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

[Bryan Berry]

Ed, great ideas. I will have to respond to them in about a week's time.
Pilot launches tomorrow and we are crushed w/ work :) but it's great
On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 23:47 -0700, Edward Cherlin wrote:
> 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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> >  > >
> >  >
> >  >
> >  >
> >
> >
> 
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