[Linux-aus] [SLUG] $11.7m for OLPC Australia in the federal govt budget

[Paul Shirren]

On 9/05/12 4:47 PM, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> Apples and Oranges. Would you give a four-year-old a Raspberry Pi and
> expect them to learn to read?
>

I agree. But if someone is looking for hardware to play with the OLPC 
isn't really available outside of schools. So unless you want to play 
with Sugar the Pi might be worth a look if you have kids and want to get 
involved in something to do with their education.

My 4yo has access to one of those evil closed source iPads to play with 
that apparently are only for rich people (nobody told me). At the risk 
of losing my membership I think it makes a damn good environment for a 
pre-literate child. Though understanding some of its limitations makes 
it even more important to me that he has handled a Pi and that when he 
is older we can explore electronics and programming together.

I find the whole OLPC thing a bit remote and I have never liked the 
Sugar environment or the hardware design but I think you guys seem to 
have the organisational bit sorted and in a world where most school 
computers are a wasted resource I wouldn't doubt that your OLPC kids and 
teachers are getting a lot more benefit than kids in schools closer to 
me where many teachers don't really have a clue.