One Laptop Per Child

We landed back in the US a couple of days ago. Our held mail was waiting for us in the side porch. The big box was the big attraction. Aseem and Supriya had been waiting for it. "It's our laptops!" (We had bought 2 by donating to the Give One, Get One campaign run by One Laptop Per Child last year.) They could not wait for me to open the box. I was afraid it was going to take a long time to charge the battery and get the laptops working, but luckily it just plugged into the wall socket and started working.

I am very impressed with the XO, as it's called. It is very well-designed and quite intuitive. Supriya has spent a lot of time in the last 4 days and learned to use many of its many preloaded programs. Yesterday morning she was at my bedside at 5 o'clock, showing me a little animation she had made! We have already created our own little mesh network, connecting the two XOs wirelessly. We have been able to chat with each other and measure the distance between the two by using its Accoustic Measurement program (with a cute little dolphin icon).

I am as impressed with Supriya's fearless exploration of the XO as I am by the machine. It reinforces my belief that the whole idea behind OLPC is brilliant and is going to revolutionize education across the globe. (Here is a related story.)