[Olpc-uk] Pilot advice from Bryan Berry

[George Veletsianos]

Just my 2 cents:
This isn't just an issue of valuing the project or valuing something
that you pay for - there's more complexities involved. One thing that
teachers don't have is time. They usually have too many things that
they want (or are told to) teach that any additions to their time will
often be met with resistance. Integrating OLPC (or any other
technology) in existing structures asks teachers to provide more time.
I do agree that volunteers are crucial to the success of the project,
but introducing OLPC and then leaving it up to the teachers (or the
schools) to support or continue using it will probably not lead to any
long-term benefits. Unless  the innovation is shown to (a) *clearly*
enhance practice or (b) save teacher time, it would be difficult to
convince schools to pay for support. Which leads me to my following
point: echoing the original comments on "Pilot Goal Setting," Sugar
needs to solve a *specific problem* without adding time demands.
Schools and teachers don't just want technology to "help in learning."
If the benefits aren't clear from the beginning, the innovation will
quickly be pushed to the side (plus - the software just needs to work
without any tinkering. if teachers need to tinker with apps to get
them to work, well, they won't... you can see how this is a bit
circular...)

I obviously don't have a solution to the problem - i wish i did, but
this conversation might spark some ideas...

Best wishes,

George

George Veletsianos, PhD
Lecturer of Digital Technologies, Communication & Education,
University of Manchester.



On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 12:25 PM, Martin Dengler
<martin at martindengler.com> wrote:
> Lots of research about valuing something you have to pay even a little
> bit for....
>
> http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/04/free-but-at-what-price.php
> http://www.spring.org.uk/2008/04/social-versus-financial-thinking-when.php
> http://psychcentral.com/blog/archives/2008/07/09/money-can-change-your-behavior-toward-others/
>
> On Wed, May 13, 2009 at 04:28:04PM +0545, Bryan Berry wrote:
>> I just want to clarify this part:
>>
>> > < BryanWB> mtd: if the schools value the project, they will pay for
>> >            support
>> > < BryanWB> mtd: if they don't value it after introduction, they won't
>> >            pay for support
>>
>> In my experience, schools and other enterprises -- government or private
>> -- will appreciate technical support more if they pay for it and take it
>> granted if provided for free. Possibly, even worse treat you like they
>> are doing you are a favor by allowing your project to operate in their
>> school. That is why I believe volunteers' time is spent on introducing
>> OLPC and not on supporting it.
>>
>> I think volunteers are crucial to our overrall effort. I am one myself
>> as I haven't made any $ over the last two years while working full-time
>> on OLPC. I do believe that volunteers are often taken advantage of by
>> larger institutions.
>
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