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Filed under: Games, Linux, Open Source

Design an education game for the OLPC

OLPCHow do you get national governments to commit to ordering hundreds of thousands of your new low-cost computer for "educational" purposes? Put more games on it, of course.

The One Laptop Per Child Project is hosting a "game jam" in Needham, Massachusetts from June 8th through the 10th. The goal is to get small teams of game designers together to create open source games that:
  • Take advantage of the XO laptop's mesh networking capability
  • Use the built in camera
  • Use the XO's tablet mode (it's not a touch-screen, but there are joystick-like buttons on the side
  • Oh yeah, and educational games, and applications that let kids create their own games
Right now, the OLPC project has about 2.5 million orders for the XO laptop, which is a bit shy of the 3 million goal the developers had set for themselves in order to begin shipping by September. The laptops might look a bit more attractive if there's more software designed to run on them, such as games that teach young children to read or do math.

[via PC World]

Filed under: Business, Kids, Linux, Open Source

Will the OLPC interface ruin computing for millions of kids?

OLPC If you've been following the development of the One Laptop Per Child project, you know that a lot of unconventional thinking has gone into it. The goal is to help bridge the digital divide by producing low-cost, durable computers and selling them in large quantities (the minimum order is 1 million) to governments in developing nations. The hope is that the next generation of school children in those countries will grow up knowing how to use computers and having the same skill sets as children in wealthier nations.

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