[IAEP] (no subject)

[Tracy Richardson]

At primary school level in Australia textbooks are rare. Published
workbooks, such as Mathematics problems and tests are more common, as are
worksheets (unfortunately in my opinion), but textbooks are not.

The conversion to digital textbooks at primary level, I imagine, would not
be a priority here because very few classrooms really use them. Teachers
generally source information, sometimes photocopy it from teacher resource
books or library books, sometimes find it on the web and print or project in
the classroom. With the XOs, teachers are instructing students to locate
information on the web.

I don't hear many stories of classes using the XOs as eBook readers. I have
a couple of thoughts as to why this might happen. Firstly, distributing the
same text to a class of XOs has its challenges. It would require a USB stick
to be passed around the class which is time consuming and requires high
teacher support in the lower years, disrupting the lesson. It would be
easier to print. Secondly, the information a teacher might source is not
necessarily in a format suitable for an eBook reader.

Tracy Richardson
Education Manager
One Laptop per Child Australia
P: 02 9378 6155
M: + 61 418 744 318
E: tracy at laptop.org.au
A: G.P.O. Box 731
     Sydney, NSW 2001
W: www.laptop.org.au



-----Original Message-----
From: iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org
[mailto:iaep-bounces at lists.sugarlabs.org] On Behalf Of Edward Mokurai
Cherlin
Sent: Sunday, 5 February 2012 4:42 PM
To: iaep
Subject: [IAEP] (no subject)

Please pass this on to

     OLPC Australia <olpc-au at lists.laptop.org >,
     OLPC New Zealand <olpc-nz at lists.laptop.org >,
     OLPC Oceania <olpc-oceania at lists.laptop.org >,
     Grassroots <grassroots at lists.laptop.org >

On Fri, February 3, 2012 7:41 am, Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote:
> Hello everyone,
>
> You may be interested in a review I have written of the OLPC Australia
> education programme:
>
> http://www.dhanapalan.com/blog/2012/02/01/creating-an-education-progra
> mme/

Thank you for this. Is Australia planning for the necessary conversion from
printed textbooks to all-digital Open Education Resources? I say that it is
necessary in part because the computers cost less than the printed
textbooks, and also because we cannot integrate computer software into the
curriculum until we go to digital OERs. Bangladesh has done so, and both
Uruguay and South Korea have announced plans to do so.

There are OERs on almost every subject at all levels, but outside Bangladesh
there are no complete integrated suites covering all of the requirements,
including teacher training. We need governments and school authorities to
take this problem seriously, to plan for what is needed, and to think about
how to organize and fund the conversion.

> It contains the video of a talk I gave at the linux.conf.au conference
> in January, and a more detailed explanation of that talk.
>
> Some of the key points:
>
>   * We have a com­pre­hens­ive edu­ca­tion pro­gramme that highly
> val­ues teacher empower­ment and com­munity engagement, with a focus
> on building sustainability.
>   * The invest­ment to provide a con­nec­ted learn­ing device to every
> one of the 300 000 chil­dren in remote Aus­tralia is less than 0.1% of
> the annual edu­ca­tion and con­nectiv­ity budgets.
>   * For low socio-economic status schools, the cost is only $80 AUD
> per child.
>   * Our pro­gramme is avail­able to any school in Aus­tralia, for $380
> AUD per child.
>   * Our programme is schools-centric, with a strong focus on the teacher.
>   * A teacher must undergo training and earn a certification to
> qualify to receive XOs for their class.
>   * Training is conducted online, and hence scales very well.
>   * We have an online community to provide peer-driven support,
> assisted by OLPC Australia personnel.
>   * Technology development and deployment is guided by the principle
> that it must be manageable by non-technical personnel.
>   * Our technology platform is open and not locked-down, providing
> maximum opportunity for children to learn and empowering
> schools/communities to own the deployment for themselves.
>   * We are seeing real educational results from our efforts, and are
> engaged in longitudinal and detailed evaluation.
>   * Our supporters include corporations and members of parliament at
> state and federal levels, but we can always use more help :)
>
> Please have a read if you are interested, and contact us if you would
> like to take part in our mission.
>
> We will be releasing more information on this educational programme in
> the coming months.
>
>
> Sridhar
>
>
> Sridhar Dhanapalan
> Engineering Manager
> One Laptop per Child Australia
> _______________________________________________
> IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
> IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep


-- 
Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin
Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation.
The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination.
http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Replacing_Textbooks
_______________________________________________
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)
IAEP at lists.sugarlabs.org
http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep