[Its.an.education.project] [sugar] Microsoft

[Edward Cherlin]

On Fri, May 16, 2008 at 1:12 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> Morgan Collett wrote:
>> 2008/5/16 Nicholas Negroponte <nn at media.mit.edu>: (word document attached)
>>
>> For those who can't or won't open the word document, it contains simply this:
>>
>> Mission statement of OLPC
>>
>> To eliminate poverty and create world peace by providing education to
>> the poorest and most remote children on the planet by making them more
>> active in their own learning, through collaborative and creative
>> activities, connected to the Internet, with their own laptop, as a
>> human right and cost free to them.
>> _______________________________________________
>> Devel mailing list
>> Devel at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel

The phrase "making them more active in their own learning, through
collaborative and creative activities" appears to be code for
"Constructionism". Or maybe weasel-wording.

> Its nothing like what I see at http://laptop.org/vision/mission/
>
> Sameer
>
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
> _______________________________________________
> Devel mailing list
> Devel at lists.laptop.org
> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel

Quite right.

http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/new_olpc_mission_statement.html

Another New OLPC Mission Statement?!
Posted on May 16, 2008 by Wayan Vota in People: Negroponte

In the midst of the latest Windows on the XO controversy, Nicholas
Negroponte seems to have announced a third new mission statement for
One Laptop Per Child. From his email to the OLPC Sugar list serve he
says that the OLPC mission hasn't changed in three years, and then
points to this statement:
olpc mission

    To eliminate poverty and create world peace by providing education
to the poorest and most remote children on the planet by making them
more active in their own learning, through collaborative and creative
activities, connected to the Internet, with their own laptop, as a
human right and cost free to them.

Now unless I just came down with Negropontism, the current OLPC
mission statement on Laptop.org doesn't look anything like that.
Please correct me if I am wrong, but I don't see any mention of free
laptops and Internet access as basic human right when I read:

    OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a
product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit
organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in
even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity
to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of
ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world
community.

Let's also not forget that the current OLPC mission, whichever one it
is, was not the first mission espoused by One Laptop Per Child. The
orginal OLPC mission was much more revolutionary, and to use a word
from Walter Bender, prescriptive:

    OLPC is not at heart a technology program and the XO is not a
product in any conventional sense of the word. We are non-profit:
constructionism is our goal; XO is our means of getting there. It is a
very cool, even revolutionary machine, and we are very proud of it.
But we would also be delighted if someone built something better, and
at a lower price.

I wonder, does Windows XO count as better?




-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay