[OLPC-SF] Fwd: Visiting Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot in Ethiopia
carol
carol at silverlaw.biz
Tue Sep 11 22:13:54 EDT 2012
20120911
Dear Sameer and all:
Reviewing stuff for the Summit, I am reminded that we must find a way to
have a presentation on the OLPC Helicopter project! This post by OLPC
news is fantastic!
Cheers, Carol Ruth Silver
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Visiting Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot in Ethiopia
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2012 15:16:18 +0000
From: One Laptop Per Child News <christoph at olpcnews.com>
To: carol at silverlaw.biz
Visiting Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot in Ethiopia
<http://www.olpcnews.com/>
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------------------------------------------------------------------------
Visiting Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot in Ethiopia
<http://feedproxy.google.com/%7Er/OneLaptopPerChildNews/%7E3/Bim9-BHY3ls/visiting_negropontes_helicopter_deployment_pre_pilot_in_ethiopia.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email>
Posted: 30 Jul 2012 03:15 AM PDT
/Resumen en español al final del artículo/
(*Editor's Note:* Thanks to a Google News Alert I discovered this
remarkable blog post
<http://evanszablowski.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/one-laptop-per-child/>
by Evan Szablowski. He was researching another project in Ethiopia when
he was presented with the chance to visit the village where Nicholas
Negroponte's previously announced
<http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/olpc_starts_pre_pilot_for_helicopter_deployments.html>
/helicopter deployment/
<http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/xo_helicopter_deployments_nich.html>
pre-pilot
<http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/update_on_negropontes_helicopter_deployment_pre_pilot.html>
is taking place. The following text is an excerpt from Evan Szablowski's
original post and is re-published here with his permission.)
As we got out of the car I was expecting to see a lively village,
perhaps centered around one area with various people working. However,
the "village" was really just a sparse connection of huts that spread
out forever alongside the mountains. Every hilltop or small plain just
had a simple circular building of wood and mud with maybe a sheet metal
roof. We arrived at such a site, and it didn't seem particularly
significant except for one rectangular building that stood out for being
slightly too developed. Its walls and angles were more straight than
usual and it was fitted with windows that could open and close, rare for
most huts in the highlands. As we walked closer down the mountain we
could see solar panels aligned on top of the roof - technology that
seemed completely out of place in its surroundings. This unique building
was built by MIT as the village's new school house and storehouse for
the precious tablet computers.
/The beautiful village in the highlands (The school house is the
foremost building)/
As we moved down towards the school house people began materializing out
of nowhere, especially the children. I guess it is a unique day to have
a couple of "Ferengis" (Foreigners) to come visit in the highlands. This
village is not open to tourism, and I bet we were some of the few white
faces that many of these kids had ever seen. So naturally we were an
attraction as many of the children were just as fascinated by us as we
were by them.
<http://fundacionqt.org/>
Servers, power source, and the tablets
Michael, who works as a regional representative in MIT's One Laptop per
Child project in Ethiopia, showed us into the school house, which was
quite plain except for the wires running down from the solar panels to
an enclosed server. On a table lie the pieces of technology that we came
to see: around 20 tablets, blending right in to the surroundings in
their rough leather covers. As we entered the children came pouring in
behind us, eager to be a part of whatever was going on. Michael picked
out a 6-7 year-old kid that he labeled as one of the quickest learners
and gave him a tablet. He readily accepted it, and watching what
happened next was one of the most impactful parts of the entire trip.
Forget the fact that this kid never grew up with technology. Forget the
fact that he may have never seen an iPhone, or opened Firefox, or had
his own Facebook account. When the tablet was in his hands, it was
natural. As he began to play with it I was blown away by his ease and
intuition with the device; it was like he grew up with it. It was
amazing to see the working juxtaposition of high technology in his small
village hands. He knew exactly what he was doing. But even more
fascinating than his knowledge of the technology were the demonstrations
of what it had taught him.
He scrolled through a few apps and picked one of his favorites - an
alphabet game that spoke the name and sound of a letter when the picture
was touched. He began to show off, naming each letter and sound before
pressing the corresponding picture. He started at "A" and rushed through
the entire alphabet perfectly. He then proceeded to sing the ABCs, and
unexpectedly the other kids around him joined right in. I was in a tiny
village in the mountains of Ethiopia (where the native tongue is the
Semitic language Amharic), hearing a chorus of small voices sing the
alphabet song. In the three months with the tablets, they had already
mastered the letters and basic sounds of English.
/Whiz kid showing us his ABCs (With another kid photobombing)/
As Michael begins to hand them out to all the other children, similar
sounds and letter pronunciations filled the hut. I watched one group of
kids gather around a tablet that was going through simple words in the
English language. The program worked by repeating phrases with different
pictures: "Ahh, Ahh, Apple!" or "C,C, Cat!" or "D, D, Dog!" I started
laughing when it got to "O, O, Octopus!" These kids might not even
conceptualize what an octopus is, but they sure can pronounce it!
Although humorous, this is my only place for critique. These generic
apps work amazingly in helping them learn the alphabet, but they were
clearly designed for an American audience. It would be incredible to see
applications tailored to their own Ethiopian lives, relating what they
learn everyday to the setting around them. "A, A, Africa!"
<http://fundacionqt.org/>
Girl leading the class through the alphabet
But the kids continued to play, and an adult encouraged one to get up
and lead her classmates through the alphabet again. She stood up in
front of everyone with the tablet and began to point to random letters,
quizzing her classmates who got them all correct. The tablets are being
used in a school environment and encouraging group participation, not
just individual understanding. It was fascinating to watch.
As we continued to interact with the kids and watch them play around on
the tablets, this incredible sense of excitement and hope kept building
in me. It's hard to describe, but when watching these children you
quickly realize that this program is working exactly the way it is
supposed to: These kids are learning from these devices in ways they
wouldn't be able to before, and they're excited about it. An
overwhelming sense of excitement and optimism overtook us, and we
couldn't stop smiling as we watched. This technology is empowering them
in a direction to change their lives.
We stayed for well over an hour, hearing Michael talk about the program
and watching the kids learn. We took dozens of pictures, trying to
capture everything going on around us. The kids were all too shy to ask
for their picture to be taken, but as soon as I pulled my camera out
they flocked to be in the frame. Even as we said goodbye they ran up the
hill with us, some even running after the cars as we drove away.
That was by far the best day I spent in Africa, and the best day I've
had this summer (barring my 21st birthday). We left with such a feeling
of inspiration and optimism, amazed at witnessing two completely
different worlds collide. Or not so much "collide," but instead we saw a
"fusion" with one another, enabling these kids to learn in imaginative
ways through the technology. My friend Zach said this was the best thing
he has done in a long time, and I agreed. We hadn't even contributed
anything! We were saying that because what we saw had such an impact on
us, opened our eyes to a bigger picture of the world.
/A group shot with our adviser Dan Evans and Michael out in front/
As we rode away I told Zach "I hope they realize it someday. I hope that
someday one of those kids will say, 'When I was only 4 years old, the
laptop project from MIT came to my village, and it forever changed my
future.' What an amazing perspective that person will have. One day they
might understand it." This was not foreign aid, or handouts to their
people. This was education, and just the first step in enabling them.
Enabling the young minds of Africa for brighter futures. For a brighter
nation, and a brighter continent.
/Evan Szablowski grew up in Bakersfield, California and is currently a
senior cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He
majors in mathematics specializing on Data Analytics and Mass
Collaboration, with interest in Network Science and Social Media
applications to the Military. He shared this experience after witnessing
OLPC's work in Ethiopia./
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Resumen en español:* Gracias a una alerta de Google News descubrí este
articulo notable
<http://evanszablowski.wordpress.com/2012/07/25/one-laptop-per-child>
por Evan Szablowski. Él estaba investigando un otro proyecto en Etiopía,
cuando se le presentó la oportunidad de visitar el pueblo donde se lleva
a cabo el previamente anunciado
<http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/olpc_starts_pre_pilot_for_helicopter_deployments.html>
pre-piloto
<http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/update_on_negropontes_helicopter_deployment_pre_pilot.html>
del /despliegue de helicópteros/
<http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/xo_helicopter_deployments_nich.html>
de Nicholas Negroponte. El texto anterior es un extracto del post
original de Evan Szablowski y esta republicado acá con su permiso.
.
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