Birmingham XO Project

The deployment of thousands of XOs in Birmingham, Alabama has been in the news quite a bit lately, thanks to press releases that celebrate research done there by Dr. Shelia Cotten to examine their impact on the students and teachers.

You can read about this work here and here.

Here's a video about the project:

Student Made Documentary on the XO Laptops

Thanks to OLPC News, here is a documentary on one school's use of the XO Laptops.

According to the post:

At PS 5 in the South Bronx, New York City, every student has an XO laptop. To document the impact these computers have on the school, the fifth graders produced a documentary highlighting their experience with One Laptop Per Child.

Learn the history of OLPC and the Teaching Matters experience through narrative and teacher and student interviews. You'll even get a history of Nicholas Negroponte and a demonstration of the XO laptop itself.

XO Project Documentary - Class 501 - Port Morris School
Uploaded by jelbin. - Videos of the latest science discoveries and tech.

The Newest Tech Team

An essential piece of our XO/Sugar deployment is what we call the "Tech Team." These teams are comprised of 4-5 students in each classroom who are trained -- and empowered -- to be the experts. They are the ones troubleshooting, helping, and otherwise supporting their teachers and fellow students during XO Laptop classroom sessions and projects.

This has been extraordinarily successful for us.

Now, the eKindling folks in the Philippines are training their first Tech Teams. It is really, really exciting. Check out their first session photos.

The Learner Matters, not the Device

I saw, thanks to OLPC News, these two videos.

iPad first day, used by 9 & 4 year-olds from Cameron Moll on Vimeo.

Isaac (4yo) using the XO laptop from Cameron Moll on Vimeo.

Of course, they make me want to have an iPad, and they let me ponder what might be possible with the proposed XO-3.

But they also made me think that what is great about these videos, and about what I have seen with our 5th graders working with the XOs and SOAS and other technologies is that it is the learner that matters, not the device. The device can call something forward in the learner (which, I believe, is there naturally), but the device is NEVER going to be the thing.

How, then, do we allow this natural learning to become unleashed?

New Beginnings

Okay, first, it's been a million years since the last post. I have been involved with my doctoral research and generally way too busy. Nevertheless, it seems time to get back to work.

So much has been happening with our project and with the XO Laptops and Sugar software around the world, that it seemed like time to restart the blog.

Onward and upward!

Little Bloggers

The blog Rising Voices recently posted a story about children in Uruguay being trained to blog using their XO Laptops.

Pablo Flores of Ceibal, the governmental organization in charge of distributing OLPC laptops in Uruguay, will organize a series of workshops which will gather national and international bloggers with the young laptop-toting students to show them how to set up a blog and take advantage of other social media tools.

So now, what happens when those students have a global voice? What do they say and to whom? And then what happens?

Improvisation in Rwanda

I saw this short article from Engadget about students with XO laptops in Rwanda.
They were finding their way to the airport near them to take advantage of the airport's WiFi connection.

Talk about becoming independent learners!

New Model - People plus XOs

I just saw this article on Electronista outlining a new internship program announced by OLPC.

It seems that if you are a college student, you can get training (in Rwanda in June) and then will be able to take 100 XO Laptops and other equipment directly into schools in Africa.

Undergraduate and graduate students from around the world will be eligible to participate, with each student team receiving 100 XO laptops and related accessories as well as $10,000 to cover operating costs.

What is interesting to me, as someone managing a deployment of 140 XOs is the recognition that while the XOs are the powerful educational tool, it is the intern who can light the fire.

Good Overview of What XOs Can/Should Do

A recent posting on OLPC News outlined a strong overview of what educational computers should do. It then assesses the XOs against those expectations.

I found the discussion really clear and useful. You can check it out here: 
The Future OELPC: One Educational Laptop Per Child

Let me know what you think.

Interesting XO News

A recent posting to the XO Blog includes a restatement of OLPC priorities. I thought it was interesting:

This restructuring is also the result of an exciting new direction for OLPC. Our technology initiatives will focus on:

1. Development of Generation 2.0
2. A no-cost connectivity program
3. A million digital books
4. Passing on the development of the Sugar Operating System to the community.

They also mention a $0 laptop for certain parts of the world.

Very interesting.

XO Kickoff Event -- Some Video

XO Kickoff Event Slideshow

There's lots to share about our Kickoff Event. For now, let's let the pictures tell the story.

Welcome Tech Team!

Welcome to the intrepid Tech Team!

You are about to help launch us on this adventure.
I would like you to go here and follow the directions for setting up your PVC Google Accounts.
Click here to get started.

Welcome to the Croton OLPC Laptop Project

Hello.

Thanks to the folks at the Croton Harmon Education Foundation (CHEF) and the Middle School PTA (as well as lots of support from many administrators, teachers, parents, and friends in the district), the Croton Harmon Middle school is beginning a pilot project using the XO Laptops -- the One Laptop Per Child Laptops.

This blog will be a place for us to keep track of our progress and give us a chance to reflect on what's happening.