[Olpc-open] documentary

[John Kintree]

On Wednesday 30 May 2007 04:12 pm, Marta Voelcker wrote:
> my feeling is that the biggest challenge is to sell the idea to  Ministries
> of Education...they just do not understend about mesh network, dual mode
> monitors or interfaces, they get insecure and call for help from people
> from Ministry of science and technology, and these guys tend to evaluate
> only  the IT capabilities of the XO...

Good point, Marta.  We should be  mindful of the audience for whom a 
documentary is being produced.  People from Ministries of Education are vital 
to the project, and your insight about their insecurities over technology may 
be correct.  

Maybe an effective documentary can help replace those insecurities with 
confidence.  The mesh network capabilities of the XO computer are something 
new.  There is no other personal computer today that offers that 
functionality.  Creating a mesh network is important because resources are 
available over a network that are not available to a stand alone computer.  
Non-mesh wireless access points have a range limited to a few hundred feet, 
and it is unlikely that all of the students will live within that range.  The 
mesh may make it possible for children to remain connected to the network 
from home as well as at school.  This would raise the educational value to an 
entirely new level.  Children can then become educators of their families and 
neighbors.

The same goes for the dual-mode screen.  A child might be walking home from 
school, and a neighbor might ask about their laptop.  To show a neighbor an 
application on a regular laptop while outside is difficult because the 
sunlight makes it difficult to see what is on the screen.  The reflective 
mode of the XO computer overcomes that problem.  The dual-mode screen raises 
the educational value to an even higher level.  

And so on.  At least that's the idea.  I've read about this, but haven't seen 
it put into practice yet.  So, I include people like myself, and you can call 
me a geek, as part of the audience for a documentary as well as Ministers of 
Education.  

It won't help to ask people from Ministers of Science and Technology for 
advice because the XO computer is so advanced, most IT people have not had a 
chance to use it yet.  The documentary should make it self-evident what the 
advantages are.  I also think it is important for Ministers of Education to 
know that the general public knows the XO computer is vastly superior to 
other technology.  In addition to being published on the Internet, the 
documentary should be broadcast on TV.  

> since the purpose of OLPC is to improve education on developing countries,
> I think that  videos should show a change(improvement) going on a pilot
> school, otherwise, how to convince governments to buy computers instead of
> invest on current process of education? ( target countries complain that
> have not enough budget for education)

This is another good insight, and as you pointed out, is difficult to do on a 
short time frame.  I will offer another perspective.  We should not expect 
the XO computer to do much to help children learn to read, and write, and do 
math.  Traditional methods of education work fine for that.  

My personal opinion, and this is debatable, but I'll say it anyway, is that 
the XO computer can help us learn to be better citizens of planet Earth.  

We need to be better citizens.  We, especially in the United States, are 
putting so much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere that we are pushing the 
climate of the planet out of balance.  We, particularly in the United States, 
are spending hundreds of billions of dollars per year on a military 
occupation in the Middle East, which relates to our dependence on oil.  

There might be something important for me to learn from the children at 
Luciana de Abreu school in Brazil, or from the children in Nigeria, or 
Thailand, or anywhere else in the world.  The XO computer is a tool for 
accessing information and for communicating the likes of which the world has 
never seen before.  It's a tool for participating in a global dialog, just 
like we are doing now in this listserve, but on a much greater scale.  It's a 
tool that is just in time, and the time for finding creative solutions to 
challenges such as global warming, and peak oil production, and 
deforestation, and so on is short, terribly short.  And, that is the context 
in which the XO computer and a documentary about it must be placed.  
Regards,
John Kintree
4043 Delor Street
St. Louis, MO  63116
314-351-7454
http://home.swbell.net/jkintree/islt/