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

[info at olpc-peru.info]

Cristoph,

_Universities: _there has been news (about 3 months) that just one 
university was involved in the issue.  That university is the one were 
the Minister of Education was the main authority before becoming 
Minister (Univ. San Martin).  I have talk with people of the University 
of Lima and I have read news from the Catholic University (2 of the ones 
that have enough economic power to back up many developments) and all 
the information says that other Universities have not been invited to 
participate in the project.  The lack of "community participation" has 
been debated very hard in the peruvian internet forums related to the 
OLPC case.  The people that create some of this forums was so annoyed 
that they close the forums and don't accept more debate about the issue 
(I think that they have better things to do that hitting against a wall, 
or been on the news as oponents to the Peruvian OLPC project when they 
don't feel like that).

_Contributing with content and educational methods:_ as I have told you, 
hundreds of teachers have been trained (around year 2000) in 
construccionism as a way of teaching.  There must be hundreds of "first 
hand" experiences to pick up, organize, and from these people all kind 
of help can be got.  But, I think, is the Minister of Education, the 
only one that can call to these people for help (at least they know who 
they are, were they are, and have the resources to develop some 
statistical or massive measurement of the construccionism during the 
last 8 years in Peru).  But... I guess that IF they (the many Ministers 
of Education that we have got in the last 8 years) have not tried to 
pick up the data is because the results are not big news or big results 
(politicians need big news or bir results to survive.  It is a matter of 
common sense for a politician).  My hope is that 240,000 XOs deployed 
all around Peru they become COMMUNICATION tools that goes beyond the 
limits of the small town, then ALL the teachers around Peru will be able 
to communicate one each other trough mail lists, chats, web 2.0 methods, 
forums and many other ways.  But... it is common in many government 
organizations (I know this from first hand, in many goverment offices) 
that tech person in charge of the "proxyes and nats" devices are 
instructed to block all kind of port that are used for communication.  I 
have been able to track some goverment office that "record" all the info 
that goes trough their "server" (it was the CONACS, that is a dependency 
of the Minister of Agriculture, it happens around 5 years ago, the tech 
people in charge keeps the same until today, I have denounced the issue 
with the top authorities and congressmen without success or penalties 
imposed to that people until today).

_Content, 100 books... : _ Well... those "100 books" are nothing.  They 
come from an old project (named "Huascaran", that in front of many 
people it is a total failure) these "100 books" coollection are obscure 
tales, writings from another obscure author (more than 30!), put me on 
tears when I review what this set of "books" offer.  I am building a 
huge collection of "on line books" to provide some source of content.  I 
don't know about other efforts (there must be some!) and I have never 
heard about the results of the pilot in Arahuay (I have at hand just the 
news, newspapers and reports... and these are valuable personal points 
of view but they are not organized results...).

Let's keep working, let's keep moving.

Best regards,

Javier Rodriguez
Lima, Peru



Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
> info at olpc-peru.info schrieb:
>> --- snip ---
>> Now the ball is the hands of us: Peruvians.  I can, from a technical 
>> point of view, develop
>> the next:
>> a) Alternative energy source.
>> b) "Sneaker net" for internet access.
>> c) Content for our children.
>>
>> The problem is that I don't have time.  So I am speaking with some 
>> universities that
>> can help me (help us) with these issues.  I know what I will get: 
>> negative support from
>> some people that think that these OLPC/XO project must be develop by 
>> just one
>> university.  That is normal behavior.  And I will find a way to deal 
>> with it.
>>
>> --- snip ---
>
> This is another question I have for you Javier: How far (if at all) 
> have the Peruvian universities been involved in these efforts, 
> especially when it comes to coming up with software and content to be 
> used in the deployment?
>
> I know that the FOSS coding community in Peru is relatively small 
> (especially compared to South American heavy-weights such as Brazil) 
> but I imagine there must be at least a couple of highly skilled and 
> motivated coders out there who want to contribute to making OLPC 
> happen in their country. Equally I image there must be some great 
> educators there who would be willing and able to contribute when it 
> comes to actual content and educational methods?
>
> Even back home in Austria, where we're a million miles away from the 
> actual deployments, there have been efforts and highly motivated 
> student groups at 4 or 5 universities who are working on cool 
> projects, coming up with ideas for interactive contents, writing 
> games, etc. I image actually being in a country that deploys XOs on a 
> grand scale should make it easier to find those kinds of people.
>
> On a closely related note: It is my understanding that the XOs 
> deployed in Peru these days come with a collection of 100 or so 
> pre-installed books. Is there any other localized contents or software 
> that's particular to the Peruvian deployment or any activities that 
> have been developed in Peru based on feedback from say the pilot in 
> Arahuay?
>
> Thanks,
> Christoph
>
>
>>
>> Javier Rodriguez
>> Lima, Peru
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> Walter Bender wrote:
>>> Javier,
>>>
>>>  
>>>> I doubt that the Ministry of Education (or anyone) will evaluate 
>>>> the impact
>>>> of the current deployment.  Not in a technical way.
>>>> Why? Because I think they will be more than happy to say to the 
>>>> media that
>>>> "240,000 laptops" have been bought by the goverment for the poor 
>>>> children in
>>>> Peru.  Photos, newspapers, and that will be all.  Develop a study 
>>>> to measure
>>>> the impact cost money, and can bring some "not so good news".. it is a
>>>> possibility.  I don't think that is the job of a "normal politician".
>>>>     
>>>
>>> Maybe being an outsider I have been mislead as well, but I found the
>>> people that I have been working with at the ministry of education in
>>> Peru and the teachers I have met and worked with to be anything but
>>> political hacks. They are dedicated to improving the lives of the
>>> children of Peru and are putting in an extraordinary effort. The fact
>>> that I am bombarded with questions about how to do things better
>>> suggests that they are interested in more than just phot
>>> opportunities. The fact that they are first targetting the most needy
>>> children is a sign that they are willing to take risks to help those
>>> most in need.
>>>
>>>  
>>>> And.. just to start to speak in a right way: you need to establish 
>>>> a "BASE
>>>> LINE".. before you do any deployment, before you do any training, 
>>>> before you
>>>> develop any pilot, before you move one pencil or speak one word in 
>>>> front of
>>>> the general audience.  No base line? Then you can do anything and 
>>>> say that
>>>> it was a success.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> I don't know the details of the baseline, but surely there are some
>>> statistics about the current state of learning in Peru--indeed, you
>>> yourself cite one statistic: the current ill state of preparation of
>>> teachers in the country. One of the reasons for chosing a
>>> Constructionist approach is exactly to move the undertrained,
>>> underprepared teacher into a new role where he/she can be of more
>>> utility to the children.
>>>
>>>  
>>>> Here we can see that some people has think that this XO +
>>>> Construccionism + Open Source + Sugar + Linux +... (many other 
>>>> ingredients)
>>>> is the good formula to help the poorest children.  Knowing poverty 
>>>> from
>>>> first hand, and seeing how my own different groups of people 
>>>> (north, south,
>>>> center people) is not the same, don't behave the same, don't think 
>>>> the same,
>>>> don't need the same... then I wonder how the method to introduce this
>>>> "SOLUTION" is just one.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> I am not sure that the forumla you cite is so proscriptive as you
>>> suggest. In fact, the whole point is that it is not proscriptive--it
>>> is a methodology of adapting to the authentic needs of the learner. So
>>> in this case it is a wise choice, a rational compromise.
>>>
>>>  
>>>> I think there was a lack of accurate map.
>>>>     
>>>
>>> Accurate to what measure? There is certainly knowledge as to where
>>> every school is--and you yourself tel us that every village is known.
>>>
>>>  
>>>> Don't take me wrong: those XOs will be useful.  Oh yes! But the 
>>>> intended
>>>> goals (of the OLPC) has been "wounded" because we have put "the 
>>>> wagon in
>>>> front of the mules".
>>>>     
>>>
>>> I don't suggest that things cannot be done better; this is new and
>>> Peru is taking some risks. But they know they will learn and iterate
>>> on the process to improve it. And remember, the riskiest path is the
>>> status quo that we know if failing children. The fact that we can even
>>> have this discuss about Peru is a testament to Oscar and his team.
>>>
>>> -walter
>>>
>>>
>>>   
>>
>
>

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