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