Spoke to Brian Culot a principal interested in the XO project and invited him to follow the blog. He raised a couple of issues that concerned him having seen the device.
- ability to charge devices that do not fit a laptop cart – also security. He thought there would need to be a specialized cart developed.
- looking at the device for 2nd and 3rd graders his parents want students to develop keyboarding skills — not as the only thing they do, but as one thing they learn. He has middle schoolers who are still type to slow to write fluently. I know keyboarding gets contentious but the machines should support what educators, parents and students want to do with them.. so is there keyboarding software that would work on the linux machine?
- He was also concerned that students might not be able to write fluently with this keyboard… so kids.. can you.. does the keyboard slow you down.. or do you need to learn to type faster as part of writing…
- What kind of training/support would teachers need, if they had a curriculum and wanted to explore integrating the tool to support inquiry within in single unit – say a study of ancient egypt.
- Brian I know you had other issues, I hope you will post them in the comments. Educators please ask our kids questions!
In answer to question number two, I discovered a great touch typing program that works through your web browser. The web address is http://www.sense-lang.org/typing/. What is particularly neat about it is that once you access the website, you do not need to be online. I think the page itself stores the lessons in the cache. I just tried it on the XO and it works great.
It has 15 lessons and is interactive (it lets you know when you make a mistake with a sound and then shows you the proper fingers to use to touch the correct keys. It also has lessons in a number of different languages – though most of them are European.
One concern is that, because the keyboard is small, touch typing won’t work for adults like me on these machines (I can’t fit the correct fingers on the keys). But, the XO is not designed for me. Besides, as my colleague Elizabeth mentioned, I can always plug in a regular size keyboard through the USB port.
To respond to question #1 – I think there are a few options. The best of which is to partner with the parents and let the kids take the devices home. This does two things – first, gets the parents involved in their child’s learning outside of school and second, takes care of the security issue (it’s the student’s responsibility).
However, I think there are a couple other options being developed out there. There is a multi-battery charger coming out (this month):
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Product_News#Multi-Battery_Charger
And the nice thing about the design of the laptops – all you need is a bicycle chain to lockup a bunch of them…just loop it through the holes and chain it to the teacher’s desk.
An interesting point is raised here, and it is reminiscent of Talbott’s points in ‘Devices of the Soul’… the point about writing is an important one. Granted, opposing thumbs have taken us this far and it may be time for people to consider abandoning them in favor of keyboards designed to slow typists… (that is the history of the QWERTY).
Recharging any PC is simple enough. The system I am writing this on is solar powered, for example. Has been for years. Commercial products have been lagging in this arena, but they are there.
Does it seem strange to anyone else that there are really no OLPC specific questions here? These are about introducing computing into a curriculum and its effects… not for nothing, but these questions, aside from how to secure the specific machine, are not… new.
My kids (Gr 1 and Gr 4) love the Speak activity. It takes what you type and a googly eyed face pronounces the words. It’s a self-reinforcing approach to typing, not a curriculum: my grade 1er just want to find the keys in order to get it to say what she wants. It’s not quiet, though.
I learned to touch type in junior high from an Apple II videogame. To shoot the alien, type the letter… then the word. It worked very well.
There’s an olpc-specific touch-typing project at http://ldt.stanford.edu/~oaneto/typewriter/
-not sure of its stage of completion, but there are definitely downloadable versions.
-Will
Also, on #1 concerning carts: This is a good point. Traditional carts designed for laptops are not suitable and waste a huge amount of space. While it would be nice to think solar re-charging or charge-at-home would solve the problem, classrooms should still have the ability to safely store and re-charge them.
There is a cart that is already available for netbooks that can be adapted for the XO. It looks like it has been configured keeping in mind elementary and middle school students, with a lower height and more manageable size. It also allows students to access the cart from two sides so it is easier to get the devices out (and put them back in). After the initial set-up, all the wires are hidden.
The vendor that created it works with the New York Schools and its products are also offered by many of the major computer sellers. Their web site even shows XOs in a recent application.
You can see it here: http://www.pc-security.com/products_solutions/carts_cabinets_cases/DS-NSC-32-MINI.htm
The bicycle chain mentioned in one of the other posts is certainly a way to secure them, but vandalism and general mischief is as much a concern in classrooms as casual theft. I would think teachers would want to close them up and keep them out of site, which means a good locking cart or cabinet would be important. One that is compact and easy to move there it is used would be good.