OLPC Update

Recently I penned about the OLPC and Labour's Digital Education Revolution policy.

After some consideration the following day I drew the conclusion that the OLPC XO is better suited to primary school children than that of secondary children.

Jeff and Pia Waugh both contacted me with exactly the same sentiments. 

In fact, Pia informed me that work was underway in relation to trailling the OPLCs in Australian primary schools.  A website has been setup (content still coming!) and a mailing list is available.

Those interested in being involved should join the mailing list.

Those in high school some of the latest sub notebooks are more appropriate such as:

• Asus Eee PC
• Intel Classmate PC
• Everex CloudBook

With the focus from the Federal government on secondary schools for computers in Year 9-12... these little machines might be perfect for high-school kiddies.   The CloudBook or the Eee PC are probably the choice machines at present.  The Classmate PC looks like more of a rival to the XO laptop more than anything.

A traditional notebook is far too heavy for high-school kids to lug around, and a sub notebook is light (normally under 1kg) and could be even loaded up with school text books to save on back strain.

I'm hoping that the government advisors undertaking the tender process look at such items and just don't become 'deer eyed' in front of the glare of glitzy sales-pitches from traditional laptop makers.

Running a Linux based OS also makes sense for teenagers, as it severely limits the ability for the machine to become infected by worms, trojans and viruses.  These traditionally target Windows operating systems, and become docile on a Linux based machine.  Whilst I would still recommend an AV scanner on the machines, the impact and damage these nasties can take is severally limited; thus reducing the overhead in support costs keeping them clean.

Plenty of food for thought...