[OLPC-Philippines] questions

[marvind at apc.edu.ph]

Dear Mr. Gotangco,

I'm Marvin Dona, a member of the OLPC Philippines mailing list since last year. I've been reading all your email threads since then and was thinking of what services i can offer to OLPC . Thinking of my limited resources, I presented it to my superior and they are interested in contributing to this noble cause. I'm working with The APC Center, an affiliate of Asia Pacific College.

In this regard, please allow me to resend the email of our managing director, Ms. Tata P. Medado dated Feb. 9, 2009, addressed to Mr. Innocenti and Mr. Chua.

We are willing to further discuss our intention to OLPC Philippines at your most convenient time. 

Thank you!

Sincerely,

Marvin Dona
The APC Center


Message:


Dear Mr. Innocenti and Mr. Chua:

May I introduce myself, I am Tata P. Medado of The APC Center, an IBM Competency Center , and a sister company of Asia Pacific College (APC) in the Philippines .   As opposed to the College that offers baccalaureate programs, the Center on the other hand, delivers training and consulting services to respond to industry talent requirement.   We pride ourselves in enabling industry exposure for our students and at the same time; bring relevance to their education by engaging them in live projects.

I am indeed interested in collaborating with you to bring the OLPC initiative in the Philippines .   I am interested to know how this might be implemented.   If I may, I am guessing that OLPC might be most strategic in the following APC and Center program and projects:

1. One of our strategic learning methodologies is Project-based learning (PBL).   Our students engage in live projects in software development and networking.   The program is undertaken during one Academic Year across different subjects in a trimester schedule.   I am thinking that our students might benefit a lot in developing applications for projects for OLPC.
    
2. Secondly, the Center offers consulting to academic institutions on education technology.   It is our way of helping basic education become attuned to teaching and learning with technology especially at this time when we would like to enjoin these schools to use open source systems.

Your propositions are indeed welcome and I can foresee a strong collaboration for the benefit of Philippine schools.   We may not be in a position right now to allocate funding for housing and travel but perhaps if we are able to explore other means of support, I will be more than willing to work this out with you.


Appreciate your favorable response.

 
Best regards,

  
Tata P. Medado
Managing Director
The APC Center 



----- Original Message -----
From: "Jerome Gotangco" <jgotangco at gmail.com>
To: "OLPC Philippines/Pilipinas grassroots" <olpc-philippines at lists.laptop.org>
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 10:25:52 PM GMT +08:00 Beijing / Chongqing / Hong Kong / Urumqi
Subject: Re: [OLPC-Philippines] questions

Hi Rick,

Thanks for the email. I'll split my replies in chunks. Let's see if we
can start something from here.

On Mon, May 11, 2009 at 8:43 PM, Hendricks, Rick
<Rick.Hendricks at rcsdk12.org> wrote:
> I have had roughly the same questions for some time now and I think we have spent too much time on internal organization and not enough on developing a working pilot.  I am both a teacher and engineer.  School dynamics are unpredictable each school has it own paradigm.   I think would help us to have a pilot created somewhere - anywhere! Doing something - anything! onto which we can expand and build.
> This would allow organizations such as Janet's to see the type of laptop, how it is used and what its capabilities are.
>
> If we don't have a working unit to give them, I need to know why not.  I'll buy one for this purpose.  In fact I'd buy more if I knew what they would be used for.

The first thing is that we're a loose group of enthusiasts at the
start, and perhaps the most vocal (at least on this list) are the
technically-inclined people, hence there are a lot of discussion on
the technical merits rather than the more salient points that needs to
be discussed. This is not the fault of the list per se, it just
evolved as it is. Lately, we've been getting a good number of emails
asking about OLPC as an organization, how it works, how is it
happening locally, which we always say that its currently an interest
group and I don't see anything wrong with that.

But I think that's one reason why a local pilot isn't happening
locally is that we haven't gone beyond that "interest group" mindset.
Perhaps not everyone though, but the list in general. This is perhaps
a valid reason why having local access to an XO-1 unit is like digging
for gold in the desert.

A few weeks ago me and Ryan met up at the mall to discuss stuff
regarding this and one of the things he said to me was that he's just
sad to see his XO-1 unit not doing anything. This is true, because the
laptop is pretty much useless by itself and is only useful in a
classroom. On my part, I only had access to an XO-1 production unit
last year c/o Rowen and most of the stuff I did was either a) show it
to someone how sturdy it is by dropping it intentionally and b)
experimenting with alternative operating system setups that benefit
primarily the hacker community.

So I guess that shows where I am coming from with regards to the whole
project in general. I know very well enough of the technology of the
platform but I can guarantee I can say less than 20% of the
educational aspect in terms of methodology and practice. And I'm more
than happy to have people who can fill up that 80% of knowledge to
help out.

> As a teacher I am quite anxious to develop animations, video and benchmark lessons to supplement the 40 year old textbooks I saw in the classes in the provinces.  The schools in Manila have a bit more resources but most are pitiful.  We Throw Out 8 truck loads of book a year.  All of which are far more modern than the ones I saw there.  After trying to figure out for some time now how to ship those to Philippines, I realize the Holy Grail would be digital.  I can send this stuff for virtually nothing  and provide them with copyright free material in the venue of choice.  That is my interest in this project.


> Lets' start by asking Janet where she would like to see the project work.  Lets get her and her boss a laptop - at my expense if necessary.  Lets get that school a class set and see what we can do to meet their needs.  Don't make the mistake of telling them what it can do, Ask them what they need it to do.  I know what I need it to do, but I won't speak for the school.  Lets ask the developers to make the software needed to display video, flash animations, textbooks or other materials.   Network them to internet so they can use it to see the rest of the world or allow teachers like me to send to them what they request.

This is actually what I wanted to ask specifically to Janet but you
beat me to it :-)

> Even the provinces have microwave based broad band receivers.  In Manila I can get moderate speed out of a P999 Smart bro transmitter and I would not hesititate to ask SmartBro for a school based connect at discount or free.  I have a soft spot for Liloan in Southern Leyte because of my relatives there.  I have spoken with the principals there about what they have now and I would be willing to build a working pilot there.   I would evaluate the program based on teacher and students feedback.  Again my purpose was to replace 40year biology text that students were copying onto paper so that they didn't damage them.  They had no idea what the book said but the students were copying them because the teacher told them to.  As a teacher I can tell you that this means the teacher doesn't know what the book says either.  I found this at virtually all levels including junior college.  We need to change all that.

Unfortunately, rote learning seems to be path when the system is
degrading. I must admit, I am not an educator by profession (I am
primarily a software developer) and my interest lies between cutting
edge technology and pragmatic technology for teaching and where both
could play (if possible) in a local setting.

> Where the pilot is located is not so relevant as to get one going.  I know this is contrary to developer thought patterns because you like to see planning and structure - no single point of failure,etc.  When you work with children and schools, things will go wrong.  You can't plan for all of them and you shouldn't try.  The power is in now.  Lets trust a good reliable principal in a needy district to provide us with the feedback we need to continue and lets document what has been done and how so that we can answer more requests like the one from Janet.

I agree on these points fully.

> My question Immediately for Janet is : do you have a school in mind already?  My questions for  Jerome are: 1) how much for a class set of  20?  and 2) How long will it take to get Janet's organization one to evaluate?  (assume I will pay for it)

Currently OLPC has no program for small deployments like these if we
look at http://laptop.org/en/participate/ways-to-give.shtml but I'm
sure we can find a way to get those laptops from other sources. This
list has enough people upstream that can give info. But a small pilot
like 20 would be ideal for a purely volunteer-driven effort.

> I know that not everyone in the organization can get to the Philippines often.  But some are there and I get there every 3 months or so.  Lets get going on this.  In prior discussions, I think we are too concerned about legally structuring the group.  I think this is cart before horse.  Lets get the pilot and evaluate the program.   I have a lawyer there to handle any legal issues but its a donation to a school so I don't see much.

Yeah I agree. I've told a lot off-list that I have very little
interest in formalizing a group at the start if there is nothing to
present at all. But I guess having a formal group has its benefits but
I'll leave that to the legal people to check.

Jerome
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