OLPC Project Rollout Begins In Uruguay

Acer500 writes "The One Laptop Per Child project became a reality Thursday in Uruguay, as the 160 children of school number 24 in the humble town of Cardal received their XO computers. The learning tools came directly from the hands of president Tabaré Vazquez. It has become a matter of national pride that Uruguay is the first country to realize the project's goal. The target is that by 2009, every school-age child in Uruguay will have one, and an initial 15 million dollars have already been allocated to the project. From the newspaper articles: 'The happiness of having a PC in their hands, some of them for the first time, had the kids in ecstasy, which didn't wait to turn on their computers, introduce their personal information (required the first time they're turned on), choose the screen colors, and start experimenting with them. What initially made them more enthusiastic was the possibility of taking photographs and filming each others with the included webcams.'" More information below.

According to the unofficial blog of the Uruguayan project, named proyecto Ceibal, the infrastructure for wireless is not yet in place but will be provided in the next few days by the national telco ANTEL. No photos of the event have been posted online, but you can see an institutional video on Youtube. One interesting point is that it has not yet been decided that the XO will be the laptop of choice for the entire project. Two other companies want to be considered: Intel, with their Classmate PC, and Israeli-manufactured ITP-C. In a press conference, Intel manager for the southern cone Esteban Galluzzi went as far as to compare the XO to a Pentium II, and stressed that the Classmate is able to run Windows XP. As advisor and local guru Juan Grompone stated, 'who will ultimately benefit from this is education?' This will be an interesting test to see if the OLPC project meets its intended goals of 'learning learning'. Let's hope this project is the means that will foster among some of the children the desire to learn and to tinker."

english translation - courtesy of the fish

[bl8n8r]

The Web in the air of Cardal
Near 40 niños of the Italy school they received its computers of the hand of several authorities of the government. In one week the niños podrà n to accede to Internet from all the points of the city

In the middle of great expectation and much alegrÃa of the niños, president Tabaré Và zquez next to a great retinue of authorities left inaugurated the experience pilot of the Ceibal Plan in the Italy school n 24 of the city of Cardal (in Florida), the one that in the prÃximos dÃas quedarà connected to Internet by means of mbricas connections inalÃ, in order that the students can accede to the Web from their homes.

In a brief speech during the act, Và single zquez refirià to "the importance" of the Ceibal project and asegurà that "cumplirà with the cronogram of arriving itself at 2009 to all the schools from paÃs". The agent chief executive prefirià to yield its time to one of the niños, that articulà words that moved to the presents.

To I finish of the act, Và zquez was consulted by the present journalists on if to raÃz of cuts in the RendiciÃn de Cuentas it were going to be all the money for the plan. Và zquez asegurà that was not going to lack the money. "the USS 15 anticipated million està n in the budget", asegurà the conductor of the Uruguayan government.

Under the glance of many parents, some from the windows or accommodated in algÃn rincÃn of the halls class, about 40 niños of 3 and 6 año received their computers X-O. DonaciÃn of Nicholas Negroponte is of 200 units. The rest of the students of that school of cardal recibirà its computers in these dÃas.

AlgarabÃa to have a PC in its hands, some for the first time, dejà won the boys, who did not hope to ignite his mà quinas, to introduce their personal data (the first time that ignite it is necessary to put the one name and to choose the colors of the screen) and to put themselves to experiment with the X-O. What mà s entusiasmà was to be able to remove photos and to film themselves with webcam that come including.

The niños by this week podrà n to sail in Internet from the Italy school, where instalà a servant to provide itself with conexiÃn in the classrooms, that in the prÃximos dÃas extenderà to the rest of the city so that the niños can be connected to the Web dese its homes. For mbrica it utilizarà tecnologÃa of conexiÃn inalà - it does not need cables that proveyà ANTEL with colaboraciÃn of UTE.

One of that mà s divirtià giving the PC was the minister of EducaciÃn and Cultura, Jorge Brovetto. Ademà s of this jerarca, también was present the minister of Industry, Jorge Leprosy asà like the minister of GanaderÃa, José Mujica, next to their wife LucÃa Topolansky.

También participated in the act the director of EducaciÃn of the MEC, Luis Garibaldi, the president of the ANEP, Luis bal YarzÃ, the president of the LATU, Miguel Brezhner, the Intendant of Florida, Juan Giaccetto asà like industralists of INTEL and Microsoft, that lanzarà n its own pilot in the department of PaysandÃ.

ProducciÃn: Cecilia Pérez and Pablo Solari, envoys of the Observer to Cardal

(It observes)
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/tr [altavista.com]

Are they CONTRIBUTING yet?

[Funkcikle]

So how many of these new adventurers at the thin end of the open source wedge have contributed source code?

Come on, children! THOSE LAPTOPS WERE FREE FOR A REASON! ~cracks whip~

Re:I'm disgusted

[mgigirey]

I think you have a wide education (educación) because of your words (palabras), I see how educated you are. You can do a more in deep research before you write (escribir). Uruguay has an excellent level of education, I studied in the Uruguay's public education system, it doesn't means that I'm more educated than people like you but a little bit more respectful. No se, pero al parecer a los yankees les falta un poquito de cultura y respeto por los demás. Sin ánimos de ofender a nadie. Saludos a los compatriotas Uruguayos. Arriba los sudacas!!!

The main problem is porn.

[MarkByers]

> In fact, I think most studies have shown that laptops actually have little or a negative impact on helping children learn.

Most of the failures reported so far are due to children using the computers to browse porn. If porn wasn't illegal and taboo for adults, then children wouldn't be so interested in it. I think porn reform is needed first before computers can be introduced to schools.

Re:Are they CONTRIBUTING yet?

[harry666t]

Of course they do contribute...

One of these little hackers in training already contributed a rewrite of ed:

#!/bin/sh
while :;do read x;echo \?;done

Webcams?

[Spy der Mann]

What initially made them more enthusiastic was the possibility of taking photographs and filming each others with the included webcams.

COOL! We're raising a new generation of myspacers!

Go, Uruguay, go!!

Re:english translation - courtesy of the fish

[rts008]

Babelfish is the poor man's LSD, and it's even legal!

*fires up Steppenwolf's Magic Carpet Ride and re-reads post*

Wow, mannnn! It's like colors and stuff!

Re:Go

[Bastard of Subhumani]

This is probably a good idea. Or a total disaster.

It's both.

Regards,
    E. Schrödinger

Re:Respectful, eh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeh don't call them yankees... They're not worth the 7 characters.

Shorten it to "yanks" like the entire Australian continent, or use the full length "self obsessed corrupt evil genocidal yank fuckwits". Sure, that's a generalisation, but stereotypes exist for a reason.

Am I trolling or am I right? It ain't both.

A new meme

[Anomalyst]

This is probably a good idea. Or a total disaster.
It's both.

It is a disastrously good idea!
PS to parent, how's the cat? (Betcha never heard that before)

Yay, Webcams

[z_gringo]

What initially made them more enthusiastic was the possibility of taking photographs and filming each others with the included webcams.'"

What could possibly go wrong?