XOs for my XO

I'm one of the lucky ones: my XO arrived in time for Christmas (thank you, Betsy!). I wish I knew to which country the other one went. For those of you who are so inclined, you still have time to give one and get one.

My kids and I have been playing with the XO a lot over the last couple of days. It definitely requires a mind shift for those of us who are used to computers with the Microsoft Windows interface. I've been reading up on the Sugar interface so that we can better understand how to think about this new computer. I've also started bookmarking some helpful XO resources in my del.icio.us account. As others have noted, the key is not to judge the XO by the standards of a more expensive, mainstream laptop but rather to recognize it for what it is (and then marvel at the form factor and functionality that you get for the price).

Now that it's in my physical presence, I already have LOTS of questions about my XO (e.g., how do I find files that I download? can I add some of you as friends in an XO group?). Doug Johnson, Tom Hoffman, Anne Davis: who else out there in the edublogosphere has/ordered an XO? Should we create an edublogger community around this thing, maybe as a group blog or as a social network in Ning?

Notes

1. I tried to wow my 89-year-old grandmother with the XO yesterday. She said, "Oh, I know all about that thing." My mom had heard about the OLPC project too. Awesome!
2. I'm the third person in Iowa to add myself to the XO Frappr map!

Comments

[Chris Craft]

1.

Hi Dr. Scott!

I've had my XO for a few days now and I've managed to change the jabber server to find more folks in my neighborhood (I've spoken to Bud via the chat activity), set up Opera for tabbed browsing, and I've installed Skype.

You know Tom, well use the olpcnews.com blog post to change your jabber server to his xochat.org and then look for us. I'll be changing my nickname so look for me by real name soon.

Good luck with your XO, holler if you have questions, the olpcnews,com forum is amazing!

Chris

[Scott McLeod]

2.

Thanks, Chris. I already had installed Opera and, thanks to you, just installed Skype (wish it supported video!). You're clearly way ahead of me. I left a question for Tom on his blog re: changing the Neighborhood tool...

[Diana]

3.

Hey there... I received mine on Dec. 19th... in plenty of time for Chistmas. It is ultimately headed to my sister's house for her kids, but I get to monkey around with it until February when I travel back to WI again. I am amazed at the public reaction to this little guy... it draws a crowd here in Flagstaff!

[Maria H. Andersen]

4.

Very jealous. No kids at our house, so hard to justify the purchase of an XO to play with. I'm looking forward to hearing about your experiences!

[Scott McLeod]

5.

Maria, I'm taking it with me whenever I go present somewhere. I'm going to hold it up and ask school leaders if they 1) know what it is and 2) understand its significance for global education and/or the global economy.

[Wendy DG]

6.

I received my XO right before Christmas. It's been fun experimenting. I managed to download the Linux version of Flash to view movies on YouTube and Animotos. Had marginal success with VoiceThread, but could not get audio to record on that site. I was able to record a movie from the XO. FUN. Please let me know if you get an XO group together. I would love to participate.

This site is helpful http://www.tuttlesvc.org/2007/12/xochatorg-up.html .

[Greg Davis]

7.

Looking on the OLPC web-site it doesn't look like there is any easy way for a public school to experiment with the device, although according to eSchool News, it looks like some districts are negotiating deals with OLPC. On their site, OLPC makes it pretty clear that they have a specific vision and mission in mind with this device, and that they have limited resources. Any idea if anyone is going to take it mainstream in the U.S.?

[Leigh Zeitz]

8.

Scott,

Good to see that you got a XO computer. I got one as well just before Christmas. I think that it can be the beginning of another computer revolution. We should see some powerful low cost laptops.

You can see some of my reactions about the XO computer at http://tinyurl.com/389uml

Leigh
http://drzreflects.com

[anyone!]

9.

Hi,

A number of you mention installing Skype on the XO. I was able to download it (at least it said "download complete"), but I can't find it!