[OLPC library] About content to be provided with the XOs/OLPC program

[Edward Cherlin]

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 7:02 PM, info at olpc-peru.info <info at olpc-peru.info> wrote:
>
>  Hello Edward
>
> You say
> "... What content do Peruvians particularly need?..."
>
> And I comment...with the most humble tone and recognizing that MOST of the
> work is done by volunters or by contracted personal that is doing his/her
> best in a no so perfect enviroment (timing, political issues, pressure,
> deployment of XOs and fixing things while you are rediscovering, etc. I
> understand all these factors and I don't envy to all the great teams here in
> Peru, U.S. and other places).

It is a general principle that life is as hard as possible, but no
harder. So don't worry about the difficulties we have chosen to
confront in helping you and your country.

> Content
> Once, when I was 14 years old, my school (private,rich) ask volunteers to
> install pipes in a poor village. When we arrive there was a group of people
> helping us and other group asking as: why are you installing pipes? we
> didn't ask you... what we need is that the water trucks come more
> frequently, then we can buy water tanks more frecuently. Now with the pipes
> we will have to pay for water "basic sevice" every month, are you working
> for the "city water company" ? we don't want to get a huge bill for water
> that we don't use... we have seen that in other places... please, go to your
> home and try to fix your own problems BEFORE you come here to dig, damage
> your beatifull hands and cry like children... ".

Exactly what I wanted to get at. "Take the beam from your eye before
you try to take the mote from your brother's eye."

Let us all go to the children and their parents in the villages and
the cities and ask, "What do you need most? What will you need next?"
Let us bring them into the conversation here, by means of XOs or by
any other means, and listen to them.

> Today, here in Peru, we have a lot mining projects. The law ask the BEFORE
> you send just one engineer to study the lands you will request: permit of
> the andean community that lives on that area. Second: a "base line" study.
> Third: A "closing" study (what will be done with the leftovers of the
> minery, what will be done with the buildings, holes, trash areas, and how
> the panorama will be left after the mine close its activities in 20 or 30
> years).
>
> All that, in analogy, should have been done (or it has been done and it is
> in the desk of a functionary? nah! that has not happen!)

Actually, the Peruvian Ministry of Education does have such plans,
although I have not seen them.
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_myths#Peru_gave_short_shrift_to_planning.2C_implementation_and_project_sustainability
OLPC Myths
...
 Peru gave short shrift to planning, implementation and project sustainability

False. A recent Gartner report suggesting that Peru "gave short shrift
to planning, implementation and project sustainability"—despite being
presented with ample evidence to the contrary. The decision to deploy
one laptop per child in Peru was over one year in the making and an
implementation plan was begun to be developed from the start. It was
not hardware that drove the decision, but sound pedagogical backing.
Peru has more than 20 years experience in Constructionist projects
implementation. The Minister himself holds a Master's Degree in
Educational Computing and Technology by the University of Hartford,
the same university that provided the training for the original
implementation team of the Omar Dengo Foundation in Costa Rica. One
laptop per child is not seen as a technology project but a pedagogical
one; laptops will be distributed as "educational material" in the same
category as books and notebooks; the Ministry has ample experience in
the logistical aspects involved in attending the needs of 46,000
schools around the country and has the budget for distribution and
support already included in its yearly operational budget, in fact,
distributing the laptops will probably be less expensive than their
current budget. The congress legal approval was required because of
the nature of the project and just for what is new. Logistics,
support, and distribution is part of their day to day responsibility
and will not require any additional law to be supplied.

The Gartner report imputes that "financial provisions are needed in
the areas of distribution, transportation, storage, infrastructure,
implementation, teacher and student training, content development and
permanent technical support", implying that these provisions have not
been considered by the Peruvian government. This too is false. Of
course these provisions are of critical concern, and consquently,
distribution, transportation, storage are included in the budget; the
Ministry staff has the proven capacity to manage a project as large
as—even larger than—this one successfully. Regarding infrastructure,
the project will take advantage of the synergy between Education and
Telecommunications sectors, Education is already providing Internet
access to more than 3,000 schools, one thousand of them through VSat
in remote places. The Telecommunications sector has a plan for rural
Internet access in about 3,000 rural communities; a separate budget
will not be needed for these since it is part of another sector with
whom Education has worked closely.

It is irresponsible of Gartner to suggest that Peru has been remiss of
careful planning. Teacher and student training are the of key
importance: the pilot projects have shown almost immediate
appropriation of the OLPC pedagogical concepts by rural teachers, who
were able to seamlessly integrate the laptops into their teaching
styles; the Pedagogical IT unit at the Ministry has prepared a
training unit to be included in the deployment plan; the experience
has shown children barely need any training above what the machine
itself provides, the training unit for teachers includes a "first
steps" section for children. On top of that, online tools have gotten
so good that we feel comfortable teachers will be able to exploit
those resources as well. The Ministry portal offers lots of advice
already available. Permanent technical support was implemented and has
been in place for several years now. A shift of focus is all that is
required and that is already under way. Peru also has a provision for
spare machines to cover DOA shipments and spare parts. Each shipment
will include extra machines, included at no additional cost.

Finally, Gartner presumes to make recommendations as if these topics
had not been long considered:

    * Plan thoroughly before acquiring systems.

    Who would disagree with this recommendation? That is precisely
what Peru is doing.

    * Guarantee resources to effect implementation and sustainability.

    Same comment

    * Ensure that technologies fit the educational model, not the
other way around.

    That is exactly what was done in Peru.

    * Make sure that selected providers and technologies are stable
and R&D will continue for the success of future phases of the
projects.

    There are contracts in place to guarantee this. Further, Peru and
OLPC are involving local universities to ensure local development and
ensuring that Peru is part of a growing international development
community.

    * Execute user profiling, as this is key for the deployment and
successful utilization of the systems.

    Peru has in place a detailed profile of children and teachers and
has planned the pedagogy and technology to fit their identified needs.
Peru also has an evaluation and monitoring strategy.


It is frustrating that this account does not provide links to the
plans, the training materials, and so on. Perhaps somebody can provide
them.

My Spanish is quite limited, but let's see what we can find. The
Ministry Web site is at

http://www.minedu.gob.pe/

The first deployment was in Arahuay.

http://www.elcomercio.com.pe/EdicionImpresa/Html/2007-07-29/ImEcVidayFuturo0761839.html
English
http://www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5549 Español

A google search for OLPC on the ministry Web site

site:www.minedu.gob.pe olpc

returns 9 hits, all apparently press releases:

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Portal Accesible y de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación.
www.minedu.gob.pe/videosmed/200710/002-A-full.php - 22k - Cached -
Similar pages - Note this

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
OLPC. La Comisión de Presupuesto y Cuenta General de la República
aprobó, ... El proyecto OLPC es una organización sin fines de lucro y
fue creada por ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5489 - 21k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this

Banco de fotos
- [ Translate this page ]
Haga clic en la fotografía para descargarla a tamaño real, espere un
momento hasta que aparezca completamente y luego haga clic con el
botón derecho del ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/fotosmed/index.htm - 11k - Cached - Similar pages - Note this

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Sustentó en el Congreso Presupuesto que contempla incidir a fondo en
proyectos de OLPC, laptop para maestros y Televisión Educativa
Satelital. ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5485 - 22k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Piloto OLPC Arahuay - Canta. Sonrientes, entusiastas, con ojos vivaces
que revelan el interés que tienen de conocer todos los secretos de la
computadora ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5549 - 23k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Piloto OLPC Arahuay - Canta. Cada una de las 40 mil computadoras
laptops, que en forma gratuita entregará el Ministerio de Educación a
los niños más pobres ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5552 - 21k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Piloto OLPC Arahuay - Canta. Las computadoras Laptops son, sin lugar a
dudas, los aparatos que permiten a los niños y niñas, en cualquier
parte del mundo, ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5573 - 21k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this
"...el viceministro de Gestión Institucional, Víctor Raúl Díaz Chávez"
"CON LAPTOPS NIÑOS ADQUIEREN RESULTADOS EDUCATIVOS INDISCUTIBLES"

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Proyecto OLPC. Extender el programa "Una Laptop por Niño" a los
alumnos de las escuelas de Primaria de todas las regiones de nuestra
patria, ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5859 - 21k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this
"...el ministro de Educación, José Antonio Chang Escobedo" "Estamos
seguros que con las Laptop acortamos la brecha de equidad educativa
que existe entre los escolares de las grandes ciudades con los de los
lugares más pobres"

MINEDU - Portal de Transparencia del Ministerio de Educación
- [ Translate this page ]
Proyecto piloto OLPC. La entrega de computadoras tipo Laptop a los
escolares de las zonas más pobres del país es un paso trascendente
para acortar la brecha ...
www.minedu.gob.pe/noticias/index.php?id=5596 - 21k - Cached - Similar
pages - Note this

Well, Javier, I think it would be worth the time and trouble for OLPC
Perú to bother the ministry about making the details public.

> But 40,000 computers have arrived and it is too late to cry over the spill
> milk. We need to put them to work and we need to provide content (some
> content is better than no content? I am not sure... bad if you do, bad if
> you don't... catch 22 situation!)

You might as well ask whether a library is good or bad for the
community. This is a bigger library, among other things. "MINISTRO
CHANG: CADA LAPTOP SERÁ UNA BIBLIOTECA VIRTUAL"

There is Spanish-language content, and there will be more. Your
children will of course have access to the wealth of material in
Spanish on the Internet, including Wikipedia in Spanish, Cervantes
Saavedra and many other great treasures of Spanish literature, art,
history, and so on.

> So, let's be brave.. and let's do our best in generating and providing
> content... or the tools to be generated or provided... (abstract level
> layer?)
>
> We need to provide the best content that we can imagine... so the key
> question is what is the main purpose of the XOs/OLPC program? Teaching
> programming? Improving health/nutrition? Solve poverty? Give more
> educational opportunities? Improve the markets so they become "perfect
> markets" with fair trade? What? We need to categorize and give priorities.

All of the above. You can't do any one of them without the others.
There will be millions of us working on these issues; why wouldn't we
just naturally tackle them all? I'm personally keen on improving
markets, only because so few other people recognize that it is a
possibility.

> My first guess, in my very personal point of view, is that NOTHING can be
> done if the kid doenst know how to read.

Actually, a lot can be done to support computer use and learning by
illiterates, but yes, literacy comes before huge libraries. Here is my
proposal, which developers at OLPC have taken up.

http://www.olpcnews.com/content/ebooks/effective_adult_literacy_program.html
(Misnamed. It's equally about child and adult literacy)

Putting an infant in your lap and reading out loud leads inevitably to
the child, over time, insensibly starting to read along. Experience
shows that this is far more effective than classroom learning. But
what can illiterate parents do? Can they learn to read so as to teach
their children? The ones who are still illiterate are the ones who
think not.

It turns out that the most effective literacy program for adults in
India is same-language captioning of Bollywood musicals, using the
karaoke technique of coloring the syllables as they are to be sung.
Audiences in India will go to a popular movie five or six times,
memorize the words, and sing along. With same-language captioning,
people who thought themselves too old to learn reading find that they
are reading right there in the theater.

So far, so good. Parents can learn. Now what about the computer? Well,
the computer can present captioned music videos, or can read books
aloud with text-to-speech (TTS) software. We could get TTS software
that colored the words on the screen. So now we have the child on a
lap, and a laptop on the child's lap, and the parent and child singing
along to their favorites, as I once did to Burl Ives on the record
player.

The child probably learns to read faster than the parent, but however
that may work out, both learn not only reading but sharing learning.
Our current educational systems sadly neglect this essential point.

> 95% (or 85 or 90% percent of the
> peruvian children doens't understand what they read... ). When I realize
> that I start to think "how I start to read when I was a kind?" my answer:
> because there was things to read in my home: newspapers, comics,
> encyclopedias, magazines, cheap novels, great classic novels (from Homero,
> The Iliad to Conan Doyle's Sherlock... you named. Home was FULL of reading
> material because my grandfather provide reading material and my mother learn
> to enjoy reading... then she provide reading material and I learn to enjoy
> reading... and it was the same in my whole mother line (the whole mother
> line is professional, educated, titled, well traveled and more solid
> economically that the father line... I can visit the houses of all my
> "father line cousins" and it is EMPTY of books. Opposite, I can visit all
> houses of all my cousins that comes f
> rom the "mother line" and EVERY HOUSE is full of books, every room has some
> place for books. So my answer is that we need to provide reading material.
>
> But.. what reading material? I don't know. I am not sure because I don't
> know the big goals of the project.

The big goals aren't in question. What do you want to read? What do
your children want to read? What do the children of the villages want
to read that they can't get now?

Well, among other things, they want to read about how to improve their
lives and their country. That includes health, nutrition, jobs,
economics, how the world works...But let us step back a bit. Children
want to read about everything. As long as it isn't boring. They want
to read in order to learn, but they want to read in order to enjoy.
And we all know that they way to create lifelong readers is to show
them how much fun they can have in reading.

> But, in our humble website
> (www.olpc-peru.info) me and other fellows have start to put some classic
> books in spanish language (is the only link that works! sorry! too much work
> here!).

Ah, you need more volunteers, too. Please talk to Joy Wiggins about
connecting to the Hispanic community in Texas, and connecting schools
in Perú to schools in Dallas. We have been talking about a project to
help the students there sell coffee from Tanzania. Perhaps they can
sell something from Perú, also.

> And, I will add another section: Agricultural section (just because
> my speciality is working in peruvian high lands (with andean communities)
> and I have collected hundred of eBooks and PDFs in spanish language about
> the agricultural and farming issues in the high andes...). It is more than
> 10 GIGABYTES of information...

¡Que bueno!

> the one that read all this agricultural
> information is more capable of surviving from the land. For sure!. I hope
> that this agricultural section can benefit to some kids that can learn and
> help his fathers in their daily economy.
>
> So good so far... I have put some "classic literature" and some
> "agricultural" themes will be put "on line" to be read. Is this what we need
> to do? Is this "straighforward" solution what needs to be done? Don't we
> need to think "out of the box" and analyze wich content will be better to
> provide? in wich way?

Not so much we, but the children. Ask the children. First, what do you
want, and second, what do you need? What are the problems of your
village? Health, agriculture, roads, politics, microfinance, a way to
publish CDs of local music on the Internet? I don't know what any
individual will ask for first, but I know that some will ask for
things that you and I didn't think of.

> ... How can we ask that question and make sure we can hear the answer? ...
> ... We don't hear enough from the target countries about the XO program. ...
> ... Also, we have no way to contact the schoolchildren to ask them how to
> improve the XO. ... "
>
> I will comment in other message the other ideas.

Muchas gracias.

> Since I am a "newbie" in this list, someone can tell me (in private
> info at olpc-peru.info) who is in charge (officially) of the development of
> content in the OLPC Foundation? or how is organized this area?

Walter Bender is in charge of software and content. The list of
Curators and Coordinators of content projects is at
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Curators_and_coordinators
This library list is the place to have the discussions. There are
various other individuals who have volunteered to take on one or
another project, who might at some point become Curators or
Coordinators.

For example, I am working with the minilathe community on industrial
educational content. I call the minilathe The Industrial Revolution in
a Box, because it comes with instructions on how to build the tools
(including better lathes) to make everything. Or at least the tools to
make the tools. Every village needs to have a toolmaker, and many need
someone who can make water purification systems out of local
materials, and every town needs someone who can repair automobiles, or
motorcycles, or bicycles, and someone who can make whatever else the
community needs for its own purposes and for operating businesses of
every kind. Well, you aren't going to manufacture automobiles in a
village, but everything within scope. Art, crafts, CDs, DVDs, food
products, clothing...

Roy Doty's Wordless Workshop is a model of a way to document design,
construction and manufacturing processes without language, so that we
don't have to fuss with hundreds of translations of each procedure.

>  Greetings to all (and please forgive me if my thoughts are too
> provocative).

They tell me that it is a feature of Gringo culture, that you can be
much more outspoken than in other societies. Having heard Hugo Chavez
blast the US, I am not sure that that is correct. But, as we say in
English, no problemo.

>  Javier Rodriguez
>  Lima, Peru

-- 
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