[OLPC-Jamaica] Bryan Berry's interview on FLOSSWeekly

[Maurice McNaughton]

Agreed..  Nominally what we've mapped out for the A/Town initiative is an
initial, relatively straight-forward approach of converting (digitizing)
existing legacy content (i.e. curriculum, textbooks, GSAT material, etc.) so
that the OLPC initially becomes a medium for dissemination of and access to
existing content. This can have a more significant impact than appears at a
glance, as many of these inner-city schools and kids don't have the same
kind of access to these materials that we take for granted..

Beyond that once, we start to explore the development of new pedagogical
approaches and educational content which takes advantage of the XO's
capabilities, this is where MIS / Computing and perhaps other faculties such
as Education can really begin to engage in some interesting research and
creative activities. One of the models that we can draw from the NEpal
approach is to move this kind of development effort to a kind of "creative
commons" where other groups can benefit from and participate in this
activity.

Mlm

On Mon, May 4, 2009 at 1:00 PM, Gunjan Mansingh <
gunjan.mansingh at uwimona.edu.jm> wrote:

>
> Maurice,
>
> This is where MIS and computing science can help develop OLPC content. We
> can get either masters students or undergrad students to come together and
> develop content for different objectives.
>
> gunjan
> -----Original Message-----
> From: olpc-jamaica-bounces at lists.laptop.org
> [mailto:olpc-jamaica-bounces at lists.laptop.org] On Behalf Of Sameer Verma
> Sent: Monday, May 04, 2009 12:27 PM
> To: Maurice McNaughton
> Cc: One Laptop per Child Jamaica
> Subject: Re: [OLPC-Jamaica] Bryan Berry's interview on FLOSSWeekly
>
> On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 5:23 AM, Maurice McNaughton
> <mlmcnaughton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Very interesting.. I like the idea of the Open Learning Exchange to
> > facilitate the development/sharing of content.. We would do well to
> > replicate some of the Nepal efforts/approaches in our own efforts..
> >
>
> +1
>
> > The interesting point made in the interview is that the easiest part of
> the
> > initiative is getting the Laptops funded, building content and separating
> > the OLPC community effort from politics were much bigger challenges.
>
> Indeed. In another conversation I had with a colleague yesterday, the
> same question came up in the context of Bangladesh. Where will the
> bulk of the work be, in a deployment? Well, after the laptops ship and
> get delivered to children, what happens then? There needs to be a
> critical mass of content that can help the teachers, children and
> parents ease into a computer-based learning environment.
>
> Interestingly, this is no different than what happened in my classes
> when I switched from chalkboards and transparencies to Moodle. The
> computer environment did enhance communications, but the experience
> needed a lot of effort in getting content "digital ready".
>
> Creating content locally also gives local communities a sense of
> ownership. After all, who would know better about appropriate content,
> both its flavor and depth, than the local community?
>
> cheers,
> Sameer
> --
> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> San Francisco State University
> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
>
> >
> > Mlm
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 1:30 PM, Sameer Verma <sverma at sfsu.edu> wrote:
> >>
> >> Interesting interview. Bryan Berry is CTO at OLE Nepal.
> >> http://www.olenepal.org/ Listen to the interview at
> >> http://twit.tv/floss66
> >>
> >> cheers,
> >> Sameer
> >> --
> >> Dr. Sameer Verma, Ph.D.
> >> Associate Professor of Information Systems
> >> San Francisco State University
> >> San Francisco CA 94132 USA
> >> http://verma.sfsu.edu/
> >> http://opensource.sfsu.edu/
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> OLPC-Jamaica mailing list
> >> OLPC-Jamaica at lists.laptop.org
> >> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-jamaica
> _______________________________________________
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>
>
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