Back in early December, Birmingham, Alabama had become the first school district in the U.S. to purchase the XO laptops from the OLPC project. It now seems they may not have put as much thought into having these actually work as they did when placing and negotiating the order.
The city was seemingly unaware that Wi-Fi must be in place before the laptops can go online. Sadly this has also lead back to the “inappropriate Web content” argument, it seems that Board member Virginia Volker is more worried about the kids looking at p0rn than actually learning. In response Bob McKenna, who is Langford’s liaison to the City Council has stated that filters would be added to the school routers and that parents need to be “on the lookout as well.”
In the mean time the city is planning to “make the whole city Wi-Fi.” This will begin with the churches, fire station and even on the top of City Hall. Hopefully they will remember to include the schools as well. The laptops are expected to be in the hands of students beginning in March.
Read [Everything Alabama Blog]
Tags: gprs, video, gadgets, plasma
