OLPC Rochester, NY/Event history/26March2008 Workshop
We held an ad hoc workshop and demonstration at RIT on 26 March 2008. Announcement, Notice.pdf, Notice.doc, Notice Poster.doc
This integrated a Western New York Human Factors and Ergonomics Society (WNY HFES) local section meeting, a graduate class of Professor Keith Karn, Usability Testing, and several XO laptops loaned to the workshop by RIT's Laboratory for Technological Literacy's OLPC project team led by Professor Stephen Jacobs. The Laboratory is part of RIT's Center for Advancing the Study of CyberInfrastructure led by Professor Gregor von Laszewski. (Our thanks to Professors Stephen Jacobs, Gregor von Laszewski, & Elissa Weeden from RIT's Information Technology faculty for their XO laptops, and K-12 Instructional Evaluator Eric Grace for helping to organize and administer the workshop.)
The WNY HFES met at 4:30-6:00 pm for this meeting in RIT Building 70 Room 2400. We began the afternoon with a walk-in workshop, allowed hands on interaction with the XOs, and tested some ideas for the usability testing subgroup project. The balance of Professor Karn's class joined the group at 6 pm.
26 March 2008 One Laptop per Child, an education project
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the $100 laptop that is changing the world
Show & Tell, Look, Listen & Learn, Touch & Feel, Give & Take
An afternoon workshop with OLPC Rochester, NY leading to an evening meeting of the WNY HFES
XO laptops provided by the RIT Laboratory for Technological Literacy's OLPC project team lead by Professor Stephen Jacobs
Presented by: Frederick Grose, MPH, CIH and collaborators
Location: RIT Building 70 Room 2400 (B. Thomas Golisano College of Computing and Information Sciences)
Park in Lot J. See campus map at http://inside.rit.edu/maps/
Abstract
One Laptop per Child, the OLPC project, is a non-profit association created by faculty members of the MIT Media Lab in 2005. The association oversees the Children’s Machine project and construction and deployment of the XO, the $100 Laptop, designed to “revolutionize how we educate the world's children,” including those with limited energy and other infrastructure resources. While they emphasize that OLPC is an education project, their strategy is to promote worldwide collaboration on the development of an open-source computing and communication platform. The platform would grow to accelerate learning in whole communities and among all associated with the project. Their ambitious goals and advanced, but low-cost, and energy-efficient hardware and software have captured the imaginations of hundreds of thousands of people. In November 2007 they started mass production of the XO laptop, and the pioneers of the next wave of worldwide computing seem to be in the making!
Timeline
1-5 pm - Drop In (at any time - All are welcome), Check Things Out, Get to Know Each Other, Try Things Out
- 1:00 - doors open: set up XOs & networking; invite others to do likewise, casual introductions..
- ~1:45 - Identify interests or topic groups among attendees, suggest that they gather and self-organize. Possibly:
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- ~2:30 (or as seems timely) - Break (popcorn popper) Report discoveries, suggestions, raise questions. Address questions, summarize and document on boards, redirect, regroup, or shuffle among topics as desired.
- ~3:15 (or as seems timely) - Repeat previous step as appropriate.
- ~4:00 - finalize additional demonstrations & topics for 5:00 pm WNY HFES meeting; topic groups summarize items learned, open questions, plans, and report same on wiki and on board in classroom.
- 4:30 - Refreshments (sandwiches for full-day attendees), greet arriving HFES attendees, personal networking.
5-6:00 pm - WNY HFES Meeting time
- 5:00 - HFES meeting introductions, Facilitator’s comments on OLPC project, screen demos, explain theme, begin to answer new questions.
- ~5:30 - Identify any OLPC topic groups present; have attendees get up to mill around and exercise theme actions.
6-6:30 pm - Merge into Keith Karn's Usability Testing Class
- 6:00 - Solicit all to visit OLPC wiki, contribute ideas to the project via the OLPC Rochester, NY page, and spread the word about the project to friends and colleagues.
About the Facilitator
Frederick Grose volunteers for the OLPC project. He served for 27 years at Eastman Kodak Company in Rochester, NY as an industrial hygienist, asbestos hygiene manager, workplace epidemiology associate, health, safety, & chemical information systems architect & programmer, and ergonomics associate. Over his career at Kodak, he was the responsible industrial hygienist for significant tours of duty with Synthetic Chemicals, Roll Coating, & Photochemicals Divisions, and the Chemical Manufacturing, Construction, Maintenance, Facilities, Engineering, and Research & Development Organizations. He helped developed Kodak's asbestos control program, occupational exposure tracking systems, and exposure monitoring and analysis systems for historic and active cohorts of workers exposed to methylene chloride. He developed and delivered health education sessions for thousands of people working with asbestos and other hazardous physical, chemical, biological, or mechanical agents. Frederick is a Certified Industrial Hygienist, a Master of Public Health (University of California, Berkeley), and a Bachelor of Science in chemistry (University of California, Riverside). For most of his final 6 years at Kodak, he served as an ergonomics associate, helping industrial clients to develop, understand, and implement ergonomic solutions that improve jobs and workplaces.
For HFES Meeting (5-6 pm) Only:
- COST: Members & Students – no cost; Non-members - $ 5 payable at the door
- RSVP: Contact Jennifer Dyck by 19 March, 716-673-3828, Jennifer.Dyck at fredonia.edu