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You may be mistaking the details and results for the plan and the movement. http://one.laptop.org/community http://one.laptop.org/community OLPC (org and commu

You may be mistaking the details and results for the plan and the movement. http://one.laptop.org/community http://one.laptop.org/community OLPC (org and community) works on the scale of deployments. Villages and sometimes entire countries are organized around educational technology access and infrastructure is found or built. Volunteers orgs stand up to help translate content, support and repair laptops in situ, and help the local teachers, students, and parents. Also, they make/design the laptops. And Sugar Labs makes the Sugar software. Check out the blogs on http://planet.laptop.org/ http://planet.laptop.org/ for more on all of this, including the OLPC news article tat kicked off this HN thread.

glesica 13y ago
I don't have time to go link-hunting at the moment, but I know I have read they had big problems with the infrastructure and community aspect of the plan. This is almost always the case in technology applied to education. Handing out laptops (or iPads, or whatever) is easy, developing a curriculum that uses them effectively, achieving buy-in from relevant stakeholders, and keeping the hardware updated and in working order are challenges that are orders of magnitude greater, yet they get less attention and funding. This is why I would be interested in genuine, academically rigorous evaluations of the success of the project using pre-established metrics (not just press releases trumpeting their achievements).
- adricnet 13y ago
  A quick search shows the expected results: there have been studies, most pronounced the project ineffective (or a failure), and there is controversy and politics involved in it all: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=OLPC+study https://duckduckgo.com/?q=OLPC+study Real work is hard and I agree with your point that the deployments have struggled with reaching their goals around content and infrastructure. I've tried to re-frame the discussion in terms of the goals, rather than the laptops, but I don't suggest it's all been unicorns and rainbows in the field. And I didn't go out there, so I'm cautious of criticizing their efforts. I do believe that success has already been achieved in several countries measured by the goals of donors and supporters of the project (and community), but the studies, and detractors, are looking for different goals. After all, not every child has a (hackable!?) laptop yet, but millions do that didn't before. :D

glesica 13y ago

I don't have time to go link-hunting at the moment, but I know I have read they had big problems with the infrastructure and community aspect of the plan. This is almost always the case in technology applied to education. Handing out laptops (or iPads, or whatever) is easy, developing a curriculum that uses them effectively, achieving buy-in from relevant stakeholders, and keeping the hardware updated and in working order are challenges that are orders of magnitude greater, yet they get less attention and funding. This is why I would be interested in genuine, academically rigorous evaluations of the success of the project using pre-established metrics (not just press releases trumpeting their achievements).

adricnet 13y ago
A quick search shows the expected results: there have been studies, most pronounced the project ineffective (or a failure), and there is controversy and politics involved in it all: https://duckduckgo.com/?q=OLPC+study https://duckduckgo.com/?q=OLPC+study Real work is hard and I agree with your point that the deployments have struggled with reaching their goals around content and infrastructure. I've tried to re-frame the discussion in terms of the goals, rather than the laptops, but I don't suggest it's all been unicorns and rainbows in the field. And I didn't go out there, so I'm cautious of criticizing their efforts. I do believe that success has already been achieved in several countries measured by the goals of donors and supporters of the project (and community), but the studies, and detractors, are looking for different goals. After all, not every child has a (hackable!?) laptop yet, but millions do that didn't before. :D