<incom> OLPC (was: Re: From the CES in Las vegas)

[Eduardo Villanueva]

Hello Pat, hello all

I cannot agree more with your point of view. When reading those comments I
thought exactly the same: it is amazing to actually utter "experiment" in
the context of such a massive investment that probably will bankrupt
educational sectors in the countries that have decided to get involved in
this.

I put my comments on a paper as far away as 2005, and basically I still
believe this is the main critique

And one of the most important things the developing world needs to develop
is the ability to
create solutions to their own problems, and to build the right tools for
those solutions. To
transform education in the developing world will demand a solution to many
problems, but the
last ones to be considered would probably be the tools to be used.

The OLPC project starts the other way round: we have the tool, now change
everything else to
fit the tool. The few resources left will be used to adapt everything in the
educational system to
work with the tool, being software, adequate security measures or teacher
training. And the
original goals will be changed to fit the tool.

No matter how good the technology is, or how many kids are going to find
friends on the other side of the world, I still believe that the
stratospheric hubris of a bunch of techies from the MIT is no replacement
for locally developed solutions to locally diagnosed solutions.

Eduardo Villanueva


Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 11 Jan 2007 08:58:59 +0545
> From: Pat Hall <p.a.v.hall at btinternet.com>
> Subject: Re: <incom> From the CES in Las vegas
> To: Maja van der Velden <maja at xs4all.nl>
> Cc: incom <incom-l at incommunicado.info>
> Message-ID: <6.0.3.0.2.20070111065441.06a5c350 at mail.btinternet.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
>
> Dear Maja
>
> thank you for posting this, it is very revealing.  At the moment I am
> attending the annual CAN Infotech show in Kathmandu, where we had a
> presentation from a group calling themselves OLPC-Nepal.  There is no
> doubt
> to me that the OLPC contains some impressive technology, what worries me
> is
> its intended application.
>
> One quotation in the BBC report is very revealing where they quote
> Bletsas:
> "I'd like to make sure that kids all around the world start to
> communicate.
> It will be a very interesting experiment to see what will happen when we
> deploy a million laptops in Brazil and a million laptops in Namibia."
> Focus on that word 'experiment'.
>
> OLPC was being pushed here as a solution to Nepal's educational
> needs.  There is no doubt that Nepal has severe needs, with inadequate
> school buildings, insufficient teachers many of whom are unqualified
> mostly
> teaching rote learning from the front of the class, and much absenteeism
> as
> kids help their families survive.  But there are examples of sound
> teaching
> practice in spite of these constraints, introduced by local Nepali
> educators and through programs funded by the Scandinavians and through
> UNESCO.  UNESCO is in the process of producing a short video to illustrate
> these local Nepali best practices.
>
> OLPC is based on a high tech view of education mediated by the OLPC,
> networked so that collaborative learning takes place, following a
> constructionist paradigm.  Nothing wrong with collaborative learning and
> constructionist education - that is what happens when teachers move away
> from the front of the class and pupils turn their chairs to work in
> groups,
> and just a few more resources like teachers or teaching assistants are
> available.  But this does not require the OLPC.
>
> OLPC-Nepal describe themselves as a group of 'young engineers', and billed
> the origins of OLPC as coming from a group 'educators at MIT'.  Hang on,
> isn't the Media Lab a group of high-tech people who have been pushing the
> use of technology in teaching for 50 years, from Marvin Minsky and Logo to
> the present?  Has anybody anywhere adopted a completely computer mediated
> delivery of education in schools?  Even distance educators such as
> Britain's Open University recognise the need for a personal touch in their
> use of tutors and self help groups.
>
> So the way it looks to me is that the high-tech people from Media Labs and
> their fellow travellers, having failed to roll out the use of high tech in
> schools education across the developed world, are now indulging in one
> gigantic experiment on the developing world to see if their
> computer-mediated methods work.  Phew, how does this rank against drug
> trials in developing countries and the dumping of computer waste in the
> name of recycled computers?
>
> How do you stop this leviathon?  Well, it will stop in due course due to
> its own failures, hopefully in countries that can afford the odd 100
> million dollars or two.  I will do what I can to advise people here in
> Nepal against OLPC, though of course it must be people here who decide.
>
> best wishes
>
> Pat
>
>
>
> At 02:15 11/01/2007, Maja van der Velden wrote:
> >The BBC had an interview with Mr. Bletsas from the One Laptop Per Child
> >project:
> >
> >http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6246989.stm
> >
> >"He said he hoped that the laptop project would help children enrich
> >their lives to the extent that one day they could become consumers of
> >the types of technologies on display in Las Vegas."
> >
> >There is much more interesting stuff there. For example, the laptops are
> >not supposed to go to people without internet access...
> >
> >
> >Greetings,
> >
> >Maja
> >--
> >
> >
> >In a perfect world we'd all sing in tune
> >
> >But this reality so give me some room
> >
> >(Billy Bragg - Waiting for the great leap forward)
> >
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>
>
>
>