Is OLPC Making Itself Irrelevant?
I have been a fan of OLPC since before I heard Ivan Krstić speak at Shmoocon last year. His breathless explanation of the principles of the constructionist approach to learning pioneered by the likes of Alan Kay and Seymour Papert left a lasting impression and fostered an optimism about the future of education if such principles could truly be realized.
Unfortunately, there has been a lot of static coming out of the project of which Krstić was formerly a member, OLPC. I previously shared my notes on this blog from a presentation by Benjamin Mako Hill and a roundtable he also attended, both at Penguicon 6.0. He was charitable in his characterization of OLPC’s recent struggles and the whole question of running some flavor of Windows on the eponymous devices.
That question, at least, has been unequivocably answered. Regardless of the philosophical questions of freedom this raises for the intended device owners, there are some meaty technical questions about whether such a custom laptop will support a useful experience with Windows. Then there is the unescapable reminders that Microsoft is perfectly willing to throw its weight around to try to make an incipient market behave as it wants rather than serve then original idealistic ends Negroponte espoused when launching OLPC.
The same person who cemented my interest in the project, despite these recent concerns, has given me much to think about. It would be easy to dismiss this essay as disgruntled mutterings. But it is pretty coherent and I am sure much of the historical evidence he cites is reasonably verifiable.
Even setting aside his criticism of Negroponte’s past failures and recent shifts in focus that seem to be abandoning what made OLPC so astonishing and daring, he deftly deconstructs what I think is really important. The question is whether a constructionist, one-to-one program works and his answer simply is no one knows. He has some good constructive ideas of how that question might be answered that recast the operating system question as irrelevant and I think even makes sense of some of the concerns over the Sugar effort that others have also raised recently and that Negroponte seems eager to simply brush under the carpet.
What I, personally, am left with is a need to re-focus on the questions and evaluate what people are saying and doing much as Krstić has done. It is not about any one person or organization. It may not even be about the merits of one approach over another, regardless of whether there is evidence to support it or not. It is about advancing the cause of education in a world where the demand for ever more well learned global citizens is only increasing.
I hope others take the time to read this essay. Read it a few times before setting hands on keyboard and making yourself more a part of the problem rather than actually considering what is at stake, here, and what is really in the best interests of furthering education, especially in developing countries, but everywhere traditional approaches have failed.
