[OLPC-Chicago] Children's Low Cost Laptop Bill

Fri Mar 21 18:22:50 EDT 2008

To all;

I spoke with my uncle and heard good news.  He expects this bill to pass in
the House.  However, he has expressed concern that it will be held up in the
senate, mainly because of the costs.  I will let you all know with a more
detailed list what he thinks these hold ups may be and how we can help
eliminate them.

Thanks, happy snowy spring!
Kevin

On Fri, Mar 21, 2008 at 5:14 PM, Langellier, Larry <
Langellier at morainevalley.edu> wrote:

> Hi Karen,
>
> What an excellent idea! We should start compiling all the stories about
> how we have personally seen children interact with the XO - and ways that
> interaction is different (and more powerful) than what we have seen in the
> same children interacting with other educational technologies.
>
> It will be interesting to see the materials you have started to pull
> together. I agree, the laptop.org wiki would be a nice place to start to
> collect all kinds of promotional materials.
>
> To continue the discussion, here are some issues/questions I expect to
> arise in Springfield during debate:
>
>  *
> What evidence is there that providing every child with a laptop is
> beneficial? What benefit do the children derive from owning/having one?
>  *
> Won't the laptops get broken a lot?
>  *
> What support (deployment, ongoing, repair) exists for the XO?
>  *
> Why would we want a Linux-based machine instead of a Windows-based one?
>  *
> How are the teachers going to learn how to use this new tool?
>  *
> What infrastructure is required to support every child having a laptop?
>  *
> In addition to the price of the laptop, what are the other costs?
>  *
> How will purchasing laptops help increase student test scores?
>  *
> and many more questions I'm sure...
>
> We can't forget that this is a $100 MILLION decision. We would never
> expect lawmakers to take that lightly, and they won't. While it may be
> obvious to us that this is a dramatically beneficial educational revolution,
> we must remember that there are other interests competing for educational
> dollars. Those interests will be involved in making their cause look more
> worthy than OLPC...
>
>
>
> Kevin, do you think your uncle would be willing to share the types of
> questions/issues that he expects will come up in debate on the House floor?
> Such a list would help us compile good answers and provide those answers to
> the people in Springfield who are leading this effort.
>
>
>
> Let's put on our collective thinking caps. If you were asked to decide
> whether to spend $100 million dollars on low cost laptops for children, and
> if you weren't as knowledgeable of OLPC as you are, what questions would you
> want answered?
>
>
>
> Have a great weekend everyone!
>
> Larry
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: olpc-chicago-bounces at lists.laptop.org [
> olpc-chicago-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Karen T. Smith [
> kayti99 at comcast.net]
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 1:19 PM
> To: 'Kevin Crews'; 'Jason Rock'
> Cc: 'OLPC chicago mailing list'; 'OLPC IMSA List'
> Subject: Re: [OLPC-Chicago] Children's Low Cost Laptop Bill
>
> My six-year-old and I would be happy to demonstrate what it looks like
> when an actual child uses a low-cost laptop for learning purposes. True,
> he's not using it everyday in his school classroom (yet) – but he's a pretty
> compelling demonstrator. Larry, your message this morning made some great
> points – anyone writing letters or calling legislators should emphasize the
> power of child ownership. My son acts differently about this laptop than the
> other technology tools he has available to him at school or even at home. It
> is HIS. There is a big difference.
>
> We're on spring break next week and have Thursday free until 1 PM. If
> anyone thinks we can move that fast, sign us up, or maybe we can finally
> come down to IMSA and collaborate for a bit while. We're travelling before
> and after and not available again until Mar 30.
>
> I have some materials I've started putting together to make the case for a
> laptop for each child in an educational setting, I'll look at that and see
> what is useful. I will post whatever I find to the OLPC Wiki. Can someone
> create a page off the main Chicago page for Illinois Laptop Legislation? We
> can use it as a central place for resources and discussion. Sound good?
>
> Karen Smith
> St. Charles, IL
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: olpc-chicago-bounces at lists.laptop.org [mailto:
> olpc-chicago-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Kevin Crews
> Sent: Friday, March 21, 2008 12:26 AM
> To: Jason Rock
> Cc: OLPC chicago mailing list; OLPC IMSA List
> Subject: Re: [OLPC-Chicago] Children's Low Cost Laptop Bill
>
> To let everyone know, IMSA and not, this is, as Jason mentioned, extremely
> exciting.
>
> Thanks to Larry and Steve out of MVCC for pointing this out as it emerged
> through the technology committee--I went ahead and started doing some of my
> own research after that.
>
> My uncle, Jack Franks, is in the House.  I contacted him about this bill,
> and he was so excited he is now one of the sponsors.  Max McGee, the IMSA
> President and former State Superintendent of Education, is equally excited
> about this and has it on his radar.
>
> We are planning some sort of presentation and/or follow-up in the near
> future, either with some of the sponsors or other interested parties.  I
> think that we can work to all prepare the information available and make
> easily accessible to the legislators.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Kevin
>
>
> On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 10:48 PM, Jason Rock <jrock at imsa.edu<mailto:
> jrock at imsa.edu>> wrote:
> Hi,
> Mel brought some fairly recent Illinois legislation to my attention.  The
> legislation creates, "A low-cost laptop pilot project whereby low-cost
> laptop computers are provided to each student, teacher, and relevant
> administrator in a participating elementary school and the use of
> open-source educational software and computer skills training is
> implemented."  If anyone wants to they can read more at
> http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/BillStatus.asp?DocNum=5000&GAID=9&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=35963&SessionID=51&GA=95&SpecSess=0.
>  Personally I will be writing a letter to congressmen and women asking for
> their support of this bill.  It would be great if you would join me, as the
> passing of this bill would obviously help advance the OLPC project.
>
> Thanks,
> Jason Rock
>
> _______________________________________________
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> OLPC-Chicago at lists.laptop.org<mailto:OLPC-Chicago at lists.laptop.org>
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>
>
>
> --
> --Kevin Crews
> (815)341-8119
> kcrews25 at gmail.com<mailto:kcrews25 at gmail.com>
>

-- 
--Kevin Crews
(815)341-8119
kcrews25 at gmail.com
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