One Laptop per Child Program Launched – Marshall Islands

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by majuro US embassy

On January 30, 2013, hundreds of students and educators joined Minister of Education Dr. Hilda Heine at a morning ceremony to officially launch the One Laptop per Child program in the Marshall Islands.  Delap Elementary School on Majuro will be the first school in the RMI to receive and begin using the laptops for its students.

Ambassador Armbruster gives a speech at the launching of the One Laptop per Child program with the DES Principal, Minister Hilda Heine, and President Loeak, among others, listening on.

Minister Heine gave a speech detailing the history behind the project’s launch in the RMI, as well as the project’s relevance and importance to education in the Marshall Islands today.  Minister Heine emphasized the extensive training of teachers and careful selection of participating schools based on their performance.  She further highlighted and thanked the United States government for providing funding for the project through its continued support of the Ministry of Education.

Following Minister Heine, Ambassador Armbruster spoke, beginning his speech with a series of questions for the more than 300 DES students seated in the audience, to which he received enthusiastic responses.  Saying that while laptop computers are modern day learning tools which did not exist when he was a student, Ambassador Armbruster explained that his and older generations had their own learning tools, including “Etch-a-Sketches” and abacuses.  The Ambassador emphasized to the students the importance of using their own minds and creativity in conjunction with these tools, as well as the importance of taking good physical care of the laptops.  The ceremony closed with songs performed by the DES 6th grade classes.

Students from DES’s 6th grade classes perform a song at the dedication of the One Laptop per Child program.

In total, the RMI Ministry of Education purchased one-thousand of these special laptop computers using Compact Supplemental Education Grant funds from the United States.  The remaining laptops will be distributed to schools on Majuro, Arno, Ailinglaplap, Aur, Likiep, and Jaluit Atolls.

US Ambassador to the Marshall Islands, Thomas Armbruster, speaks at OLPC launch at Delap Elementary School, Majuro Atoll:



 

President of Mexico, Peña Nieto, Visits Plan Ceibal

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Peña Nieto was accompanied by the heads of the ministries of Foreign Affairs, Economy and Education, 
since the main purpose of this visit is to know about the program “Basic Informatics Educative Connectivity for Online Learning” and do it on our country.

The president of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, arrived a few minutes to the international airport in Montevideo, Uruguay, where he made ​​his first official working visit.

It was reported that the Mexican president was greeted by his South American counterpart Jose Mujica and Roberto Conde, Foreign Minister of Internal Uru

guay in a first meeting during which the hymns were sung in both nations and presented the delegations of both rulers.

Note that Peña Nieto was accompanied by the heads of the

ministries of Foreign Affairs SRE, Economy SE ​​and Public Education SEP, since the main purpose of this visit is to know about the program “Educational Computer Connectivity basic Online Learning “and to implement it in our country.

El sexenio

Watch the video: http://youtu.be/2VnokEkq0LI

From his twitter account you can read:
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Photo from President’s Instagram profile

 

Kids from Fundación Pies Descalzos share their experiences with the XO Laptop at TEDx Bogota

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Translation from the original post from Fundación Pies Descalzos.

Rodrigo Arboleda, CEO of One Laptop per Child Association, was invited to present at TEDx Bogota in December 2012. The theme of TEDx Bogota conference was “Del dicho al hecho”.

As a part of his presentation, Mr. Arboleda invited children from Fundación Pies Descalzos to present their experiences with OLPC. Fundación Pies Descalzos has worked closely with One Laptop per Child for four years through the College Heights Foundation Cazucá (Soacha) located in Barranquilla and Pretoria. The College Heights Foundation Cazucá has started an educational project that aims for every child to have his or her own inexpensive, green XO laptop and Internet connection. With these tools, users are able to have full access to information, which in turn fosters innovation, creativity and knowledge.

Approximately 200 students from the College Heights Foundation from the third, fourth and fifth grades have extensive experience in using the XO laptop. In presenting at the TEDx Bogota conference, the children showed the audience their skills in working with the laptop. The children also explained to participants at the OLPC booth, all the benefits and changes in the social environment they have witnessed through the use of the XO laptop.

Through the OLPC project, Fundación Pies Descalzos is working to reach its related goals of using innovative methods in the classroom and strengthening teachers’ efforts in the classroom.

“Visualizing Learning with Turtle Art”

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By: Walter Bender

There are certainly cases where applying objective measures badly is worse than not applying them at all, and education may well be one of those. –Nate Silver

Not to be deterred by Nate Silver’s words of warning, Claudia Urrea and I continue to work on mechanisms for visualizing learning Sugar. Along with the Pacita Pena and other members of the Learning Team, we have been designing rubrics that capture the level of fluency with the technology as well as the creative use of the individual Sugar tools by children. The rubrics are captured automatically in some Sugar activities, e.g., Turtle Art and a modified version of Write.  We are aiming for evaluations that look more broadly than those data that are captured by standardized tests. We just submitted a paper, “Visualizing Learning with Turtle Art”, in which we present some measurements calculated from 45 Turtle Art projects created by children working with Quirós Tanzi Foundation.

We claim that the rubric serves as a partial evaluation tool for open-ended projects. Partial, because it is only a measure of how the children used Turtle Art to express themselves, but not what they made or why they made it. But the rubric does have the potential to give some assistance to the teacher who is working within the context of accountability, without adding an additional burden of analysis above and beyond looking at the work itself.

We want children not just to learn about the computer, but also to learn with the computer. Providing activities such as Turtle Art that engage them in computational thinking in the context of personal expression is necessary, but not sufficient. Giving them tools for reflection enhance the learning experience. Giving their teachers simple-to-use mechanisms for assessment increase the odds that activities like Turtle Art will find more mainstream acceptance. Making it easier to assess open-ended projects lowers one of the barriers that are preventing more use of the arts in school.

A bright future for Bura Tana Community – Kenya

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St Jude Primary School is located in Bura Tana, a ten hour drive from the Nairobi airport in Kenya. The leaders of this school are dedicated to providing the best education in the area. Children here are able to participate in various activities throughout the school day. This motivates them to learn and to work hard. These children are very excited about receiving the XO laptops in their school, thanks to Lesley Hayman Sager and friends, who have provided this wonderful opportunity to these children.

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OLPCA, through its office in KIGALI, supported the school by providing a one day training on the use of XO laptops. The children enjoyed the different activities on the XO laptop, especially the Chat activity and the Maze activity. The Chat and Maze are activities that were developed by Sugar Labs. Such activities are preloaded on the XO laptop. Ten children and three teachers attended the training. These students and teachers are now responsible to share what they learned with the rest of the school.

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In addition to the basic introduction on the use of XO laptop, the children also came to understand that the XO laptop serves as a tool to use to further the learning process. The children came to see that the laptop offers a new way to express their ideas, share these ideas with their community and the rest of the world. When asked about their experience with the XO laptop, the students were full of joy and expressed their gratitude to people who brought the XO laptops to their school.

To assure sustainability and to motivate the children to continue using the XO laptops, the school created two clubs that will be monitored and supported from Kigali, the St Jude News Line Club and the Creative Arts Club. Participants registered for these two clubs and teachers will monitor the progress of the clubs.

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This project symbolizes the ideal and hope that these young children will continue to support their community in its development through education and access to information and technology.

By Intwali Jimmy Parfait

OLPCA Rwanda

Marvell on the XO-4

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From marvell.com - Visit to download the full Product documentation.

Marvell is proud to be an institutional partner in the noble mission of One Laptop Per Child (OLPC). The idea is pretty simple— create educational opportunities for the world’s children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop complete with content and software that enables self-empowered learning. More than two million sturdy green OLPC laptops have been sent to children in far flung locations such as Nepal, Peru, Rwanda and Uruguay, connecting these kids to each other and the world.

OLPC’s new model, the XO 4.0 Touch is a laptop with a touchscreen. The Touch not only improves the existing display, it marks the first time OLPC has been able to provide touchscreen technology to its users. No one else has been able to deliver a touchscreen that is childproof, repairable and sun-readable — until now.

The XO 4.0 is powered by the Marvell ARMADA PXA2128. Optimized by ARM v7 high-performance mobile processors with Hybrid-SMP technology at up to 1.2GHz, the PXA2128 reduces power consumption by roughly half and enables an extended battery life thanks to a low-power mobile (LPM) processor.

Features of the Marvell ARMADA PXA2128 include:

  • Marvell optimized ARM®v7 dual High-Performance Mobile (HPM) processors with Hybrid-SMP technology at up 1.2GHz
  • Architecturally matched ARMv7 Low-Power Mobile (LPM) processor optimized with Hybrid-SMP technology for extended battery life
  • Dual-channel independent memory controllers (LPDDR2 or DDR3/DDR3L)
  • Multiple power islands, dynamic voltage/frequency scaling, clock and power gating and standby modes
  • Powerful hardware accelerators for 2D/3D graphics, 1080p video, HiFi audio codecs and camera ISP
  • Dedicated security engine with hardware keys, secure memory and ARM® TrustZone® for secure boot and cryptography

Marvell’s Avastar 88W8787 delivers the wireless performance and range that will make the XO 4.0 a connected learning experience. Designed for both simultaneous and independent operation of the following:

  • IEEE 802.11a/g/b and 802.11n payload data rates for Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)
  • Bluetooth 3.0 + High Speed (HS) (also compliant with Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR)
  • FM transmit and receive (digital encoder/decoder FM radio with RDS/RBDS)
  • The device supports the 802.11i security standard through implementation of the AES/CCMP, WEP with TKIP, AES/CMAC, and WLAN WAPI security mechanisms

 

Developing Sugar Activities Using HTML5

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Using HTML in a Sugar Activity is not new. The Wikipedia Activity has been embedding HTML contents for years. It does this by integrating into the Activity two things: the Sugar browser to render HTML and an HTTP server to react to user clicks by calling Python code.

To learn more on how to Develop Sugar Activities Using HTML5 read the new chapter on the How to Develop your Sugar Activities Manual.

Walking in an “XO Wonderland”

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By: Torie Leslie, OLPC facilitator at Allenbrook Elementary School

Captura de pantalla 2013-01-17 a las 10.06.57The OLPC Charlotte team anxiously awaits the arrival of our classroom XO laptops!
Until our launch date, we are committed to making sure our school families and community members have opportunities to explore the laptops and ask any questions they may have.

 

Hosted by Allenbrook Elementary School, XO Winter Wonderland was one
opportunity where students, parents and community members were welcome to
come and explore the power of the XO laptop. Embracing the winter season,
Allenbrook’s cafeteria was transformed into a XO Winter Wonderland complete with snowflakes and nearly 100 XO laptops. While strolling through The XO Winter Wonderland, students were able to enjoy a reading of The Gingerbread Man on the
XO, challenge one another in Maze and Implode and create holiday ornaments of
their own.

While exploring The XO Winter Wonderland, parents and community members
heard from OLPC staff about the project and received valuable tools to support
home utilization.

The evening concluded with an award ceremony, where students were able to snag
prizes for having the “best dressed XO Man.”

New XO Learning Tablet to be Available at Select Walmart Stores and Walmart.com

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Vegas, NV- Jan 8, 2012- One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA), the world
renowned project to provide a modern education to children through a connected
computing device, announced today that it will introduce a new touch screen device, the XO Learning Tablet, at CES. OLPCA will also unveil for the first time the XO Learning System, an Android compatible software package for child-centric learning.

Every child has dreams and XO Learning directs the child’s passion, creativity and energy for these dreams into a new user interface that has 12 dreams. Such dreams include “I want to be” an artist, a musician and a scientist. Each dream features a rich learning experience and applications, books, games and videos that allow children ages 3 to 12 to naturally explore their dreams and learn at the same time. Content within a dream has three levels, so as the child advances in his/her learning, there is no need to pay for additional apps or content. Every dream features a “hero”, a real person who personifies the dream.

“The challenge in computing and education is to use the technology to develop new ways for children to learn. The rich content of the dreams allows the child’s natural
passion to be directed into learning experiences,” said Giulia D’Amico, the lead designer of XO Learning.

OLPCA teamed with the legendary designer Yves Behar of Fuse Project and his team
to create the XO Learning user interface and cover. All of the content in XO Learning
has been curated and selected for appropriateness and educational value by both
OLPCA and Common Sense Media, the leading non-profit reviewer of age appropriate
computer-based content in the U.S. XO Learning also offers a full range of parental
controls and user IDs for up to three children, a dashboard where the child or the parent can review usage, types of content and the skills the child is developing. XO Learning also includes a journal that records all usage including websites visited. Press a single icon and XO Learning switches from English to Spanish with all new content depending on the language. Additional languages will be available in future releases.

XO Learning also offers unique learning experiences from leading partners who support OLPCA’s program to foster child-centric learning. OLPCA partners include Sesame Street, MyCityWay, Common Sense Media, Little Pim and UNESCO, among others. OLPCA is currently in negotiations with many other of the world’s leading companies to provide unique experiences through XO Learning in time for the product introduction in 2013.

XO Learning will be offered through licensing agreements to tablet manufacturers,
governments, book publishers, and international distributors in the U.S., Europe and the traditional OLPCA markets in developing countries.
“With the popularity of tablets, the standards and specifications of the devices are
converging to one worldwide standard”, said D’Amico. “The expectation of the tablet
user in the U.S., India and South Africa is the same.”

Sakar International, based in Edison, New Jersey, is the first licensee under their
Vivitar brand. It will offer XO Learning on a 7″ inch Android tablet of its own design
with specifications as shown in the attached schedule. The tablet will be marketed as
the “XO Tablet”. Sakar has the exclusive right to sell the XO Tablet to leading U.S.
retailers for both in-store and online sales.

The XO Tablet will be available at select Walmart stores and Walmart.com this year.

About One Laptop per Child Association One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA at http://www.laptop.org) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression. In partnership with the public and private sectors and non- governmental organizations and supported by comprehensive implementation and pedagogical services, OLPCA seeks to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power connected laptop that empowers individual learning and growth.

About XO Learning
“A learning experience designed to unleash children’s creativity” for 3-12 year olds.
XO Learning believes that tablets offer new ways for technology to provide a child-centric learning environment through the convergence of virtual and physical activities. These experiences are made possible, in part, through app-cessories, sensors and other devices particularly suited to the form factor and user interface of a tablet.

http://www.xo-learning.org

Media Contacts
press@laptop.org
info@xo-learning.org

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OLPCA TO RELEASE 3 NEW PRODUCTS AT CES – XO LEARNING SYSTEM DEBUTS AT CES

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XO Major Learning Partners Include Sesame Street, MyCityWay, Common Sense Media and Little Pim

VIVITAR, a Sakar Company, is Strategic Partner and First Licensee for XO Tablet in U.S. Market

Vegas, NV- Jan 8,2012 – One Laptop per Child Association (OLPCA), the world- renowned project to provide a modern education to children through a connected
computing device, announced today that it will introduce at CES three new products.
OLPCA will unveil for the first time the XO Learning System, an Android compatible
software suite for child-centric learning, which is available by license to computer
manufacturers, governments, NGOs and content providers such as book publishers.
Tablets under such a license will be called the XO Tablet, the second product announcement. Third, OLPCA will show the fourth generation of its iconic green and
white laptop with both a keyboard and a multi-touch screen using Neonode technology.

Every child has dreams and XO Learning directs the child’s passion, creativity and energy for these dreams into a new user interface that has 12 dreams. Such dreams
include “I want to be” an artist, a musician and a scientist. Each dream features a rich
learning experience and applications, books, games and videos that allow children ages 3 to 12 to naturally explore their dreams and learn at the same time.

“The challenge in computing and education is to use the technology to develop new
ways for children to learn. The rich content of the dreams allows the child’s natural
passion to be directed into learning experiences,” said Giulia D’Amico, the lead designer of XO Learning. OLPCA teamed with the legendary designer Yves Behar of Fuse Project and his team to create the XO Learning user interface and cover.

The content in XO Learning has been curated and selected for age-appropriateness
and learning value by OLPCA, in collaboration with Common Sense Media, the leading non-profit organization dedicated to helping parents and teachers make informed decisions about media. Common Sense Media offers more than 18,000 media ratings and reviews based on both robust educational research and child development guidelines. .XO Learning also offers a full range of parental controls and user IDs for up to three children, a dashboard where the child or the parent can review usage, types of content and the skills the child is developing. Press a single icon and XO Learning switches from English to Spanish with all new content depending on the language. Additional languages will be available in future releases.

XO Learning also offers unique learning experiences from leading partners who support OLPCA’s program to foster child-centric learning. Many international companies share the vision to create learning experiences that unleash a child’s creativity, D’Amico said. In addition to helping to curate the XO Learning content, Common Sense Media has also provided Digital Passport™ an interactive learning environment designed for students in grades 3-5 to teach them how to safely navigate a technology-enhanced world, to the XO Learning platform. Digital Passport™ is already available in classrooms via OLPCA XO laptops in the U.S. and internationally.
Other XO Learning partners include Sesame Street, MyCityWay and Little Pim among
others. OLPCA is currently in negotiations with many other of the world’s leading
companies to provide unique experiences through XO Learning in time for the product
introduction in May 2013.

“OLPCA and Common Sense Media share the same vision of a world in which all kids
have access to the limitless learning opportunities that technology provides,” said Amy
Guggenheim Shenkan, president and COO, Common Sense Media. “By using ratings
and reviews from Common Sense Media to inform XO Learning, OLPCA has created a
product that will point kids towards the highest quality digital media products available, and will go a long way to ensure our kids are well-prepared to grow, thrive, and succeed in the 21st century.”

Sakar International, based in Edison, New Jersey, is the first licensee of XO Learning.
It will offer XO Learning on a 7″ inch Android tablet of its own design. The tablet will
be marketed as the “XO Tablet”. Sakar has the exclusive right to sell the XO Tablet to
leading U.S. retailers for both in-store and online sales.

OLPCA also continues to develop its own line of iconic green and white laptops. At
CES, OLPCA will unveil its fourth-generation system – the XO 4.0 Touch. This touch
screen laptop features:

• Marvell® ARMADA® PXA2128 multicore application processor with hybrid-SMP
technology running at 1 GHz
• Marvell® Avastar® 88W8787 highly integrated SoC
• Neonode touch screen technology with multi-sensing capabilities

The XO 4.0 Touch preserves the dual mode screen, which allows children to use the
laptop in full sunlight as well as in the classroom. The XO 4.0 Touch will also offer the
free educational software, Sugar, which has been featured on all previous versions of
the laptop. Sugar offers over 300 child-centric learning apps and three programming
environments for children.

“We are pleased to be launching XO Learning and the XO Learning Tablet. OLPCA
pioneered the inexpensive netbook for learning, and that concept remains viable today, particularly with the new touch screen version,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, chairman and CEO of OLPCA Association. “The XO 4.0 is still the only laptop that is designed for children. It is reparable by a child with only a screwdriver. It now has the latest Marvell hybrid-core processor and Noenode’s latest touch screen technology.”

About XO Learning

“A learning experience designed to unleash children’s creativity” for 3-12 year olds.
XO Learning believes that tablets offer new ways for technology to provide a child-centric learning environment through the convergence of virtual and physical activities. These experiences are made possible, in part, through app-cessories, sensors and other devices particularly suited to the form factor and user interface of a tablet.
http://www.xo-learning.org

Media Contacts
press@laptop.org
info@xo-learning.org

About Vivitar
Vivitar is a leading provider of photographic, audio and optic devices and related accessories with a rich heritage of technology innovation dating back to 1938. The company celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2013 with an aggressive expansion of its accessory portfolio, including a line of fashion smartphone and tablet accessories as well as co-branded speakers, docks, headphones and earbuds. Vivitar is headquartered in Edison, New Jersey, with additional offices across the United Kingdom, Latin America, Canada and Hong Kong, and retail distribution worldwide.  For more information, visit www.vivitar.com

SPECIFICATIONSVivitar Licensed XO Tablet
Display Size 7.0 inches
Processor 1.6 Ghz dual core
RAM 1 GB
Wi-fi SDIO 802.11 b/g/n
Screen resolution 1024×600 pixels
Free Apps 100 preloaded
Parental Control Built in
Storage 8 GB
Battery 3,800 MA
I/O Micro SD, HDMI, Micro USB, Stereo headset
Front Camera/Rear Camera 1.3 MP 720 HD/2.0 MP

New 13.1.0 software release pairing up with the new XO-4 Touch laptop

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We’re pleased to announce the next release candidate of our new 13.1.0 software release.

OLPC OS 13.1.0 is a new software release focusing on providing support for the new XO-4 laptop and its optional touchscreen. As usual, we maintain support and consistency for older laptops models, with XO-1.75, XO-1.5 and XO-1 also included in the release.

Information and installation instructions can be found here.

Quick links for those who know which files need to be grabbed and save to USB disks:
http://download.laptop.org/xo-4/os/candidate/13.1.0-21/
http://download.laptop.org/xo-1.75/os/candidate/13.1.0-21/
http://download.laptop.org/xo-1.5/os/candidate/13.1.0-21/
http://download.laptop.org/xo-1/os/candidate/13.1.0-21/

This release adds SiS and DisplayLink USB-VGA support for the XO-1.75 and XO-4, on par with the support offered for XO-1 and XO-1.5.

We’ve moved the underlying system from Fedora 17 to Fedora 18 in this release, which was a necessary measure for touch support, and helps us keep up-to-date with the open source technologies that we rely upon. A minor update to GNOME to version 3.6 is included here.

Sugar-0.98 and touch

The most notable feature in the latest version of Sugar is the addition of touchscreen support, pairing up with the new XO-4 Touch laptop. While a touchscreen can be seen as somewhat equivalent to a mouse, there are a number of subtle differences, such as the fact that it is not possible to hover without also triggering a “click”, which called for a number of user interface modifications to make Sugar suitable for touchscreen input. We’ve tackled these challenges by making small adaptions to the UI where necessary. In some places where hovering was previously required, a click or touch will now show an informational palette (with menu) rather than immediately performing an action. In other places, a touch-and-hold operation will do the equivalent of what hovering or right-clicking does with the mouse. We’ve also made some small interface elements finger-sized, such as the activity icons on the home screen.

We’ve also sprinked some gestures throughout the interface. A quick vertical swipe from the top region of the screen downwards will cause the frame to open, and the same gesture can be used to close it. When working in the Image Viewer, you can use pinch-type gestures to zoom in and zoom out. Swiping your finger over any scrollable area will cause scrolling to happen, so you don’t have to worry about trying to manipulate small scroll bars with your fingers.

Tablet mode (where the laptop screen is rotated around and folded down, physically obscuring the keyboard and mouse) is very usable with a touchscreen – especially with the work we’ve put in. When in tablet mode, if you select a text input area, an on-screen keyboard will pop up: touch the keys to type away as normal. We’ve also taken some initial steps to make sure that the region of the screen where you are typing is made visible if it would otherwise be obscured by the on-screen keyboard.

Under the hood, this release also includes a huge amount of effort in our use of the underlying GTK platform: we have migrated Sugar itself, and many more activities, to GTK+ version 3. This invisible but invasive work, which we started for 12.1.0, is essential for the ongoing development and maintenance of Sugar, and was a solid requirement for the touchscreen work described above.

More information about Sugar-0.98 is available in the Sugar release notes

OLPC Workshop in Johannesburg

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OLPC South Africa Foundation organized a comprehensive three day OLPC workshop conducted by OLPCA representatives from its office in Kigali on December 10 to 14, 2012.

DSC05033

 

The main objective of this workshop was to provide a comprehensive introduction to OLPC. The workshop also explained the tremendous milestones achieved to date in providing educational opportunities to children in developing world.

This workshop introduced the XO, its preloaded content and the Sugar learning platform to people from organizations who will be involved in preparation and implementation of large teacher trainings and deployments in South Africa.

The workshop also examined what has been learned in Rwanda during the past four years. The OLPC team from Rwanda shared its experiences, achievements, challenges and perspectives moving forward in its ongoing effort to integrate OLPC technology into the Rwandan education system.

DSC05066

 

OLPC South Africa Foundation invited some of its friends, associates and colleagues who will be instrumental in furthering the OLPC cause in South Africa. Invitees included individuals from the National Education Department and other thought leaders from various organizations. Approximately 25 to 30 individuals attended the workshop.

Workshop Overview

The first day of the workshop provided a general introduction to OLPC’s background, its mission, and learning philosophy. The team presented OLPC achievements to date. OLPC representatives shared an overview of different OLPC projects worldwide. The OLPC team also discussed the Rwandan experience and the lessons learned over the past four years of the project in Rwanda. The team shared galleries of children’s work from various schools in Rwanda. OLPC representatives examined the impact on learning, classroom dynamics, changes in school attendance, and the overall changes brought by XO into the families and communities in Rwanda. This busy day ended with all attendees exploring preloaded content on XO. Attendees were able to experience the uniqueness of the Sugar learning platform, which allows learners to create, share and collaborate with their peers.

On the second day, the workshop introduced the Sugar learning environment to the representatives of different organizations in attendance. It is anticipated that these organizations will be involved in preparation and implementation of next year’s large teacher trainings and deployments. Participants executed different lesson plans integrating curriculum topics. During this process, participants became familiar with the Sugar user interface and the Write, Record, Scratch, Etoys, Social Calc and Portfolio activities.

OLPC representatives shared different approaches used in Rwanda to support schools on the learning side of the project. For example, the OLPC team in Rwanda has organized XO users clubs, after school and holiday camps, and XO weekly challenges. The team has also worked with teachers to develop lesson plans that integrate use of the XO laptop. The second day concluded with an overview of what is suggested by the OLPC deployment guide and how the project has been implemented in Rwanda.

The third and last day of the workshop was focused on the technical aspects of the XO laptops. Participants were introduced to the XO’s hardware and software, the school servers and troubleshooting tips. The attendees also assembled and dissembled laptops from Kliptown project.

DSC05047

 

OLPC representatives concluded the workshop with additional support to the OLPC project in Kliptown. The team worked with the Kliptown youth program volunteers and Members of Pendula ICT (a technical support company) to ensure all laptops were in good conditions for use by the Kliptown afterschool program. The OLPC foundation in South Africa is committed to providing South African children with OLPC technology. Many of the lessons learned in Rwanda will be valuable as the South Africa project begins to take shape.

DSC05046

Four new Sugar Activities

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Letter Match is an activity for introducing the Spanish vowels. While far from contructionist, this activity does provide a mechanism for learning the alphabet. It displays letters and images and associated sound files, such as ‘A as in ave’. There are two modes:

  1. see a letter, then click on the corresponding picture

 

 

2. see a picture, then click on the corresponding letter

 

 

 

AEIOU is an activity for introducing the Spanish vowels. It displays letters and images and associated sound files, such as ‘A as in ave’. It would, of course, be fun to let the learner add their own pictures and sound recordings. There are four modes:

  1. click on the letter to hear its name
  2. click on the picture to hear the name of the first letter in the word represented by the picture
  3. hear a letter name, then click on the corresponding letter
  4. hear a letter name, then click on the corresponding picture

 

 

 

I Know My ABCs is an activity for introducing the Spanish alphabet. It displays letters and images and associated sound files, such as ‘A as in ave’. There are four modes:

  1. click on the letter to hear its name
  2. click on the picture to hear the name of the first letter in the word represented by the picture
  3. hear a letter name, then click on the corresponding letter
  4. hear a letter name, then click on the corresponding picture

Finally, a cool app which uses the accelerometer in XO- 4, written by a Google Code-In student:

Level Tool is an activity to check the inclination of a surface with respect to ground.