[Its.an.education.project] Ivan's latest blog entry on OLPC

[Pamela Jones]

Bobby Powers wrote:
>>
> 
> Should I assume you have the presence service and sharing disabled on your
> XO (or would, if you don't have one?)

No, I don't. But I am careful as to what I choose to do on the XO.  I 
use it when I feel like being out there. And I know I can turn it off 
whenever I feel like it.

But when I am working on my Powerbook, I very much want to be private. 
If I really want privacy, I have to move to Linux.  Super privacy, 
Knoppic CD. My point is that I want the choice on all operating systems. 
It should not be made for me.
> 

> 
> I think the two things getting mixed up here are learning in general, and
> learning about computers.  If you're learning basic maths with the help of a
> computer program like Number Munchers, how does being able to look at the
> code help you learn math?  Its even more true for learning grammar with Word
> Munchers.  In these cases (and other use cases for activities on the XO),
> you're trying to teach the fundamentals of particular subjects, and
> personally I don't see how open or closed source software designed the same
> way would change the amount or the rate at which they learn those subjects.
> 

Learning the fundamentals of math and grammar can be done with or 
without a computer, and it's not in any way a creative process. More 
memory work. So for that it doesn't matter.

But a child who gets an XO -- even if he or she can't get on the 
Internet -- can still learn a lot, just from exploring the XO. Because 
it teaches you to think, to explore, to try new things, not just to 
memorize.
> 

>