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OLPC a Hit in Remote Peruvian Village
mrcgran writes "The Chicago Tribune is running a feel-good story about the effects of OLPC on a remote village in Peru. 'Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little computers evaporate as quickly as the morning dew in this hilltop Andean village, where 50 primary school children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project six months ago. At breakfast, they're already powering up the combination library/videocam/audio recorder/music maker/drawing kits. At night, they're dozing off in front of them — if they've managed to keep older siblings from waylaying the coveted machines. Peru made the single biggest order to date — more than 272,000 machines — in its quest to turn around a primary education system that the World Economic Forum recently ranked last among 131 countries surveyed.'"
and I think your comment gets to the heart of what the OLPC is supposed to be- a liberating device that can bring the internet to everyone, regardless of geographic location... what if one of these kids turns out to have the brainpower of an Einstein or a Hawking? If they have internet access, the world may be able to recognize them in ways that it couldn't before.
Some mean spirited folks have been praying the OLPC is a disaster. Yes the OLPC has competition now from Intel and ASUS, but those programs wouldn't have existed without the OLPC. I hope in years to come OLPC is a huge success. Negroponte deserves karma for trying something that can help many lives. The naysayers meanwhile can should back to their Plasma TVs watching American Idol.
And in this we'll see the XO version of a 'geek' - the power user who is more apt at correcting an outstanding issue with the OLPC than his or her peers. He has a problem, and it's fixed. His buddy has the same problem. 'Hey, let me look at that for you.' Fixed. Social skills on the up-and-coming, hopefully more successful than the rest of us.
Christmas eve and I'm in the office. What a fucking loser.
Informatus Technologicus
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
Impact on students and teachers in Arahuay
I took as complete notes as I could talking with each of the teachers in turn (unfortunately, I forgot to get their names); translation slowed things enough that I believe the notes are pretty complete, though it may have also introduced errors. They echo Carla's excellent report, but are now months later:
Two children have come to the Arahuay school specifically because of the laptops who would not have previously attended.
The children are sharing much more: they take pictures and videos and share them.
The children are teachers too.
The teachers see much improved conduct. One child (who often arrives hungry) who has been sad and aggressive now loves to work on the OLPC. He is working more with other children and his behavior has improved.
One of the children has vision problems; is cross eyed and has one damaged eye (Carla will remember the child, I'm sure). Using the laptop has improved the child's ability to focus her eyes and work.
Another teacher noted that small children, ages 6-7, are learning much faster. The web browser is the most popular/important activity, followed by the camera.
The activities they use most are the browser, paint, calculator, write.
The children use the internet to find information of interest.
One child, who is from Lima, has learned much in Arahuay and is very happy about the OLPC.
Another teacher said the children have changed: they have more concentration, mental ability.
The children's concept reception is much better than before. Despite the use of US keyboards (all we had at the time), the children have had little problem adapting, and have figured out all they keys.
A third teacher said the internet is the most interesting.
The children are showing more abilities, are more creative, their behavior is better.
The children were selfish about the computers at first, but now share and discover with them, showing the teachers and other students what they have discovered.
Children who had previously been interested in power (bully?) have forgotten power and are sharing.
The children are showing better attention and organization.
Students are learning about the world, and now feel part of it. They are now interested in learning other languages, which they had not wanted to do before. Creating a web site on Arahuay has made them feel part of the world. Impact on the teachers:
They have started to research topics on the internet and have practiced to use the computer.
The teachers have more ways to plan and improve the class.
Another teacher said the computer was wonderful for her. Information on the internet had improved both her and the children.
Their jobs are easier now.
One of the teachers asked for mind-mapper software, which they have used. We should install freemind on the servers and explore how feasible it is for packaging as an activity (it is Java based).
But the high point was the eight year old girl who came up to me shyly and gave me a kiss....
BTW, if anyone speaks Quechua or Aymara (or other languages), please help at: https://dev.laptop.org/translate/.
Please come help!
- Jim Gettys, OLPC
Right back atcha: Flamebait was the original poster implying that OLPC would open up the students' world to let them learn about the commies and leftists that rule their world.
The real lessons are about the IMF loans, US historical interventionism, and a vicious right-wing establishment trying to manhandle the world into their control. When we control the horizontal and vertical, we filter out our nasty little secrets. The OLPC is much more likely to open people's world into how we mess with them, not how Che Guevarra was Satan's puppy. Hence my laundry list of questions, for the sarcasm impaired, of a child who actually reads about modern world history. Our hands are on most nastiness kids are experiencing in a lot of countries. A little light on the cockroaches won't hurt. But man, does it make the rightists squawk.
The XO screen has a 200dpi grayscale reflective mode that's a lot like e-ink. Comparing my XO to my friend's Kindle, the XO has lower contrast but much higher resolution. Both are quite easy on the eyes.
While I'm a fan of the OLPC project (I'm writing this on my own XO laptop), and think it has the potential to improve education dramatically, the article didn't say much about how the laptop has affected learning. Sure, the kids love them, but aside from mentioning that many of them aspire to be something other than farmers, there wasn't much evidence presented that the laptop improved education.
One interesting feature of Mumbai life I recently witnessed is the pavement mobile phone fixing shop; soldering iron, some manuals, a few broken phones and it's a working handset from a box of scrap.
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
I made a visit to Africa on a U.S. Aid ship this year. One of the microwaves died during the voyage (wasn't a fuse, I checked). I was up there waiting for a shipmate so we could go out and get a drink. As soon as we pulled in, the cook dropped the microwave off at the gangway for one of the apprentices to throw out. Before he took five steps, one of the Benin dock workers asked for it and he sold it for I think five dollars.
We thought I had seen the last of that microwave, but I was wrong. Shortly after, my buddy and I caught a taxi and after a harrowing ride through the city, we ended up at a cool little bar. A few minutes after we got to the bar, a moped vroomed up the street and stopped at the place next to the bar (we were outdoors). The guy on the moped had our microwave! An old lady came out, took it from the guy, and proceeded to disassemble it on an old wooden table about ten feet from us. I wasn't paying too much attention to her, but she had it put back together and working in under 15 minutes.
The guy took it back from her, walked next door to the bar we were at, and sold it to the owner for $20! The guy who bought it from the cook said he made double his pay that day by skipping out of work and getting it fixed.
I guess, "one man's junk is another man's treasure" is really true....