[Olpc-open] Olpc-open Digest, Vol 18, Issue 3

[Carolyn Turbyfill]

Hi Mr. Cherlin -

Actually - I was attempting to add to your point - not to disagree  
with it.
Computers can be used to teach everyone in a family to read.  They  
are also
great at the repetive tasks  - and combining visual and auditory  
input to help
students remember information.

On Dec 2, 2007, at 5:34 PM, Edward Cherlin wrote:

> On Dec 2, 2007 1:23 PM, Carolyn Turbyfill <cturbyfill at mac.com> wrote:
>> you  also have to assume the parents can read, that they can see to
>> read,
>> that they have time and energy during the day to read, and that they
>> have
>> light at night to read.
>
> I make none of those assumptions. As I wrote on OLPC News, I assume
> that the computer will read to children and parents alike when
> multilingual text-to-speech software is included. Karaoke-style
> coloring of the text is also important to show what letter or syllable
> is being pronounced. We know that children will learn to read if they
> hear and see stories at the same time. Some unknown fraction of the
> parents will also learn to read under those conditions, just is
> illiterate Indians learn to read while singing along with captioned
> Bollywood movies.
>
>> On Dec 2, 2007, at 8:50 AM, Donna Auguste wrote:
>>
>>> We'll be using the XO in villages (Ethiopia and Tanzania) with  
>>> middle
>>> school children.  We have selected the XO after evaluating several
>>> ebook
>>> readers, since our original initiative was to provide ebooks.  (We
>>> have
>>> shipped tens of thousands of recycled U.S. schoolbooks to Africa  
>>> over
>>> the past five years, and decided last year that it's time to go
>>> digital
>>> and align the content with each country's Ministry of Education
>>> approved
>>> curriculum.)  The individual children in these particular village
>>> schools do not have schoolbooks.  Schoolbooks cost more than the
>>> schools, government, and families can afford.  The teachers have
>>> schoolbooks (sometimes), and classrooms sometimes have a few shared
>>> books, but there are far from enough schoolbooks for all of the
>>> children
>>> in the classroom and there are no books to take home.  There are no
>>> books in the homes of most of these children -- the suggestion that
>>> parents should read age-appropriate books to their children, etc
>>> etc is
>>> not relevant in many village situations I have experienced first- 
>>> hand.
>>> There is a wonderful oral tradition of storytelling, and the  
>>> children
>>> learn multiple languages at a very young age, and when the families
>>> have
>>> not been ravaged by HIV/AIDS there are multiple generations in each
>>> family.  We are going to augment the children's education with one
>>> laptop for every student in these two middle schools, core and
>>> auxiliary
>>> educational content pre-loaded on the memory cards, and language
>>> study.
>>> Perhaps interesting educational dynamics will emerge as these  
>>> laptops
>>> travel home each evening and weekend for use within the family
>>> environment.
>>>
>>> Yes, we could choose instead to buy a classroom count of core
>>> curriculum
>>> schoolbooks and encourage the school to allow the children to  
>>> take the
>>> books home.  We think that the wide array of auxiliary content we  
>>> can
>>> include with each XO, and the skills the children will develop as  
>>> they
>>> learn to use this computer, are a better investment than a single
>>> stack
>>> of core-curriculum schoolbooks.  I'll let you know how it goes...
>>>
>>> -- Donna Auguste, donna at leavealittleroom.org
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Olpc-open mailing list
>>> Olpc-open at lists.laptop.org
>>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
>>
>>
>>
>> Carolyn Turbyfill
>> cturbyfill at mac.com
>> 11449 Rothbury Square
>> Fairfax, Va 22030
>> Cell:  503-381-2808
>> Home:  703-865-6410
>> Cell:  703-598-7141
>> Work:  703-225-2513
>> Work Fax:  703-225-2501
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Olpc-open mailing list
>> Olpc-open at lists.laptop.org
>> http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
>>
>
>
>
> -- 
> Edward Cherlin
> Earth Treasury: End Poverty at a Profit
> http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Earth_Treasury
> "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay



Carolyn Turbyfill
cturbyfill at mac.com
11449 Rothbury Square
Fairfax, Va 22030
Cell:  503-381-2808
Home:  703-865-6410
Cell:  703-598-7141
Work:  703-225-2513
Work Fax:  703-225-2501