[OLPC India] India Digest, Vol 23, Issue 12

Mon Oct 20 22:10:21 EDT 2008

On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 3:00 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 12:43 PM, Ananya Guha <nnyguha48 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Dear All,
>>
>> The discussion as far as I am concerned is getting a wee bit technical. What
>> hyperbole! As an academic what I am really interested is seeing OLPC through
>> the length and breadth of India.
>
> Good as far as it goes. Just like giving children pencils in every
> school, but not allowing them to use pencils at home. I am not
> interested in XOs for their own sake, and I am certainly not
> interested in how people _think_ it should be. I am interested in
> education, and in the evidence of what works.
>

I'm with Ed on this one. I realize that the curriculum may not fit,
but keep in mind that this is a disruptive innovation in many ways. If
you are interested, take a look at Clayton Christensen's "Innovator's
Dilemma". Disruptive innovations (eg. Windows to Mac) are difficult,
but tend to promise a larger payoff. Sustaining innovations continue
along an established path with minor course corrections (eg. Win 95 to
Win 98).

When schools switched from chalk + slate to paper notebooks, it was
revolutionary. Imagine the fact that paper notebooks aren't reusable!
What a kicker that must have been :-)

Certain activities on the XO are simpler, such as e-books, browser,
etc Other activities such as say, Physics will take a bit of work to
incorporate into the curriculum. Yes, there are social issues with
taking a laptop home (theft, etc), but I would expect a bit more
pushback from early adopters. Don't give up the faith! I'm impressed
with what the Nepalis are doing. Maybe talk to them and find out what
works?

If you still plan on a lab model, you can always look into LTSP to run
Sugar on cheap/older machines. This approach is easier in that you can
get older hardware more easily.

What would be really interesting to hear from Marc, Sheel and others
is a laundry list of what reasons they have to lean towards the lab
model.

cheers,
Sameer

>> Of course I appreciate this cerebral
>> discussion.
>>
>> Regds,
>>
>> Ananya S Guha.
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 21, 2008 at 12:33 AM, <Asksst at aol.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> I agree with Marc. We plan to use dual boot XOs in a similar way at RK
>>> College in Fatehpur Distt., UP.
>>> -- Sheel
>>>
>>> In a message dated 10/20/2008 12:00:33 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
>>> india-request at lists.laptop.org writes:
>>>
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>>> Today's Topics:
>>>
>>>    1. Re: Fwd: OLPC Afghanistan starting! (Marc Valentin)
>>>
>>>
>>> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>
>>> Message: 1
>>> Date: Mon, 20 Oct 2008 10:11:01 +0200
>>> From: "Marc Valentin" <mvalentin at oeuvredespains.org>
>>> Subject: Re: [OLPC India] Fwd: OLPC Afghanistan starting!
>>> To: india at lists.laptop.org
>>> Message-ID:
>>>     <99ae10a80810200111h5f0cc400y583857613f52248b at mail.gmail.com>
>>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>>>
>>> On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 8:28 AM, Seth Woodworth <seth at laptop.org> wrote:
>>> > On Mon, Oct 20, 2008 at 1:24 AM, Edward Cherlin <echerlin at gmail.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >> I find this idea of putting XOs into computer labs unacceptable. What
>>> >> do others think?
>>> > I'm not overly fond of the idea.
>>>
>>> As it is, the XO doesn't fit in any Indian curriculum, so there is no
>>> need to have one computer for each child and the best way to use it,
>>> at least in India, is in computer labs. That is what we do in
>>> Saint-Anthony School. However, there is a sticker with a number on
>>> each machine and one child is always using the same machine. Times to
>>> times, children are also allowed to take the machine home overnight.
>>> Before reacting stupidly ("violation of the project's fundamental
>>> principle" !), I would suggest you become more aware of the local
>>> realities !
>>>
>>> -marc-
>>> http://www.OeuvreDesPains.org
>>>
>>>
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>>> End of India Digest, Vol 23, Issue 12
>>> *************************************
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