deployments

If you haven't already read about it, I recommend you look at the independent evaluation of the olpc pilot projects in the Solomon Islands.

The Solomon Island government commissioned ACER (Australian Council for Educational Research) to evaluate the deployments in three villages and have reported back not only on the impact on students, but also on teachers, parents and the communities.

"OLPC must and should be given the opportunity to expand in Solomon Islands," the report quotes a school principal involved in the pilots. "It must be realised appreciated and embraced."

Read more about it on the olpc Oceania blog

Vinny and Team OneBeep have made the news again with their recent nationwide win of the Microsoft Imagine Cup New Zealand round. They are off to Poland for the internationals.

Project aimed at improving OLPC project wins Imagine Cup

Kiwi imagination yields winning solution

Kiwi Teams Creates Waves with Innovative Application

Congratulations on the win. We look forward to hearing more about the project as you progress and seeing it helping the olpc remote deployments.

We caught up with Ian Thomson, OLPC Oceania Coordinator today, and heard about the pilot deployments at Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu.

Students in the Solomon Islands with the OLPC XO Laptops

There have been 3400 XOs deployed to the Pacific Islands so far, with another 1600 waiting to be deployed in the Pacific region. By working with ACER Australian Council of Education Research there is an evaluation being conducted of the Solomon Islands, anticipated publish date of November 2009.

As part of the pilots work has been done with teachers, parents and education ministries to ensure the best success of the pilots. Some of the lessons learned include reinforcements that the OLPC programme enhances, strengthens and aligns with regional and country education goals and plans. The communities have been supportive of the deployments.

Teachers in Nauru with their laptops

Traditionally, in pacific cultures it is not typically acceptable that the children know more than the adults, however the pilots have shown that it is okay for children to know more than adults with regards to technology and literacy.

There is interesting discussions happening on how XOs can be used to support traditional knowledge.

Another lesson learned by the pilot groups is that a standing stock of XOs and hardware peripherals should be centrally maintained in the region to efficiently feed deployments in a timely and cost-efficient manner.

Teacher training session in Dreikikir - Papua New Guinea

The pilot phase has resulted in the development of community consultation guidelines that recommend principles for ensuring OLPC is introduced with the full involvement and consent of local communities.

Children from Patukae in the Solomon Islands

Translation projects are under way for Papua New Guinea pidgin, Solomon Islands Pidgin, and Kosraean. Future translations to start are Fijiian, Samoan and Tongan working with the local Ministries of Education.

One of the challenges they are still working on is funding trials in 15 Pacific countries. The technical working group have scoped the rollout trial phase at US$3.5 million including the hardware and all the support required for implementation.

The NZ testers will offer any support they can in testing and recommend any educational technologists wanting to donate their time, take a working holiday in one of these locations:
Piloted: Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu
Trials: Federated States of Micronesia, Kiribati, Fiji, French Polynesia, Republic of Marshall Islands, Palau, Samoa, Tokelau, Tonga and Tuvalu.

Niue students with their XO laptops