One Laptop Per Child Critical IT and the University of Toronto

Rochelle's Remark Bachellor's apartments and shredded papers

Relevance How can what I'm doing help the world?

We've Seen How to enroll, pay, house, connect, schedule, place and teach students

My Focus Here How IT can help you inspire your students

IT as a Bridge To relevance To being a critical part of the world

One Laptop Per Child An educational project Helping 50 million young children reach their dreams

Who we want to help Underprivileged children

Not starving, but not the rich of the earth either...

Existing Schools (If they exist) Have only minimal supplies and equipment No or minimal libraries Might be too far to walk

Rural school in Nepal. Nepal's urban schools are often well funded and provisioned, while schools in rural areas are often quite limited in comparison.

No Infrastructure in Many Areas No (or spotty) electricity No phones or too expensive (Plumbing optional)

Fishing village in Columbia. South American schools often have power and running water, while the poorest children's homes will not.

Teacher's Challenges Poor pay, poor schools Few texts, materials or equipment

Schools are Backward Corrupt officials intercepting funds Rote learning instead of exploration Entrenched ideas and approaches

Children Have to Work Families need every hand to make ends meet 6 hours of formal daytime school isn't necessarily practical

Money Doesn't Always Help American Schools can feel like pointless prisons Schools are not places of hope and exploration Children want to escape

Even Brilliant Children Can be Left Behind

For the Under- privileged Dreams can seem unattainable

Daunting Problem for Educators Can't recreate the world's school system's overnight...

What can we do now? For the generation in school today How do we help them reach their dreams?

The Key Observation

Textbooks Cost Money Around $20/year per child

Textbooks Do Not Age Well Expensive, heavy, out of date Damaged by previous child (When they are available at all)

The Plan Take textbook money for ~5 years Make an inexpensive networked textbook reader Give them (free) to the children instead of textbooks

Keeps Up to Date Avoids obsolescence and degradation Downloads next year's texts when the child wants them Child owns the reader

Ministries of Education Makes sense economically Especially if the country owns the content

Compelling

But not Just a Textbook Reader... ● A phone ● camera ● writing supplies ● drawing supplies ● science equipment ● music equipment ● news reader ● web browser ● virtual classroom or anything at all...

A Laptop Computer A reconfigurable tool for learning That a child can take anywhere

Not your Typical Laptop

Budget $140USD per unit to start ~$100USD as volume increases ( ) (External funding for poorer countries)

Power Recently upgraded the spec Geode LX 700 (433MHz) 256MB RAM

Energy Efficient < 1/10 the draw of a typical laptop (0.1 to 1.0W versus 20-75W)

Child Powered (Literally) Omnivorous power input New battery composition Manual charger for no- other-option areas

Connectivity Mesh networking (and point-to-point) (802.11s with separate power rail) WiFi (802.11g with cute antenas) School server access points

Robustness No spinning disks Shock-resistant, water resistant case Target at least 3 years MTBF with easy field maintenance to 5 years

Super Screen 200DPI sunlight-readable screen Separate screen-buffer power rail Custom display-controller ASIC

Utility Camera Game controls USB 2.0 Ebook mode Pressure-sensitive “stylus” (stick) Audio port probe

Environmentally Friendly (as much as possible) No toxic materials in the case

Physical Integrity Theft and kill switches

Software

Build a Secure OS for 6 year Old Children (who may not yet know how to read or write)

Simplified User Interface Targeted at a 6-year-old child's cognitive capabilities (High resolution, black-and-white friendly)

With Full Access Able to play with the definition of any tool or activity on the machine (This is a key educational requirement)

But it can't be just a toy Going to be used day-in and day-out For 6 to 16 year olds

Extensible for Learning Must be able to alter current or write new software to meet their needs (But development breaks things you need right now...)

Recovery Modes “Teacher my laptop's broken, I can't work today” should not happen (In many areas the laptop itself is critical infrastructure)

Layered Security System Union File Systems / Overlays Capability-based default restrictions on tools/activities and file/net access

Huge Scale Millions of children 1% of project is still 100's of thousands of children! Have to support the 1%'s

Backup Strategies Backup/restore/recover for ~50 million users

What we need

Individual Efforts Programmers, librarians, academics Sysadmins, managers, administrators Educators

Group Efforts

Engaging Activities Constructivist Learning Environments Simulators and Games Collaboration and Communication Tools Exploratory Activities

Relevant Content Encyclopedias and dictionaries Textbooks, picture books Musical scores, art pictures Exercise books, teaching units/curriculum

Localisation Extended Linux support for “exotic” languages (e.g. Nepalese dialects) Translations and library management

Special Content Basic “guidance” services “How to” documents “Special” topic explorations

Project Format Open Source Code Open Content (Normally) Easily Accessed (Free) Tools Open Membership Active Client Country Groups for Collaboration

Your Key Advantages Python as core Computer Science Langauge Teaching Focus Strong IT program (ref: This Conference)

OLPC