PaleXO work with OLPC in the West Bank

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The PaleXO volunteer team, whose Arabic language blog we recently added to our sidebar, has been working with the OLPC children in the West Bank for the past year. They’ve run some local installation events and software workshops, and are planning a Scratch Day to encourage kids to make Scratch activities. They often host events at Birzeit University.

They also have the best group OLPC shirts I’ve seen since the rise of the velociraptors… it’s a snapshot of the Sugar desktop with the most common activity icons on it, so they can simply point to the right icon on their shirt when working with students during a workshop. Brilliant. Barbara brought back some lovely photographs from there as well as the ones we posted earlier from Gaza.

OLPC Photographs

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Photography is a powerful medium that conveys a message through an emotional and visceral impulse in the viewer. An image can tell the story of hardships, frustrations and joys, and the immutable human spirit in a way that transcends words.

I am curating and archiving OLPC photographs from around the world – of communities, kids, teachers, and the towns and cities they live in.  I believe the best photographs portray a sense of daily life and learning. I want to collect and show a set of photographs for people who love photography. They will present an intimate portrait of the subjects that can be achieved by close observation and interaction over time. They will show children and their families in daily life at home and in school, reading, studying, working, and at play.

These photographs will strive to answer basic questions about how OLPC affects children, their families, and community: How is learning valued at home?  How do children, parents and teachers work and study together, or with others?  What are their hopes for the future?  How do they share stories or ideas with other towns?  What music and videos do they like?

Here are some great photos found so far:

Boy using XO in Peru

Child and grandmother at home in Peru

Children in a classroom in Peru

Children show their XOs in Uruguay

Whole school with XOs in Sichuan

Girls sitting on gate working on XOs in Colonia, Uruguay

Child on salt lake with XO in Pilbara, Western Australia

Boys working together in classroom in Mongolia

Girl learning with XO in classroom in Gaza

Girls using laptop in field in Peru

Children learning with laptops in a village in Colombia

Boy works with XO on the ground in Uruguay

Children learn and play in Brazil

-Mike

Pixel Qi in the limelight, Notion Ink speaks

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Pixel Qi is showing off at Computex this week in Taipei, and Charbax just posted a detailed interview with Mary Lou Jepsen from the floor.   Look for the “Qi” button at 0:25, and serious geeking out on the physics and fab process starting at 5:00… and for the rest of the video! (For a quicker soundbite, he also posted this side-by-side iPad / iPhone / 3Qi comparison video yesterday.)

Notion Ink's Adam tablet, in portrait and landscape

Notion Ink's Adam tablet, with 3Qi screen

Pixel Qi are having a good quarter.  They are offering a variety of display options, including wide-view, anti-reflective coating, and a capacitive touchsreen. And they have started winning industry awards. More details, and a Notion Ink interview (they say their Adam tablet will release on time in a few months), after the jump.
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Fundación Pies Descalzos (Shakira’s Foundation) Seeking 5 Interns to Support Deployment

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Description

At Fundación Pies Descalzos, interns will provide on-site technical and/or pedagogical support to a One Laptop per Child pilot initiative in Colombia. Interns will collaborate with teachers and local staff in developing innovative content and activities that optimize the impact of technology in learning outcomes of students and promote the involvement of the community with the initiative.   They will also provide support to the solution of technical problems that arise with the daily use of technology.

The project is implemented in three elementary schools in the cities of Barranquilla, Quibdó and Soacha in Colombia, serving vulnerable and displaced children.

Requirements

We are seeking candidates who possess the following:

  • Knowledge and a keen interest in international education
  • A working knowledge of Spanish
  • An understanding of the XO & Sugar, in particular Scratch and/or EToys

Contact:

Paul Commons (Commons@laptop.org) & Sandra Barragan (Sandra@laptop.org)

Afghanistan team develops new tools for interactive content

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New extensions to the eXe learning platform, recently developed by our team in Afghanistan, make it possible to create interactive educational content in minutes that can be exported as XOL library files or HTML / Javascript, for use in any web browser.

It provides a point and click graphical interface to create a variety of different interaction formats, such as:

  • sorting,
  • assembly of parts,
  • hangman games,
  • moving object speed answer games
  • geography quizzes, and more…

Here are screenshots of the new extensions in action:

eXe creation screen for a mapping quiz

eXe creation screen

eXe exporting a game as an .xol

eXe exporting a game as an .xol

And here is the result, expoerted as an .xol file and working the next minute on an XO:

eXe map activity on an XO

eXe map activity on an XO

Development is actively ongoing, and suggestions and contributions are welcome.  For details see the Paiwastoon project page.