[OLPC India] Partnering with OLPC in India

[K. K. Subramaniam]

On Wednesday 10 Sep 2008 10:40:44 am JV Avadhanulu wrote:
> 1. We need content to use XO in the mainstream academics. Obviously this
> would take time and small pilots are needed to demonstrate the potential
> benefits of deploying XOs. Such deployment has to be for co-curricular
> activities. Getting the mindshare of teachers and get them to to put in
> efforts is a major issue.
If you introduce XO as a authoring medium (like paper and pencil), then the 
teachers themselves can generate locally meaningful and appropriate content. 
E.g.  
http://sikshana.blogspot.com/2007/12/notebook-computer-one-year-later.html

> 2.Funding is the next problem as the school budget 
> per child per year is far far below Rs 10,000. Auroville is a
> non-materialistic collective. Most teachers are full time volunteers or
> given a fraction of  outside salaries.
Computers are an expensive investment compared to other costs. But you need to 
plan the whole budget out with the teachers/administrators/trustees and let 
economics drive the decisions. E.g. Our first induction of computers was to 
automate the production of question papers for class tests. E.g.
 http://sikshana.blogspot.com/2006/11/less-than-rs-5-per-kid.html

> 3. Only 6 schools use English as 
> medium of instruction. Others use Tamil. So, Tamil localization of the
> content is important
I have a different experience in our region. More than localization of 
interfaces and messages, it is the possibility of authoring multilingual 
content in their native tongue that motivated children to pick up lndic entry 
methods using US-style keyboards and also learn to master the intricacies of 
LaTeX to produce neatly typeset paragraphs. Of course, the English-Kannada 
pocket dictionaries are in tatters :-). I believe we underestimate the 
ability of children to thrive in a multilingual environment.

Regards .. Subbu