[OLPC_Boston] Notes from XO/Sugar impact study convo

[Caroline Meeks]

On Wed, Dec 10, 2008 at 3:09 AM, Mel Chua <mel at melchua.com> wrote:

> John Tierney (calling in remotely), Evangeline Harris Stefanakis, and
> myself had a great conversation on Monday, and I'm posting the notes
> from our conversation with permission. (There are some details that
> can't be public yet, but should be pretty soonish.)
>
> Enjoy, comment, and feedback is welcome as always. ;) Note that I
> haven't done my action items in the notes yet, I hope to get to them
> tomorrow night (I'm pretty hosed right now) but pinging me on things
> that might concern you is totally welcomed.
>
> -Mel
>
> ----
>
> Problem: We don't know how well we're doing helping kids learn; we need
> to measure the impact of our work.
> Proposal: Evangeline and her students will do a study  of the impact of
> XOs/Sugar on local Boston-area pilots.
>
> This is particularly timely in terms of looking for funding because the
> new administration is actively looking for alternative methods of
> assessing student learning (says Evangeline).
>
> Priorities of pilot/study, in order
>
> 1. Provide a good educational experience for the children participating
> in the pilot
> 2. Serve the teachers, administrators, and volunteers (including parents
> and Sugar developers) facilitating the pilot by giving them feedback on
> the project's ongoing impact on the children
> 3. Be a good learning experience for the graduate students assisting
> with the study
> 4. Disseminate good, solid results on the impact of XOs/Sugar to a wider
> (national, if not global) audience.
>
> Funding for the study will be needed due to institutional requirements.
> This can be viewed as a plus, as funded research will give both the
> study and the thing-being-studied (grassroots deployments, XOs, and
> Sugar) further legitimacy.
>
> Concerns on demographics: CFS is not the target demographic that we want
> to reach eventually (there is a much greater need in low-income public
> schools, for instance). Mel explained that given the resources situation
> when the "we should do a local pilot" conversation started some months
> ago, tackling anything beyond a small-scale trial at a supportive school
> was seen as overly ambitious back then, but with increased local
> activity and interest now, we *should* look for at least one comparison
> public school.
>
> Fletcher/Maynard, in Cambridge with a 99% minority population, was
> suggested. Since CFS is doing 6th grade saturation, F/M doing 6th grade
> saturation would provide a nice comparison sample.
>
> * Evangeline will talk with Robin Harris, F/M's principal, to see if the
> school was interested.
> * Mel will find an university chapter to work with F/M as their loop
> team; first place to check will be with the BU team.
> * Caroline Meeks may also be a good person to ask about the local
> Sugar(non-XO) pilots and the feasibility of expanding the study to those
> schools as well.


We will we working with the Gardner Pilot Academy, a public school with
diverse demographics, in Boston about a 20 minute walk from Harvard Sq.  We
would definitely like help with evaluation. I am putting together the
project plan in the next month or so.

>
>
> Timeline for deployment is Jan/Feb 2009 (at CFS, with workshops in
> January and physical XOs being handed to children in February).
>
> * Mel will see if local engineering students might be interested in
> doing tech development work on Sugar/XOs for the pilots and this study
> specifically - making modifications needed for researchers to carry out
> their work. The main concern is whether Sugar gathers the data needed
> already, or if it can be made into more of a portfolio-capturing tool.
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>



-- 
Caroline Meeks
Solution Grove
Caroline at SolutionGrove.com

617-500-3488 - Office
505-213-3268 - Fax
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