OLPC

Overheard: FOSS is the constructionist learning model in action

The culture that is embodied in the FOSS movement — a meritocracy that is built upon both collaboration and critique — is synergistic with some core principles of learning, so, where possible, I try to embrace that culture. Walter Bender, as quoted in Walter Bender Discusses Sugar Labs Foundation

“Constructionism” is a theory of learning pioneered by Seymour Papert. Papert first started developing the theory as a student of Piaget in the early 1960s. Over the course of more than 40 years of research and practice, Papert and his students found that children learn best when they are in the “active role of the designer and constructor” and that this happens best in a context where the child is “consciously engaged in constructing a public entity” — something “truly meaningful” for the learner. Further, the creation process and the end product must be shared with others in order for the full effects to take root.

Overheard: Intel was kicked out of One Laptop Per Child program

Responding to [Intel’s proactive] announcement Thursday that it was severing ties with the One Laptop Per Child project, Mr. Negroponte said, “They’ve been doing damage in the marketplace with countries since the day we started. And after we made peace with them, they did more damage.” Steve Stecklow, Negroponte Lashes Out at Intel For ‘Damage’ to Laptop Project

Now that the dust has settled, it’s looking like Intel didn’t drop out of the OLPC program — it got kicked out for pitching their own low-end laptops, Classmate PC, to the same audience the OLPCs were intended for. Shouldn’t this little soap opera belong on All My Children?