reviresco
I’m not sure if my international readers know, but currently parts of the state of Victoria is enveloped in a firestorm with potentially 200 people dead. I was forwarded this pic today. It naturally follows on from the “Koala sitting in tub of water” pictures doing the rounds on the internet. Awwww!
Pia has just posted a detailed list of suggestions if you were ever interested in getting your hands on an OLPC XO laptop in Australia and New Zealand. Before she does, though, she makes an important note that I feel that I should copy here. I’ve seen people (especially at ZDnet) somewhat miffed once they finally get their hands on one. And that’s simply because the recipients were middle aged men who thought they were getting something like an EEEPC. So;
Before outlining how you can get an XO, it is important to understand that these computers are not like normal laptops, they really are specialist collaboration devices meant for children aged 5-12 to be used in the classroom as part of their normal education process. They won’t necessarily make great gifts in isolation, because most of the value comes in collaborating and sharing with others, particularly in an educational setting.
Check out the post over at OLPCFriends and get involved!
Over at OLPC Friends you can finally get some details on Australia’s first OLPC XO pilot. Pia’s been heading up the project, with an emphasis on remote collaboration rather than school-wide saturation and deployment. Available so far is the technical documentation, with more to follow…
Today Pia Waugh has posted on her blog a link to the technical documentation of Australia’s first OLPC trial. The details can be found here and it includes how to work within a typical relatively secure school. This is a great step for proving the value of the project for both Aussie kids, and kids in a “Western” country. It is also a world first of inter-school collaboration and the delivery of specialist services to remote schools.
OLPC Friends Announcement
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Australia%27s_first_deployment
The “No Clean Feed” movement here an attempt to raise awareness about the Australian Government’s plan to institute ISP and national level IP data filtering. I didn’t rush out and sign a petition, nor join the Facebook group because I figured the whole deal was going to be a non-starter. Not that I think you shouldn’t express yourself if you feel or know your opinion is going to prevail anyway (voter apathy, anyone?), it just so happened that the situation got better before it had the chance to get worse.
There are reports today that The Greens won’t give support to Conroy’s plan, effectively killing it. The Green vote in Canberra is strong and growing. And since I didn’t meet anyone who supported the plan, I can only surmise that our community has been appropriately represented by our elected officials. That’s a Good News item right there. This amusing article about Senators complaining about being subject to the same restrictions the public will be is the definition of irony. Talk about good timing though, it’s made some lawmakers give second thought to the idea.
Suspiciously good timing, actually! I might have to look in Hansard…
I don’t know if it’s made any international headlines, but the coast of Queensland has taken a beating over the past week. Massive storms, as evidenced by this video, taken on the 20th..I don’t think i’ve seen anything quite like it!
Just back from CASE’s One Laptop per Child Open Day, held this afternoon in Belconnen. We had a good time with a dozen or so people showing up. Visitors were introduced to the laptop and then had the opportunity to play with them and experience the feel of one. This stimulated a good amount of discussion – as Darrel said, you could spend a whole day just talking about the ideas behind the project. Pia made it with time to spare and gave her talk which we all appreciated very much. Revealed were some details regarding Australia’s First OLPC XO Pilot, which is now in full swing. Tom Worthington blogged away during the event, and he draws a good picture of the day (live blogging takes some practice…Tom has had practice..).
As for me, I’m tired but glad things went well. There are plenty of things I learned, one important one is that you need practice to demo a large number of these things effectively. Being intimately familiar with the devices will make the difference when trying to pitch their case, and that takes time.
So what’s next? Basically wait and see what the powers-that-be decide what they’ll do next (In Australia, specifically) we’ll see something solid on the OLPC wiki (wiki.laptop.org) shortly, I believe. More to follow…
