On Tue, Jul 8, 2008 at 4:24 AM, Edward Cherlin <<a href="mailto:echerlin@gmail.com">echerlin@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br><div class="gmail_quote"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div class="Ih2E3d">On Mon, Jul 7, 2008 at 6:20 AM, Walter Bender <<a href="mailto:walter.bender@gmail.com">walter.bender@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br> Bryan Berry <<a href="mailto:bryan@olenepal.org">bryan@olenepal.org</a>> wrote:<br> >> Again, the culture at Bill's school is radically different from 99.9% of<br> >> all schools in Nepal. The culture here is very conservative and hierarchical.<br> >> We aren't going to change this over night or even in several years.<br> ><br> > I wonder. Albeit with some external intervention in the form of<br> > mentoring the teachers, in both Pakistan and Nigeria, some "very<br> > conservative and hierarchical" classrooms did change--not overnight,<br> > but within *weeks* of the introduction of Sugar.<br> <br> </div>As also documented in Ethiopia. See the report at<br> <a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Academic" target="_blank">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Academic</a> Papers<br> <div class="Ih2E3d"><br> > Maybe the secret<br> > sauce is to provide support to the teachers for engaging the children<br> > in a new approach to learning: the "hard stuff" on Alan's diagram.<br> > Sugar itself cannot do this itself, but a community that forms around<br> > Sugar can!! In both Peru and Uruguay, the education bureaucracy is<br> > trying to establish such a mentoring network. Maybe this is the<br> > liability of being a small trial as oppose to a massive deployment.<br> <br> </div>No, it worked with mentoring in a small trial in Ethiopia.</blockquote><div><br>the ethiopian paper link is:<br><a href="http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Academic_Papers">http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Academic_Papers</a><br>(underscore added)<br> <br>interesting study, thanks edward, it does provide some evidence for methods to break down rigid, hierarchical teaching methods (culture of politeness)<br><br>in broad terms the method was to find ways of establishing some continuity with the  existing culture and then, down the track, ask questions about what learning is being achieved through existing instructionist methods - the way of joining but tweaking the existing culture was to provide interactive digital textbooks, rather than paper textbooks -  the interactive features began to be used and appreciated by students and teachers<br> <br>Melepo, an interactive book reader developed by Eduvision (<a href="http://www.eduvision.ch/en/OurService/melepo.php">http://www.eduvision.ch/en/OurService/melepo.php</a>) was added to the OLPCs and for the older classes seems to have been the main software used (younger kids used games too)<br> <br>Should this software be added by default to Sugar? Is that possible, is it free, open?<br><br>The school was atypical in a sense (page 11, "the prestigious nature of the schools served to attract unusually experienced and dedicated teachers") - the above average teacher quality would have contributed significantly to the success<br> <br>Duration of the project seems to have been fairly short --> 3 weeks (page 7)<br><br>the authors of the report are cautious about their claims:<br>"There was great willingness to please amongst the teachers and the students. This resulted in difficulties obtaining honest and accurate feedback. Whilst methods were devised to overcome this constraint it remained a constant factor through the trial ..." (page 12)<br> <br>and<br>"it would be premature to draw summative conclusions concerning the overall efficacy of the programme at this stage ... " (page 13)<br><br><br> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <br> <div class="Ih2E3d"><br> > If<br> > I am correct, this would suggest that we should accelerate our efforts<br> > on building a social network for teachers.<br> <br> </div>Good idea regardless. The rest of the world needs to hear from our<br> teachers, not just from management and outside researchers. Also a<br> global network for students.<br> <div class="Ih2E3d"><br> >The network is the thing<br> > that is different this time: let's exploit it.<br> <br> </div>Yes.<br> <div class="Ih2E3d"><br> > -walter<br> > _______________________________________________<br> > Its.an.education.project mailing list<br> > <a href="mailto:Its.an.education.project@lists.lo-res.org">Its.an.education.project@lists.lo-res.org</a><br> > <a href="http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project" target="_blank">http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project</a><br> ><br> <br> <br> <br> </div><font color="#888888">--<br> Edward Cherlin<br> End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business<br> <a href="http://www.EarthTreasury.org/" target="_blank">http://www.EarthTreasury.org/</a><br> "The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay<br> </font><div><div></div><div class="Wj3C7c">_______________________________________________<br> Its.an.education.project mailing list<br> <a href="mailto:Its.an.education.project@lists.lo-res.org">Its.an.education.project@lists.lo-res.org</a><br> <a href="http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project" target="_blank">http://lists.lo-res.org/mailman/listinfo/its.an.education.project</a><br> </div></div></blockquote></div><br><br>