Walter, Your report from the meeting from Washington is inspiring. Particularly, the "what are we waiting for." As you know, I am in the process of documenting similar outcomes as part of a doctoral study for a deployment here in the US. It would be great, though, to work with these folks to see the bigger picture of what's happening.
I also think the total cost of ownership piece is particularly eye-opening. Gerald On Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 10:26 PM, Walter Bender <[email protected]>wrote: > === Sugar Digest === > > 1. At the urging of Yama Ploskonka, I went to Washington to the > Interamerican Development Bank (IADB) to attend a seminar > [http://www.iadb.org/news/detail.cfm?Language=English&id=5654], > “Reinventing the Classroo: Social and Educational Impact of the > Incorporation of Technologies” as part of an ICT for education > program. > > The stated workshop objectives were: " (i) Understand development > experiences and case studies national projects for the integration of > Information Technology and Communication in education systems, (ii) > Discuss how these projects impact on student learning and in > developing countries, and (iii) Share about challenges of evaluation > and monitoring initiatives at national and regional levels." > > My objective was to catch up with people leading the various efforts > in the region in order to acquaint them with what we are doing at > Sugar Labs. > > I missed the opening remarks, but was able to attend the panel > discussions: one about implementations and one about “lessons and > challenges.” > > It seems that still too many people see ICT as a goal of rather than a > means to learning, but it was nonetheless great to get a clearer > picture of the various projects in the region. > > Miguel Brechner, director of LATU and the force behind Project CEIBAL > [http://www.ceibal.edu.uy/] in Uruguay, gave a passionate talk about > all that they have accomplished. The bottom line: It is possible, so > what are the rest of you waiting for? Among Miguel's “Lessons from > Uruguay” was a detailed break down of the total cost of ownership > across four years: US$ 276. This includes the cost of the laptop, > connectivity—every child in Uruguay gets free Internet access > ($31/child/year), servers, spares, maintenance, logistics, delivery, > operating costs, et al. Uruguay has already distributed 380,000 > laptops to more than 2000 schools and trained more than 18,000 > teachers. They have 500 support teachers and 1500 support volunteers > helping with training and deployment. In terms of evaluation, there > has been little opportunity to report any longitudinal assessments of > impact of the deployments are relatively recent, but the early > indicators are worth noting: > > * The teachers are driving the change; > * There is an increase in attendance; > * There is an increase in overall motivation ; > * There is more motivation to do homework ; > * There is less time spent watching television; > * There is an increase in parent involvement ; > * There is more motivation to go to school ; > * There is an increase in self-esteem ; > * There is an increase in interest in learning.; > * There is a dramatic drop in repeated grades; > * There is an increase in basic skills to use computer; > * There is an increased trend to collaboration and sharing ; > > 220,000 homes now have computers through Project CEIBAL. Computer > penetration in the the poorest households exceeds the national > average. > > Jorge Pedreira , deputy minster of educational Portugal described > Magalhães , which is being deployed nationwide in Portugal. It is a > project of inclusion that is leaning heavily on telcom industry > partnerships to provide subsidized laptops and connectivity. There is > an emphasis on ICT training and school administration enhancements > through ICT. For the elementary-aged students, there is a local spin > the Classmate PC. They have reached 370,000 students with a dual-boot > machine: Windows XP and Caixa Mágica. (Sugar runs on their hardware—I > made sure to show the deputy minster at the coffee break.) Their > strategy is: ICT changes education and thus society and this project > is a way to get ICT into the classroom . Pedreira made the point that > we need to assess assessment as the children have new competencies > that are not part of the standard metrics. > > Alicia Banuelos, Rector at La Punta University described the San Luis > Digital Project in San Luis, Argentina. San Luis is a wealthy > province—wealthy enough to self-fund a comprehensive program that > includes connectivity and computing throughout the community. For the > younger children, they have instituted 1-to-1 computing also using > Classmate PCs (~7000 computers) running Windows XP. She reported some > improvements in language and math scores—she emphasized that the > improvement was in both rural and urban schools. She also mentioned > that every child is learning chess. Not sure how that impacts the > control, but what out Viswanathan Anand. > > The final project review was by Alayde Maria Pinto Digiovanni, > Superintendent of education in the State of Paraná, Brazil . Their > program is classroom focused: no laptops, but large displays in every > classroom. They use exclusively free software and free text > books—which has cause lots of friction with the publishers. > > === Help wanted === > > 2. Simon Schampijer and our amazing release team are in the final > phase of the [[0.86/Roadmap#Schedule|0.86 release cycle]] for more > details—the release is scheduled for Friday. Please test and please > report any issues you find. The BugSquad is still available to triage > bugs. > > Note that we are now hosting our bug tracker at http://bugs.sugarlabs.org > > === In the community === > > 3. [http://softwarefreedomday.org Software Freedom Day] is 19 > September. There are celebrations from Boston > [http://groups.fsf.org/wiki/Boston_Software_Freedom_Day] to Bogata > [http://softwarefreedomday.org/teams/SFD_Bogota] to Melbourne > [http://www.softwarefreedomday.org/melbourne]. > > 4. Donna Benjamin reports that [http://open-edge.info Open Edge > 2009]: The Australian Open Education Forum is 9 October at > [http://open-edge.info/our-venue-sceggs SCEGGS] in Sydney. > > ===Sugar Labs=== > > 5. Gary Martin has generated a SOM from the past week of discussion on > the IAEP mailing list (Please see > [[File:2009-Sep-5-Sept-11-som.jpg|SOM]]). > > -walter > -- > Walter Bender > Sugar Labs > http://www.sugarlabs.org > _______________________________________________ > IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) > [email protected] > http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep >
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