Re:Step 1: give every kid a laptop. Step 2: learning begins?
by georgieporgie on Tuesday February 14, 2012 @12:37PM
(#3590909)
One TRS-80 or C64 VM per child.
Modern laptops, even simple ones like these, are too complex for a child to be interested in manipulating them, in my opinion. And I don't think the OLPC machines are powerful enough to do most enabling tasks that would help a student.
I've played with an OLPC laptop. The most interesting thing were the built-in programs to do stuff like measure distance using two OLPC laptops and sound. Not terribly accurate, I'm sure, but excellent for sparking discussion of physics.
Modern laptops, even simple ones like these, are too complex for a child to be interested in manipulating them, in my opinion. And I don't think the OLPC machines are powerful enough to do most enabling tasks that would help a student.
I've played with an OLPC laptop. The most interesting thing were the built-in programs to do stuff like measure distance using two OLPC laptops and sound. Not terribly accurate, I'm sure, but excellent for sparking discussion of physics.