[Olpc-uk] educational approach for the pilot

[Daniel Drake]

Hi,

Just wanted to write down some thoughts based on some of the pilot
discussion, regarding integration of the laptops into the school:

It's been stated that the teachers want to handle this topic, in
entirity. That's great, and no matter how this project is done,
teachers should always be the driving factor on this topic.

However, my personal suspicion is that they will not have sufficient
time or technical skills to take full advantage of the laptops on
their own. (not having interacted with the teachers, I may be wrong,
in which case I would be both wrong and very happy)

So, my point is basically that you should look out for technical
minded people (i.e. developers) who you could pair up with the
teachers in order to generate educational activities for the
classrooms.

Easier said than done, I know it's not easy to find these kinds of
resources, so I just write this in hope that it might make people
start thinking about it (and keep eyes open).

I've now been in Nepal for a week and I've been very impressed with
this angle of things on the deployment here (they employ graphic
designers, education specialists and programmers in order to produce
many curriculum-based activities, which are almost entirely designed
conceptually by teachers). One item of good news is that they're
looking at ways of making this localisable and sharing it with the
world, but that is a young project which will not be ready in time for
this deployment.

Daniel