[OLPC-Games] [Grassroots-l] Health Jam 2008

[Bryan Berry]

>There's no contradiction between activities that are fun, or with
>complex ideas behind them, and those that teach the most basic health
>and survival skills to children.

Teaching basic health and survival skills to kids is actually quite
complex. 

EKG's w/ the XO or the VistA healthcare suite are neat apps but not what
is needed by most deployments.

When I refer to "complex" I more precisely mean problems that are
technically interesting but not directly not related to education for
kids ages 6-12, OLPC's primary focus. 

Why didn't the Health Jam focus on getting folks to help w/ the
development of these activities that you described?

Too many OLPC content projects are characterized by
1) Lots of great ideas
2) Lack of focus
3) Lots of excitement, wiki pages, and e-mails
4) Not much output in terms of finished activities or activity bundles.

Sorry to be blunt but we need to change this.


On Tue, 2008-04-29 at 13:47 -0400, Samuel Klein wrote:
> There's no contradiction between activities that are fun, or with
> complex ideas behind them, and those that teach the most basic health
> and survival skills to children.
> 
> There are three health-related games being proposed and worked on at
> the moment that are good examples; all of which could use further
> specific input.  Food Force is closest to having something playable...
> pehaps Muriel and Deepank can say a bit more about its recent status.
> 
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Water_Wonders
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Malnutrition
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Food_Force
> 
> SJ
> 
> On Tue, Apr 29, 2008 at 1:03 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>         > From: "Ixo X oxI" <ixo at myna.ws>
>         > Subject: [Grassroots-l] Health Jam 2008 (article and
>         pictures)
>         > To: "OLPC Grassroots" <grassroots at lists.laptop.org>
>         > Message-ID:
>         >
>         <52bb973e0804281232s5ab06460t598406b19b1e72d8 at mail.gmail.com>
>         > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>         >
>         > For those people interested in some pictures and write-up
>         from the Health
>         > Jam 2008 (Seattle, WA)
>         >    ( http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Health_Jam )
>         >
>         >
>         http://thedaily.washington.edu/2008/4/23/nonprofit-group-visits-campus-hopes-give-one-lapto/
>         >
>         >
>         > And for a more detailed picture.
>         >   http://thedaily.washington.edu/photo/2008/04/23/3101/
>         >
>         > Bonus for IRC and wiki people, can you guess which one is
>         Seth
>         > (isforinsects) and Iain (iXo).
>         >
>         > :)
>         > -iXo
>         
>         Guys, sounds like an interesting event. I am wary that OLPC
>         Health is
>         focusing on complex systems when most of the kids (and adults)
>         in
>         deployments really need basic health information. They don't
>         need a
>         healthcare administration system like WorldVistA or MUMPS
>         running on the
>         XO, at least not in the short term.
>         
>         Kids need basic information about health and interactive
>         learning
>         activities those help them really understand those ideas.
>         
>         My experience working w/ university students is that they tend
>         to start
>         projects that are fun for research but not related to
>         practical
>         outcomes. For example, I meet many university kids that want
>         to work on
>         new physics engines or porting their favorite linux app to
>         Sugar, but
>         very few that want to work on Sugar's performance. They need
>         to be
>         guided to the problems that need the most attention.
>         
>         If OLPC Health's goal is to do new cool things w/ the XO that
>         are
>         somehow related to health, the current approach is fine. But
>         if you guys
>         want to create something that is really relevant to kids at
>         deployments,
>         I recommend focusing on the basic stuff.
>         
>         This reminds me of an earlier discussion about porting Matlab
>         to the XO.
>         Most Nepali kids who could use Matlab today or w/in a few
>         months already
>         own computers and go to private schools. The kids that OLPC is
>         trying to
>         reach need the basics of mathematics first. They need better
>         activities
>         to teach division, multiplication, algebra, etc.
>         
>         That's my two cents.
>         
>         I was really hope OLPC Health can make some progress towards
>         activity(ies) that would teach kids about the causes of
>         disease,
>         sanitary habits, basic first aid, etc. That is what we could
>         really use
>         at our pilot schools in Nepal. I imagine the same is true for
>         India,
>         Peru, Mexico, etc.
>         
>         Bryan
>         OLE Nepal
>         Kathmandu
>         
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