One Laptop Per Child – the View from 1978

Basser Seminar 26 July 2009Basser School of Information Technology

University of Sydney

Lee FelsensteinFonly LLC

Palo Alto, Californialee@fonlyinstitute.com

What do you mean “revolution?”

Event that:

Overthrows an existing order Involves efforts of large numbers of people Opens long-term possibilities in an unexpected

manner

What Existing Order?

The Computer Priesthood IBM hegemonic Large machines – high cost Proprietary software, OS, hardware, support Software prepared by experts to lessor's

specifications “End User” always a business or government

agency

Opening shot - TV Typewriter (1973)

Build-it-yourself article Complex documentation

sent to interested correspondents ($2 fee)

Normal response – 20 10,000 paid responses! Large pent-up demand

– But for what?

Ideology - “Computer Lib”

Ted Nelson (1974)

• Modeled after Whole Earth Catalog

• “You Can and Must Understand Computers NOW”

• Started thousands off to learn about hardware and software

Breakthrough - Altair (1975)

• Incomplete kit offered for less than cost of CPU chip

• Runaway best seller

• Users embarked upon learning project of unknown duration and scope

• Nearly empty box

Clubs and Shared Software

• Necessary mutual teaching

• Software seen as means to end of having working computer

• Altair Basic widely shared – became the standard despite Gates' complaints

Interoperability - CP/M

• Gary Kildall, PhD (pictured)

• Allowed software to run on various computers

• Enabled the personal computer industry (Harold Evans)

• No computer company had previously seen the point

Interactivity• Shared Memory Display

(VDM-1 shown) enabled fast user interaction

– Computer games!

• Visi-Calc spreadsheet arguably an interactive computer accounting game

• No computer company had previously seen the point

Growth and Triumph – IBM opens up

• 1976 – Sol-20 (complete system)

• 1977 – Apple II (graphics)

• 1981 – Osborne (portability, bundled SW)

• 1981 – IBM-PC – adopts open architecture

OLPC definition – basics 1

• Originated by Prof. Nick Negroponte

– Inspired by Cambodian kids using laptops in school sponsored by N. & E. Negroponte

• Premise – Education is only way out of poverty

• Premise – Only way to educate kids is to give them all laptops

• Premise – Laptops alone, if designed right, will be sufficient to effect education

– “Constructionist” (Papert & Kay) methodology

– Children will explore world, “learn learning”

OLPC definition – basics 2

• Implementation

– Design superior laptop

– Secure agreements with heads of state for massive purchases

– Require all children be given a laptop

– Manufacture in million increments

› Drive price down to $100– Done!

OLPC - Assumptions

• Mesh networking will compensate for lack of network access

• Software applications will appear from 3rd parties

• Crank- or pull-string-power generation will supply sufficient power

• Colorful motif will prevent theft and black-market sale of computers

• Teachers will “get out of the way”

• Parents will not interfere

OLPC – hidden corrolaries

• No research

– “Enough is known already”

– Ethnographic research eschewed (IDEO)

– No existing body of data referenced

– No research report from Cambodian village exists

• No pilot projects

• Full-scale implementation or nothing

• No implementation plan

OLPC – what could go wrong?

• Heads of state cannot dictate to education ministries

– Bureaucracy has mass and inertia

– India Ed. Min. declares OLPC “pedagogically suspect”

• Infrastructure not included

– Generator an afterthought

– Network backhaul left to chance

• Constructionism not shown to be effective

– Talented teachers required

OLPC – the View From 1978

• There's been a revolution overthrowing the order:

– of system definition and implementation by priesthoods

› Operating under cover of hierarchies

› Surrounded by ramparts of propaganda

› Unquestioned and unexamined

– of institutions defined as end users...

› ...and individuals simply subject to the results

OLPC – the View From 1978

• The age of the Magic Machine is over

• People know:

– where software comes from

– that submission is not required

– that the priesthood is composed of mortals

• People are as pragmatic as ever

– They want to know how the new machine will help them, their families, their communities

Kay's Hierarchy

1. Hardware

2. Software

3. User Interface

4. Courseware

5. Mentoring

• Each step harder than the one before

• “We should have started at the top and worked down” - Alan Kay, Tunis 2005

Negroponte on OLPC over time

• “This is an education project. It is not a laptop project.” - Sept. 2005

• “...we remain firmly committed to our mission of getting laptops to children in developing countries.” - Jan. 2009

OLPC – out of the wreckage

Only projects running are pilots

– www.olpcnews.com OLPC has spun off software – Sugar Labs

– www.sugarlabs.org More than 100,000 XO-1 laptops sold in US and

Western countries (Give1, Get 1 – 2007 and 2008) Needed – connections between education geeks and

computer geeks with XO-1's to work on top levels of Kay's hierarchy.

Some Interesting Needs

• A device to permit learners to achieve basic literacy in their own language on a standalone basis (no network needed)

• A device to permit learners to achieve basic proficiency in arithmetic (no network needed)

• A basic electronic book

• A system for network availability supported by telecommunications revenues (village telecentre)

• A system for battery charging without mains power (Low-power village power utility)

Pursue the Hands-On Imperative!