EDU+581+One+Laptop+Per+Child--Peru

=Reflection on Arahuay, Peru OLPC Project=

The One Laptop Per Child initiative grew out of an MIT Media Lab project and became a private foundation, separate from MIT. The basic premise of the initiative is to leverage children themselves by engaging them more directly in their own learning. The organization OLPC developed a rugged, under 4 pounds, glareproof, battery-operated or hand-cranked "green machine" called the XO. It runs various open source software programs and uses a Linux operating system. The organization currently has projects in Peru, Uruguay, India, Brasil, Nigeria, and Thailand.

My article was on the initiative in Peru. The town of Arahuay was chosen as the site for the project. A team of people came into the town to train the three primary school teachers and give the elementary school children (41 students in all) each their own laptop.

The laptops connected to the web using point to point connectivity with hubs around town. The high school students helped erect the towers for the hubs and did much of the labor necessary to install the hardware.

The students and teachers were trained in how to charge the laptops, how to use the web and search tools, and how to care for the machines. The parents of the students had to come to the school in order for the child to be able to take it home. Nearly all the parents came to the school for this purpose; the only parents who did not come lived far away and their students were boarders.

The trainers found that each teacher used the laptop differently at first. One teacher was very laptop oriented from the start and used it frequently in her lessons. Another teacher did not seem to understand the programs on the machines until near the very end of the training. By the end of the training she was integrating the technology.

The teachers remarked that the students were learning a lot by using the machines, and working in different ways. One boy used an online dictionary to look up all of his vocabulary words while the teacher was explaining the lesson. He offered to show the other students how to find the definitions using the internet. This boy had never before shown any leadership in the classroom and was newly empowered by the ease in which he used the machine.

There were some concerns with the project. One concern was theft of the machines. Another is that there are no results yet that indicate that the laptops have improved the lives of the Peruvian students. However, the Peruvian government plans on expanding the program by outfitting schools devastated by recent earthquakes with the laptops. The intended outcomes for this project are to provide students and teachers with new ways to collaborate, create, and transform works over time. It is seen as a window on the world for the world's poorest children. US schools CAN propose a project.

Unintended outcomes include the major reality check for developing countries: why spend money on laptops, why not on rice or some other necessity of life? Are these valid tools for hungry children? Is there something else that can be provided that has more value and impact on the life of a child in a developing nation?

This project would make sense in Maine, which has some of the poorest counties in the United States. A low-cost, battery-operated machine is just what Maine needs for its schools. However, it looks like the Macs are here to stay.

All photos are licensed under a Creative Commons license. The original site can be found [|here]

media type="youtube" key="4UUYJPRJGmo&hl=en&fs=1" height="344" width="425".