[OLPC India] Use of XOs for Vocational Training & Back Office Support

[Sameer Verma]

On Mon, Sep 29, 2008 at 8:49 AM,  <Asksst at aol.com> wrote:
> Hi Marc & Ankur,
> Thanks for your response; sorry, I got tied up with some pressing issues of
> our foundation.
>
> We are thinking about dual boot XOs for RK College, because:
> 1. Besides using them in grades (6-12), we also want to use them for
> vocation training of those who pass high school and 12th grades.
> 2. We are also thinking about initiating Gram IT activity with help of
> Byrraju Foundation. For convenience, I'm attaching a document giving some
> articles about GramIT..
>
> We will like to know:
> 1. Can XOs be used for vocational training and production support of GramIT?
> If this is true, we can start with 20-30 XOs at RK Girls College. We are
> thinking about ordering a few to understand their functionality and
> appropriateness for the above purposes. Any advice?
> 2. Since our school is Hindi medium in UP, we are curious if anyone has
>     a) Obtained or planning to obtain the latest syllabus or worked on UP
> curriculum. If not, can OLPC India help in this?
>     b) Details of Board requirements for Computer as a subject for High
> School & Inter classes
>     c) Qualification & experience requirements for Computer teachers for
> Computer as a subject etc.
>     d) Has OLPC thought about any coordinated plan for content development
> for North India in these areas?
> Will greatly appreciate your help & suggestions,
> -- Sheel
>
> In a message dated 9/18/2008 6:08:56 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
> mvalentin at abeditions.com writes:
>
> Hi Sheel,
> For some reason, I didn't get your mail in the indian list. I just saw
> it by chance browsing the archives...
> We are using XO with the sugar interface and we are certainly not
> going to switch to Windows+Office, that is the biggest mistake to do.
> We want to educate the children not to create small "clerks". MSOffice
> should not be used in primary education, it is a complete non-sense.
> From class 6 to 12 maybe they can, however we have not yet reached
> that level, the bigger children we have are in class 5.
> We never tried to use the XO in Hindi  because our school is an
> English Medium school.
> To get teachers from south to come to north you have to offer double
> that salary + accommodation. But still, it is not easy to find them.
> However, the parents like to have teachers from south and it is good
> to bring the level up as teachers in north are usually not very
> committed to their work.
> -marc-
> http://www.oeuvredespains.org
>
> -----------------------------------------
> Dear Marc,
> We are also planning to get XO laptops (with Windows & Office) in our
> school, which is in Fatehpur district, about 80 km from Kanpur. We
> have  grades 6-12
> (Hindi medium) and can provide living quarters to the teachers.The
> principal
> and one computer teacher live on campus, however, their salaries are  low
> (Rs. 3000-3500), as the tuition we charge ranges between Rs. 50-100/mo
> only.
>
> What salary does your school pay to computer teachers? Can we get any
> teachers from south to teach at our school. We are also planning to give a
> "Certificate in Computers" to those who pass high school (grade 10)
> and  Intermediate
> (grade 12) and additional vocational computer courses, to  community youth.
> However, getting qualified teachers is a major hurdle.
>
> Will greatly appreciate any help & advise.
> Thanks ........... Sheel Thakur
> _sst38 at columbia.edu_ (mailto:sst38 at columbia.edu)
>
>
>
>
>
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>

Hi Sheel,

Where in Fatehpur is your school? While I was in Jamaica (just got
back to SF last night), I met with Prof. Ajai Mansingh
(http://mord.mona.uwi.edu/staff/view.asp?pid=206) who has family in
the Fatehpur area. They run a school there and are very interested in
Sugar (they have some PCs) and possibly the XO. Maybe we can connect
the dots there.

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/