Monthly Archives: March 2011

Havergal Institute girls work with Molweni orphanage in South Africa

Posted on by
Reply

A team of high-school students at the Institute at Havergal is helping to implement an XO program this August at the NOAH’s Ark orphanage (Nurturing Orphans of AIDS for Humanity) in Molweni, South Africa, near Durban.  A group of students taking part in the Havergal South Africa Global Experience Program will take XOs with them, which they are currently learning how to introduce to students.

Using these laptops, they will continue conversations with the NOAH youth all year long.  They have a standing relationship with the orphanage and are being mentored by Mark Battley and a team in Ntugi.

bottle rocket on the XO

Posted on by
5

Mobile App team bottle rocket borrowed an XO for a few months to play with it and test out their apps on it.  They recently sent it back along with a donation from their amazing staff.  Their founder Calvin Carter writes:

“Recently I was having dinner with a client.  [H]e had his OLPC laptop with him. The waitress recognized the laptop and started asking him questions… While my friend was proudly demonstrating the newest model to her, I was reminded of one of Bottle Rocket’s core beliefs: exceptionally innovative technology not only enhances the way we do things – it redefines the way we live our lives. I realized that these laptops can truly change lives. What a perfect way for Bottle Rocket to give back. The next day, four laptops were on their way to tease out the imagination and ambition of their new owners.”

bottle rocket staff with their test XO

bottle rocket staff posing with a test XO

That’s a great photo!  I wonder when some of their apps are going to appear alongside Batovi‘s in the Sugarlabs Activity center…

Blast from the Past: OLPC v. Classmate on Argentine TV

Posted on by
Reply

Last April, “In Tecno” compared the OLPC (‘of Uruguay, where it is in all primary schools’) and the Classmate (‘of Argentina, where it is in all 4th, 5th, and 6th grades’).  It’s one of the few direct comparisons I’ve seen recorded, and worth watching.

Since then, Argentina has expanded its program to cover all primary schools as well – the largest deployment of laptops in primary schools in the world.   It has also had one province (La Rioja) experiment with 60,000 OLPCs instead of Classmates.  It is great to see Latin America embracing the idea of olpc so throughly; I hope that Argentina’s enthusiasm and successes give confidence to their neighbors, such as Bolivia and Brazil.

Canada’s Eastern Townships make good use of olpc

Posted on by
1

The school board of Eastern Townships, Canada, under Ron Canuel, has been pursuing a one laptop per child school program for over eight years, today reaching roughly 2,700 students and teachers.   A research paper recently released by Karsenti and Collin suggests their decision to give children their own laptops was a primary cause of the student’s success to date, which has included a 40% reduction in their dropout rate over 4 years.

While they aren’t using XOs in their classroom, I’ve met some of their team more than once and shown them around our offices; they were certainly right at home.  It’s great to see this sort of long-baseline research coming out.  The only thing better would be similar research from many different facets of the same country or environment, as I hope we will see from Uruguay in another year.