Just when I thought I was about ready to break out from being an OLPC Johnny One Note on this blog, I got a letter in the mail a couple of days ago. I had heard about the OLPC stamp out of Uruguay, and ordered a couple without hesitation several weeks ago.
They arrived, delivered via registered mail, in an envelope with several beautiful canceled stamps on it - including the OLPC stamp. From Ebay. How very cool and beautiful.But yesterday I got a body blow that took the wind out of my XO sails. The jabber server I've been using - and promoting to other educators as a good place for students to collaborate - is going to shut down:
I will be moving soon, and the school.letschange.org server will be going down for at least a few weeks.I replied on the Forum:
This will happen within the next two weeks. If anyone has a server that I can put the jabber server on, that would be great. Otherwise, we'll be down while the server takes the slow boat.
Oh man, I am so very sorry to hear this! Your jabber server has been absolutely rock solid, and I thank you VERY much for putting it up there and sharing it. It has made some fantastic connections!We'll see. Now back to some other notes...
I started a wiki a bit ago (xoclassroom.com), in part hoping to connect classrooms via jabber server (yours, primarily) - so I'll be looking for an alternate server for a while... if anybody has a suggestion, please share....
Technorati tags: xo olpc roomtwelve jabber xoclassroom
2 comments:
Mark,
Last night I went to my first XO user's group meeting here in Austin. In preparation I tried to get online at home with my XO by changing from WPA2 Personal passcode to WEP (whatever all of that means???) Anyway I spent several hours (?) and was not successful. It does not help that I don't understand most of what I am doing, so it is pretty hard to troubleshoot when things do not work.
The other people at this meeting were mostly web developers who were not interested in the same things that I was. Most of them seemed to have the same problems getting online and I don't think there was a lot of understanding about what a jabber server is and how to use it. It was good meeting these people and I learned a few things. I am going to check out your wiki.
I have decided that I am not going to try to get teachers to use this at all, but maybe I can do an after school club or something where kids have a chance to troubleshoot and use it and I can learn from them.
Keep up the writing about your experiences.
Janice
Janice, I'm so sorry for your connection woes! Certainly not for lack of trying...
I think I got lucky, both in the connection department and in the local user group - although being surrounded by programmers (I was) was pretty intimidating.
The XO was not designed to be used in isolation - which is partly why I'm so obsessed with it. I'm lucky enough to have four, and I can see and experience what they were designed to do.
Most G1G1 XO owners don't have this view of the XO - which is why I'm trying so hard to promote the use of jabber servers in N. American classrooms. Connected to another XO via jabber - gives you a glimpse of why they are designed the way they are.
Oh well, hang in there Janice. I have a vision.... of you connecting with my XO's (in the hands of my kids) at a staff inservice you're doing this year... :)
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