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<li class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list .5in"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">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..</font></li>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">What is content in a primary and secondary school? It may be beneficial to begin with the available curriculum. Digitizing curriculum is a routine activity that companies like Aptara or Techbooks perfected in the markets they worked in. We can leverage the existing experience base in this area and start with the existing course curriculum. Besides, the capabilities of various applications already loaded on XO can help children understand the capabilities of computing at their own pace. </font></font></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> </font></i></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Getting teachers to appreciate it is an issue in general. However, our experience is that XO usually gets their attention rather quickly.</font></font></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">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<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>outside salaries.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Auroville is a great brand name in itself and that may be leveraged for people to step up to contribute to its cause. We need to leverage all we have to get the donors excited about supporting this movement.</font></font></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">3. Only 6 schools use English as medium of instruction. Others use Tamil. So, Tamil localization of the content is important.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Localization is an area OLPC prefers to leave to those who need it. That may be an empowering approach as that engages the local community. Given what we hear about the FOSS movement and its passionate approach to open source, localization should not be a big challenge. We already have Devnagari keyboards and I have seen Marathi scripts on XO being used by grade 1 students. Have you tried asking the FOSS/ Open Source community in Pondicherry?</font></font></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">4. Many people rise doubts regarding timing. Is this the right time to begin the pilot? When would the content be ready? When will the price comedown to the (promised land) of $100? Who will make it available? If we run the pilot and content is not ready to use XO-1 for all academic activities, we may be acting prematurely? </font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">If children simply begin to learn what is already on XO, a whole new momentum may start building. We need to develop local capabilities As far as I know, there is no wrong time to learn computing. I have seen nearly every child with access to screen based toys and learning tools to start using them from 2 years of age.</font></font></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">5. The current stand of Government sort of strengthens the doubting voices.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">Any government is the last<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>to embrace technology. When they do, they typically have a much longer learning curve as well. However, unless we approach them, they will not know what to say. We need to change the attitudes of the Government. </font></font></i></b></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3">6. Normal issues of setting up, support etc and local human resources.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">There are clear best practices that we have put together. What is critical is to embrace these practices and build on them.</font></font></i></b></p>
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<div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Sep 10, 2008 at 1:10 AM, JV Avadhanulu <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jv@auroville.org.in">jv@auroville.org.in</a>></span> wrote: </div></div>