[OLPC-Asia] ReadWrite DeathWatch: One Laptop Per Child - Cormac Foster

lite li litekok在gmail.com
星期三 十月 24 23:41:23 EDT 2012


On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 11:33 AM, T.K. Kang <tsikit在gmail.com> wrote:

> Imagine older kids/adults from China taking up the challenge!
>
>
There is a lot of people want to improve our education in China.

> We are moving forward...


>
> On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 11:31 AM, lite li <litekok在gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Another video:
>>
>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6EUq0VJb1_c&feature=share
>>
>> On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 9:04 AM, T.K. Kang <tsikit在gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Ha.. so are we celebrating birth day or death day on Nov 16 as XoD?
>>>
>>> Have a student from this part of the world who wants to give a helping
>>> hand in tranlasation, etc. These students do have a wealth of experience.
>>>
>>> http://www.columbusschoolforgirls.net/etoys/
>>>
>>> Cheers and add oil to ge the translation into the 90% complete status!
>>>
>>>
>>>  On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 1:31 AM, lite li <litekok在gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>>
>>>> http://readwrite.com/2012/10/23/readwriteweb-deathwatch-one-laptop-per-child-olpc
>>>>
>>>>  [image: ReadWrite DeathWatch: One Laptop Per Child]
>>>>
>>>> One Laptop Per Child puts computers in the hands of the world's most
>>>> vulnerable children to help educate them out of poverty. It's a noble cause
>>>> championed by our brightest minds - but it doesn't seem to work.
>>>>
>>>> The Basics
>>>>
>>>> In the mid-2000s, faculty members from the MIT Media Research Lab<http://www.media.mit.edu/research> set
>>>> out to "to design, manufacture, and distribute laptops that are
>>>> sufficiently inexpensive to provide every child in the world access to
>>>> knowledge and modern forms of education." By 2006, the nonprofit One
>>>> Laptop Per Child <http://one.laptop.org/> (OLPC) had created theXO<http://laptop.org/en/laptop/>,
>>>> a rugged, low-power laptop with a number of innovative features, including
>>>> ad hoc, peer-to-peer wireless networking, water-resistant keyboards and a
>>>> solid-state hard drive. By running a Linux variant (highly customized for
>>>> education) and a using unique, low-cost screen, OLPC was able to reduce the
>>>> price of the XO to $200 – just within the reach of cash-strapped
>>>> governments in developing nations.
>>>>
>>>> OLPC's mission was simple: "To empower the world's poorest children
>>>> through education." To that end, it worked with education ministries around
>>>> the world, and have distributed more than 2 million XOs in 42 countries.
>>>> While Uruguay was the first participating country, the largest deployment
>>>> by far has been in Peru, involving more than 8,300 schools and 980,000
>>>> laptops.
>>>>
>>>> The Problem
>>>>
>>>> The XOs have been in the field now for several years, and the numbers
>>>> are starting to come in. Unfortunately, they don't seem to be working – at
>>>> least not well enough to justify the expense.
>>>>
>>>> *The Economist* called the project "a disappointing return from an
>>>> investment <http://www.economist.com/node/21552202>," noting that
>>>> after Peru put $225 million of XO laptops in the field, an Inter-American
>>>> Development Bank study<http://www.iadb.org/en/research-and-data/publication-details,3169.html?pub_id=IDB-WP-304> found
>>>> no measurable improvement in math, reading, motivation or time spent on
>>>> homework. Specifically, the study found that "although many countries are
>>>> aggressively implementing the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, there is
>>>> a lack of empirical evidence on its effects."
>>>>
>>>> OLPC has never leaned heavily on empirical evidence. According to its
>>>> website, "the best preparation for children is to develop the passion for
>>>> learning and the ability to learn how to learn." And the IDB study admits
>>>> that "some positive effects are found, however, in general cognitive
>>>> skills."
>>>>
>>>> But as the Economist pointed out, any improvements just weren't worth
>>>> the cost. ROI might seem like a cold measure for an educational program,
>>>> but every dollar spent on XOs is a dollar *not* spent training
>>>> teachers, building schools or subsidizing transportation, meals and other
>>>> programs that encourage children to attend class. In the world's poorest
>>>> regions (OLPC's target market), where average spending per student is just
>>>> $48 per year<http://mashable.com/2012/04/09/one-laptop-per-child-study/> and
>>>> the cost of an XO could feed a family for months, ROI is essential.
>>>>
>>>> At its heart, the problem comes from the top. In the video above, OLPC
>>>> Chairman Nicholas Negroponte lays out a radical educational vision for
>>>> disadvantaged regions that might not require teachers at all:
>>>>
>>>> *"What is transformation? It's not making the classroom better. It's
>>>> not trying to do traditional educational technology. It's actually using
>>>> the kids – and I really mean the word **using** the kids – as the
>>>> agents of change."*
>>>>
>>>> Doing an end-run around lousy infrastructure and poorly-trained
>>>> teachers might actually work with the right support to guide the child's
>>>> learning. Unfortunately, Negroponte has also stated that you actually
>>>> can give a kid a laptop and walk away<http://www.good.is/posts/go-ahead-give-a-kid-a-laptop-and-walk-away/>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> According to Jeff Patzer, a former OLPC intern, that's precisely what
>>>> they did in Peru. Hardware degraded faster than expected, and OLPC allowed
>>>> Peru to build its own branch of the system software that was incompatible
>>>> with patches. Interns were not prepared to educate teachers, and teachers
>>>> were not prepared to use the XO to teach students.
>>>>
>>>> "The only thing that happens is the laptops get opened, turned on, kids
>>>> and teachers get frustrated by hardware and software bugs, don’t understand
>>>> what to do, and promptly box them up to put back in the corner." Patzer
>>>> explained<http://jeffpatzer.com/2011/01/06/part-6-who%E2%80%99s-to-blame-why-the-olpc-plan-in-peru-is-failing-and-who-is-causing-it/>
>>>> .
>>>>
>>>> In an interview with the Associated Press<http://www.stuff.co.nz/technology/7217599/Why-laptops-aren-t-beating-poverty-in-Peru>,
>>>> a Ministry of Education official admitted that, "In essence, what we did
>>>> was deliver the computers without preparing the teachers…The Ministry is
>>>> not going to do another macro project of this type. It is not going to make
>>>> multimillion-dollar purchases and distribute (computers) like candy."
>>>>
>>>> OLPC may be a noble organization with a valid cause, but its methods
>>>> just don't seem to be moving the needle. Like many people, I truly wanted
>>>> OLPC to work - wanted to believe that it made sense. But there's no
>>>> evidence that this kind of investment makes sense for poverty-stricken
>>>> countries. It's time to try something new.
>>>> The Prognosis
>>>>
>>>> The next few years will be rough. Internet access will continue to lag
>>>> in the world's poorest areas, greatly diminishing the XO's utility, and
>>>> Peru's difficulties may cause other countries to rethink the true cost of
>>>> building and maintaining an ecosystem to support the devices.
>>>>
>>>> At the same time, more powerful (if less rugged) hardware using
>>>> standard software has come down in price and will challenge the XO in
>>>> wealthier markets. Perhaps more significant, as low-cost smartphones flood
>>>> the developing world, the XO will have to justify itself as more than a
>>>> media consumption device. It's highly unlikely that we'll see many more
>>>> large-scale installations.
>>>> Can OLPC Be Saved?
>>>>
>>>> To survive, OLPC needs to take a step back to consider the "why." Its
>>>> mission was based on a fuzzy notion that giving every child a laptop would
>>>> magically make things better. But if the organization can accept a more
>>>> involved role as an educational consultant (or find partners to do so), it
>>>> could conceivably still play a part in global educational reform.
>>>>
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> OLPC-Asia mailing list
>>>> OLPC-Asia在lists.laptop.org
>>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-asia
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>
-------------- ???? --------------
??HTML?????...
URL: <http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-asia/attachments/20121025/be1449e7/attachment.html>


More information about the OLPC-Asia mailing list