Randy Pausch, whose last lecture became sensation dies

Randy Pausch, whose last lecture became sensation dies — chicagotribune.com

WeDo: LEGO’s new robotics system for elementary schools

WeDo: LEGO’s new robotics system for elementary schools - Boing Boing Gadgets pointed me to LEGO Education News

LEGO has announced a low-end, tethered robotics system called “WeDO” designed to be used in classrooms of elementary-aged children. It won’t replace Mindstorms, but instead serve as an intermediate step between the more fully featured robotics platform and regular, non-robotic LEGO.
The WeDo system will be available at the first of the year. Prices have not yet been announced. I wonder if we could get together with LEGO and sponsor a few kits for some Brooklyn schools.

From their press release:

The complete LEGO WeDo package includes:  
• 158 brightly colored LEGO elements, including gears, and levers 
• One LEGO USB Hub connects directly to a Mac/PC laptop, desktop, OLPC XO or Intel Classmate 
computer to allow control of hardware input (tilt and motion sensors) and output (motor), 
thereby bringing models to life 
• One motor, one motion sensor and one tilt sensor  
• Drag‐and‐drop icon‐based software that provides an intuitive and easy‐to‐use programming 
environment suitable for beginners and experienced users alike, developed by a leading 
provider of engineering hardware and software, National Instruments 
• Activity pack CD‐Rom provides up to 24 hours of instruction and includes 12 activities based on 
four themes: Amazing Mechanisms, Wild Animals, Play Soccer and Adventure Stories. Running 
alongside programming software, activities are introduced via animations. Teacher notes and 
glossary are also included.

Obviously I want one. It will work with the olpc as well.

Windows XO: A Detailed Microsoft XP Video Dissection

OLPC News: Windows XO: A Detailed Microsoft XP Video Dissection… of course as we talked about in class this week, people want the windows experience on their XOs because that’s what everyone else has. This post on olpc news is really saddening. Taking the not perfect but really interesting XO and adding XP to it and you get… just another windows product that doesn’t do much. Well, it does get people around the world to buy into it…

What I can’t figure out, and help me here people, is that on one hand the XO is part of the colonialist hegemony of western technology, on another it is the hegemony of constructivism/constructionism. On the third side (and coins do have three sides if you look right, if not more), if you don’t run XP but rather run Linux/Sugar you’re part of the post-colonialist post-modernist (non)hegemony of the techno-counter-insurgency. The only thing I think it is safe to say is that if you suggest people just don’t buy computers at all, unless they’re locally made and sustainable, a la Schumacher’s Small is Beautiful, you are restricting access and participation in the global marketplace.

So, what have we learned from this? Sugar/Linux is the way to go… not cause there’s a real reason that can be defended, but because I feel like it.