[Grassroots-l] Nepal: Orientation Program for Parents and Other Stakeholders

[Edward Cherlin]

On Wed, Apr 23, 2008 at 7:21 PM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>  > This is excellent. We will take note of this for the Illinois project.
>  > I also created a Parents page on the Wiki and put this link there.
>
>  Thanks! The credit goes to Dr. Saurav Dev Bhatta, Bipul Gautam, and
>  Kamana Regmi.
>
>
>  >we could start a Tamang localization of Sugar.
>
>  This would be an important step over the next 12-24 months. The
>  immediate value would be limited because AFAIK most Tamangs cannot read
>  written Tamang.

We are working on using text-to-speech and icon-to-speech conversions
for literacy. We could start by recording some native speakers. If the
Tamang orthography is no more complicated than Hindi or Nepali, we
could presumably get some linguists to give us a rule set, and combine
it with our TTS engine to read out loud to parents and children
together.

http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html

>  In the long term we need to localize sugar and our activities for the
>  many indigenous languages in Nepal - Maithili, Limbu, Newari, Tibetan,

Definitely. If you have people who can read, and children, from those
language communities, then we can set this up in parallel with your
other work. If someone can show native speakers what each control
does, and ask them how to label it, and record it all on the XO, we
can get other people involved. After we get the literacy software
working well, we can speed up the process when we move into new
communities.

>  etc. Right now, our priorities are to
>  1) Have consistent wireless network connections to the school
>  2) more courseware from EPaati so the teachers still have material to
>  work w/ as the school year goes on.
>  3) Get the online library in better working order w/ more content.

Quite right.

>  >Of course this means that you need to arrange for some of the Tamang
>  > speakers to learn all of the laptop software.
>
>  One of the teachers is Tamang. I spent alot of time w/ Neema Lama and
>  technical maintenance of the XO's and familiarizing him w/ the various
>  activities. His favorite was Scratch :)

Does he know any English?

>  We will try to enlist his help to translate activities, Sugar, . ..
>  Help from other Tamangs would also be appreciated :)
>
>
>
>  On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 10:34 -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:
>  > This is excellent. We will take note of this for the Illinois project.
>  > I also created a Parents page on the Wiki and put this link there.
>  >
>  > On Tue, Apr 22, 2008 at 3:18 AM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:
>  > > My colleague Dr. Saurav Dev Bhatta has written a great summary of the
>  > >  interaction programs between parents and teachers from the Bashuki and
>  > >  Bishwamitra pilot schools.
>  > >
>  > >  It is of special note that the teachers of these schools organized the
>  > >  programs and not OLE Nepal.
>  > >  http://blog.olenepal.org/index.php/archives/260
>  > >
>  > >  It is quite a lengthy overview so I will just provide the link
>  >
>  > The article notes that the the Tamang speakers had better discussions
>  > in Tamang, just as one might expect If we can make some arrangements
>  > with the community, we could start a Tamang localization of Sugar. Do
>  > you know anybody who speaks both Tamang and English reasonably well?
>  > If so, I would like to explain my idea through that person to the
>  > community. If not, we can manage with Tamang<-->Nepali<-->English.
>  >
>  > We have some experience in localization of Linux to languages that
>  > lack computer terminology, such as Kinyarwanda, where the first order
>  > of business was to create a word for "computer". This is necessarily a
>  > community effort. Sayamindu Dasgupta, the localization lead for OLPC,
>  > has created a draft list of terminology that we can start from. Here
>  > is the Nepali version.
>  > https://dev.laptop.org/translate/ne/terminology/glossary.v.0.1.po?translate=1&view=1
>  >
>  > I see that all of the XO software except Etoys has been localized to
>  > Nepali. https://dev.laptop.org/translate/ne/ So the Tamang community
>  > can work from both the English and the Nepali to create their own.
>  >
>  > Of course this means that you need to arrange for some of the Tamang
>  > speakers to learn all of the laptop software. It shouldn't be
>  > difficult to get the children to do that. Or perhaps some of them
>  > would like to specialize, learning one activity really well and
>  > localizing just that one to begin with. We'll have to ask them how
>  > they think it is best to proceed.
>  >
>  > >  --
>  > >  Bryan W. Berry
>  > >  Systems Engineer
>  > >  OLE Nepal, http://www.olenepal.org
>  > >
>  > >  _______________________________________________
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>  > >  Grassroots at lists.laptop.org
>  > >  http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots
>  > >
>  >
>  >
>  >
>
>



-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay