Friday, March 16th 2012
Uruguay is First Country to Get New Model XO Laptop
On the opening day of the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Inter-American Development Bank, One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression, announced that Uruguay will be the first country in the world to receive the newest model XO children's laptop.
Uruguay began working with OLPC in 2007 and by mid-2010 achieved complete laptop saturation, providing XO's to all 570,000 primary school children in the country. The project recently ordered 60,000 XO 1.75's in order to take advantage of the many breakthrough hardware and software features in the new model.
"We are deeply committed to making One Laptop a Child a reality for all our children because we believe that digital fluency is essential to a 21st century education," said Miguel Brechner, Director of the Technological Laboratory of Uruguay and in charge of Plan Ceibal. "The XO laptop empowers children by allowing them to explore the world, be creative, learn by doing and collaborate and share with their classmates and communities."
During its 2012 Annual Meeting in Montevideo, representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank will visit several schools to see how children and teachers are integrating XO laptops into their classrooms.
The XO 1.75 provides significant advances in technology that reduce power consumption and make the laptop more rugged for children's use. This is the first laptop from OLPC to incorporate an ARM-based processor from Marvell, a leading global semiconductor company that has collaborated closely with One Laptop per Child on technology development. The Marvell Armada 610 processor in the XO 1.75 uses very low power, 4 watts when in use and 200 milliwatts when idle, which is a quarter of the power consumption of other processors on the market. Power consumption is a major challenge for laptop deployments in remote and rural regions where electricity is scarce or non-existent.
The XO 1.75 will also feature a new operating system release with the newest version of the Sugar learning environment. Developed under OLPC's leadership with contributions from the Sugar development community, the new version of Sugar includes significant improvements in usability, performance and easier self-discovery of how Sugar works.
"We salute Plan Ceibal for its leadership in providing all Uruguayan children access to a modern education," said Rodrigo Arboleda, Chairman and CEO of the One Laptop per Child Association. "Uruguay is a great example of a well-planned, well-executed deployment that is having a positive impact on children's educational development."
Uruguay began working with OLPC in 2007 and by mid-2010 achieved complete laptop saturation, providing XO's to all 570,000 primary school children in the country. The project recently ordered 60,000 XO 1.75's in order to take advantage of the many breakthrough hardware and software features in the new model.
During its 2012 Annual Meeting in Montevideo, representatives from the Inter-American Development Bank will visit several schools to see how children and teachers are integrating XO laptops into their classrooms.
The XO 1.75 provides significant advances in technology that reduce power consumption and make the laptop more rugged for children's use. This is the first laptop from OLPC to incorporate an ARM-based processor from Marvell, a leading global semiconductor company that has collaborated closely with One Laptop per Child on technology development. The Marvell Armada 610 processor in the XO 1.75 uses very low power, 4 watts when in use and 200 milliwatts when idle, which is a quarter of the power consumption of other processors on the market. Power consumption is a major challenge for laptop deployments in remote and rural regions where electricity is scarce or non-existent.
The XO 1.75 will also feature a new operating system release with the newest version of the Sugar learning environment. Developed under OLPC's leadership with contributions from the Sugar development community, the new version of Sugar includes significant improvements in usability, performance and easier self-discovery of how Sugar works.
"We salute Plan Ceibal for its leadership in providing all Uruguayan children access to a modern education," said Rodrigo Arboleda, Chairman and CEO of the One Laptop per Child Association. "Uruguay is a great example of a well-planned, well-executed deployment that is having a positive impact on children's educational development."
18 Comments on Uruguay is First Country to Get New Model XO Laptop
www.marvell.com/technologies/armada/armada_610_application_processor_mobile_connected/release/1361/
I had a laptop and my parents own a laptop each, while we are pretty poor as a family, laptop is a tool for work more than a fashion/entertainment element. My only concern and I hate to say it, laptops in this place are way more expensive than in USA. Say I wanna buy a laptop I've seen in newegg. Add to the cost like (60% + 22%) of taxes + shipping.They already receive a meal at school. While I agree there could be an improvement for the kids living at the street... still there was an improvement over the years, poverty and infant mortality lowered dramatically over the past 25 years or so.
In my personal case, we lost our home, I had no job, my dad was fired, my mother emigrated to spain, latter on my brother did the same, and I barely knew what to do. I had to quit private university, leaving my career behind and I moved to free-of-charge state-university that was overpopulated. they weren't enough classrooms, and I had some exams were they assigned a sit in the stairs of the building !
Those were though times... today Uruguay is mostly recovered. Of course there's a long way to go, but that's how we think things should be done. Those kids have a meal in their school and now can have a laptop. I wish I had one in my times! but of course in those times laptops weren't popular thing, in my teen times the first time I saw a laptop I think it was an IBM thinkpad, with black and white screen, that cost over 3000 usd
Of course, we are talking these laptops are focused to schools with 8~12 year old kids, we are not talking about high-school here.
And of course... this would have never been reality if those lappys weren't so affordable.
back to the post... we dont need this OLPCs, we need better teachers and better education, but most governments take advantage of the uneducated working class... "hey kid take this computer and take this unemployment benefit for your fathers and tell them to vote for us..." so the circle never ends, because almost always the computers dont reach the kids that really need them.
Im not talking about mujica, because he is waaay better than previous presidents, but here in southamerica this is the neverending story... but I still have hope.
sorry for my poor english and the long post
I disagree about mujica being better than previous presidents. He is a good man, but a good president? I don't think so. But also I don't blame mujica alone.While I'm not a fan of Montevideo nor its surroundings (Today, I have to say I hate Montevideo, I live in Canelones) I would recommend several other MUCH BETTER places in your next trip to Uruguay :) Also, avoid midtown. I don't understand WHY hotels like the Victoria Plaza are in the worst part of Montevideo which is midtown. for christ sake.