Antonio Battro shares with us the paper “Multimedia Learning Design for one-to-one computing” (Italian) by Fabio Serenelli:
Flash version:
http://issuu.com/marianaludmilacortes/docs/tesi_serenelli_phd_unimib_01724941
1. We need to finalize our application to Google Summer of Code by the end of next week. I’ve put a rough draft of our application in the wiki (See Summer_of_Code/2013/Application). Most important is to finalize our list of project ideas and mentors. Please add your ideas to the wiki to Summer_of_Code/2013.
2. Martin Abente (with a little help from his friends) has gotten the beginnings of a Twitter Web Service working from the Sugar Journal. Simply invoke the Copy-To Twitter menu item, and your Journal entry is sent as a tweet. There is some work to be done in registering the service per user and some housekeeping regarding pulling replies into the comments field of the Journal, but it is already in pretty decent shape, thanks to the Web Services framework that Raúl and I developed last month. (I am hoping that the framework is reviewed and accepted into Sugar so that it will be easier for people to test and enhance it.)
3.  Guzmán Trinidad has written a book about Physics on the XO (See FÃsica con XO). It features many of the projects that Guzmán and Tony Forster have been developing, using a combination of Measure and Turtle Blocks.
By Christine Horowitz
One Laptop per Child Facilitator, Walter G. Byers Academy
The methods of teaching reading and writing have changed very little over the past decade.Proven pedagogy such as guided reading circles, modeled writing sessions and read alouds continue to dominate classroom literacy time, and for good reason. They are highly effective tools that increase student achievement. Why, then, do we want to ‘mess things up’ with the integration of technology when it hasn’t been a necessary component to literacy success in the past?
The answer is twofold. First, recent studies have shown that literacy goal achievement is further increased when using available technologies (Rose) and, second, the XO laptops ensure each and every student has the technology available – 100% of the time.
The blended literacy model adopted and being implemented by Project L.I.F.T. schools and the One Laptop per Child program bring a natural, effective partnership in the classroom that can boost literacy goals for students in grades one through four. The XO laptops ensure that the technology component is continuously available to every child so that the methods outlined below are possible. As an added bonus, the partnership will also increase digital and media literacy skills that are so necessary for our students to be college and career ready.
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE XO IN A BALANCED LITERACY PROGRAMÂ GUIDED READING
The XO is an excellent tool that can engage students in independent reading practice while the teacher is working with a small group or reader.
-Have students use the XO to access online, leveled reading support programs
-Students can use the Speak Activity to sound out difficult words for themselves
READ ALOUDS
Using the XO as a ‘spoken book’ can offer read aloud opportunities beyond a teacher’s capacity that are more individualized to student level and interest. Free online read aloud sites provide teachers and students with engaging readings dictated by skilled orators.
www.barnesandnoble.com (choose KIDS and ONLINE STORYTIME)
PARTNER and SHARED READING
The Get Books Activity allows the student to access thousands of free books in rich text, PDFÂ or HTML formats. Further, teachers can access and/or load leveled books on the XO machine.
Students can perform shared readings while text displays on each XO laptop. Students can toggle between the story and the Speak Activity in order to have difficult words sounded out for them or they can access Wikipedia Activity to investigate topics that they read about. ESL students can use the Words Activity to translate newly learned words from/to English and multiple languages.
MODELED AND GUIDED WRITING
Teachers can use the built in ‘ad-hoc’ network to connect with students and guide writing instruction. They can also share writing assignments in real-time and several students can collaborate on a single document, including creating graphic organizers together.
Beyond Activities-based guidance, students can use the XO to share writings via the Internet. Studies support the idea that providing a wider audience for writers (i.e. blogs, wikis) encourages students to be more conscientious writers. Also, blogging, creating web pages and other forms of digital media give students real-world experiences in which to write upon and the potential for large amounts of feedback from a varied audience (The Journal).
WORD WORK
The XO is a useful tool for early elementary students as it supports phonics instruction. Students can type in letters, letter blends and words and hear them repeated back, even changing the speed of playback, if necessary. Spelling and vocabulary can be reinforced through a variety of Activities, including a concentration-like game and those that reinforce individual letter sounds and blends.
Using the powerful little XO machine for literacy in the classroom is a natural fit that can take every student to a new level of learning literacy. Add in the important 21st century skills of collaboration and digital media literacy and a teacher can have a hugely successful literacy program that fully engages every student with the learning process.
SOURCES CITED
Rose, David. “The Role of Technology in the Guided Reading Classroom.” Scholastic Teachers. Scholastic, Inc., Oct. 2004. Web. 30 Jan. 2013.
“The Journal.” Content Delivery in the ‘Blogosphere’ –. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.
Some of the brightest minds at Carnegie Mellon University and beyond gathered together on campus recently, ready to take their turn on stage. More than 450 attendees appreciatively took it all in, at the fourth annualTEDxCMUÂ event.
This year’s theme was ‘Spark.’
“Our goal is to inspire each and every one of our 450-plus attendees — to create a spark of ideas that will spread, and ignite people’s minds with brilliance,” said Ketaki Desai, master of public management student at CMU’s Heinz College, and president of this year’s event. The team built their list of speakers based on several factors, including subject matter and passion. They assembled both men and women from diverse fields that would best represent the CMU population.
Rodrigo Arboleda:Â chairman and CEO of One Laptop Per Child Association, a not-for-profit that has distributed more than 2.7 million laptops to children in 41 countries, was one of the featured speakers. At the end of his presentation he received a standing ovation.
A collaborative effort between One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and Project LIFT has delivered 2,000 laptops to seven schools in North Carolina’s Charlotte-Mecklenburg School District, with support from the Knight Foundation, who brought together and funded the project.
The local Charlotte group, Project Leadership and Investment for Transformation (LIFT), is a community initiative working to improve outcomes and eliminate education disparities for minority and low-income students in the West Charlotte corridor.
Rebecca Thompson, OLPC facilitator at Bruns Academy, said that the laptops will directly assist LIFT schools in reaching their goals for students to be 90 percent on grade level and 90 percent achieving more than one year’s academic growth in one year’s time. These goals are to ensure that when students arrive at the feeder high school, West Charlotte, 90 percent of them graduate.
Students have utilized the XO 1.75 laptops via Sugar-based activities facilitated by OLPC on-site coordinators, according to Thompson, with activities ranging from basic document software to beginner computer programming.
“This initiative provides families with access to technology, information, and increased academic engagement,” Thompson said. “We have already seen such a positive impact with so few machines. We look forward to seeing our work transform the community and see the full impact of the project.”
To help integrate the laptops into each teacher’s daily lessons, teachers were offered multiple zone-wide and site-specific trainings. Each participating school also houses a facilitator to help guide teachers for maximum curriculum integration.
The LIFT zone schools included in the OLPC program are:
Charlotte marks the second project in recent years for OLPC in the United States. The first project, also funded by the Knight Foundation, was in Miami for 500 children in a single school.
Based on the successful results from the first year of that project, Knight approached OLPC to undertake the larger, multi-school program in Charlotte, according to a release.
By Rodrigo Arboleda
On Wednesday February 27th, Reuters published the article “Poor kids with laptops read less, do more chores in Peru -study“, based on the working document of the Inter-American Development Bank entitled “Home Computers and Child Outcomes: Short-Term Impacts from a Randomized Experiment in Peru “. I would like to make some observations on the vision of One Laptop Per Child, of which I am CEO and President:
As an organization we know first hand this report, published by the IDB, which expressly states that it tries not to evaluate the One Laptop Per Child initiative or educational one to one projects. It is further known that the same organization designed an experiment using the OLPC XO laptop for children who do not belong to the OLPC program in Peru in order to understand and measure the impact of the computer in the home. Therefore, the experiment is different from a comprehensive intervention based on a one to one learning project, such as promoted by multiple organizations including OLPC. A comprehensive study involves the education system, teachers, family and community.
Like this experiment, numerous studies and research in the last decade by recognized academics (1) have shown that the provision of technology alone has no effect unless there is an appropriate intervention process. It is for this reason that the results of the experiment showed little effect and did not generate changes in reading habits, cognitive skills or academic achievement.
The OLPC program
Using the preliminary results of this experiment as a basis for governments to promote one to one learning programs is wrong because the objectives of the programs are many and varied. The plans for program implementation must consider the local objectives and context. The computer at home is just one element in those plans. What has been confirmed by experts is that technology alone will not make any difference.
Results in countries where the program is implemented
To illustrate this, consider two major projects within the ecosystem of OLPC. The first, One Laptop Per Child in Caacupé, was implemented by Paraguay Educa Foundation, which aims to make every child in Paraguay develop technological and life skills. The second project, in Colombia, which began with advice and funds from the IDB, has been implemented by the Barefoot Foundation. Unlike the project objectives of Paraguay, the Barefoot Foundation seeks to improve skills in the areas of Spanish and Mathematics in grades two and three of primary schools.
Both programs have developed implementation plans to meet those objectives and have articulated infrastructure, connectivity, awareness, community service, teacher training, logistics, maintenance and repair, and other elements to achieve their goals. Significant achievements have been reported.
First report of the IDB on One Laptop Per Child program Peru
In a report also published by the Inter-American Development Bank in March 2012, entitled “Technology and Child Development: Evidence from the One Laptop per Child Program“ the report presents findings related to cognitive abilities, the results of the Raven test, which showed a positive impact. In this study, after 15 months of implementation of the program, with a sample of 319 rural schools (which is significant), children in the OLPC project in this country have an advantage on average of 5 months in the development of their cognitive abilities with respect to children who have not been helped by the program.
This study perhaps shows that when fully implemented, the OLPC program proves to be effective, develops skills and responds to the main premises of One Laptop Per Child. This study shows the difference of an isolated experiment of computers at home without a comprehensive intervention strategy that did not generate impact.
Latest report submitted by the IDB, “Home Computers and Child Outcomes: Short-Term Impacts from a Randomized Experiment in Peru“
It was an experiment conducted by the IDB, which gave away laptops for home use, to determine whether it would increase reading habits. In this case the experiment did not try to determine whether the One Laptop Per Child program outcomes were achieved but rather whether through the use of technological tools an increase in reading habits could be shown.
We would like to emphasize the one to one learning project led the Zamora Teran Foundation in Nicaragua. The Foundation, in partnership with USAID has developed an important strategy that includes literacy training and support to teachers, design and delivery of manuals, and a collection and delivery of digital resources for teachers, students and parents. This initiative has begun to yield significant results. The results and findings of this project let us reiterate that intervention strategies to achieve a real impact on education of children through the use of technology require a comprehensive intervention plan that involves all actors in the educational community that goes beyond the provision of computers.
For this reason OLPC continues to expand, to use the 7 years’ of acquired experience working on the integration of technology in education and social projects and to implement our philosophy: rethinking education.
[1] Harrison, C., T. Fisher, et al. (2002). ImpaCT2: the Impact of Information and Communication Technologies on Pupils’ Learning and Attainment.. Coventry, DfES
– Ting Seng Eng (2005). The impact of ICT on learning: A review of research. International Education Journal, 6(5), 635-650.
– Underwood, Jean D. M., British Educational Communications and Technology Agency, corp creator. (2009) The impact of digital technology : a review of the evidence of the impact of digital technologies on formal education.