Little Bloggers

The blog Rising Voices recently posted a story about children in Uruguay being trained to blog using their XO Laptops.

Pablo Flores of Ceibal, the governmental organization in charge of distributing OLPC laptops in Uruguay, will organize a series of workshops which will gather national and international bloggers with the young laptop-toting students to show them how to set up a blog and take advantage of other social media tools.

So now, what happens when those students have a global voice? What do they say and to whom? And then what happens?

Improvisation in Rwanda

I saw this short article from Engadget about students with XO laptops in Rwanda.
They were finding their way to the airport near them to take advantage of the airport's WiFi connection.

Talk about becoming independent learners!

New Model - People plus XOs

I just saw this article on Electronista outlining a new internship program announced by OLPC.

It seems that if you are a college student, you can get training (in Rwanda in June) and then will be able to take 100 XO Laptops and other equipment directly into schools in Africa.

Undergraduate and graduate students from around the world will be eligible to participate, with each student team receiving 100 XO laptops and related accessories as well as $10,000 to cover operating costs.

What is interesting to me, as someone managing a deployment of 140 XOs is the recognition that while the XOs are the powerful educational tool, it is the intern who can light the fire.

Good Overview of What XOs Can/Should Do

A recent posting on OLPC News outlined a strong overview of what educational computers should do. It then assesses the XOs against those expectations.

I found the discussion really clear and useful. You can check it out here: 
The Future OELPC: One Educational Laptop Per Child

Let me know what you think.

Followup on the $10 Laptop

The other day, I meant to post about the proposed $10 laptop being developed in India.

Here is a post from the Tech Learning blog following up on the story:
A $10 Laptop?

What do you think?

Interesting XO News

A recent posting to the XO Blog includes a restatement of OLPC priorities. I thought it was interesting:

This restructuring is also the result of an exciting new direction for OLPC. Our technology initiatives will focus on:

1. Development of Generation 2.0
2. A no-cost connectivity program
3. A million digital books
4. Passing on the development of the Sugar Operating System to the community.

They also mention a $0 laptop for certain parts of the world.

Very interesting.

XO Kickoff Event -- Some Video

XO Kickoff Event Music Video

XO Kickoff Event Slideshow

There's lots to share about our Kickoff Event. For now, let's let the pictures tell the story.