[Olpc-open] [realness] Re: [IAEP] [realness] a school is not a building

[Bernie Innocenti]

On Mon, 2010-12-06 at 11:07 +0430, Kenneth Adam wrote:
> Maybe it’s a good idea to go for "digital collaboration", or at least
> laptop-based/ e-learning, instead of bricks and mortar when resources
> are scarce, but maybe not. The problem is that a proper evidence base
> to support the proposition still doesn't exist, as far as I know,
> which is why it will remain an extremely hard sell to any responsible
> Ministry of Education.

There are already plenty of studies on OLPC and OLPC-like projects
around the world. Results vary wildly, and it's hard to draw a
conclusion.

This can be read in many ways. In my opinion, it shows that cultural
factors and local implementation strategies count more than the
particular hardware and software combination.

One of the reports I've seen, thicker than a phonebook, was particularly
superficial. It talked about "more use of the computer" in generic
terms, without mentioning the specific Sugar activities. It was clearly
done by people who had very little understanding of the software.

OTOH, the platform is also evolving very rapidly. I wouldn't be
surprised if results of students who used Sugar 0.82 on the XO-1 were
much worse than Sugar 0.88 on the XO-1.5. We can expect both the
software and the hardware to continue evolving very quickly for a few
more years.

For all these reasons, it's probably too early to demand objective and
conclusive evidence. Wait another 3 years.

-- 
   // Bernie Innocenti - http://codewiz.org/
 \X/  Sugar Labs       - http://sugarlabs.org/