[IAEP] Sugar Digest 2010-11-01

[Christoph Derndorfer]

Am 01.11.2010 17:17, schrieb Walter Bender:
> Why am I reminiscing about Alan Kay? When I read Christoph
> Derndorfer's article on OLPC Peru
> [http://edutechdebate.org/olpc-in-south-america/olpc-in-peru-one-laptop-per-child-problems/],
> Oscar Becerra's response, and the subsequent follow up discussions
> spread across several threads on the
> [http://lists.laptop.org/pipermail/olpc-sur/ Sur list], I was struck
> by the dichotomy that seems to exist within the community: those who
> see and voice problems and those who are trying, despite the
> challenges, to amplify the things that are good. While criticism is a
> necessary component of any effort to bring about change, it is
> important to frame the criticism within a context whereby it can be
> used in service of our collective goal: to raise a generation of
> critical thinkers and problem-solvers by establishing a culture of
> independent thinking and learning.
> 
> We can and do argue about how to achieve this goal (and some within
> the community take issue with the goal itself, e.g., our focus should
> be on helping children do better on their national exams, as if it
> were a black-and-white choice), but as we argue and criticize, we need
> to avoid the temptation to sensationalize (e.g., "it will require a
> significant overhaul of the whole strategy") or draw premature or out
> of context conclusions (e.g., the 'Romanian study'
> [http://www.columbia.edu/%7Ecp2124/papers/computer.pdf] often cited by
> Yamandú proves... [1]).
> 
> Christoph made a number of observations on his whirlwind tour of OLPC
> deployments in South America. While his observations are of anecdotal
> interest, none of them have any statistical significance and yet he
> presumes to draw far-reaching conclusions. Even when he relies upon
> data gathered by others, his conclusions are overstated. For example,
> he cites from an IDB report
> [http://idbdocs.iadb.org/wsdocs/getdocument.aspx?docnum=35370099]
> "that almost 5% of the schools which have already received XOs don’t
> even have electricity yet." He goes on to assert "that the Ministry of
> Education’s data on the infrastructure available at schools doesn’t
> seem to be up to date and accurate enough." I don't know how he can
> draw that conclusion from the data. (As Oscar points out, the source
> of the problem was that the solar panels were not available as soon as
> expected.) Another way of saying the same thing is, "more than 95% of
> the schools that have already received XOs have electricity." Or he
> could have used the data as a rallying cry for support for OLPC's
> efforts to build a more power-efficient, ARM-based machine.
> 
> Like Christoph, I too will cherry pick from the IDB report: "it was
> noted that over 95% of teachers in schools receiving laptops think
> they help improve education and children's learning and motivate them
> to go to school. Moreover, between 90 and 94% of teachers indicated
> that laptops improve the quality of teaching." (From the original
> Spanish: "se observó que más de 95% de los docentes de escuelas que
> recibieron los equipos piensa que las computadoras portátiles
> contribuyen a mejorar la educación y el aprendizaje de los niños y los
> motivan para ir a la escuela. Por otro lado, entre el 90 y 94% de los
> docentes indicaron que las computadoras portátiles mejoran la calidad
> de su enseñanza y la facilitan."
> 
> The Peru deployment is necessarily a process of iterative design. The
> challenges (Internet, electricity, training) are formidable and
> undoubtedly mistakes have been and will be made. The ministry is
> neither "waiting for miracles to happen" nor is it ignorant of or
> ignoring the challenges. By adopting an iterative approach, it is
> refining its deployment model while trying to provide opportunities
> for learning to children in the near term – rather than waiting for
> perfection. We can argue about details, but progress is being made:
> the ministry, the teachers, the community, and especially the children
> are learning.
> 
> If can keep in mind Alan Kay's axioms as a guide both to not over
> value technology and to be aware of what is its potential good; and if
> we work together as a community [2] – not moving blindly without
> critique, but also not engaging in sensationalism – doing, making,
> deploying, mentoring, and sharing, we will make a positive difference,
> in Peru and everywhere else.

I thought a long time about how to reply to these comments, allegations
or however one wants to call them but you know what, after five hours
spent carefully reviewing the valuable comments and critique by Oscar
(note: head of DIGETE, the Peruvian Ministry of Education's department
which is running the country's OLPC project) and others and extensively
replying to them I can't really be bothered...

I'd recommend anyone who is interested in the complete story to simply
read my original article as well as the almost 120 comments it has
received so far at
http://edutechdebate.org/olpc-in-south-america/olpc-in-peru-one-laptop-per-child-problems/
and make up their own mind.

> :[2] One place where Christoph and I are somewhat on the same page is
> in regard to the level of community involvement in Peru. While there
> are fruitful collaborations with some of the local universities, as
> described by Oscar, and while parents are becoming more involved in
> their children's learning, as hinted at in the IDB report, there is an
> untapped potential in the people of Peru to engage in much the same
> way that Ceibal RAP and Ceilbal JAM contribute to the efforts in
> Uruguay. How to unleash that potential within Peru remains an
> unresolved question.

While this is indeed a harder issue than in Uruguay (in many ways I
would assume due to the different socio-economic situation of most
people in Peru vs. Uruguay) I see a variety of ways forward here.

I think the first step is simply to build more personal ties between the
global community and the folks in Peru such as Kiko, Sebastian, and
Sdenka (all in CC). While I unfortunately couldn't make it by all
accounts the OLPC SF meeting was an excellent event because it finally
brought so many different people together into the same physical location.

So as Walter pointed out in the previous Sugar Digest I can also only
recommend everyone here to go out and visit an OLPC / Sugar deployment
if in any way possible. Luckily many of them happen to be in excellent
tourism destinations such as Peru, Nicaragua or Nepal so it's easy to
combine play and work and an excellent way to meet folks who will give
you a great insight into the local culture. (Rereading this paragraph I
think I really ought to start olpc-adventures.com;-)

Secondly, I think as a community we need to become better at
appreciating and publicly recognizing the great work that many people in
Peru are doing today. Yes, the Sugar Digest community section,
planet.sugarlabs.org, OLPC News articles, etc. are a start but why not
become more active in reaching out to the Peruvian community. Let's for
example have a "this week / month in Peru's community" section / article
in the Sugar Digest, on OLPC News and on the Web site or wiki.

Thirdly, and I know many people don't want to touch this topic but
funding is an important issue here. While generally it's comparatively
feasible for a software developer, teacher or even student in places
like North America and Europe to dedicate extra time to other efforts
such as OLPC we must recognize that this is a form of luxury that often
isn't available in places such as Peru. Crowd-funding enabled some
people to attend the Community Summit in San Francisco and was used for
one of the early-day Sugar Camps in Boston, why not at least try and use
it for funding small projects in Peru? Also, for any sort of larger
grant at least here in Austria and the EU it often helps to have a local
partner organization in a country one is trying to work with.

The fourth point is that we need to make some of the processes and
associated documentation we rely on more open to non-English speakers.
While writing these lines I for example got an e-mail from some
Uruguayan volunteers I had met who are asking me to review their
proposal to OLPC's Contributor's Program. We should realize that more
than 50% of all OLPC / Sugar users are based in South America and adapt
things like the Web site, wiki, etc. accordingly. This process could in
turn be a weekend project (a la GdK) and easy way for new Spanish
speaking people to get involved.

Last but not least, and maybe even most importantly, we should ask the
existing Peruvian communities what they think, where and how the OLPC /
Sugar community can support them, etc.

> ===In the community===
> 
> 3. We are finalizing the list of candidates for the upcoming election
> to fill opening in the Sugar Oversight Board. I'm very pleased that we
> have so many outstanding candidates:
> 
> * Adam Holt
> * Steven Parrish
> * Chris Ball
> * Rosamel Norma Ramirez Mendez
> * Gerald Ardito
> * Sebastian Silva
> * Aleksey Lim
> * Claudia Urrea
> * Pacita Peña

This is excellent news indeed!

> 4. DIGITAL CITIZENSHIP, an international forum on development and
> social inclusion through the use of ICT in Uruguay will be held on
> 29th and 30th November 2010 at the Uruguayan Laboratory of Technology
> (LATU) in Montevideo, Uruguay.

On a fun side-note: I was invited to give a talk at that forum (but
again had to turn the invitation down due to annoying scheduling
conflicts) so I guess some people do actually see some sort of crazy
value in my experiences and subsequent sensationalizing reports and
writing (sorry, I really couldn't help myself;-).

Cheers,
Christoph

-- 
Christoph Derndorfer
co-editor, www.olpcnews.com
e-mail: christoph at olpcnews.com