I believe one of the most ambitious and potentially rewarding International programs in Computer literacy is the One Laptop Per Child initiative that began in Boston. It has been shipping the XO laptop since November 2007 and I think their updates are worth a report, at least every now and then, to our visitors. Here’s their latest
From The update One Laptop per Child Vol. 4 No. 27 July 6, 2008
Deployment
Rollout Update: Since November 2007, OLPC has shipped nearly 400,000 laptops. Better than a quarter of those machines went to donors who participated in the G1G1 program. Simultaneously, OLPC has been working with countries to prepare for their donee XOs, many of which already have been received. The two largest rollouts, Peru and Uruguay, account for nearly half of all units shipped to date, but have yet to receive the bulk of their orders.
Papua New Guinea: From June 16th through the 20th, OLPC Oceania made its second PNG deployment (Weekend, June 15) of 47 XOs at the Dreikikir Elementary School in East Sepik Province. Dreikikir is about a four-hour drive inland from Wewak, the provincial capital. The machines were all updated to build 703/G1G1 activity pack with Speak and Flash added before the deployment to the school’s first graders.
Tony Aimo, PNG’s acting minister of education, attended the official launch ceremonies, and repeated the government’s support for the XO program. Aimo announced the government’s commitment to a full saturation deployment of XOs at the school, which has about 500 students.
David Leeming and his team spent a day in teacher training. He reports that videos from the deployments in Peru and the Solomon Islands were very helpful. Each teacher who took part in training also received a signed certificate.
Teacher training
Then two more days were devoted to working with the teachers to acquaint the children with the laptops. Leeming says an early version of the standard training plan (see OLPC Oceania page) was followed for the student orientation. Some early observations:
* The second session was conducted outside in small groups, which helped to promote sharing and dynamics.
* As with the teacher training, the time allocated was less than desirable, although sufficient.
* It was noticed that many students were quicker at learning than were the teachers, and were seen to help the slower ones.
* Older students joined in with the freer group session. This was seen to be beneficial and also raises awareness in the wider community.
Reliable evaluation of the deployment will be critical. Leeming notes:
The following approaches were decided by teachers, and agreed upon by the education officials present:
* Teachers will keep a log book/diary and update it with any feedback on how the laptops are being used, new ideas on classroom integration as they develop, and feedback on students’ uses. Also feedback of problems and issues.
* Every morning, the first lesson is an oral session where teachers can discuss the laptops with the children. This session will be used to get daily feedback.
* Parents and staff meetings will also be used to get feedback and share ideas.
* The district school standards officer and education advisor have been trained and fully participated in the deployment. This is very important, as they are available on the ground to make evaluations and carry reports from the school to the province and department.
* A volunteer will be based at Dreikikir for two weeks to provide additional evaluations on behalf of OLPC Oceania. Guidance on this from Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) will be crucial.
Although Dreikikir has a local power grid, it is only used in the evenings and the school has no connection. More than half of students do not have electricity at home.
The EU-funded Improvement of Rural Primary Education Facilities project (IRPEF), which is hosting the deployment, may help the school establish a power connection. An unsatisfactory temporary solution is the use of PNG-procured 3-pin adapters and multiple power boards.
Students now have to charge their XOs at home or at a nearby teacher’s house. A school server, access point and school-based charging solution would require installation of a solar power supply at the school.The isolation conditions are suitable for
solar power.
There is no Internet access as of now. Regional cellphone access is provided by B-Mobile. Digicel is building towers along the road from Wewak and will have a presence in the near future.
The mission of the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) movement is to ensure that all school-aged children in the developing world are able to engage effectively with their own personal laptop, networked to the world, so that they, their families and their communities can openly learn and learn about learning.
The OLPC Association focuses on designing, manufacturing, and distributing laptops to children in lesser developed countries, initially concentrating on those governments that have made commitments for the funding and program support required to ensure that all of their children own and can effectively use a laptop.
Early national adopters include Uruguay and Peru. Mongolia, Haiti and Nepal are some of the more recent delivery countries in addition to Papua New Guinea.
ZIn Nashik, Maharashtra, India a private school established in 2004 by Joshua and Heera Pritikin is trialling a small OLPC trial beginning this month. They are working on an Internet connection and already have a machine to serve as a school server.
