Retrospective and forecast on One Laptop per Child / learning to code

1. IF ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD
STARTEDTODAY
how JavaScript-y would it be?
!
Retrospective and Forecast
!
Nick Doiron — @mapmeld (Twitter && GitHub)

3. WHAT HAPPENEDTO OLPC?

4. THE YEAR: 2005

5. KOFI ANNAN | MIT MEDIA LAB

6. A LAPTOP FOR KIDS?
LeapPad, 2005
ZDNet: average
laptop dropped
to $1,081

7. IS IT COST-EFFECTIVE?
edu/$ is already well-studied
people have technology
people want to learn more

8. HARDWARE
1GB solid state (SD card)
hybrid e-Ink screen
toss-able
water-resistant (USB and SD card inputs only)
low-cost sourcing of pieces

11. MESH NETWORK
Works in small clusters in surprising ways
(teachers have never used Google Docs)
Tedious, breaks down with lots of machines
Disabled by Plan Ceibal
Red Hook Mesh Network

12. OPERATING SYSTEM
Sugar
Linux / Fedora
- with Red Hat help
Still new releases
Android is feature
phone OS

13. THE MITVISION
Outdoor schools,
sub-Saharan Africa
Afghanistan
Libya, India
Illiteracy target
100 books x 100 laptops
Danish Qureshi, Asia Despatch

14. THE ACTUAL USERS
Latin America — Plan Ceibal in Uruguay, MoE in Peru

15. SOFTWARE
Python
Zipped app folder (.xo) on an
Activities App Store
OGG, not Flash/MP3 (dawn ofYouTube)
Office apps

16. THE FIVE PRINCIPLES
Child ownership
Low ages
Saturation (1:1 ratio)
Connection
Free and open source

17. Keepod.com ^^
Computer labs redux (using live USBs)

18. FOSS IN 2005-08
MIT SICP
Scheme —> Python
Google hired Guido van Rossum (2005)
focus on a project wiki
git / gitorious

19. SCALING UP AND DOWN
Small school pilot projects are impractical
Regional / national programs are political
handouts

20. THE ACTUAL INTERNET
target countries changed
3G moved FAST
Khan Academy, India

21. REALIGNMENT
Sugarizer
remaking the OS as
web / embedded JS
TurtleArt: Python —> web
Scratch: Java —> web

22. JS MAKES SENSE
JS follows the web and the browser
If you can continuously, silently update the
browser,
the device is secure
the lessons can be cross-platform

23. WHAT NEXT, THEN?
Libraries of resources
Portable servers for videos,
maps, quick collaboration
Provide a path for people to
learn to code on their
devices

25. PATHSTO CODING
I get this question a lot
we might not be the ones to fix this
because we’re here
open source onboarding is still hard

26. OLPC CODING SOLUTIONS
TurtleArt (Logo)
eToys (Squeak)
Scratch
Pippy (Python)

27. PATHSTO CODING
block-based (intro or infinite?)
games
Maker Movement / physical blocks
reactive environment

28. BLOCKS, NOT JUST FORTURTLES

29. Potaka.io
Qalb ‫قلب‬

30. SCRATCH AND GOOGLE
MAKING INTERESTING MOVES

31. CODECOMBAT

32. SWIFT PLAYGROUNDS

33. ROBOTS AND PHYSICALTHINGS
BaoBot (from 2012 AFRON $10 robot challenge)
Pocky / Coding Blocks / Arduino

34. REACTIVE
KhanAcademy.org/cs | BretVictor, Eve

35. RISK FACTORS
JavaScript usurped by some language TBD
JavaScript divides into warring factions
Machine learning redefines role of the
developer (both what we’re writing and how
we write it)

36. MACHINE LEARNING
It’s replacing humans in OpenStreetMap

37. A NEW LANDSCAPE
Hardware and browser from local / aid sources
Education libraries which work anywhere
(Khan Academy, Library for All)
Adoptable by formal US Edu, translators, etc
Books are still hard (good content, local languages, reading that
kids like)
Make it available on portable server / offline apps
CS edu. that works both at school and self-serve

38. EDU METRICS AND SENSORS
“Just the sight of the device reminds me to use full sentences and
talk more frequently, instead of using short sentences or just facial
expressions.”

39. THANKS!
One Laptop per Child
Nick Doiron
Any questions / stories
@mapmeld on Twitter and GitHub