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Peruvian Teachers Begin OLPC Training
Posted by
Zonk
on Thursday March 27, @06:02PM
from the tapping-into-something-bigger dept.
from the tapping-into-something-bigger dept.
eldavojohn writes "Today was the first day that Peruvian teachers from remote villages began training to use the OLPC in their day-to-day activities. From the article: 'Success of OLPC now depends largely on frontline teachers and, of course, parents and kids. Peru's effort, if successful, would be a model for other nations. In the training now under way, teachers must become versed not only in how to operate and maintain the laptops, but also in how to do their jobs within a newly laptop-centric educational model. The laptops will contain some 115 books, including textbooks, novels, and poetry, as well as art and music programs, cameras, and other goodies. What many of these kids won't get is Internet access: about 90 percent of the villages lack it, and may not get it anytime soon.'"
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Wow, new term: "sneaker net" (Score:4, Funny)
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I love how you think it was coined because of thumb drives.
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Maybe they can... (Score:2)
http://hardware.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/26/0118237 [slashdot.org]
Check out this video on TED... (Score:3, Insightful)
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/41 [ted.com]
Ooops, I meant this one: (Score:5, Interesting)
Wrong video (g), I meant this one: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/228 [ted.com]
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Since then he's been screwed so many times that you talk to him now and he's not at all enthusiastic.
Internet would help (Score:4, Insightful)
From the summary:
This is a serious drawback as the internet is a great source of information as well as a way to commercialize the computing efforts of these kids and (potentially) give them some good old capitalist reasons to study hard. Even so, while the lack of internet access is not as big of a drawback as it might be. These laptops will presumably still form their own mesh networks and connect to the school's XO server. I bet a lot of Windows using American kids wish their computers would allow them to network with friends nearly as easily.
Best of luck to these teachers. It is always hard being the guinea pig for a new technology and it will probably take a lot of dedication to alter their teaching methods to really take advantage of this new tool.
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The American kid with a Windows PC or a cell phone doesn't seem to having much trouble networking with anyone.
fingers crossed (Score:3, Interesting)
of course, while we all greatly enjoyed following the speccing out and design of these machines, the tech was the easy part. I sincerely hope there's the right follow-thru in training, and not one-shot "here's your crash course in the 21st century g'luck buhbye," but ongoing support and training.
I worked at a "high tech" charter school for a while; from laying the cable in the new building, to several months after it opened and class started. It was a mess. All too typical "let's throw technology at a problem and it will Magically Solve Everything By Itself!" Good intentions, poor execution. Hardly anyone on the *staff* had any technical ability. Infrastructure and purchasing decisions were made from political standpoint and funder's/administrations ego trip, not what might be best to introduce people to a completely new world for them. You've seen it all before...
I'm privileged to be teaching nowadays in a similar mission; un- or underemployed adults trying to retrain, at-risk youth, most with little or no technical background or even experience beyond webmail and IM. We take so much of our know-how for granted, it's easy to forget how arcane this is to most people. I guess i'm just saying, i hope the approach doesn't fall into "teach the same stuff the same way but we're reading off a screen instead of paper," y'know?
But here's hoping. And pretty darn cool. That pic of those two kids on those funky green plastic laptops gave me a sudden image of A Young Lady's Illustrated Primer [wikipedia.org] [wikipedia.org] :D
After seeing Fujimori "fall sleep" (Score:4, Interesting)
I know there's pros and cons VAV the OLPC, but overall it's a win-win if this can get kids access to tech that they otherwise wouldn't, and be (eventually) able to communicate with other kids at the other side of the globe and be able to learn to use a computer much in the same way as kids in the "developed" world do, and it likely gives them an economical advantage in the long run, but certainly and immediately the advantage of having broaded their horizon, which is always a treat to a young mind I think.
Intranets? (Score:3, Interesting)
The XO can be very educational.... (Score:5, Interesting)
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OLPC lookin' good (Score:4, Informative)
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20 hours? I only get about four. (Score:3, Interesting)
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Are you aware that the OLPC does not have a hand-crank?
That was dropped during early prototypes, as it's just asking too much of a laptop casing.
You can charge one on any input ranging between 5-20volts, so hand charging is possible, but not standard.
Re:OLPC lookin' good (Score:5, Informative)
Re:OLPC lookin' good (Score:5, Informative)
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It uses rsync, but you can do it other ways. With OLPC, everyone has had the same set of problems, so they are all very well documented on the wiki. Read up before complaining.
But don't be mean, I've been scouring the wiki since yesterday trying to find the bits of info I need. Things are documented, but "very well" is not something I'd say about i
Arahuay (Score:3, Informative)
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Said, "There is one thing I do know.
A woman is fine,
and a sheep is divine,
but a LLAMA is Numero Uno !"
Baaa!