[IAEP] Computer as a tool

[K. K. Subramaniam]

Hi,

This thread was spun off "Re: [IAEP] Comments on David Kokorowski, David 
Pritchard and "Mastering" Educational SW"

There are differences in the use of computers in schools between Sikshana 
(sikshana.blogspot.com) and Sugar Labs/OLPC. Sikshana's tech pilot is only 
three years old and will reach around 6000 kids (grades 5..7) across 120 
schools this year.

Our involvement in these schools, as community members, was child-centric and 
focussed on building basic skills set. Supplies shortage is a perennial issue 
in these remote villages. We introduced computers as digital authoring tools 
so kids never run short of 'supplies'. There was no pre-loaded content - no 
physics lessons, no cartoons, no quizzes. A 2GB USB flash memory chip issued to 
each kid served as a "digital school bag". Etoys (customized for vernacular 
support) ran off the chip while others were installed on the hard disk.

The difference between OLPC/Sugar/SoaS in the separation of personal content 
from the rest of the stack. Computers are not networked, collaboration is 
physical. The machine, OS, GUI, software tools were all subject to change.  
Putting OS on the chip would have reduced space for project files and upgrading 
software on so many chips would be a logistical nightmare!  Our field office 
maintains a pool of computers (notebooks and desktops) from which schools can 
borrow as many as they can manage in the classrooms. Bite only what you can 
chew. This system allowed teachers and students to focus on authoring and not 
get bogged down by IT issues.

We didn't try to simplify GUI. It was not even localized though teachers and 
students knew very little English. We found that kids enjoyed the challenge of 
mastering GUI. They were thrilled to use the same 'computer' that IT folks use 
in their offices. English-Kannada dictionary got used heavily.  "Undo" became a 
much loved feature. They learnt LaTeX encoding to produce Kannada and Math 
text. Students formed teams to share 'tips and tricks'. Now teachers, across 
schools, are forming self-help groups to share their findings.

Subbu