[Olpc-open] {waveplace} mid-pilot glimpse in nicaragua

[Timothy Falconer]

Yes, I know you're all busy.  Yes, this email has a lot of text.  Take  
a few minutes anyway and read this post from the Waveplace pilot near  
Rivas, Nicaragua, written by Mary Scotti, one of our mentors.   It's  
got a good dose of why we're all doing this XO thing :)

---
Nicaragua Days 22 to 25
--

This week saw a deluge of thunderous rainstorms at the camp.  
Electricity was out for whole evenings and nights and Internet service  
was intermittent at best. When electricity was available, I rushed to  
insure that the XOs got charged and fortunately the children saw no  
interruption in classes. This curtailed my ability to write as my  
computer was often lacking charge and the loss of signal severely  
limited my ability to post.

All the rain also wrecked havoc on the road, still my taxi driver was  
stalwart and managed to navigate the swamped areas often forgoing the  
road altogether to ensure transport to and from the school. Fireflies  
and a random glimpse of a sliver of moon solely illuminated two nights  
this week. I read by the low beam of a flashlight. These past few days  
were conducive for contemplation and reflection. A stark contrast to  
the ebullience of the classroom.

Tuesday through Friday covered lessons 16 through 19 of the Waveplace  
course. Tests (aka conditionals) were introduced for the first time,  
"color sees color" tests, checking scripts, methods for detecting a  
bug, and animating with multiple sketches. All of these also entailed  
disseminating useful hints for organizing, trouble-shooting, and  
general maintenance.

Patrick delivered lesson 16, Roxanna both 17 and 19, and Geovany  
lesson 18. It is difficult to convey how truly impressed I am with  
both their preparations and classroom rapport. It's obvious that  
multiple hours are spent in the evening prior familiarizing themselves  
with the nuances of the lessons, creating compelling graphics to  
illustrate the concepts readily and allowing them to display  
confidence and skill during their delivery.

They continue to foster an environment of focused, exploratory  
learning. Their own self-esteem extends outward and serves to imbue  
the class with positive energy. David makes himself available to  
assist wherever needed. Lacking a computer to take home in the  
evening, he spends the actually teaching time doing the lesson to  
refresh and uses our planning hour to puzzle out difficulties he may  
run into. This weekend, he is armed with a computer and charger and  
will be introducing the players list and it functionality on Monday.

Three of the children have some trouble grasping the underlining  
concepts of Etoys. A singular task - drawing an object, naming and  
saving, locating a menu - is not a problem. However combining multiple  
sketches, navigating multiple menus and locating desired commands is  
overwhelming for them. The underlying "sense of it" has still not  
clicked for them. We take turns working with them offering different  
voices and slightly different methods in approaching various tasks.  
Still they are happy with their work and delighted when a script  
performs in the way they expect it to. On their own time they are  
creating simple graphics and scripts. One child has been creating a  
sun and a tree repeatedly, each time a bit different from the last.  
Yesterday it was clear that they had finally grasped the concept that  
a sketch has its own paint palette and if you want to change that  
sketch you must access it and make changes from there. Over and over  
they have been frustrated by their attempts to do this action from the  
toolbar palette only to find that their changes were not integrated  
into their original sketch. We had demonstrated this many times. For  
some reason yesterday it sunk in. This was a breakthrough moment.

At the other end of the spectrum, five of the children are truly  
excelling. Animation and scripting is fascinating and clearly  
rewarding to them. They see potential and possibilities. They crave  
techniques and methods to actualize what they are imagining. They are  
attentive during the presentations, rapt even. Occasionally they will  
wander to the front of the room in order to read the scripts directly.  
They have difficulty refraining from booting up their XOs during the  
lesson and I often think they have succeeded in secretly doing so. The  
exploratory hour has become for them an intense time of innovation and  
practice. All of the children have been impressed and encouraged by  
the sharing of their achievements.

Ruben has created Pepito, a dancing female figure who fancy foots it  
across the screen and back again in a village with illuminated windows  
and a spouting volcano in the background. Jose has embarked on  
creating a tale following the adventures of a boy and his friendly but  
mischievous amigo the shark. His sense of graphics, including his use  
of typography is compelling. Julissa’s story begins in a park, swings  
swaying, and a trio of young girls playing. Aaron has created a monkey  
break-dancer who changes color as it cavorts rhythmically about. And  
Luis is engaged in an abstract creation of universal proportions.  
Spheres, and complex geometries that spin and interact. His own  
personal view of an imaginary galaxy. All awesome accomplishments.

The rest of the children more typically display the waning in and out  
of attention. One thing will delight more than another. Distraction  
comes a bit more easily. Still they are intent and focused. They help  
and encourage each other, sometimes copying elements from another  
child’s story that they admire. We had a plethora of butterflies for a  
while. Still imitation is a form of flattery they say. By end of class  
Friday, all but two had at least three pages of their stories well  
underway.

We mentors have also been working on stories. Roxanna is purposeful  
and secretive about hers just yet. No one knows whether the graphics  
she has been creating for class are incorporated into it or not.  
Geovany is the master of airplanes. And mine is describing experiences  
with frogs, fireflies, insects, and such at the camp.

This week also brought us Shyra, a Peace Corps volunteer living and  
teaching English in the nearby pueblo San Jose. The children were  
thrilled to meet her and a few recognized her as she taught some of  
their older siblings at the secondary school. She was blown away by  
the XOs and more importantly the children’s level of skill in using  
them. Aaron volunteered to introduce her to the XO and Etoys and spent  
half an hour doing so. At the moment she expresses her doubt that she  
can learn this. She feels daunted by computers but the children’s  
expertise in just three weeks is encouraging to her. Aaron’s step-by- 
step introduction began with just opening the XO, then explaining the  
home page with its access to the tool and application bars. He led her  
to Etoys and demonstrated how to make an initial sketch that left her  
thirsting for more. Aaron thought that was enough for one day and  
burst forth to join the football game in progress. Everyone was happy  
to welcome her to our team.


======

Mary is writing almost daily.  More posts can be found here:

http://waveplace.com/news/blog/

There's also a great article about the start of this pilot in our  
September newsletter:

http://waveplace.com/news/newsletter/web.jsp?id=10#article130

Photos are here:

http://waveplace.com/mu/waveplace/item/tp163


Take care,
Tim

--
Timothy Falconer
Waveplace Foundation
http://waveplace.com
610-797-3100