One Laptop per Child XO Laptop Give a Laptop Get a Laptop
What is the XO Laptop?
The XO is an impactful learning tool designed and built especially for children in developing countries, living in some of the most remote environments. As such, it has several features you won’t find on any other laptop.
For starters, it’s about the size of a small textbook and made with a rugged plastic exterior. It has built-in wireless and a unique screen that works in full color or black and white to make it readable under direct sunlight for children who go to school outdoors. And finally it’s ultra-low power using only about 4 watts of power (most laptops use about 60 watts). This means, when there’s no electricity, it can be recharged with alternate power sources like solar power.
See a larger view and learn about the XO laptop’s design. |
Why Give a Laptop?
Why give a laptop to a child who has no running water? If you replace the word “laptop” with “education” the answer becomes clear. You don’t wait to educate until all other challenges are resolved. You educate at the same time because it’s such an important part of all the other solutions.
The Children
Currently, there are XO laptops in over 30 countries from Peru to Rwanda, and everywhere it goes, the results are the same. The laptops help children build on their active interest in the world around them to engage with powerful ideas. When the laptops arrive school attendance goes up, teachers download lesson plans from the web and kids begin teaching each other how to use the machine. With the XO, kids actually learn how to learn.
Product Specifications
The laptop hardware was designed by experts from both education and industry. This team brought together extraordinary talent and decades of collective field experience to create the perfect machine to help carry out our mission. Built in hardware includes:
- Microphone
- Speakers
- Webcam
- 3 USB memory ports
- SD memory slot
- Game controller
XO comes pre-loaded with free and open-source software. Our commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. The children—and their teachers—will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.
- Pre installed software activities include:
- Music editing
- Drawing
- Writing
- Recording (includes audio, images and video)
- Basic computer programming
- A simple web browser
- Distance and sound wave measurement
For an even more detailed description of the XO please read the extended product description below visit laptop.org.
The One Laptop Per Child Organization
Founded in 2005 by MIT professor Nicholas Negroponte, One Laptop Per Child has a simple mission: to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each and every one with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, creative, self-empowered learning.
By giving a laptop, you are helping bring education to children in some of the world’s most remote areas.
You are connecting them to each other. To us. To hope. And to a better future.
From Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (photo by Daniel Drake). |
Design
Many years and an infinite amount of sweat equity went into the creation of the XO laptop. Designed collaboratively by experts from academia and industry, the XO is the product of the very best thinking about technology and learning. It was designed with the real world in mind, considering everything from extreme environmental conditions such as high heat and humidity, to technological issues such as local-language support. As a result, the XO laptop is extremely durable, brilliantly functional, energy-efficient, responsive, and fun.
Design factor was a priority from the start: the laptop could not be big, heavy, fragile, ugly, dangerous, or dull. Another imperative was visual distinction. In part, the goal is to strongly appeal to XO’s intended users; but the machine’s distinctive appearance is also meant to discourage gray-market traffic. There is no mistaking what it is and for whom it is intended.
XO is about the size of a textbook and lighter than a lunchbox. Thanks to its flexible design and “transformer” hinge, the laptop easily assumes any of several configurations: standard laptop use, e-book reading, and gaming. The laptop has rounded edges. The integrated handle is kid-sized, as is the sealed, rubber-membrane keyboard. The novel, dual-mode, extra-wide touchpad supports pointing, as well as drawing and writing.
Experience shows that laptop components most likely to fail are the hard drive and internal connectors. Therefore, XO has no hard drive to crash and only two internal cables. For added robustness, the machine’s plastic walls are 2mm thick, as opposed to the standard 1.3mm. Its mesh network antennas, which far outperform the typical laptop, double as external covers for the USB ports, which are protected internally as well. The display is also cushioned by internal “bumpers.”
The estimated product lifetime is at least five years. To help ensure such durability, the machines are being subjected to factory testing to destruction, as well as in field testing by children.
The laptop hardware was designed by experts from both education and industry. This team brought together extraordinary talent and decades of collective field experience to create the perfect machine to help carry out our mission.
It features a 7.5-inch, 1200×900 pixel TFT screen and self-refreshing display with higher resolution (200 DPI) than 95 percent of the laptops on the market today. Two display modes are available: a transmissive, full-color mode, and a reflective, high-resolution black and white mode that is sunlight readable. Both consume very little power: the transmissive mode consumes one watt–about one seventh of the average LCD power consumption in a laptop; the reflective mode consumes a miserly 0.2 watts.
The laptop selectively suspends operation of its CPU, which makes possible even more remarkable power savings. The laptop nominally consumes less than two watts–less than one tenth of what a standard laptop consumes–so little that XO can be recharged by human power. This is a critical advance for the half-billion children who have no access to electricity.
The XO is fully compliant with the European Union’s RoHS Directive. It contains no hazardous materials. Its LiFePO4 or NiMH batteries contain no toxic heavy metals, plus it features enhanced battery management for an extended recharge-cycle lifetime. It will also tolerate alternate power-charging sources, such as car batteries.
A close-up of the XO’s keyboard. |
Operating System and Software
The Sugar operating system is a “zoom” interface that graphically captures the world of fellow learners and teachers as collaborators, emphasizing the connections within the community, among people, and their activities. The XO comes pre-loaded with free and open-source software. OLPC’s commitment to software freedom gives children the opportunity to use their laptops on their own terms. The children–and their teachers–will have the freedom to reshape, reinvent, and reapply their software, hardware, and content.
There are no software applications in the traditional sense on the laptop. The laptop focuses children around “activities.” This is more than a new naming convention; it represents an intrinsic quality of the learning experience OLPC hopes that children will have when using the laptop. Activities are distinct from applications, focusing on collaboration and expression. And in order to facilitate a collaborative learning environment, the XO laptop employs a mesh network that interconnects all laptops within range. By exploiting this connectivity, every activity has the potential to be a networked activity.
Some of the unique aspects of the XO laptop’s interface and software include:
- The Journal is an automated diary that keeps a record of all of your activities and the things you create–photos, drawing, writing, etc. You can search for individual items in your Journal or sort the entries by type or date. You can also click on an entry to get a detailed view. Finally, you can resume an activity by clicking on the small gray icon at the far right of the entry. The Journal is also used to access external media (USB thumb drives, etc.), delete files, and access an optional backup system.
The Journal. |
Draw activity. |
- The Draw activity provides a canvas for a child or a group of children to express themselves creatively. Children can draw free-form images with a paintbrush and pencil, and use the dedicated toolbar to play and experiment with shapes. Text support, image import functionality, and an interactive placement system give children limitless ways to explore their creativity.
- Simple enough to be used by even the youngest ages, TamTam Mini is a fun, powerful way to perform music and play instruments. Designed for older children who are ready to venture into more sophisticated sound design, SynthLab is a mini-lab for acoustic- and electronic-circuit construction.
TamTam Mini. |
SynthLab. |
What Children Are Saying
“I use my computer very carefully so that it will not spoil. I use it to type, I use it to write, I use it to draw, I use it to play games… I’m using my computer at home to type assignments.” — T. (Primary 4), Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
“I like the laptop because I always snap pictures… I snap pictures and I play games; we use… Google [Internet]. I put it in Write and use it in class work.” — S. (Primary 4), Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
“Sometimes I play football and sometimes I stay in the classroom… I operate my laptop: I write, draw, and record music… At home, I go turn on the television and record music.” — C. (Primary 5), Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
“I think the laptop is very good. It helps us to find some words, like our uncle [teacher] will teach us… The things we didn’t know, we go check on the laptop.” — T. (Primary 6), Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
What Teachers Are Saying
“With the laptop we can say that our school is really elevated because the children are really learning more… They see themselves discovering things that they have never been doing before.” — Mrs. M., Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
“Pupils go even beyond what I can teach in the class. It’s a very interesting thing to use. I personally have a better idea about teaching… We discovered that giving them time to discover something and to do it in their own way, they feel more happy and they are so excited in using it that, ‘Yes, I discovered it! Yes, I can get it!! Yes, I can do this on my own!!!’ Teaching is getting more interesting and less stressful.” — Mr. O., Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
“Some children are naturally faster than the others; we discovered that they go ahead of the class. They can teach their mates that, ‘Look I got it, this is how you do it, this is how you do it, this is how you do it.’ This way the slower children also are catching up. When the children can learn on their own, apart from what they can learn in class, they go faster above their mates in other places.” — Mr. O., Galadima School, Abuja, Nigeria
Frequently Asked Questions
From Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, where 20,000 XO laptops were deployed thanks to the 2007 Give One, Get One program (photo by Carla Gomez Monroy). |
Can I load other Linux distributions onto the XO laptop?
Yes. Soon there will be a fedora classic desktop product available via SD card for the XO. Community members are working on Ubuntu and Debian for the XO as well. Please see wiki.laptop.org for more information.
What kinds of power sources can I use with the XO laptop?
In addition to plugging the laptop into an electrical outlet (110-240 volts AC), the XO laptop can be powered by solar energy and human energy. The XO laptop can take a DC input ranging from 11 volts to 18 volts, a range that’s far more flexible than most portable devices. The XO laptop is remarkably energy efficient, using only 10 percent of the average wattage of a standard laptop.
How will my donation be used?
Your donation will be used to cover the cost of manufacturing, sending and setting-up laptops in some of the most remote and isolated parts of the world. This may also include power and connectivity infrastructure, teacher preparation and other technical and educational support.
Why are these laptops going to children in developing nations when there are needy children in the U.S.?
In the U.S., the average expenditure for education is $7,500 dollars per child. In developing countries, the average expenditure is typically less than $300 dollars per child. One Laptop Per Child is initially focused on where the need is most urgent.
Why are the Xs and Os different colors on each XO laptop?
Individual child ownership is a core principle of OLPC. Ownership of the XO laptop by children in developing nations is coupled with new duties and responsibilities, such as protecting, caring for, and sharing this valuable equipment. The Xs and Os are made in 20 colors each, resulting in 400 different color combinations ensuring that each child will have an easily identifiable XO laptop. These colors are mixed and shipped randomly, so the XO laptops cannot be customized.
How do I access Tech Support?
Because OLPC is a non-profit company, we are unable to provide direct technical support. One goal of the project is that children will learn to troubleshoot the XO themselves and subsequently use their experiences to help others. In this spirit, volunteers have created great guides and forums for your XO laptop and its software, which can be found at: support.laptop.org. If you have questions that are not addressed in the troubleshooting section, please click here to send us an email.
Who is the manufacturer of the XO laptop computer?
Quanta Computer Inc. of Taiwan is the original design manufacturer (ODM) of the XO laptop. Quanta is the world’s largest laptop manufacturer and makes laptops for Apple, HP, Dell among many others.
Is my donation tax deductible?
OLPC Foundation is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. As such, financial contributions may be deductible for federal income tax purposes. Please consult with your financial advisor to determine the extent of tax deductibility.
What is your Employer ID Number? (EIN)
Our US tax-exempt ID number is 20-5471780.
Message from One Laptop Per Child
The OLPC Foundation is a non-profit 501c(3) organization that is committed to delivering as many laptops to children in developing countries as possible. Due to costs associated with manufacturing, transporting, and setting-up laptops in some of the most remote and isolated parts of the world, we can never predict the full cost of delivering a laptop to a child. Frequently this will include power and connectivity infrastructure, teacher preparation and other technical and educational support. Therefore, given the magnitude of our mission and fulfillment costs covered in each donation, your contribution may advance this mission in vital ways beyond simply supporting the donation of a laptop.
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