One Laptop Per Child XO Laptop



I was one of the people who was blown away to receive an XO whilst at linux.conf.au last week (thanks again Pia). If you’ve never heard of the OLPC project have a look at www.laptop.org to find out more about it.

I was trying to explain to someone the other day what I wanted to be able to do with the XOs but they couldn’t see what I was getting at. I feel that I didn’t explain it very well so I’m going to have another go at it 🙂

Anywhere there is abuse, violence or addictions in a family the children suffer. This is the case all over the world regardless of socio-economic status, job title, skin colour. I’d like to see XO laptops get into the hands of children who are disadvantaged because of these issues in their lives. I believe that the XOs can be used therapeutically as well as educationally (and in prevention). Teen Challenge visits Fregon in the APY lands in South Australia. We have been working with the children there for a number of years. Some of them have petrol sniffing habits and others are affected by the addictions etc of their families. Eventually I would like to take some XO laptops to Fregon for a trial project, if they’re accepted by the elders and the children and the trial goes well then I would see about gaining sponsorship or a grant for a large purchase/deployment of them. This is a long term goal. At the moment I have one XO which I would like to get into the hands of as many children as possible – seeing how they use it what works and what doesn’t, I need to get a feel for working with young people in this way. It most likely won’t be in a classroom situation, I’ve started informally already with my daughter Jessica and a friend’s children. Through our local home education group there will be more chances to do this too.

Fregon Anangu School
Kaltjiti (Fregon) Wikipedia page

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