[Its.an.education.project] Ivan's latest blog entry on OLPC

[Christoph Derndorfer]

Javier,

thanks a lot for that insight.

The one thing that I've been asking for a long time (and I haven't been 
able to come up with a satisfactory answer) is if and how the Peruvian 
Ministry of Education is evaluating the impact of the current 
deployment. There must be someone there who is interested in 
understanding whether it's worth spending x amount of money on an OLPC 
initiative when there's a million other projects (other education 
efforts, salud, infrastructure. etc.) competing for that money. On a 
smaller scaler this is probably something that happened during the pilot 
that was going on since mid-2007...

I'd appreciate any pointers from you (or others) about this.

Thanks,
Christoph


info at olpc-peru.info schrieb:
> Ivan et al,
>
> Just giving you plain info.
>
> In your essay you tell us... "As far as I know, there is no real study 
> anywhere that demonstrates constructionism works at scale."
> I agree.  But... there is a huge place to test how construccionism has 
> work in the last 8 years: Peru.
>
> Las weekend I have been talking with my sister in law and another 
> friend, both are teachers and have small kids in the school.  One of 
> them teach in top high school (rich schools) and the other in public 
> schools (poor schools).  Both told me the next: 8 years ago 
> (aproximately) the peruvian goverment decide to follow the 
> construccionist method for the education (here is as easy as one 
> person in charge deciding this or that... then the whole system will 
> move in that sense).  They (the teachers) got order to take a special 
> course about "new education methods" that was basically 
> construccionism.  The course was obligatory.  Both teachers are from 
> the coast and for the coast area (I don't have information about 
> Andean teachers... but I suppose it must be the same because the 
> education is managed as a whole system... it shouldn't be... but.. it 
> is!).
>
> I can continue telling about all the questions that I have ask them 
> (to my sister in law and other teacher) but it was a long 4 hours 
> conversation and, of course, was not a scientific or statistical 
> study.  I don't have very clear IF the construccionism has bring good 
> or bad for the teachers in Peru, but at least a huge group of peruvian 
> teachers know what it is and they have been, in some way, trained to 
> use it in the classroom.
>
> Knowing my country, and knowing my own people, I can guess that the 
> theories of construccionism has not been well taught, deeply learned, 
> or are in full use in my country.  But... a statiscal work (taking 
> aleatory data) could be done.
> The bad news are that our authorities take an exam (about general 
> knowledge) to 180,000 teachers.  Just 2,100 aproved the examination 
> with the minimum qualification (11 points over a total of 20) and just 
> 140 aproved with a note of 14 or more (over the 20 maximum points).  
> So any study about construccionism should take note the "base" over 
> what you are trying to develop construccionism.  It can sound hard but 
> I need to give you all the information (good or bad) so serious 
> studies can be develop taken in account all the sides and happenings.
>
> Best regards,
>
> Javier Rodriguez
> Lima, Peru
>
>
>
>
>
>
> Ivan Krstić wrote:
>> On May 13, 2008, at 9:46 PM, Stephen John Smoogen wrote:
>>> Just make sure you read all the way through before trying to
>>> understand it. I needed to read it through twice as he is a very angry
>>> person and his anger seems to go at a lot of targets..
>>
>> Do you feel that particular points were not properly supported or 
>> explained in the essay?
>>
>> -- 
>> Ivan Krstić <krstic at solarsail.hcs.harvard.edu> | http://radian.org
>>
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