<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1" http-equiv="Content-Type"> </head> <body bgcolor="#ffffff" text="#000000"> 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: <blockquote cite="mid:482ACB18.4010901@student.tuwien.ac.at" type="cite"><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:info@olpc-peru.info">info@olpc-peru.info</a> schrieb: <blockquote type="cite">--- 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 --- </blockquote> 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 <blockquote type="cite"> Javier Rodriguez Lima, Peru Walter Bender wrote: <blockquote type="cite">Javier,   <blockquote type="cite">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".     </blockquote> 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.   <blockquote type="cite">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.     </blockquote> 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.   <blockquote type="cite">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.     </blockquote> 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.   <blockquote type="cite">I think there was a lack of accurate map.     </blockquote> Accurate to what measure? There is certainly knowledge as to where every school is--and you yourself tel us that every village is known.   <blockquote type="cite">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".     </blockquote> 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   </blockquote> </blockquote> </blockquote> </body> </html>