[iDC] One Laptop Per Child - MIT/Negroponte Initiative

[elw at stderr.org]

> later. The more I read the more it seems like a soft/ hardware project 
> first and an educational project distant second (completely 
> contradicting NN of course :)

The number of "linux/hardware hackers" attracted to the project certainly 
outweighs the number and head-count of "education hackers" who are making 
visible contributions.  Regardless of what NN says.  [Some of the 
educational figures (Papert, Alan Kay) have greater visibility, but the 
hardware and software have taken a LOT of manpower to assemble.]

It would be great for this to change - the folks working on OLPC are not 
blind to this either ;)

Some small problems...

1) what characterizes someone who can make innovative educational
    suggestions / mini-projects?  how do we identify them?  How do you
    capture that knowledge well, and how do you turn it into a learning
    artifact / module that teaches the principles/

2) how do we make sure that the work those folks are doing is properly
    exposed, supported, discussed, etc?  how do we make the artifacts
    of their effort visible?

3) how does one properly support folks doing this kind of educational
    work?  our university systems (world-wide) clearly have not done a
    terribly great job of pushing the envelope; if we (collectively) wanted
    things to progress at the pace they've been going for the last 100-odd
    years, we'd stick with the status quo.

I keep waiting for the next John Dewey to emerge... and I've not seen much 
sign yet.  Maybe the next Dewey will come from OLPC :-)

--elijah