition – basics 1
• Originated by Prof. Nick Negroponte
– Inspired by Cambodian kids using laptops in school sponsored by N. & E. Negroponte
• Premise – Education is only way out of poverty
• Premise – Only way to educate kids is to give them all laptops
• Premise – Laptops alone, if designed right, will be sufficient to effect education
– “Constructionist” (Papert & Kay) methodology
– Children will explore world, “learn learning”
OLPC definition – basics 2
• Implementation
– Design superior laptop
– Secure agreements with heads of state for massive purchases
– Require all children be given a laptop
– Manufacture in million increments
› Drive price down to $100– Done!
OLPC - Assumptions
• Mesh networking will compensate for lack of network access
• Software applications will appear from 3rd parties
• Crank- or pull-string-power generation will supply sufficient power
• Colorful motif will prevent theft and black-market sale of computers
• Teachers will “get out of the way”
• Parents will not interfere
OLPC – hidden corrolaries
• No research
– “Enough is known already”
– Ethnographic research eschewed (IDEO)
– No existing body of data referenced
– No research report from Cambodian village exists
• No pilot projects
• Full-scale implementation or nothing
• No implementation plan
OLPC – what could go wrong?
• Heads of state cannot dictate to education ministries
– Bureaucracy has mass and inertia
– India Ed. Min. declares OLPC “pedagogically suspect”
• Infrastructure not included
– Generator an afterthought
– Network backhaul left to chance
• Constructionism not shown to be effective
– Talented teachers required
OLPC – the View From 1978
• There's been a revolution overthrowing the order:
– of system definition and implementation by priesthoods
› Operating under cover of hierarchies
› Surrounded by ramparts of propaganda
› Unquestioned and unexamined
– of institutions defined as end users...
› ...and individuals simply subject to the results
OLPC – the View From 1978
• The age of the Magic Machine is over
• People know:
– where software comes from
– that submission is not required
– that the priesthood is composed of mortals
• People are as pragmatic as ever
– They want to know how the new machine will help them, their families, their communities
Kay's Hierarchy
1. Hardware
2. Software
3. User Interface
4. Courseware
5. Mentoring
• Each step harder than the one before
• “We should have started at the top and worked down” - Alan Kay, Tunis 2005
Negroponte on OLPC over time
• “This is an education project. It is not a laptop project.” - Sept. 2005
• “...we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries.” - Jan. 2009
OLPC – out of the wreckage
Only projects running are pilots
– www.olpcnews.com OLPC has spun off software – Sugar Labs
– www.sugarlabs.org More than 100,000 XO-1 laptops sold in US and
Western countries (Give1, Get 1 – 2007 and 2008) Needed – connections between education geeks and
computer geeks with XO-1's to work on top levels of Kay's hierarchy.
Some Interesting Needs
• A device to permit learners to achieve basic literacy in their own language on a standalone basis (no network needed)
• A device to permit learners to achieve basic proficiency in arithmetic (no network needed)
• A basic electronic book
• A system for network availability supported by telecommunications revenues (village telecentre)
• A system for battery charging without mains power (Low-power village power utility)
Pursue the Hands-On Imperative!