One Laptop Per Child News

A Matching Game Made with Turtle Art and Some Wires

2012-05-16T13:12:58Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

I don't think I need to repeat yet again that I'm a huge fan of Guzmán Trinidad from Uruguay and his great work around using various Sugar Activities in combination with sensors connected to an XO (e.g. #1, #2, #3).

In order to make his work more accessible he recently compiled a list of all of his project videos on his Web site. While looking through them I discovered a new one which shows off a cool matching game:

If you want to learn more about Guzmán's work and watch his videos then head over to his Web site or YouTube channel.

Resumen en español (tomado desde la descripción del video): Un juego para los más chicos: La XO-1 monitorea la resistencia entre los cables conectados a la entrada de micrófono. Cuando se ponen en contacto eléctrico entre sí (mediante un cable que une la imagen del personaje con su nombre ubicado por detrás del cartón) el programa TurtleBlocks imprime en pantalla el número de coincidencias encontradas y alienta al jugador a continuar su búsqueda!

Update on Negroponte's Helicopter Deployment Pre-Pilot

2012-05-14T13:14:01Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

At the end of last year Negroponte announced that pre-pilots for his tablet-based helicopter deployment model would be starting in early 2012. It's been fairly quiet about these efforts since then but earlier today ITProPortal.com posted an article with some bits of information about how the pre-pilots are coming along.

Regarding the environment that these pilots are taking place in:

Privately funded at this point, 20+ Android powered Motorola Tablets have already been dropped off in a village where there are no reading and writing skills - "You won't even see printed labels or words on bottles, these people have never even seen words" said Negroponte.

On the actual use of the tablets:

This time, however, Negroponte's team left boxed Tablets in a village and within three hours, the children had opened the boxes and worked out how to turn the tablet's on. After just a couple of weeks of unassisted use, the children were seen competing with each on the recital of the alphabet, learned from one of the many pre-installed apps.

Unfortunately this information is fairly thin, especially given that the project has now been going on for several months already.

I also wish that ITProPortal had inquired about how Negroponte is evaluating the impact of these pre-pilots, especially considering that 20+ tablets is a fairly small sample. However the article's author asks readers to "watch out for further updates" so hopefully we'll learn more about how these efforts are coming along over the coming weeks and months.

Resumen en español: Al fin del año pasado Nicholas Negroponte anunció que iba a empezar un pre-piloto por su modelo de implementación de helicóptero. Un artículo corto que se publicó en ITProPortal.com hoy reveló unos bits de información interesantes. Por el uno el entorno del pre-piloto es una area donde la gente no sabe leer o escribir. Por el otro Negrioponte dijo que pocas semanas despues de la distribución de los 20+ tablets los niños ya estaban compitiendo en alfabeto que habían aprendido con los apps que estan en los tablets. Me hubiera gustado leer más sobre el proyecto y en particular como estan evaluando su impacto pero espero que los futuros articulos que el autor prometió tendran esta información.

OLPC Australia to Add 50,000 XOs Thanks to $11 Million Government Support

2012-05-09T09:31:34Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Earlier today OLPC Australia announced that it will receive $11 million from the Australian government which will allow the organization to expand its program by 50,000 XOs. Per the government's budget Web site:

The Australian Government is providing over $11 million to support the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Program which will deliver over 50,000 custom built laptops to primary students in regional and remote Australia as part of a 12 month pilot program. The OLPC Australia Organisation (OLPC Australia) aims to support the learning opportunities of indigenous children, particularly those in remote Australia, by providing primary school aged children with a connected XO laptop as part of a sustainable training and support program. Participating schools will also receive information and communications technology (ICT) coordinator professional development, local repair kits, and access to helpdesk and online support. The Government will also continue its support of OLPC Australia through its listing as a deductible gift recipient for taxation purposes to 2015-16.

We reached out to Rangan Srikhanta (OLPC Australia's CEO) for a first reaction and he said:

This is a momentos day for OLPC Australia and what started as a dream is now a reality. This significant investment from the Australian government is further vindication that the XO can help children anywhere. We look forward to leveraging the 50,000 laptops committed by the Australian government to seek further corporate and school commitment to the program. The 50,000 XOs will be delivered via OLPC Australia's One Education initiative.

We will provide you with more information about their One Education initiative and its progress over the coming weeks and months. But for now all I can say is congratulations to the OLPC Australia team for this well deserved and important step forward!

Resumen en español: OLPC Australia anunció hoy que recibirá 11 millones de dólares del gobierno australiano, que permitirá a la organización ampliar su programa con 50.000 XO.

Two Awesome Examples of Repurposed OLPC Hand Cranks

2012-05-07T12:09:17Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Over the weekend I was catching up on some reading of various olpc related blogs. In doing so I discovered that Laura Hosman's IIT team in Haiti and Sameer Verma and other folks from OLPC San Francisco had both recently found cool ways to repurpose the famous OLPC hand crank:

The IIT team turned them into mobile phone charger:

So what to do with the excess ones we had? We decided to repurpose them into cell phone chargers, since that seemed like a more realistic use for them: phones need less charging/use less power, charge on 12 volts, sometimes you just need enough power to make a short call or send a text, and in today's world, even out to the ends of the earth, where there's no reception and no powering source, people still own mobile phones! Also, the teachers at the EFACAP school had asked whether they could use the solar system for charging phones, and we felt it was something valuable to add in to the system.

The OLPC SF team used a hand crank as a basis for a gravity charger which was inspired by an old clock:

On one of our usual visits to UCSF, I was walking by their clock, when it stuck me (no pun intended) that the clock is a large wind-up mechanism that stores potential energy by pulling up large weights to a significant height, and then trickles it into the clock mechanism to power it. You may have seen something like this in a cuckoo clock.

If you've also come up with or seen cool ways of repurposing the hand cranks then let us know!

Resumen en español: Este fin de semana yo estaba leyendo varios blogs relacionadas con olpc. Al hacerlo, descubrí que el equipo de Laura Hosman del IIT trabajando en Haití y Sameer Verma y otras personas de OLPC San Francisco encontraron formas interesantes para utilizar la famosa manivela de OLPC. Mientras el equipo del IIT lo convirtió en un cargador para teléfonos móviles, el equipo de OLPC SF lo utilizó como base para un cargador de gravedad que se inspiró en un viejo reloj.

Intel's Studybook Tablet - A Strong Competitor to OLPC's XO 3.0

2012-05-04T18:24:11Z

In early April Intel launched its long-expected tablet reference design which is called Studybook. On the hardware side of things the specifications which we wrote about in late March very fairly accurate but I'm including the list again here for the sake of completeness:

Display: 7" with 1024 x 600
CPU: 1.2 GHz Z650 Atom (single core)
RAM: 1GB or 2GB
Mass storage: 4GB to 32GB
Cameras: 0.3MP (front) and 2MP (back)
Weight: 525 grams
Battery life: up to 5.5 hours
Dimensions: 13.5 x 20.7 x 1.65 cm
I/O: 1x full-size USB, 1x 3.5mm audio-out, 1x HDMI, 1x MicroSD, 1x SIM card (for the optional 3G modem)
Extras: WiFi, Accelerometer
Options: Bluetooth, 3G

In terms of the operating system local manufacturers will have a choice between Windows 7 (and in the future possible also Windows 8) and Android.

For a good tour of the Studybook reference design and some of the software it ships with I would recommend to watch this 12-minute video:

To me one of the coolest parts is the microscope add-on which can be mounted over the back-side camera (seen about 10:18min into the video). While this doesn't get my DIY-heart as excited as Mike Lee's water drop microscope or Bill Tuk's cabochon microscope I think it's a neat and useful solution.

In terms of the price the details will again depend on the specific manufacturers but according to Computerworld Intel is aiming for the $199 to $299 price range.

As per the title of this article I think that tablets based on Intel's Studybook design will be strong competitors to OLPC's XO 3.0. While the XO 3.0 is expected to be less expensive than Studybook tablets Intel's global brand recognition and their vast sales operations will likely prove to be significant advantages when dealing with governments and other organizations.

Estudio Sobre las Oportunidades y los Desafíos de Tablets en Educación

2012-05-02T11:52:19Z

Resumen en inglés al final del artículo

Gracias a un correo de Cristina Abell encontré este video donde Laura Marés de relpe (Red Latinoamericana Portales Educativos) presenta los resultados de un estudio llamado "Tablets en educación - Oportunidades y desafíos en políticas uno a uno". El estudio completo está disponible como PDF pero en todo caso les recomiendo ver el video de la presentación.

El estudio me parece una excelente base para tener discusiones más enfocadas sobre el uso de tablets en la educación. La verdad es que a pesar del fuerte movimiento hacia tablets con productos y servicios como el Archos Child Pad o Apple iBooks 2 yo sigo siendo escéptico.

Es claro que debido a su diseño los tablets siempre van a tener algunos ventajas y desventajas en comparación a otras maquinas como los netbooks. Al mismo tiempo estoy convencido que lo que he llamado los seis criterios para implementaciones exitosas de proyectos de TIC en la educación (infraestructura, mantenimiento, contenidos y materiales, inclusión de la comunidad, capacitación de maestros, evaluación) siguen siendo mucho más importantes que los dispositivos en si.

Habiendo dicho esto, en general estoy de acuerdo con lo que Laura dice hacia el final de su presentación:

En este momento y para los aprendizajes que queremos y las expectativas que tenemos las netbooks siguen siendo la mejor respuesta.

Resumen en inglés: In the video embedded above Laura Marés of relpe (Red Latinoamericana Portales Educativos - Network of Latin American Education Portals) presents the results of a study called "Tablets in education - Opportunity and challenges for 1-to-1 policies". The complete study is available as a PDF download (in Spanish).

Community BBQ with OLPC Madagascar near Toronto on May 6

2012-04-30T13:04:52Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Over the weekend I heard about an OLPC community BBQ which will take in Elora, Ontario near Toronto next Saturday, May 6. The event will bring together some of the key people working on OLPC projects in Madagascar and Haiti as well as members of the Canadian OLPC community.

Below I'm copying the full invitation which the ever-enthusiastic Laura de Reynal (Flickr, Twitter) of OLPC France's Nosy Komba project sent along:

Join us May 6th in Elora, Ontario, to share our vision about different small deployments, about our dreams for all those incredible OLPC startups in Jamaica, Haiti, Madagascar: they have a lot in common and share the same vision! Lets build it together! Yes you can contribute:

Sunday May 6th, 2PM
Elora, Ontario (1hr West of Toronto)

We will show how the 20 years of intensive work of Stéfano Palazzi which in Madagascar made the children the heart of building a community! YES! In Nosy Komba, Madagascar children are the chiefs of the village!

We will also share our difficulties and challenges, our dreams for the future and our vision for a better world!

Developing creativity with the XO and Sugar, reading, discovering, telling stories, understanding their environment and their village, learning photography, history, documentation, mathematics, media making, expressing themselves by learning and learning differently: Is there any thing more beautiful about education?

The Canadian OLPC community welcomes you and family, any internationally-minded educators you know, and students of all ages, to come learn what's really happening out there...please come share everyone's growing laptop/learning project experiences to build the Alearning Dream!

Alive! Awake! Alearn!

Spread the word and RSVP with holt@laptop.org for address & transportation options.

Trust me, if Toronto wasn't a 10h flight away from Vienna I'd definitely join the fun! :-)

Resumen en español: El proximo sábado, 6 de Mayo, voluntarios trabajando en proyectos de OLPC en Haiti y Madagascar, se reunirán cerca de Toronto para una parrillada y compartir y discutir sus experiencias.

IDB on Learning From the OLPC Peru Experience

2012-04-27T13:25:04Z

(Editor's Note: Over the past 2 weeks we have provided you with different views on IDB's ongoing evaluation of Peru's OLPC project and the many discussions around it by Oscar Becerra and Marta Voelcker. Now when we saw this blog post by Eugenio Severín and Julián Cristiá from the IDB's education blog we immediately thought that it was a great complement to the aforementioned perspectives. Thanks to Eugenio for kindly allowing us to re-publish their post here.)

Artículo en español en el blog del BID

We have recently published a Working Paper and a Policy Note presenting the results of the impact evaluation of the "One Laptop per Child" program in Peru, developed by the IDB in collaboration with the Peruvian government itself. Since this is the first large-scale experimental evaluation that has been done in the world, it has stirred up expectations, but can offer important lessons on how to implement programs that provide students with computers and what kinds of results we can expect from such programs.

It is very important to commend the efforts of the Peruvian government for doing a serious evaluation of this program, and for sharing their results so transparently. It is a fact that there are few impact evaluations on the use of technology in education. Therefore, any contribution of knowledge helps support the efforts of many countries in the region and the world that are working to improve educational conditions for children that technologies can provide.

These are our results. First, the program has drastically reduced the digital divide, allowing many students and teachers, even in remote areas, to have access to laptops and educational content. Second, positive results were found in cognitive skills tests. The applied tests sought to measure reasoning abilities, verbal fluency, and processing speed in children. The very results are important, as they have been shown to be predictors of academic and work performance. The results indicate that children who received a laptop got ahead by 5 months of what the natural progression would have been in the development of these skills when compared to children who did not receive a laptop. Third, after 15 months of implementation, we found no statistically significant differences between children in beneficiary schools and children in control schools on learning outcomes measured by standardized tests of mathematics and language. No differences were found in relation to school enrollment and attendance.

The evaluation, adherent to its purpose, has identified important areas and opportunities to strengthen the program, so as to optimize its impact in the future. Primarily, the study's findings suggest identifying and developing a solid pedagogical model, which frames the educational use of computers in schools and classrooms, and proposes that innovative educational practices that take advantage of available technologies be used. Consistently, from this design, the study recommends a need to strengthen teacher training and ensure access to quality educational resources explicitly aligned with the learning objectives.

It is too early to propose definitive conclusions about this particular program, and more broadly, about the One-to-One strategy in which every student has a computer to support his or her learning. The experiences may be very different given the contexts and additional actions that are carried out. For example, Uruguay has implemented a One-to-One model universally in public elementary schools and a recent study from the Universidad de la República found positive impacts on learning. There are also experiences in the use of specialized software that have generated measurable improvements in various countries such as India, Ecuador, and Chile. This assessment, based on the specific experience in Peru so far, aims to contribute to the understanding of contextual characteristics that facilitate the development of One-to-One programs, the implementation components that should be considered to improve their impact, and above all, of the organizational and management conditions to facilitate their implementation.

This first experimental evaluation of a One-to-One program can be a contribution to the design and implementation of relevant policies in the region. It can open the door for new research, and provide us with a deeper understanding of the conditions and elements that permit One-to-One programs improve the quality of education. The potential of technology to enhance educational offerings through better learning resources, new educational practices and new learning spaces, is available for innovative educational projects in the region focused on improving quality. Learning from each effort is a fundamental condition of success.

Goals in 1-to-1 Deployments: Test Scores vs. Innovation

2012-04-25T12:11:44Z

In my point of view the IDB study on OLPC Peru should have evaluated or valued the process of innovation going on. The "Error Message" article by The Economist magazine is a consequence of a study that is not pointing out the main good thing going on in Peru, which I assume is the learning process to innovate education.

What economists and most people do not realize is that the world needs to innovate basic education, but to explain what change is that, is not easy because there are changes advocated by different theories and motivations.

I think that a study that intends to evaluate a 1-to-1 deployment at this moment should first focus on the context and theories that explain how development is connected to digital technology access and use in education. Among many the IADB itself has published papers that explain this (Disrupting Innovation, 2010). Kozma, Infodev, Warschauer, and many others have good publications with contributions for this theme. A treatment/control group study ignores the value of innovation itself and value of the new outputs.

We are living a context where most countries, states or cities don't really know what they want from the 1-to-1 deployments. Of course we all want a better education, but what exactly is that?

The definition of a better education frequently includes things like collaboration, authoring, creativity, leadership, and problem solving. So, if we have such a concept of good education, a study should look for the evidences of this "good education" shouldn't it?

But in the end those types of evidence are not as recognized as grades in math and language tests. Or any other internationally recognized (one size fits all) test. If you give people data with tests results, that's naturally what they are going to look at. This is the way most adults have been educated, this (tests scores) is what they, especially economists and policy makers, trust. But those who are no not studying or somehow immersed on 1-to-1 computing possibilities, don't know that the point here is to build innovation, a process that will take some years, but is so clearly needed.

So what are we really looking for? Are we looking for better grades on standardized tests, one or two years after the kids receive laptops?

Or are we looking for a change in the basic education system, a change for student centered education with active methods, authoring, simulation, and collaboration?

If the latter is the main goal, we must realize it is a long process. We must plan programs as a 10 years process with many changes inside it, develop systems for its evaluation, and validate as well as communicate new evidence of success.

Marta Voelcker is a researcher at Fundación Pensamiento Digital in Brazil.

After 2 Years Electricity Is Still a Challenge for OLPC in Nigeria

2012-04-23T11:26:04Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Back in mid-2009 SEED launched an OLPC project in Nigeria by distributing 4000 XOs to children of three different schools. I had all but forgotten about the project until this weekend when a Google News Alert pointed me to this video about the project:

Aside of the fact that the video is really well done I found it interesting to hear that the project's key challenge so far has been electricity (or rather lack thereof).

Given that the power infrastructure and associated costs for OLPC Nigeria was already a topic here on OLPC News back in 2007 and the SEED project has been going on for two years I can't help but wonder why this key area apparently hasn't been sufficiently addressed yet.

Hopefully this infrastructure challenge will be solved soon because overall it seems like the pupils are getting some good use out of their XOs.

Resumen en español: En 2009 SEED lanzó un proyecto OLPC en Nigeria con la distribución de 4000 XOs a niños de tres escuelas diferentes. Ya me había casi olvidado del proyecto hasta que este fin de semana cuando una alerta de Google News me señaló a este vídeo sobre el proyecto. Aparte del hecho que el vídeo está muy bien hecho me pareció interesante saber que el desafío principal del proyecto hasta el momento ha sido la electricidad (o más bien falta de ella). Dado que la infraestructura de energía y los costos asociados para la OLPC Nigeria era ya un tema aquí en OLPC News en el 2007 y el proyecto SEED ya existe para dos años no puedo evitar preguntarme por qué esta área clave, aparentemente, no ha sido suficientemente abordado todavía. Esperemos que este desafío de las infraestructuras se resolverá pronto porque en general parece que los alumnos están recibiendo un buen uso de sus XO.

Announcing eduJAM! and 1-to-1 week in Montevideo in May

2012-04-20T12:41:45Z

Link a una version en español al final del artículo

eduJAM! summit 2011 group photo by Chris Ball

Last year's eduJAM! summit and associated Conozco Uruguay tour was without a doubt one of the greatest experiences I've ever had within the context of OLPC and Sugar. As such I was very happy when I heard a while ago that the folks behind it were busy preparing the eduJAM! 2012 summit.

Earlier this week they announced the full details of all the events which will take place in Montevideo in early May:

We're very close to eduJAM! 2012, which will take place in May in Montevideo, Uruguay. This time the summit doesn't stand on its own but is accompanied by a number of events which promise to provide enriching meeting opportunities.
1.edu (May 7 and 8), organized by Flor de Ceibo. Flor de Ceibo is a group from the University of the Republic (Universidad de la República) which has brought together dozens of professors and hundreds of students from different backgrounds to collaborate on field projects supporting Plan Ceibal since 2008. This event is focused on discussing the group's vast experience together with invited international academics. The entire event is conducted in Spanish. More information: http://1.edu.flordeceibo.edu.uy

Conozco Uruguay Tour (May 9 and 10), organized by RAP Ceibal. Red de Apoyo al Plan Ceibal (Support Network for Plan Ceibal) is an organization of volunteers which has independently worked on supporting schools and community with a variety of activities (e.g. training and technical support) since the beginning of Plan Ceibal. For this event there will be a tour of various schools where Plan Ceibal has been implemented, visits of classes in small groups, and informal spaces for meeting with teachers. Volunteers will provide support for participants who only speak English. More information: http://cutour.blogspot.com/

eduJAM! (May 11 and 12) is organized by ceibalJAM!. This is the 2012 edition of the event which last year brought together the international educational free software community with participants from over 10 countries. The event is focused on - but not limited to - the OLPC and Sugar platforms. For developers it's a space to learn more about these platforms and discuss their future together with many of the technical heads behind them. For teachers and users of Sugar it's an opportunity to dive deeper into its enormous potential. Simultaneous Spanish/English translation will be provided. More information, registration, scholarships: http://edujam2012.blogspot.com/

Terrón Awards (May 12 at the end of eduJAM!). 20 programs developed by ceibalJAM! compete in four categories: JamUtility!, JamEducation!, JamFun!, and JamPupil! and submissions will be judged by a multidisciplinary jury. More information: http://edujam2012.blogspot.com/p/premios-terron-2012.html

Sugar Code Sprint (May 13 and 14). 48 hours to hack and develop on Sugar. Together with several giants there will be a special space for young developers which are fortunately increasing in numbers. http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/EduJAM/CodeSprint.

Registration and submission of contributions is now possible for all of these events. (For eduJAM! 2011 most participants confirmed their presence in the last two weeks.)

Scholarships as well as accommodation with local volunteers may be available for people who apply for them. Additionally, last year Sugar Labs awarded scholarships for funding travel for community members who applied for them. Instructions for how to apply for such a scholarship can be found here.

For inquiries please contact edujam@googlegroups.com. Facebook. Twitter.

What are you waiting for? Be a part of the largest global community for free educational technologies!

Unfortunately it looks like I won't be able to attend the summit this year as work here in Vienna is keeping me quite busy and flights to Montevideo are fairly expensive. However I'm really looking forward to following the summit from a distance and being able to read the main contributions afterwards.

Anuncio en español

An Alternative Reading of the IADB Study on Peru's OLPC Implementation

2012-04-18T11:08:22Z

(Editor's Note: On Monday we posted Oscar Becerra's Letter to the Editors of The Economist in response to the publication's very critical article about Peru's OLPC implementation. Today we're following up with an extensive guest post by Oscar Becerra in which he hopes "to shed light on what seems to be, probably unintentional, misleading information" about the Peruvian project and IADB's study.)

I was surprised by the beginning of the Economist's article "Error Message" (based on the IADB study) that says the Peruvian Una Laptop por Niño project "did not accomplish anything in particular". The IADB study clearly stated that the project "substantially increased use of computers both at school and at home", "positive effects were found in general cognitive skills" and improved "competence in operating laptops in tasks related to core applications (like a word processor) and searching for information on the computer".

The IADB study also says that there was no significant impact on school enrollment or attendance, nor in test scores in Math and Language. Enrollment in target schools was already nearly 100% -- therefore no further increase could be expected. Also, the program focus was not on improving test scores in Math or Language and there were no applications directly aligned with those subjects.

As the person responsible for Una Laptop por Niño for almost five years I hope to shed light on what seems to be, probably unintentional, misleading information.

Background

The IADB study, which I personally supported and helped to deploy, did not include important background information regarding the Peruvian basic education environment:

A January 2007 census evaluation of 180,000 Peruvian basic education teachers showed 92% of them lacked basic Math reasoning skills and 62% of them did not read at 6th grade level, 27% were at levels of zero or below.
After 200 hours of remedial education run by local universities' faculties of Education, 13% of the teachers were still at the same zero or below level.
The program designed by the government to improve the average quality of teachers at public schools will require at least 10 years to complete.

The above described situation left us with the difficult choice of waiting 10 years to do something or begin in parallel. A 2007 study by McKinsey found that the world's most improved school systems had in common their concern for teacher quality and getting the best people into teaching - a finding that really reduced our options. We also knew that ICT skills had been identified as key ingredients for success by many organizations (see, for example, this report). We believed that putting 21st century tools into the hands of children would be a good way to begin working on the problem while a better teacher workforce was being developed.

It was never the program's primary goal to improve Math and Language test scores. What we expected was that the children's lives would be improved by giving them more options for their future -- something the study has proven because the children are more proficient in the use of 21st century tools (Table 5 of the study shows a dramatic increase in both access and use of computers by the treatment group) and have better cognitive skills (Table 7). It remains to be seen if with appropriate adjustments in strategy those improved cognitive skills will translate into better test scores. I don't agree with the Economist's biased reading of the study.

In spite of the fact the program did not aim directly to improve test scores we agreed with the IADB's proposal to study impact on test scores because if positive impacts were found we would have gained 10 years. The fact that there was no impact on test scores should not be a surprise nor a reason to dismiss the program. It means that we need to adjust the strategy and reinforce teacher training as well as trying to capitalize on the improved cognitive skills of children in order to pursue more ambitious objectives.

The IADB Study

I would like to comment on specific areas of the study and present alternative interpretations to most of what has been circulating recently. I don't think any of the material circulating is unbiased and this is also my personal opinion.

"The program did not affect the quality of instruction in class" (p.3)

I cannot agree with the statement that activities done "might have little effect on educational outcomes (word processing, calculator, games, music...)". Being able to work with a word processor and a calculator should be seen as an educational outcome in itself. The paragraph implies that Math and Language scores are the only educational outcome to be expected.

The study goes on to mention that "on the positive side, the results indicate some benefits on cognitive skills". What needs to be done, and we tried to prepare the project to be able to do so, is to build on those improved cognitive skills by integrating additional material as teachers' quality improves. For example, we were able to integrate external stakeholders into our effort: the National University of Engineering has an application development laboratory that is working on the design of educational games specifically aimed to improve Math scores; a local firm developed a reading comprehension application that has proven effects and runs on the XO's, offering a possibility to improve children's reading comprehension scores from sixth to eleventh grade.

"limited information about how to integrate the computers provided into regular pedagogical practices" (p.6)

This is true but the problem arises when we identify "regular practices" with correct or desirable practices. It is worth noting some teachers still consider hitting students with a stick a regular practice. In a school system with a teacher profile like the one described it is not reasonable to expect regular practices are something we want to reinforce. Choosing to work only with teachers with good practices is not an option as it leaves many teachers out of the picture - it was not a decision to ignore them. Many good teachers have made the extra effort, based on the 40 hours training, and achieved very good results, but the good teachers are a small minority. The main issue here is the lengthy and difficult process of teacher assimilation of technology. I remember a meeting of Peruvian education officers with Clotilde Fonseca in 1998 when she was president of Omar Dengo Foundation in Costa Rica. Fonseca said that after 10 years of the Programa de Informatica Educativa, Costa Rican teachers were able to talk about Piaget correctly. Not that they were able to apply it properly to their classroom practice, but at least they were moving in the right direction.

"lack of Internet access and the fact that the laptops did not run Windows..." (p.7)

We knew from the beginning that universal Internet access would be lacking. This led us to design what we called "the portable Internet", a 2GB USB drive with educational pre-selected pages allowing children and teachers to experience the feeling of navigation and to include a reduced 30,000 entries version of Wikipedia in Spanish. That was what we called "asynchronous connectivity" meaning that the pages would be periodically updated based on teachers and student requests. Regarding Windows, with support from OLPC and Microsoft we ran a test project with Windows based XO's and had to deal with the high requirements in terms of Memory - Storage and virus infection problems. The project was generally successful, however, Microsoft decided to abandon it because they were not developing their platform for the XO. We were convinced that the ICT skills would be easily transferable to other platforms in the future since upgrading to new versions of Windows can be as complex as switching from Sugar to Windows. One unintended advantage of asynchronous connectivity was the protection against access to inappropriate content that we couldn't expect from teachers who knew less than their students about ICT.

"The central outcomes of the study are achievement and cognitive tests" (p.10)

The authors cannot be more specific about what they found and the whole document focuses on the fact that there was no measurable impact in achievement as measured by Math and Language test scores AND that there were positive effects in cognitive skills as measured by Raven's Progressive Matrices test. Why so-called independent analysts decide to write about one and ignore the other may be a matter of study in itself.

"Motivation toward attendance and homework" (p.11)

The study says that its findings contradict what has been suggested regarding motivation (p.2). Since I was the one who suggested this, I must say that in a study we made, we measured intrinsic motivation towards school work, not towards attendance or homework. Therefore, the study does not prove that the suggestion was wrong. The variables measured that showed improvement were: interest - pleasure in school work, relation between effort and results obtained, perceived competence for school work, creative stress, perceived selection of what to do, and improved personal relations. The only variable that did not improve was perceived importance of school work, which was very high from the beginning.

"Computer Access, Use and Skills" (pp. 13-15)

The study describes very promising results in this section. For example, only 13% of laptops malfunctioned at some point and half of them were successfully repaired. This is a demonstration of the XO's ruggedness and the success of our training program, which devoted 8 hours to technical maintenance by teachers. Also promising was that the theft ratio was only 0.3%. It's worth noting that we decided to give the computers but not the property because in those places where parents were mistakenly told the computers were theirs to own, many of them immediately decided to try to sell them for cash.

One negative finding of the study is that the students used the computers mostly during school time. Given that there were no specific Math or Language activities we must assume that they were taking time away from regular school work and using it for OLPC activities. The fact that the test results show no impact may be interpreted as "the teachers work in class has no impact on test scores" -- something I am afraid is not far from the truth.

"self-perceived school competence ... evidence of small negative effects" (p.16)

I don't agree with the implication of these negative effects as a decrease in self-esteem. What may be inferred is that children realize that they are not well prepared for school, a finding that is good if it motivates them to work harder to achieve what they want. What I found is that children in non-OLPC schools have extremely high perceived competence for school work, in spite of their dismal results, something the presence of the XO seemed to be correcting for good.

"Academic Achievement and Cognitive Skills" (pp. 16-17)

I find this section very instructive. The study states that there is no pedagogical model linking software with particular curriculum objectives. That is true because we were convinced that, in order for curriculum-related software to work, we needed well-educated, competent and well-trained teachers. Since we could only provide the training component there was no way to ensure this approach would work. The fact most teachers did not find the training enough is a proof training only was not enough. Re-educating them was well out of our reach.

It is rewarding to learn that the approach chosen did not replicate reported negative effects of home computer usage on grades. Another positive impact neglected by most readers.

The main positive effect described here is the access and use of computers translated into improvements of general cognitive skills. In my opinion, this means that the foundation is in place on which to build and that the task is to continue working to achieve the desired results. It is to be seen if the new government administration will be willing to keep building or will decide to forget about it and begin again. It is promising the person in charge (Sandro Marcone) was the first director of Proyecto Huascarán, a predecesor of the General Directorate of Educational Technologies.

One surprising positive result is the 4.6 to 6 months advantage in cognitive skills progression for the treatment group, which means a 30 to 40% improvement in just 15 months. Why the analysts chose to ignore this remains to be understood.

"Discussion" (pp. 19-20)

I don't share the conclusion "governments should consider alternative uses of public funds". It is known that improving teachers' quality is a long-term effort (Korea took 40 years to improve its education system). Something needs to be done apart from waiting. Whether building on top of improved cognitive skills will result in an improvement in test scores is something that might be worth pursuing. It seems that the current administration has a strong focus on teacher training, which will surely have a positive effect.

The mention about improved IQ in countries as emphasized by some researchers is in line with a study by Nina Hansen that suggests improved IQ test results in Ethiopian children who participated in an OLPC program.

In conclusion, the IADB study is valuable and will hopefully serve as a guide to strategists in getting the most out of the investment made. In no way does it support the Economists's "Error Message" article or the many interested parties who are trying to use the study to push their own agendas. I will have to finish this as I did at the beginning of the project by quoting Miguel de Cervantes' "Don Quijote" when he said "Let the dogs bark Sancho, it's a sign that we keep advancing".

Oscar Becerra was the Chief Educational Technologies Officer in the Peruvian Ministry of Education between September 2007 and July 2011.

Oscar Becerra's Letter to the Editors of The Economist

2012-04-16T11:18:18Z

I was surprised by your "Error Message" article, which alleges that the key-takeway of the recent IADB study on the OLPC project in Peru is "it [OLPC] does not accomplish anything in particular." The Economist minimized the study's findings of important positive effects including substantially increased use of computers both at school and at home, improvement in general cognitive skills and competence in operating laptops. OLPC Peru's primary goal was not improving test scores in Math or Language.

A Peruvian Classroom

As other studies have shown, improving teacher quality and attracting the best minds into the profession are the optimal long-term solutions for advancing education systems. As the person responsible for Una Laptop por Niño in Peru for almost five years, I think it important that your readers have some insight into the quality of teaching in Peru:

A 2007 census evaluation of 180,000 Peruvian teachers showed 92% lacked basic Math skills and 62% of them did not read at 6th grade level, 27% were at levels of zero or below.
After 200 hours of remedial education run by local universities' faculties of education, 13% of the teachers were still at the same zero or below level.

The children of Peru, and our country as whole, cannot afford to wait the 10 years required to substantially improve teacher quality. The government is investing in educational interventions, such as OLPC, that will help our children make progress now.

ICT skills are key ingredients for success in the 21st century. The study describes very promising results regarding computer-related skills, and this is an educational outcome that should not be dismissed.

Better cognitive skills are also a great gain. One surprisingly positive result is the 4.6 to 6 months advantage in cognitive skills progression, which means a 30 to 40% improvement in just 15 months. It remains to be seen if improved cognitive skills will translate into better test scores.

It is our hope that the IADB study will serve as a guide for Peru to get the most out of the investment already made in improving educational opportunities for our children. Maybe it is worth quoting Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quijote when he said "Let the dogs bark Sancho, it's a sign that we keep advancing."

Oscar Becerra was the Chief Educational Technologies Officer in the Peruvian Ministry of Education between September 2007 and July 2011.

Video Showing Off IIT's XO Charging Station in Haiti

2012-04-06T14:45:46Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

We had previously mentioned the XO Charging Stations which a team of students from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago had built. Now earlier today they sent me the link to this great 4min video where they're showing off the installation.

It's no secret that I'm a big fan of IIT's efforts in Haiti and I really can't wait to see what else they come up with in 2012.

Resumen en español: En el pasado ya habíamos mencionado las estaciones de carga XO que un equipo de estudiantes de Illinois Institute of Technology en Chicago había construido. Hoy me enviaron un link a este execelente video de 4min donde están mostrando la instalación. No es ningún secreto que soy un gran fan de los esfuerzos de IIT en Haití y yo realmente no puedo esperar a ver qué más se les ocurre en 2012.

Open Call for 30,000 Euros to Develop Learning Software for Sudan

2012-04-04T20:49:01Z

Resumen en español al final del artículo

Here is an interesting Call for Proposals from War Child Holland. Since the call specifically mentions the target platforms being netbooks such as Intel Classmate PCs and OLPC XOs I thought it might be of interest to some of you. From an educational point of view the goals of the project also seem to be quite well aligned with some of the things going on in the OLPC community:

The system will provide learning to boys and girls in The Sudan outside the reach of traditional education. As teachers are not available, the system should therefore offer self-directed ways of learning and dynamically adapt to progress of each individual learner.

Proposals for this open call must be submitted electronically in PDF format and e-mailed to elearning.sudan@warchild.nl before April 11. Similarly any questions about the call should also be directed to that e-mail address.

Resumen en español: Ayer encontré esta convocatoria de propuestas de War Child Holland. Como esta enfocado en desarrollar software para plataformas como los Intel Classmate PC y OLPC XO y el punto de vista educativo también parece estar alineado con el mundo OLPC pensé que podría ser interesante para algunos de ustedes. Para más información sobre la convocatoria se debe escribir a elearning.sudan@warchild.nl y el fin de plazo es el 11 de abril.