Photo by Terry O'Sullivan, Creative Commons: Non-commercial, Share-alike
Flickr User Terry O’Sullivan came across this child near Arat Kilo, Ethiopia: “and I was pleasantly surprised to see some of them carrying these OLPC laptops, so I stopped to ask them about it.”
Martin at Moodle Moot '08
Martin Langhoff — our School Server Architect, and long time core Moodle developer reports:
The Moodle UK community just had one of the best MoodleMoots ever. I had the good chance to keynote there, to tell the community about my almost-year away working on XS plumbing, and how it’s now the time to turn the XS into a learning tool.
Social constructivism runs strong in the Moodle community, so when we talk of opening doors to our users’ curiosity, they know first hand about it. And it is a good thing to be able to pierce through the media doom and gloom stories and tell them about the good things that are actually happening on the ground.
The feedback was fantastic, and I am hoping to form a “Moodle-on-XS” test team, and to draw together many very active teachers from the K-12 space to help map out how to make Moodle better for primary schoolers.
You can watch the keynote on video — select the “Moodle and OLPC” video here: http://cardiffschools.net/~tv/cy/moodle.htm
OLPC is excited to announce that a refresh of the XO-1 laptop is in progress. In our continued effort to maintain a low price point, OLPC is refreshing the hardware to take advantage of the latest component technologies. This refresh (Gen 1.5) is separate from the Gen 2.0 project, and will continue using the same industrial design and batteries as Gen 1. The design goal is to provide an overall update of the system within the same ID and external appearance.
In order to maximize compatibility with existing software, this refresh will continue with an x86 processor, using a chipset from VIA. The memory will be increased to 1 GB of DDR2 SDRAM, and the built-in storage will be 4 GB of NAND Flash with an option for 8 GB (installed at manufacture). The processor will be a VIA C7-M [1], with plans on using one whose clock ranges from 400 MHz (1.5 W) to 1GHz (5 W). The clock may be throttled back automatically if necessary to meet thermal constraints.
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Dr. Tabaré Vázquez, President of Uruguay, writes glowingly in the Americas Quarterly magazine about Plan CEIBAL, the XO-1 laptop program in Uruguay:
We are implementing the plan one step at a time. To date, we have delivered 151,918 XO computers—low-power laptops that operate with flash memory and a Linux operating system—to students in public schools in Uruguay. By the end of 2009 one laptop will be delivered to each of the 301,143 students and 12,879 teachers in Uruguay’s 2,064 public schools. Students with mental, visual, hearing, or motor disabilities—as well as their schools—will also receive computers specifically tailored to meet their needs.
You can find out more about the Uruguayan OLPC deployment at the Plan CEIBAL website in Spanish or in English.
Tom Boonsiri has been working with OLPC Goldenstate and OLPC Health for some time now. Lately, he’s released a new revision of his low-cost heart rate monitor hardware. Details from their blog:
Two revisions later we have something closer to “child tamper proof”. Our prototypes are on their way out to many eager children! Hooray!
If you are interested in receiving them for your pilot please send me an email to: tom.boonsiri@gmail.com. We will soon release a few prototypes for private purchase (under a G1G1 model to help finance further prototypes for the pilots). Stay tuned for more details.
Big thanks to Mike Koop and Dan Ehlers for their efforts on the latest PCB layout. Another big thanks to the guys at Liquidware/GL Interfaces for subsidizing the cost of a component.
We also have a message to the Devel, and Health mailing lists:
Fellow developers,
Is your Measure activity feeling neglected? If so, shame on you. =)
I’d like to encourage everyone to build on the great work of Arjun Sarwal and help us extend the sensor interface with our peripheral — the heart rate monitor.Pictures of the device:
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3559/3419907541_f62b168dce_m.jpg
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3558/3420715230_00e29b7787_m.jpgIt’s a relatively simple device that measures the blood flow in your finger with an infrared sensor. Powered by USB, the device sends measurements to the XO via the AC/DC sensor interface (audio jack). Using a Measure variant with a heart beat detection method, we are able to display the heart rate (as shown in the pic).
If you’re a developer interested in integrating biofeedback into your application, please email me for more details on how you can get your hands on a few of our peripherals. Otherwise, we are looking for developers who can help us evolve the Measure activity to better suit the lesson plan we have created for the device. The device is not of clinical quality and solely for educational purposes. We are definitely interested in feedback on our direction.
In the short-term, it would be interesting to develop a gui where you could structure a family tree (even extending it to branches for relatives) and allow kids to record measurements for various family members. This could potentially evolve into other health education efforts with a wiki backbone to support health wellness.
Please send me your feedback and your interest!
Thanks,
Tom Boonsiri — OLPC GoldenState
Further details on their blog. You can also join the OLPC Goldenstate mailing list.
Update: The Heart Rate Monitor is available for pre-order at XOexplosion.
Radio station BFM 89.9 Malaysia speaks to Tan Yii Ying of Danawa Resources talks about how the OLPC movement has fared in Sarawak thus far.
You can listen to the interview here.
OLPC Malaysia has an active community and has recently been seen participating in the revitalized Contributor’s Program. You can join their mailing list by clicking here.
