Children and adults
have responded to
Sugar very differently.
While adults find it
difficult to adapt their
WIMP (window,
icon, menu, pointing
device) approach to
Sugar’s interface, most
children find Sugar
intuitive and feel
free to explore the
environment.

July + August 2009

interactions

Use of the Hardware

The children have great affinity for the XOs; some even prefer them over existing computers at home. This is partly due to their sense of ownership, but it’s also a result of the laptops’ toy-like aesthetic. The same is not true for adults who are often frustrated at trying to open the laptop, using the touchpad, and trying to type on the small keyboard.

The characteristics that have proved most advantageous are the XO’s mobility, camera, screen, and handheld mode. By being light, small, rugged, and energy efficient, the laptops are very mobile, making it easy to conduct collaborative classroom activities. Mobility also makes it possible for children to carry their laptops during field trips. Moreover, the laptops have an impact in the home, as parents and siblings can also use them. It is not unusual to see children with their families browsing the Web right outside the school after school hours. The children are very

motivated to use the camera, which, in turn, has been useful for teachers in assigning activities to gather information outside the classroom. The screen has proven effective, with children able to use it outdoors on sunny days without problems. It took time for the children to become comfortable using the handheld mode, but after a few weeks they preferred it for reading, taking pictures, and playing games.

The characteristics that have caused the most problems are the heavy-use input devices: the touchpad and the keyboard. The touchpad was supposed to have dual modes, so it could also be used as a stylus area for drawing. This feature was tested in Villa Cardal but later disabled because it was rarely used, probably because most of the available software did not take advantage of it. Furthermore, using the sketch mode caused additional problems, as children sometimes pushed stylus-type items too hard against the touchpad and ended up breaking it. Aside from this problem, the touchpads have been very unstable, frequently losing calibration. While undamaged keyboards work well in terms of preventing liquids or dust from entering the computer, children often make holes in them with their fingernails, pencils, compasses, and other school supplies. The most unusual case involved a parrot who picked out several keys in a child’s home. It is also easy for children to get ink on the keyboards, which can be very difficult to remove. In addition, there have been several cases in which the keyboards stopped working without any visible physical damage.

Use of the Software

Children and adults have responded to Sugar very differently. While adults find it difficult to adapt their WIMP (window, icon, menu, pointing device) approach to Sugar’s interface, most children find Sugar intuitive and feel free to explore the environment (see Figure 1). However, some problems remain with the software. These include problems with the critical feature of mesh networking (it fails often, especially in classrooms with many children), copy-paste (you cannot copy text from the Web browser into the text editor), and Web browsing (you cannot load Flash movies). Beyond these problems, the stability of the system is similar to that of popular platforms such as recent versions of Microsoft Windows.