[OLPC library] Lesson plans needed (was Re: Release 8.2.0 --

Sat Jul 5 17:02:58 EDT 2008

Amen on the evaluator's feedback, but did it really take an evaluator to
bring that to everyone's attention? For everyone who has participated in the
past 2 yrs+, I don't think it's news that we've failed to include educators
into the fold. By all means, we are all educators in some sense just by
participating in this project but we don't have the experience to
effectively judge what an effective lesson plan should be. I applaud OLE
Nepal for really striving to bring educators into the working group but I
really think we need to suspend all application development efforts until
we've identified more structure to the educational content to be delivered
on the platforms. It needs to be much more than just another "cool" app
churned out from a code jam.

How will OLPC's XO supplement a formal curriculum? This needs to go beyond
simply supplying a working internet connection. I think we'd all like to see
an application and accompanying lesson plan that children will vest interest
but also provide an opportunity to let kids run wild with the concepts and
integrate their ideas with the rest of the community. I encourage the rest
of the application developers to focus on the outline of a lesson plan prior
to any software development. Right now projects are being hosted with rough
definitions but no educational substance. I implore that as a requirement
all developers should post a lesson plan along with the details of their
application. This will really encourage those to seek the assistance of
educators. We still have time to make this process less backwards with
respect to our educational goals. It's one thing to hack 48 straight hours
but I question the worth of that code at the end of the Jam. I don't intend
to criticize but hopefully help others realign their efforts more closely
with the educational goal.

On another note, I've been working on a Health Educational bundle that will
include both hardware, software, and hardcopy materials for distribution.
I've pitched the idea to OLPC Peru, Thailand, Nepal, and Arjun will be
asking India's pilots on my behalf. Here's a snippet of our Introduction and
to those who are interested, feel free to email me or the below email to
follow-up:

"            OLPC Golden State strongly believes in the educational mission
of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) organization.  We not only feel that it's
a great platform to allow children to provide greater access to information
but an opportunity to analyze the information in their environment.  The
analog-to-digital converter (ADC) input which is built into the microphone
jack is a unique feature that enables the students to explore and quantify
various natural phenomena. OLPC Golden State realizes the many applications
of this sensor interface and has focused on the health-related focuses,
specifically the natural biorhythms in our human body.

 We've developed this health education bundle and its hardware peripherals
under the assumption that educators and students have no background in
biology.  As a result, we've constructed a wonderful package to give
students a thorough introduction of biology and anatomy and to finish with
an understanding of how technology can be applied to observe the human body.
The lesson was constructed to answer some very basic questions: "What is a
vital sign? (What makes me alive?)"  A historical perspective is even
included to development of that definition. We've also included two
different technical approaches to answer the same question to demonstrate
how technology has progressed and teach children that there are various ways
to resolve the same problem.*  *We ultimately hope that the students leave
this lesson plan with an answer to that original question and an
understanding that everything they do has an effect on their body but
perhaps a better question: "What will it take to ensure my vital sign stays
strong?"**

This lesson plan is age appropriate for 11-18 yr olds.  Our lesson plan
includes both worksheets to be supplied to the students for background as
well as outlines to guide the instructor's delivery of the lesson plans.

If you require any HW support or would like to inquire about the procurement
of the hardware accessories to support this lesson plan, please e-mail us
at: olpc.goldenstate at yahoo.com."

> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 4 Jul 2008 10:31:35 -0700
> From: "Edward Cherlin" <echerlin at gmail.com>
> Subject: [OLPC library] Lesson plans needed (was Re: Release 8.2.0 --
>        pls     add critical features (Greg Smith))
> To: "Bryan Berry" <bryan.berry at gmail.com>, "Alan Kay"
>        <Alan.Kay at squeakland.org>
> Cc: OLPC Library list <library at lists.laptop.org>,
>        its.an.education.project at tema.lo-res.org
> Message-ID:
>        <e574f6eb0807041031g3b73b0b4q62d000951589994b at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 6:35 AM, Bryan Berry <bryan.berry at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Greg wrote:
> >>Thanks for keeping us apprised of your needs!
> >
> > My pleasure.
> ...
> >
> > We had two evaluators spend a week at both of our pilot schools and the
> > consistent feedback they came back w/ was
> > 1) The teachers want lesson plans integrated w/ the activities
>
> Writing lesson plans needs to be a whole program in itself, integrated
> with rethinking textbooks to make use of the available software and to
> implement Constructionism, or possibly just creating textbooks within
> available software. This is Alan Kay's domain, among others. I haven't
> heard of anybody seriously taking up this vital part of the program,
> and I haven't even gotten answers to my queries about previous work in
> this vein. We need to involve the entire education establishment
> (those that are willing, anyway) including Schools of Education, the
> Free Software community, teachers' organizations, Ministries of
> Education, and SMEs (Subject Matter Experts). A research consortium. I
> don't see any reason why we couldn't get it funded at a fairly high
> level as soon as we can demonstrate what we are talking about.
>
> Just as one example, the Measure activity can play a central role in
> teaching sciences, health, and music (frequency analysis). I can give
> hundreds of similar examples covering every school subject on fairly
> short notice. (Yes, _every_ subject including History and PE.)
>
> > 2) The parents don't see the learning activities as anything more than
> > games.
>
> Has anybody taught any of the programming language tutorials to the
> children?
>
> > This was constructive feedback they gave us. I am happy to report that
> > the kids, teachers, and parents were overwhelmingly positive about this
> > project.
> >
> > We need a way to seamlessly integrate supporting materials such as
> > readings, lesson plans, together with activities. HTML is the way to do
> > this and the browser is what we use to display html. URI's are what we
> > use to link to different resources.
> >
> > We may end up hacking Browse esp. to allow this because of the immense
> > demand.
> >
> > We need to make it dead simple for teachers to use activities like
> > EToys, E-Paath, Measure in the classroom. The easiest way to do this is
> > to make the transition from lesson plan to activity as easy as possible.
> ...
> > Bryan
> > Kathmandu
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Devel mailing list
> > Devel at lists.laptop.org
> > http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
> >
>
>
>
> --
> Edward Cherlin
> End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
> http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
> "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay
>
>
>
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