[IAEP] OLPC tablets and Nell in the wild?

[Yama Ploskonka]

Hackaday reports on teacher-less deployment. Hadn't heard this was 
already out there, my apologies to all who knew this was an old thing. 
Apparently 6 months already?

Anybody here connected with this deployment?


On 10/31/2012 03:02 PM, Hack a Day wrote:
> WordPress.com
> Mike Szczys posted: " We don't remember hearing about the One Laptop 
> Per Child initiative distributing tablet computers but apparently a 
> couple of shipments were distributed to rural communities in Ethiopia. 
> The problem one might think of in this scenario is that the liter"
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>     OLPC tablet distribution proves concepts laid out in ‘The
>     Diamond Age’
>     <http://hackaday.com/2012/10/31/olpc-tablet-distribution-proves-concepts-laid-out-in-the-diamond-age/>
>
> by Mike Szczys <http://hackaday.com/author/mikehackaday/>
>
> We don't remember hearing about the One Laptop Per Child initiative 
> distributing tablet computers but apparently a couple of shipments 
> were distributed to rural communities in Ethiopia 
> <http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/>. 
> The problem one might think of in this scenario is that the literacy 
> rate in the two test villages was basically zero. But that's exactly 
> the population targeted with thr technology. The tablets were loaded 
> with a software package called Nell. It was designed to guide a child 
> in self learning by telling them engaging stories that include 
> teachable moments. If you check out the white paper 
> <http://cscott.net/Publications/OLPC/idc2012.pdf> (PDF) you'll find 
> it's pretty much the exact same teaching technique that [Neal 
> Stephenson] wrote about in his book /The Diamond Age/. But keep 
> reading that paper and you'll see that this is because the researchers 
> took their inspiration from that very novel.
>
> Well the results are in and apparently [Neal] knows exactly what he is 
> talking about. Not only did the children learn from the software, but 
> within five months they were hacking the device (which runs Android) 
> to get the disabled camera working.
>
> [Thanks Alexander via Dvice 
> <http://dvice.com/archives/2012/10/ethiopian-kids.php>]
>
> *Mike Szczys <http://hackaday.com/author/mikehackaday/>* | October 31, 
> 2012 at 1:01 pm | Tags: neal stephenson 
> <http://hackaday.com/?tag=neal-stephenson>, nell 
> <http://hackaday.com/?tag=nell>, olpc <http://hackaday.com/?tag=olpc>, 
> tablet <http://hackaday.com/?tag=tablet>, the diamond age 
> <http://hackaday.com/?tag=the-diamond-age> | Categories: lifehacks 
> <http://hackaday.com/?cat=10626>, tablet pcs hacks 
> <http://hackaday.com/?cat=10969121> | URL: http://wp.me/pk3lN-neq
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