I’m in. This article from Laptop magazine showed me why the One Laptop Per Child XO laptop is worth all the hullabaloo. The magazine sent an XO laptop to a handler in Guinea, who then showed it to grade school-aged kids. The kids, not jaded by megahertz races and touchscreens and format wars, readily took to the XO; built-in features likes its VGA Web cam caused a commotion amongst the youngsters, eager to explore the little green machine. By the end of the first short session, one young girl had managed to learn to write her name for the first time.
It’s things like that that make the XO laptop a worthwhile endeavor. No more “good luck with lolcatz and pr0n” or any other snooty Western attitudes, just the knowledge that, yes, more kids will learn as a result of their interaction with the XO laptop. And what’s so bad about that?
OLPC XO: We Gave 1, Got 1 to Africa [Laptop Magazine]