As teachers converge, One Laptop per Child takes a big leap from pilot program to large-scale national execution.
Thursday, March 27, 2008
By David Talbot
| Cecilia Aquino (left) and Rosaria Carrillo, both 10, use preproduction versions of the One Laptop per Child machines at their school in Arahuay, Peru, where a pilot project was implemented last year. Credit: Ana Cecilia Gonzales Vigil |
This week, teachers from remote rural villages in Peru are gathering in several regional cities to learn how to do their jobs via One Laptop per Child (OLPC) machines distributed to their pupils. Peru is now engaging in the world's most ambitious OLPC deployment: some 400,000 machines are headed to the Andean nation's poorest and remotest schools--about 6,000 schools in all. The first 25,000 of these machines are now being inventoried in a Lima warehouse and are poised for shipment to the interior.
One Laptop per Child (OLPC) machines distributed to their pupils. Peru is now engaging in the world's most ambitious OLPC deployment: some 400,000 machines are headed to the Andean nation's poorest and remotest schools--about 6,000 schools in all. The first 25,000 of these machines are now being inventoried in a Lima warehouse and are poised for shipment to the interior.
Success of OLPC now depends largely on frontline teachers and, of course, parents and kids. Peru's effort, if successful, would be a model for other nations. In the training now under way, teachers must become versed not only in how to operate and maintain the laptops, but also in how to do their jobs within a newly laptop-centric educational model. The laptops will contain some 115 books, including textbooks, novels, and poetry, as well as art and music programs, cameras, and other goodies.
What many of these kids won't get is Internet access: about 90 percent of the villages lack it, and may not get it anytime soon. In these villages, any updated content will be delivered to the machines by what OLPC president Walter Bender calls "sneaker-net." Each month, when the teachers visit regional education offices to pick up their paychecks, they will have the ability to tap Internet connections to load new content onto thumb drives and bring them back to their classrooms.
Comments
troynall on 03/28/2008 at 10:04 AM
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what type of software is being implemented for designers and students to use? these are the real tools for student to use?
I don't hear anything about this subject. actually i think i read something about linux being loaded but I can just see some kid in peru trying to use that. come on people, we need hardware and software for kids !!!
I see this "one laptop" thing as a fad. if no one produces flexible software for it, it will be just like any other piece of antiquated technology. novel software is needed.
cabaa99 on 03/28/2008 at 11:54 AM
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The lack of Internet connectivy is the biggest issue, I think. That just closes a lot of doors for people to engage with other people, and to tap huge amounts of information about the rest of the world, including reading/learning a second language (key in today's English-driven world), having different perspectives regarding local and international news, keeping up to speed with technology, and a lot more (I thought the mesh network was to be used for this with a local AP in each town). This needs to be addressed somehow.
sukotsu9 on 03/28/2008 at 3:51 PM
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About the Internet access: I understand the laptops can act as a Mesh Network with each other. So villagers should be able to communicate together, at a minimum. I'm not sure if a single Internet connection would be shared throught the (very) extended Mesh network, though.
alanpater on 03/28/2008 at 3:54 PM
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http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Learning_Vision
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Regarding_the_Laptop_Revolution
tam on 03/28/2008 at 4:23 PM
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It doesn't look like any UI you or I have ever worked with, but so what? The idea is supposed to be that kids with no experience of technology (and no preconceived ideas about how it works) can plunge right in and start using this stuff.
It's also very modifiable. Accustomed as I am to Firefox, I quickly found the very basic web browser frustrating. But as it happens, you can download a special version of Opera that runs perfectly on the XO and gives you back tabbed browsing. Also, the wi-fi connections work fine.
In addition, the XO works very well as an e-book reader because the screen swivels so you can angle it in whatever direction is comfortable. The screen is also quite readable in sunlight, which is more than I can say for my PDA.
In short, lighten up--and don't try to cram the XO into the PC straitjacket we're accustomed to. It's a sturdy, innovative machine that is trying to do something else entirely. I don't know whether it will succeed, but I was happy to contribute to this hugely ambitious effort to create a new kind of educational experience for kids--even poor ones in desperately poor parts of the world.
The idea of kids everywhere having the opportunity to learn--and play around with--simple programming just gives me chills. Can you imagine how that might change the world? I mean *really* change it?
mnieto on 03/30/2008 at 7:01 PM
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shishir0610 on 03/31/2008 at 1:54 AM
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