From OLPC to Code’n’Stitch

Can some of you remember the “One Laptop per Child” initiative? Back in 2005 the entusiasm and optimisn in technology was greater than ever.

Nicholas Negroponte co-founder of the MIT Media Lab announced the initiative and it build up a big hype. The goal was to provide technology across the Global South and promised to transform the lives of children  with a small, sturdy, and cheap laptop computer, powered by a hand crank. 
The hand crank was later removed and the project was evolving over time. As successful as the OLPC scheme has been, it only addressed half the problem. Most of all the children still needed someone to teach them how to use their laptops, and educate them thereafter. In the end, any tool is only useful if you know how to use it and get the best from it.
Therefore in 2012 the project was rethought and by the current day and age it was rebranded to “One Tablet per Child” and also our own Catroid – now called PocketCode was part of the App-Offering.
The approach now changed to tablets being pre-installed with an array of educational applications and learning tools. This was designed to appeal to the naturally inquisitive nature of children and give them the possibility to learn by themselve and have greater impact than the OLPC initiave, where the Laptops where left aside or used otherwise.