Squeak Etoys: Interactive and Collaborative Learning Environment

Squeak Etoys is a free software program and media-rich authoring system with a user-friendly visual interface. The software is designed to help six to twelve year-old students learn through interaction and collaboration, and comes preinstalled on XO laptop computers. The goal of the One Laptop Per Child initiative is to create novel educational opportunities for the world’s children by providing each child with a book-size, light and portable XO computer for personal use at school and at home. The authors of this chapter elaborate on the educational dimensions of the XO laptop and the Etoys environment developed to empower teachers and students with the capacity for creative learning, exploration, interaction, and collaboration. The authors focus on how the hardware and software capabilities of XO laptops can be utilized to allow children to interact, work together on projects, and engage in computer simulations and games while learning mathematics, physics, chemistry, and geometry.