solomon islands

Three test requests for Saturday - Bernie's builds, James Cameron requesting feedback on release notes and test activity - Free from Malaria.

If you want to test Bernie's alpha release 2 builds (XO-1.0 and XO-1.5) for Paraguay go here - http://wiki.sugarlabs.org/go/Deployment_Team/Sugar-0.88_Notes

Other XO-1.5 builds are here - http://build.laptop.org/

James Cameron request:

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Release_notes/10.1.1 has been drafted, Further edits are welcome. In particular:

0. are there any interesting new features or notable bugs that should be listed? (e.g. does my sense of interest and notability match yours?)

1. is the installation process correct in other circumstances? (it works for me, requires less keyboard use on the XO-1.5, and has less
risk of bad experience caused by issuing commands after fs-update),

2. will the build be on download.laptop.org or build.laptop.org? (presuming the latter for the time being),

3. are there any pictures available of holding down all four game keys?

4. has anyone recently tested olpc-update from os64 to os20x?

--
James Cameron
http://quozl.linux.org.au/

(My first bit of feedback from me is there are two folders - 10.1.1 and 10.2.0 - the documentation confuses which is which)

I have just heard about an activity that teaches children about Malaria (Papa New Guinea and Solomon Islands are on the Malaria risk list) -
http://activities.sugarlabs.org/en-US/sugar/search?q=malaria&cat=all

The Free From Malaria game tells the story of Paul, a boy who lives in a Malaria
endemic country. Paul learns how mosquitoes are responsible for spreading the
Plasmodium parasite which causes Malaria. He also learns how to recognize the
symptoms it causes and to seek medical help if someone thinks they have the
disease.

The content consists of a comic story with two games that teaches children the
importance of covering up at night-time and using bed nets. The goal is to help
children recognize their role in the prevention of the disease and to create a
future free from Malaria.

http://worldclassproject.org.uk

See you Saturday at 11am, online or in person :-)

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

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