Todd Cranston-Cuebas wrote: > Actually, I spent a good part of the weekend thinking about how I > would respond to this thread. First, it's important to decide if OLPC > want to be truly open. If open means sharing, collaborating, > supporting, etc. then the BibleReader should definitely be included in > any list of XO Activities recognized by the project. I would expect no > less than a KoranReader or any other specialized reader required by > the children and/or their families. The argument for a special reader > is sound. As I conduct my own bible study I find the ability to > rapidly find chapter, verse, books of the bible, bookmarking etc. as > invaluable. Yes, you could use the Read activity or just surf the web, > but the specialized readers are significant enhancements to true students. > > I'm actually heartened to see the response over the weekend since I > was beginning to wonder about the "openness" of this project if open > only means anti-Christian. Yes, I can say anti-Christian since the > comments on seeing the value of including a special activity for > Darwin's Origin of Species is clearly meant to be confrontational and > anti-Christian. Funny how it's acceptable to bash Christians isn't it? > > In terms of not doing the "OLPC any favor" by including a BibleReader > activity, I think it's quite the opposite. Giving OLPC users the > greatest access to information should be a driving motivator. Of > course, I would not suggest that any specific religious texts and/or > activity be part of the core build, but clearly blocking the listing > of such an activity would seem rather 1984'ish to me. >
To add my opinion to this stressed thread, I think noone wants to block an activity from the optional listings. Quite the opposite - I think it would be great if the children could use a multifunctional Reader - one which is able to handle all kind of texts - may it be religious or scientific ones. And since the Activity can already handle one text, it should be a reasonable effort to open it to more. Then the kids could decide if they are interested in any texts, and then start reading them. And also for research - this Reader Activity would be very, very helpful! I think, this would be something very much in the spirit of OLPC :) And i'd love to support that project (for example at the text-repository side of things). - Chris _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [email protected] http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
