The XO laptop already comes with a durable “membrane” keyboard, where it was specially designed to be water- and dust-resistant considering the laptop itself was made to function in harsh conditions throughout developing countries worldwide, not to mention the rigors of children exploring a laptop in their usual, robust manner. An Australian Education Department IT officer decided that kids had other kind of fun with the keyboard, including picking at it, which results in keys coming off. To counter this, he came up with printed keyboard designs on standard paper which will then be laminated to make it all the more durable. The laminated sheet can be placed on top of the keyboard, hence preventing the keys from falling off. Too bad this improvised cover isn’t as flexible as the real thing, so your fingers will have to work much harder to press keys. This means the kids who use this would need an extra cup of rice to get enough energy in typing, eh?
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