We always think about, or are prod to think and look about, cost in terms of cash. We think in the 'accounting' way with proper columns, debits and credits, balance sheet. What we do not seems to want to know is the cost and benefits of the 'soft kinds' such as f2f social get together, knowledge sharing when people get the chance to see smiles and nodding in others, the old, old matter of getting knowledge out in REAL STORY telling etc. etc.
Sometime it almost makes me laugh when I think about how we ooh and aah about the benefits of water-cooler/coffee machine at a office, or how to share knowledge by story telling. I laugh because these WERE the old ways we use to share knowledge that WE destroyed by letting technologies control us. Well, if we find a place such as a local town-hall, a school library and put in a few computers there and let the people share (a tele-center) what in effect is we are keeping the traditional way of life of most small villages ... a market place, a watering-hole, a place to mingle ... water-cooler effects flows naturally, stories would be told, knowledge sharing occurs ... . Imagine we give to each child in the village a OLPC. What DO we give them, how much what we give would benefits them, AND what are we taking away, and what are we destroying? I am not even going to go deep into what other problems are we creating. Perhaps we should stop for another moment to really understand what we are doing to our societies, to reflect what the internet technologies is doing to our own life? So do we really want to promote the same ?? I am not anti-technology, but I am concern many of us allow technologies to control us. We created the digital divide. Like drug addits, we want newer and newer technologies to fix our craves. Most of all, should we push our additions to others (the unfortunate souls, we think!) in the name of closing the digital divide gaps? Cindy ============= [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- On Sun, 21/9/08, Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Cindy Lemcke-Hoong <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net> Date: Sunday, 21 September, 2008, 11:04 PM Hello Alan (Paperless), Well said ...things that we have argued the first round when OLPC first came to the scene. Below I quote what you wrote: >> Today, practically everyone from individuals to UNESCO etc has overlooked this crucial factor. ... the ability to deliver contents...not the hardware it is the software.<< apart from software/content, even when there is adequate telco infractures in placed, you still need 'people' to teach, to train, to maintain, to support the whole shebang of e-learning, BUT what is most annoying to me is, we seems to think, 'if we give them all they need, learning would occurred. There are generally a few different groups of learners, in my eyes. There are those that do not need any prompting, pushing and would find their own way to learn anyway, then there are some that for whatever reasons would need lots of prodding, pulling, pushing before learning occurred, and of course there are some that would need helping to get the balls rolling ... Last, we musn't forget. This list is for the lucky people such as you and me that can afford a PC, fast speed online internet, well educated and some even educators that know what learning is all about, and reasonable well to do that do not have to decide where should THAT one dollar should do ... food or phone bill ... so, we are armchair critics. We sit comfortably (that include me), and put in our few cents worth of opinons. Well, if we REALLY, REALLY, REALLY want to know what it is like to be disadvantage, perhaps we should ask the disadvantage to tell us what it is like in their world. We musn't forget either to ask, where the money shold come from to buy JUST the PC ALONE? I am not even talking about putting in, and supporting the network. Well, there are only so much money to go around. IF a country has to buy one million PC for 100 a piece (If I remembered correctly, the deal is, a country MUST buy minimum ONE million pieces of PC), what would happen to their budget for other needs? So, perhaps we stop for one moment and WONDER a little bit who is getting rich? So, OLPC for the rich and advanced world such as NY, is VERY different from OLPC for somewhere in India, or an African country. Very different. I am sure there are many success stories, but perhaps we should stop another moment to consider IF do differently such as instead of OLPC why not set up telecenters? What would be the cost different? MOST of all think about the benefits of social networking (not the online kind), the benefits of f2f etc. etc. etc. Cindy ============= [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- On Sun, 21/9/08, Paperless Homework <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: Paperless Homework <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net> Date: Sunday, 21 September, 2008, 7:15 PM While I do agree the increasing power of the mobile technology, and it would change many aspects of how learning would take place eventually in the world as price drops. The reality today is not so simple. Many in the underserved or rural areas hardly have anything close to even old computers not to mention about having access to latest models of mobiles. Moreover, the need is now not the future. Today we have to look what is suitable for the little funds that these developing countries to which OLPC is addressed at. First we teach them how to walk before we teach them how to run. Get first a practical solution and to us a practical solution. A mobile , its small size actually is not suitable for general education although it would be good for communications.. the other aspects of closing the digital divides. Ours we are talking about bring affordable education to the rural poor who has nothing. Even free reburbished old computers will do wonders.. provided of course the contents can be made available without the cost of broadband or even long download times of dialups. Today, practically everyone from individuals to UNESCO etc has overlooked this crucial factor. ... the ability to deliver contents...not the hardware it is the software. Until such is addressed, the digital divides we talked about will remain. It is not the hardware, it is the software. In Malaysia, we have companies and govt spending millions upon millions , and our annual budget exceeds RM31 billion(nearly US1 billion) per year in education for a small nation of only 27 million with good infrastructures), yet we hardly see any headway in ICT in mass education succeeding. We have major public listed companies undertaking bouth CD and online flash educational programs with highly trained experts.. .all gone bust in double quick time. Not one .. two went belly ups trying to us flash based online systems .. in Malaysia a quite well advanced nation in ICT. Now if we are to bring these kind of solutions to poor African countries... gosh how they can ever succeed I would really wonder. Using mobile? How can the small screen be used in used other than maybe able to click "yes or no" buttons. To use OLPC for each child...dont ever believe it will work in developing countries. Just do the maths. Alan www.paperlesshomework.com An elearning solution for rural areas where online/CDs cannot reach. Get the latest happenings through paperlesshomework tool bar www.paperlesshomework.communitytoolbars.com --- On Sun, 9/21/08, tom abeles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: From: tom abeles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" <digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net> Date: Sunday, September 21, 2008, 12:03 AM We are in a transition period where multiple solutions make sense rather than one size fits all. One of the issue to understand is that cost keeps coming down for digital products. Right now I can have a basic cell phone which will take a micro chip with 4GB. Cells are already available with most of the technology needed to deliver basic internet type services, even to being able to test. The cell is a ubiquitous device even in developing countries. So computers to lap tops to cells is a natural migration both in capabilities, cost and availability both on wireless and wifi delivery. Thin clients such as Sarah suggests, or variance thereof is what happens with google doc's and other server-based software, even in developed countries- safe/secure and not dependent on keeping data stored on portable media except for off-line purposes. OLPC is, as both Sarah and Alan suggest was based on the old model of a brick-space synchronous, age-defined cohort model for learning- bricks mapped into clicks from K->20. We need to rethink educational models first and formost rather than thinking about mapping click space technology into brick space thinking. Learning should be anytime/any place- some maybe synchronous in groups but most, given the exigencies of daily and seasonal life, particularly in countries where even students need to contribute to family income, need the flexibility offered by virtual technology. The problem is that the learning model has to change and the tech can help. But thinking about thin clients, portable media and other soft/hard tech will be limited if the models do not also change. tom tom abeles > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To: digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net > Date: Fri, 19 Sep 2008 14:06:52 -0700 > Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC > > A more practical approach is "community computers" (in contrast to "personal > computers") available in a school, church, community center, etc., where > everyone in the village can have access. It is much more reasonable to > provide internet connection for one such community computing center than for > personal laptops. > > A good model is a thin client/server model, in which one powerful server > would serve programs and internet access to many thin clients with limited > computing and storage capacity. (Community users would have their own pen > drives for storing their own files.) > > We (Pangaea Network) are testing this idea in Ghana in Asante Akim district. > > > Sarah Blackmun-Eskow > President, The Pangaea Network > 290 North Fairview Avenue > Goleta CA 93117 > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > www.pangaeanetwork.org > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Paperless > Homework > Sent: Friday, September 19, 2008 5:02 AM > To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group > Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC > > Dear Caroline, > > What you are doing is exactly what our project is about. > > We believe that a practical approach should be the way rather than fancy > ideas about One laptop per child for the developing countries. It isn't > practical even in developed countries much less developing countries. > > It is in this direction that we have created a simple tool to create small > sized tutorials and exercises to enable such multimeda contents to be saved > in diskettes or Pen drives. Yes even diskettes can accommodate multimedia > contents. So in the end the entire extra financial need of the students > would be digitally connected would be the cost of a pen drive. > It can contain the entire contents for the whole life of the students.... > that is our aim. > > Computers, students would know how to get access to for those students > without computers. > > The good thing about OLPC project is the development of low cost units and > its low power needs with longer hours of operation. To use OLPC for each > child in developing countries... it would never come to pass. > > An interesting article about our concept of Practical tech not high tech > www.paperlesshomework.com/surf > > Currently we have tremendous response to our free for schools initiative in > Malaysia. We would extend it to other developing countries including China, > India and Indonesia which practically form nearly half the world's > population. If we succeed here , our job is done. > > See videos of our contents here www.paperlesshomework.ning.com/video > > Want to really close the digital divide? Join us. It is the ONLY such > project in the world. > > Regards > Alan Foo > www.paperlesshomework.com > > > > > > > > > > > > www.paperlesshomework.com > An elearning solution for rural areas where online/CDs cannot reach. > > Get the latest happenings through paperlesshomework tool bar > www.paperlesshomework.communitytoolbars.com > > --- On Thu, 9/18/08, Caroline Meeks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > From: Caroline Meeks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [DDN] PhD research on OLPC > To: "The Digital Divide Network discussion group" > <digitaldivide@digitaldivide.net> > Date: Thursday, September 18, 2008, 8:20 AM > > Thank you all for this interesting discussion. > > As someone embarking on a project similar to OLPC I'm interested in what > advice you have on effective and ethical marketing and corporate > relationships. > > School Key is "One KeyFob per Child". Basically, we question that the best > way for children to have ubiquitous access to computers is to have them > carry laptops with them. Even if they did cost $100 in a city like Boston > kids are not safe carrying home computers. Instead we propose to give each > student a 1GB USB Key (currently $5 at Target, probably closer to $1 or $2 > in bulk) and arrange for them to be able to boot every computer at school, > the library, the ICT center and at home with it. > > When you buy one computer per student it will always be a compromise. > Instead, afterschool programs can have big color screens for art, High use > compuer labs can use low power computers, Science departments can have a > cart of sturdy laptop with cameras and sensors, and low-cost referbished > computers, that doen't even need a hard drives, could be supplied for home. > Content can be automatically downloaded when connected to the internet at > school letting students do homework offline if they don't have internet at > home, then automatically save thier work back to the server when they > reconnect at School. > > Currently this is a Grad school project, developed with open source software > by me and Amy Bisiewicz, a Boston Public Schools IT professional, who > attended Harvard Grad School of Education last year thanks to a scholarship > program for Boston Public School employees. As an Internship for credit at > HGSE, I am doing very intial pilot work this fall at two Boston schools. > > Right now we have no grants, no marketing, no corporate partners. Its seems > clear to me that we need to change that, so I'm interested in what you think > OLPC and others have done right and wrong in these arenas. > > Thanks! > Caroline > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net > http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. > > > _______________________________________________ > DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list > DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net > http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide > To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _________________________________________________________________ Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn “10 hidden secrets” from Jamie. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008 _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@digitaldivide.net http://digitaldivide.net/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
