[OLPC-Philippines] Pilot Software and Content

Jerome Gotangco jgotangco at gmail.com
Sat Oct 11 06:10:54 EDT 2008


On Sat, Oct 11, 2008 at 5:17 PM, Carlos Nazareno <object404 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Here's a few ideas:
> a) I hope we get buzz with and work with the top schools &
> universities in the country and hopefully come up with something like
> MIT's OpenCourseware (http://ocw.mit.edu/) that can be used by the
> public.

The folks at UP have started something similar but delivered via the
DILC (Diliman Interactive Learning Center), but right now, they are
most active in the delivery of the Centennial lectures (across the UP
system and online). You may have heard of iTunes University - its
something worth checking out as well. These can be ideal models to
look into.

> b) Ideally too, we have a group that can get funding from foundations
> & donors which can then fund people who can dedicate time to the
> creation and editing of content instead of just having a group of
> ragtag volunteers (aside from getting funding for the machines
> themselves).

Yes that should be a good goal to accomplish, but this can only happen
if we get to settle and agree how we should shape this group. It is
much easier to pitch if we have a plan along with our schedules and
milestone targets. I used to be involved with a foundation focused on
improving the quality of life of children in various segments such as
education, environment, and child welfare and programs being funded
should have very concrete goals and timelines because this is also
reported back to the donors (foundations usually work on donor money
as well).

I have discussed this idea before with 2 prominent foundation heads
and the consensus is that this is the way to go, but they are not the
best people to make it work as they also have issues with their own IT
systems, hence when we approach them, the plan should be polished.

> c) I suggest also getting the attention of the most prominent private
> schools & universities who cater to the class A-B market as one of our
> primary vectors. I think if we can capture the hearts & minds of the
> faculty, students, and parents, the rest will follow. This particular
> segment is one of the biggest lobbying groups in the country. And
> imagine if we can sell the idea of give 1 get 1 to this segment.

Another way to make it work is have a private school do a pilot to be
able to come up with a proper model for future deployments. Why a
private school? It has the facilities (technical) and manpower to make
a program possible. However, it should be planned ahead as private
schools have different approaches to learning.

 A typical grade school curriculum in a private setting will already
have computer classes that consists of using a computer and do basic
tasks, while other subjects do not have any tool (that resembles a
computer) being utilized for the completion of the coursework. This is
where the concept of constructivism comes in and this is where the
XO-1 as a learning machine is strongest at.

In my daughter's school, I have the privilege of being in contact with
their technology teachers who sometimes ask me for tips and trends and
one of the things I showed them are pictures of Ethiopian kids with
XO-1s just deployed recently. I promised to lend them a unit soon so
they can check it out and even the family council wants to see it too.
Like I said earlier, it is an initiative to be undertaken by both the
school and the parents; both have to understand what it means to
empower their children with powerful concepts of learning coupled with
technology.

> d) For the developers like us at the Flash group, maybe we can come up
> with engines (quiz games, etc) that content creators can populate with
> data (word lists, questions & answers).

Something ideal would be flash card type of engine or even simple
multiple choice where we can feed questions by way of a plain text
file to make it very handy at the same time fast, but this is based on
my experience. This can help in a child's practice for a mastery exam.
An educator would be the ideal person to get an opinion.

> Okay, I'm going to meet up with the head of the department of computer
> science at AdMU and my professor from whom I took up computer-adided
> instruction next week (Wednesday or Thursday) regarding OLPC Ph.
>
> Anything you guys would like me to tell them? What's our official
> mission-vision-objective?
>
> I'd like to get this straight otherwise I might tell them the wrong
> stuff hahah :P

What I suggest is you encourage them to join us in building the
organization, because the ideal scenario as we have discussed before,
is to have people not just from the technical side, but from the
education and business development side as well. The reason for this
is simple; the current group that are active are not exactly educators
in a sense that we are not knowledgeable in the techniques. Some of us
are here are parents and we have done our share to teaching our
children, but this is not exactly the optimal way of doing so, hence
an educator being active is desirable.

-- 
Jerome G.

Website: http://www.gotangco.com
Blog: http://engage.wordpress.com


More information about the OLPC-Philippines mailing list