OLPC a Hit in Remote Peruvian Village 187
mrcgran writes "The Chicago Tribune is running a feel-good story about the effects of OLPC on a remote village in Peru. 'Doubts about whether poor, rural children really can benefit from quirky little computers evaporate as quickly as the morning dew in this hilltop Andean village, where 50 primary school children got machines from the One Laptop Per Child project six months ago. At breakfast, they're already powering up the combination library/videocam/audio recorder/music maker/drawing kits. At night, they're dozing off in front of them — if they've managed to keep older siblings from waylaying the coveted machines. Peru made the single biggest order to date — more than 272,000 machines — in its quest to turn around a primary education system that the World Economic Forum recently ranked last among 131 countries surveyed.'"
Re:A shining path to success... (Score:5, Interesting)
A nice rebuttal (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Too early? (Score:4, Interesting)
Christmas eve and I'm in the office. What a fucking loser.
Re:Too early? (Score:3, Interesting)
Having visited Arahuay in October. (Score:5, Interesting)
Impact on students and teachers in Arahuay
I took as complete notes as I could talking with each of the teachers in turn (unfortunately, I forgot to get their names); translation slowed things enough that I believe the notes are pretty complete, though it may have also introduced errors. They echo Carla's excellent report, but are now months later:
Two children have come to the Arahuay school specifically because of the laptops who would not have previously attended.
The children are sharing much more: they take pictures and videos and share them.
The children are teachers too.
The teachers see much improved conduct. One child (who often arrives hungry) who has been sad and aggressive now loves to work on the OLPC. He is working more with other children and his behavior has improved.
One of the children has vision problems; is cross eyed and has one damaged eye (Carla will remember the child, I'm sure). Using the laptop has improved the child's ability to focus her eyes and work.
Another teacher noted that small children, ages 6-7, are learning much faster. The web browser is the most popular/important activity, followed by the camera.
The activities they use most are the browser, paint, calculator, write.
The children use the internet to find information of interest.
One child, who is from Lima, has learned much in Arahuay and is very happy about the OLPC.
Another teacher said the children have changed: they have more concentration, mental ability.
The children's concept reception is much better than before. Despite the use of US keyboards (all we had at the time), the children have had little problem adapting, and have figured out all they keys.
A third teacher said the internet is the most interesting.
The children are showing more abilities, are more creative, their behavior is better.
The children were selfish about the computers at first, but now share and discover with them, showing the teachers and other students what they have discovered.
Children who had previously been interested in power (bully?) have forgotten power and are sharing.
The children are showing better attention and organization.
Students are learning about the world, and now feel part of it. They are now interested in learning other languages, which they had not wanted to do before. Creating a web site on Arahuay has made them feel part of the world. Impact on the teachers:
They have started to research topics on the internet and have practiced to use the computer.
The teachers have more ways to plan and improve the class.
Another teacher said the computer was wonderful for her. Information on the internet had improved both her and the children.
Their jobs are easier now.
One of the teachers asked for mind-mapper software, which they have used. We should install freemind on the servers and explore how feasible it is for packaging as an activity (it is Java based).
But the high point was the eight year old girl who came up to me shyly and gave me a kiss....
BTW, if anyone speaks Quechua or Aymara (or other languages), please help at: https://dev.laptop.org/translate/.
Please come help!
- Jim Gettys, OLPC
Re:Having visited Arahuay in October. (Score:5, Interesting)
Thanks for the notes, and I'm delighted to hear about the successes that OLPC is having (even if you haven't yet met your initial distribution goals). It is great to read articles like this one about improving the lives of thousands of kids in Peru.
Given the network capabilities of this machine, we are working to ensure that the Nmap Security Scanner [insecure.org] continues to work well on the OLPC. Maybe someday it can be included, though that raises the issue of kids using it responsibly. Still, it can be quite useful for debugging network connectivity issues as well as testing that their own machines are secure. A side effect of this work is that keeps Nmap lean and working well on low-resource PCs, phones, and PDAs besides the OLPC.
On Friday we received the three units we ordered through give-one-get-one and I've been playing with mine ever since! Yesterday I took and posted a bunch of pictures of the device [insecure.org].
Keep up the good work!
Fyodor [insecure.org]
Re:A shining path to success... (Score:2, Interesting)
The real lessons are about the IMF loans, US historical interventionism, and a vicious right-wing establishment trying to manhandle the world into their control. When we control the horizontal and vertical, we filter out our nasty little secrets. The OLPC is much more likely to open people's world into how we mess with them, not how Che Guevarra was Satan's puppy. Hence my laundry list of questions, for the sarcasm impaired, of a child who actually reads about modern world history. Our hands are on most nastiness kids are experiencing in a lot of countries. A little light on the cockroaches won't hurt. But man, does it make the rightists squawk.
XO display vs. e-ink (Score:4, Interesting)
What is the impact on education? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Too early? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:XO display vs. e-ink (Score:3, Interesting)
This little guy just blows me away.
Nah, I couldn't wait for Christmas.
Re:Too early? (Score:3, Interesting)
We thought I had seen the last of that microwave, but I was wrong. Shortly after, my buddy and I caught a taxi and after a harrowing ride through the city, we ended up at a cool little bar. A few minutes after we got to the bar, a moped vroomed up the street and stopped at the place next to the bar (we were outdoors). The guy on the moped had our microwave! An old lady came out, took it from the guy, and proceeded to disassemble it on an old wooden table about ten feet from us. I wasn't paying too much attention to her, but she had it put back together and working in under 15 minutes.
The guy took it back from her, walked next door to the bar we were at, and sold it to the owner for $20! The guy who bought it from the cook said he made double his pay that day by skipping out of work and getting it fixed.
I guess, "one man's junk is another man's treasure" is really true....