Peruvian Teachers Begin OLPC Training 56
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.'"
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]
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)
20 hours? I only get about four. (Score:3, Interesting)
There were great plans for power management that were intended to give a twenty-hour battery life, but apparently they haven't been implemented yet.
So, are you describing the real XO you actually have, or the XO of your imagination?
Re:OLPC lookin' good (Score:3, Interesting)
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 it.
Now... to test this out before I hit [Submit]
W00t! Thanks!
Now, see, if it had said "port 873" instead of "the internet", I'd say it was "very well" documented
But, thanks again, you do slashdot proud, Mr Informative, you.