[OLPC India] India Digest, Vol 22, Issue 19

Mon Sep 22 13:25:02 EDT 2008

I think Marc's basic question has not been answered.

Regards,

A.S.Guha.

On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 9:19 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:

>  On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 10:08 AM, Marc Valentin
> <mvalentin at oeuvredespains.org> wrote:
> > On Mon, Sep 22, 2008 at 4:31 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> >> On Sun, Sep 21, 2008 at 3:43 PM, Satish Jha <sjha at vsnl.com> wrote:
> >>> I am overwhelmed by the kind of support this project is receiving from
> >>> everyone.. from individuals to institutions and corporations and
> >>> governments.. they have all been trying to do their best..
> >>>
> >>> My corporate relations adviser informs me that an airline has agreed to
> give
> >>> a number of free tickets for the staff, a business house is willing to
> offer
> >>> office space and support for all the schools it runs and the children
> they
> >>> have run up in six figures and so on..
> >>>
> >>> However, our goal is to reach out to those who cannot help themselves..
> And
> >>> our efforts are focused primarily in that direction.
> >>>
> >>> While individual initiatives greatly contribute to the cause,
> aggregating
> >>> them in an organized way may get a lot more out of them.
> >>>
> >>> We should also keep in mind that our production batch size is 50,000 at
> one
> >>> time and unless we can scale up, the program will have different kind
> of
> >>> management challenges.
> >>>
> >>> In this listserv, if we can focus on how to aggregate to large numbers,
> it
> >>> will be a great help indeed.
> >>
> >> Maybe what we need is a simple list or table of people who what small
> >> batches of XOs in their school, village, neighborhood etc., organized
> >> by location, etc. That way we can combine small batches into a larger
> >> order. If 50 schools of 1000 children each speak up, we get 50K. It
> >> could very well be a simple form that people fill out with all these
> >> details and contact info, potential donors (whether they have any or
> >> are seeking, etc).
> >>
> >> This could even scale worldwide...
> >>
> >> Thoughts?
> >
> > I think it must be very exciting to see all the children of a school
> > roaming around with XO laptops but I don't see the educative aspect in
> > it. First, you need capable and motivated teachers, very difficult to
> > find.
>
> I disagree. First, you need capable and motivated *children* and
> that's easier to do than to retrofit a thirty-something teacher with
> new thinking.
>
> > Second, children can easily share the laptops during the day,
> > they are not going to spend the whole day using the laptops, isn't it
> > ? It depends on the quantity of divisions in the school but with one
> > division, 50 laptops are certainly enough so during a class using XO,
> > each child can have his own laptop. (That was the source of the
> > misunderstanding in a previous message : we have 35 laptops and 50
> > would be just perfect).
>
> I am tempted to say that I find your lack of faith disturbing :-)
> (subtle Star Wars humor)
>
> I've seen children work with the XO. Yes, you need teachers to keep an
> eye on things in a classroom, and yes you will need to educate them
> about the project and process, but give the children some credit. I
> don't know how old you are Marc, but I am willing to bet, the kids are
> a lot younger :-) They learn faster and in much better ways than you
> and I can. I started KinderGarten with chalk and slate. Why should we
> subject the children to chalk and slate if we can bypass it?
>
> So, kids walking around with XOs is educational? I think so. Every
> time they learn that multiplication is addition done several times
> using Pippy, they learn. I didn't learn that until 11th grade (not
> very sharp, was I?) when I learned to write BASIC programs. Why?
> Because the nuns at my convent school never bothered to teach me. They
> surely did a good job of beating it into me (all the way up to tables
> of 14), but that's another story. See more at
> http://sameerverma.org/blog/?postid=164
>
> > If you consider the budget aspect only : 1000 laptops means $200,000
> > only for the hardware. You still have to count the training and the
> > maintenance. It is a very big amount, too big for a 1000 children's
> > school.
>
> Yes, that number is true. In fact, if you look at Habib Khan's
> spreadsheet, you'll see what some of the real costs are.
>
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:OLPC_Cost_Simulation_Model_for_South_Asian_Countries_by_Habib.xls
>
> We have to be realistic. The idea isn't doing this cheap. The idea is
> to get someone who *can afford it* to pay for it. The XO costs are
> still less than $350 or so for an ASUS EEE PC. All other costs will
> remain the same, if not increase.
>
> > I know donations can come from abroad but local people will
> > feel you mis the point, the main problem in India is the lack of
> > infrastructures
>
> Lack of infrastructure can be bypassed or circumvented by the XOs
> bringing their own infrastructure with them. If we wait to build the
> infrastructure, that might be another ten years gone by.
>
> > and the poor attendance of the teachers and the
> > students.
>
> I believe this has improved dramatically once the children have a
> reason to be there. In Bhagmalpur
> (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India/Bhagmalpur), the school has a
> near 100% attendance. The real reason? Free mid-day meal from the UP
> government. Post lunch, the school looks empty and the kids raid the
> village backyards and gardens in search of mischief.
>
> I don't intend to discount your opinion in any way. After all, you
> have a school of 35 XOs. Your input is valuable. We are all on the
> same team here. At least, I hope so. However, some of the thinking
> with this project is incredibly disruptive, and will require us to
> think in disruptive ways. Otherwise, the XO Speak will dictate "Two
> one za two..." and the children will repeat.
>
> 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/
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