On Wednesday 10 Oct 2007 11:55 am, ashok _ wrote: > OLPC on the other hand appears to be a community backed project on > open source principles [both on the hardware and software front]. So, > there is always some backup and support available. I see them moving > slowly, which is encouraging because they are getting feedback from > the few places where they are doing test rollouts. Whether they can > translate the same principles lower down the chain in the countries > where they intend to deploy is still a big question mark....
The question mark seems to be the fact that in American schools in which computers have become commonplace, attendance increases but teaching decreases because of issues relating to maintenance and the fact that students get distracted The following paragraphs from the article is a cause for concern IMO >While it improved attendance rates and reduced dropouts, schools >found that it’s had little or no impact on grades (reading comprehension and >it as a critical distraction with the laptop actually getting in way of >teaching. The cost of training teachers, creating new lesson plans, putting >infrastructure into place, maintaining the machines and policing the network >only adds to the problem. >Some institutions found themselves spending more time and effort on repairing >laptops than on training teachers to adapt to teaching with them. The only >ones who are deliriously happy with the scheme are predictably the kids, >who’ve also used them to get really good at typing, network games, instant >messaging to cheat on tests, downloading porn and hacking (in a New York >school, a tenth grader not only ran rings round network security but also >posted detailed instructions for his classmates online). Is there anything to indicate that these problems - particularly teacher training and maintenance would be any smaller in developing countries? The UN may be well intentioned - but as someone said - the road to hell is paved with good intentions. shiv
