OLPC is good for learning

Journal, Sugar’s file management system

We have been using the same tired old metaphors for computers for a long time. I look at my computer with its desktop metaphor (clean at work, cluttered at home, as in real life) and think there’s got to something better. Recently, there have been advances to file management- much of it online. Take Flickr for example. Flickr automatically stores all your files in a big, long, chronological list. You can then organize your files in many ways- you can associate words with them (tagging) put them into sets, or, if you pay for the pro account, put the sets into collections. One photo can be several places- in a few sets, tagged with a bunch of words. This makes it easier to find. There’s no reason that our computers can’t work the same way. Why should I have to think of where to put my document when I stop working? Why do I have to remember to save? Why do I have to decide if this file should go in this or that folder- when it could just as easily go in both? The more I become accustomed to organizing files online, the more I have come to hate the artificial limitations placed on my by my computer- and that goes for all the operating systems.

OLPC with old iMac keyboard hooked up

One of the things I love about Sugar (the XO laptop’s OS) is that the programmers rethought the entire process of using the computer. Ever since windows were introduced, they have been incorporated in most every OS – but are they useful? Did anyone ever stop to ponder whether they work more productively with windows?  Now, we’re so used to tabs in web browsers and multiple windows open that we can’t even imagine just looking at one website at a time – or maybe that’s just me. Sugar eliminates most of the distractions that make it so hard for me to get anything done on my computer. No endless ways to customize the desktop, no way to arrange and re-arrange menus, no folder structure to clean up and rearrange- just my files and my programs. I am finding that when I want to write, I want to use the OLPC – because I know that I’m less likely to be distracted on there than on my “real” computer(s). I am especially starting to love the journal – that’s Sugar’s file management program – and the fact that the computer automatically saves my work for me.

So when I hear complaints that the OLPC isn’t any good because it doesn’t manage files like a traditional computer, I have to laugh. Similarly, when I hear people complain because it doesn’t play YouTube videos, I giggle a little. It’s not that there’s nothing educational on YouTube, but I’d say I have used the site more to avoid learning things. I think the developers have done a wonderful job on the XO and on Sugar. Like others, I think Sugar, especially, has huge potential for learning. I would love to see sugar pre-bundled as an alternate login for Edubuntu. I see endless ideas for the XO popping up, like Jovi’s idea of getting a Hypercard like program to run on the XO. I’m so excited abotu the project, and can’t wait to see what’s next.