[OLPC India] our school is ready
Sameer Verma
sverma at sfsu.edu
Mon Oct 15 16:43:55 EDT 2007
Manusheel Gupta wrote:
> Dear Sameer,
>
> Iam glad to learn about your interest in our educational project.
>
> I'll soon post more about OLPC-India Foundation, and getting involved
> in it. We are in the process of structuring the different interest
> groups, who wish to be a part of our vision in India.
Hi Manu,
Thanks for the quick reply. I am looking forward to more info on this
project. The more the better.
>
> >Given that the Indian government has said no to the OLPC effort, I
> wonder of there are ways to still pursue this. In a sense, I have
> access > to a village, and I want to help.
>
> First, it is a misconception that Indian Government as a whole, did'nt
> show interest in our project. There were certain Ministers( especially
> one, whose name I'll leave unmentioned), who became critical about our
> project, and its vision. Second, as long as people are interested in
> our vision, which is definitely true in case of India, finding ways is
> not a problem. Infact, the ways have already been figured out, and we
> are making headway in the right direction. Third, we have support
> from big corporations, and Ministers in Indian Government too.
I realize that such a misconception can be problematic, but that seems
to be the perception on various blogs and postings, and there is little
information of the alternative avenues you state, such as the
corporations, ministries, etc. I just found out about the Reliance deal
and that is indeed very encouraging. Perhaps one of the effective ways
to deal with such misinformation is to flood the web with good
information! I'm going to get on our open source site and blog about
this in a few minutes!
> Finally, I see the target audience i.e. children, being greatly
> benefited from implementing OLPC in India. I happen to visit Khairat
> School in Navi Mumbai recently, where we have conducted our first
> pilot in India. It is a rural school in every aspect, except
> children who lack opportunity, not capability. I could see the
> difference in the approach children learn learning, while interacting
> with the XOs( our low-cost, high-performance laptops), and the big way
> in which our educational tool can help them to make a better and a
> peaceful world, in which we all live and interact amongst each
> other. World needs to be fulfiled, and not conquered is the message we
> are trying to put across through every aspect of XO: starting from
> open-source software to mesh-network scheme, which motivates the idea
> of "sharing".
All this is well intentioned and I am quite supportive, but let me also
add a bit of skepticism on part of how this will fly with the generation
that is currently running the education show. I have had ad hoc
conversations with folks in India, and a lot of the thinking goes
against what OLPC intends to do. For example, the idea of a child taking
the laptop home was considered unacceptable by many, who instead think
the laptops should be under lock and key at the end of the day! Going
against that kind of a mentality will indeed be a challenge. I happen to
disagree with the "lock and key" approach, so my interest in this
project is partly fueled by that sentiment. I am all for the open
approach and more power to you (and us)!
>
> I wish if we kindly forget the one-time event of OLPC's rejection by
> certain HRD Ministers in India that has unfortunately happened in the
> past.
I don't think we can forget it unless there is something else to
supplant it. Blog away!
cheers,
Sameer
--
Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Information Systems
San Francisco State University
San Francisco CA 94132 USA
http://verma.sfsu.edu/
http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 10/15/07, *Sameer Verma* <sverma at sfsu.edu <mailto:sverma at sfsu.edu>>
> wrote:
>
> Joshua N Pritikin wrote:
> > "The formation of OLPC-India Foundation has been engineered, which
> > comprises of corporate partners, non-profit organizations, Education
> > Ministers at State Level, bureaucrats, and most importantly:
> interested
> > volunteers."
> >
> > "OLPC-India pilot project is going to start during the end week
> of this
> > month(September'07)!"
> >
> > My wife and I own a small school (200 kids) in Nashik,
> Maharashtra. We
> > are very eager to implement OLPC. How do we join the foundation?
> Can we
> > get involved in a pilot?
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> >
>
> I would like to know more about the foundation project as well. I have
> two specific interests:
>
> 1) My research interests are in the direction of sustainable
> information
> systems as a whole, and OLPC implementations are of great interest.
>
> 2) A part of my family comes from Bhagmalpur, a small village in
> northern India (Dist. Jaunpur, UP). This village has about 40
> families.
> Our family started the local school (now managed by the state
> government). We have been pioneers in bringing education in some
> mode to
> the village. The village is on the electrical grid, but may see about
> two hours worth of power in a 24 hour period. The Internet has not
> reached this village as yet. Long term, I would like to see this
> village
> benefit from projects such as OLPC. Given that the Indian
> government has
> said no to the OLPC effort, I wonder of there are ways to still pursue
> this. In a sense, I have access to a village, and I want to help.
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
>
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/ <http://verma.sfsu.edu/>
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
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> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/india
>
>
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