Meet the XO Children's Computer
The Sugar Graphical User Interface for the XO Children's Machine was designed by Pentagram for child-friendly interaction with its operating system, a streamlined version of the open-source Linux OS.
Initially nicknamed the “$100 laptop,” the current B2 generation of the XO Children's Machine costs nearer $150 and weighs a slender 3.3 pounds.
It measures 9.5 inches by 9 inches with a built-in handle. It's dustproof and weatherproof, made of rugged plastic 50 percent thicker than a standard laptop's.
Kids with no schools can work outdoors. The innovative color screen boasts 200 dpi resolution — nearly as sharp as a consumer magazine's printing and sharper than 95 percent of current laptops — plus an alternate black-and-white mode that is more readable in bright sunlight.
Energy-efficiency is a major goal, for many children in remote locations have no access to power at home or perhaps even at school. The computer can be charged with human energy. One minute of charging with a foot pedal or pull string gives 10 minutes of power.
The XO also can function as a tablet e-book reader. It has a trackpad style “mouse” and a large pen-readable area for calligraphy and art. The whole laptop, from its silicon chips to its Sugar operating system frame and graphic user interface, was designed from scratch to be used by kids.
XO's 3 Rs
Rural, Remote — and “Ronaldo!” Those words sum up both the challenge and the promise. One village school ten miles outside of Abuja, Nigeria, has 2 rooms, 3 grades, 20 books, 150 students, and now, a generator and satellite dish.
“Google” is the first English word for one Cambodian class. And their first Google search? Ronaldo, Brazil's biggest international soccer star since Pelé.
And in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, the progressive community talks of the role of the laptops in organizing and mobilizing people for social change.
Open source means the machine is easily customizable and localizable. And so in Nigeria, rather than forcing all the kids to learn English, the laptops will function in all of its many languages.
“Children are innately global,” Negroponte says, and each country, each community, each child, uses XO for their own needs.
Sweet!
Like international signs for restroom or Stop!, Sugar's GUI, or Graphical User Interface, shows activity icons for writing, drawing, chatting, or surfing the Web. The machine's innovative automatic mesh network also allows each child to click into a group to work collaboratively on, say, a drawing or a map, or to share an Internet connection.
How to Get Involved
The best way for teachers, students, and other academics or potential OLPC collaborators to get involved is to visit the OLPC Wiki site. OLPC's Walter Bender issues this blanket invitation:.“We want each person who reads this story to think about their favorite lesson plan and put it in the wiki so we can get it to these kids.“
About the Author
Jake Miller often writes about education for national publications.
This article originally appeared in NRTA Live & Learn, Spring 2007.
