Educator Resources
Welcome Educators! The following resources have been created by OLPC supporters in various countries. This page is an attempt at organizing the available resources in a central location.
Please add any resources that you think may be useful.
Contents
Recommended Reading
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| What is Sugar?? | What is Sugar? This will answer this question as well as share with you the philosophies of the SugarLabs foundation. | SugarLabs |
| The XO Laptop in the Classroom.pdf | A dowloadable PDF file introducing you to the XO laptop, it's features, activities within and classroom ideas. | Sdenka Zobeida Salas Pilco |
Presentations
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| OLPC Mission Video part 1 | Video of The One Laptop Per Child foundation explaining the mission and philisophy of the XO Laptop. | OLPC Foundation |
| OLPC Mission Video part 2 | Video of The One Laptop Per Child foundation explaining the mission and philisophy of the XO Laptop. | OLPC Foundation |
| Classroom Presenter for the XO Laptop | A downloadable Powerpoint presentation to help assist you with classroom presentation and utilization of the XO Laptop. | Will Burnside, Mathias Klous, Kristofer Plunkett, Brian Mayton |
Lesson Plans
Multidisciplinary
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Creating a business | A .doc guide to assist you with getting students to create their own business plan. This business plan will teach students how to take care of their money and introduce them to budgeting their money properly. It also will teach them to use spreadsheets and basic equations within spreadsheets. | Rawanda Team wiki.laptop.org |
| Info Hunt | This activity is intended for students to use their XO laptops to find as much information and examples of any topic the teacher provides. Examples would be 90 degree architecture, uses of wood, etc, etc. | wiki.laptop.org |
Geography
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Moon | A description of the activity moon and definitions to help you understand the terminology of the moon and its' cycles | wiki.laptop.org |
| Distance | A guide on how to use Distance Activity for the XO Laptop. | wiki.laptop.org |
Science
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Making XO Sensors | Making XO sensors for the use of MEASURE activity | Flossmanuals |
| Ideas to try with PHYSICS activity | Here are a list of some ideas to try with the activity PHYSICS. | wiki.laptop.org |
| Python Programming: An introduction to computer science | A downloadable PDF document/Adobe Acrobat document that will introduce you to Python programming. | John M. Zelle, Ph.D. 2002 |
Literacy
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Chat Activity | This is an introduction to Chat and also gives you various ideas and examples to use Chat within your classroom | Floss Manuals |
English
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Creating a storybook in eToys | This downloadable .docx manual will explain how to create a storybook using the activity eToys. | Rawanda Tean wiki.laptop.org |
| Creating a Diary | Students will buddy up and create a weekly diary with their XO laptops filled with pictures and imagination to present to their classmates. | wiki.laptop.org |
| Journalism | Students can use XO laptops to record information, save notes, ideas, stories, and put it all together to create a news story about any topic the teacher provides. | wiki.laptop.org |
Language
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Write Activity | A guide on the basics of Write Activity and how to use features within, collaborating, and other tutorials | Floss Manuals |
Mathematics
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Decimals | A downloadable .docx lesson plan dedicated to decimal practice with the XO. You will create a game utilizing MEMORIZE activity and have students practice with it | Rawanda Team wiki.laptop.org |
| What makes Mathematics hard to learn? | A read that asks the question "What makes Mathematics hard to learn?" with insight to the question. | Marvin Minsky |
Social Science
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Interviewing a family member | If students can take their XO home, they can choose a family member to interview on a subject the class is studying. The Record Activity is perfect for making either Audio or Video recordings of the interviews. Students can include a photo of the interviewee, also taken with Record. Possible topics, assigned by the teacher, for the interviews could be occupations, childhood memories, favorite pets, historical events they would remember, or interesting places they have been, like "what I did over my summer vacation".If they have made audio interviews, students can work in teams to transcribe the recordings they have into a project in Write and add the photos they have taken. They might also research the topics of their interviews and write a little background information about the topic. | Flossmanuals |
Information Technology
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| XO Laptop Keyboard Shortcuts | A collection of XO laptop keyboard shortcuts for your information and review. | Floss Manuals |
| Creating your own XO Activities | A guide to programming your own XO Activity for the Sugar operating system | Floss Manuals |
| Using Terminal | This guide teaches you how to utilize Terminal and teaches you basic and advanced commands to assist you with programming and editing with Terminal | Floss Manuals |
Art
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Making Movies | This is an idea of what you can do with students using their XO laptops to create different scenarios on screen. | Team Nigeria wiki.laptop.org |
| Creating a photo archive | This can be used for various projects. You can get students to take pictures of themselves, events, activities within the school year and have them collaborate their photos to create a photo archive for the year. | wiki.laptop.org |
Physical Education
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Kakisiwew School get fit with Swift Feet | A video of students utilizing Swift Feet for exercise during classtime. This helps children to get the blood flowing to assist them with learning | Youtube |
Music
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| TamTamJam Activity | A quick lesson on how to play "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" on keyboard using TamTamJam | dukegroups.duke.edu |
| TamTam Music Activities | A quick read about what TamTamEdit, TamTamJam, TamTamMini, & SynthLab is all about and links to help you get started using these programs. | wiki.laptop.org |
Drama
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Making Movies | This is an idea of what you can do with students using their XO laptops to create different scenarios on screen. | Team Nigeria wiki.laptop.org |
Manuals
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Geting Started | HELP TOPICS: opening the laptop, getting connected, using activities, inviting a friend, sharing with the neighborhood, using your journal, ebook mode, home view, group view, neighborhood view, activity view, laptop features, external ports, keyboard battery, troubleshooting | wiki.laptop.org |
| Online Manual | A very useful online manual for the XO laptop which includes topics regarding: Introduction, Getting Started, Interface, Activities, Network, Record Activity, Browse Activity, Write Activity, Turtle Art Activity, Support,. | wiki.laptop.org |
| Online Troubleshooting Guide | Troubleshooting the XO Laptop. An online guide to assist you with troubleshooting various components of the XO Laptop. | wiki.laptop.org |
| XO Laptop Top Disassembly | An online guide to disassemble XO Laptop. This guide will assist you to access to the monitor, speakers, hard drive, wi-fi antennae, and motherboard | wiki.laptop.org |
| XO Laptop Bottom Disassembly | This guide will assist you to access to the keyboard, touchpad, keyboard & touchpad control board (ALPS) | wiki.laptop.org |
| Connecting an XO Laptop to the internet | This is a guide to show you how to connect your XO laptop to a network for internet access | wiki.laptop.org |
| Memorize Guide | This is a guide to show you how to use the activity, Memorize. It will help you with basics as well as to create, modify and play as well as other tutorials | Floss Manuals |
Activity Guides
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| Turtle Art | Basic information for blocks and commands. A starting point for using Turtle Art | wiki.laptop.org |
| Turtle Art: Getting Started | This webpage is dedicated to explaining the basics as well as more complex forms of Turtle Art. Instructions include how to photos and diagrams to help you understand how to use Turtle Art's blocks, and block combinations. Also, a gallary of beautiful work done by Turtle Art to demonstrate its capabilities. | turtleart.org |
| Turtle Art Demonstration | A quick video showing Turtle Art in action. This will give you an idea of how easy and fun Turtle Art can be. | NewGadgetsDE |
| Scratch: Instructonal Resource 1 | This site has a vast collection of how to's & videos to get you started with Scratch. | ScratchEd |
| Scratch: Instructional Resource 2 | This site has a vast collection of how to's & videos to get you started with Scratch. | learnscratch.org |
| eToys: Instructional Resource | This site has a vast collection of PDF documentation & videos to get you started with eToys. | waveplace.org |
Articles and Bibliographic References
| Resource | Description | Author(s) |
| The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project and Its Applicability to Ghana | In this paper, we describe the OLPC project, its mission and goals, the XO laptop itself, and address the applicability of the OLPC project and the XO technology to Ghana, West Africa. | Suzanne Fox Buchele*, Romeo Owusu-Aning |
| Etoys for One Laptop Per Child | We present an overview of the OLPC Etoys system, describe the intensive two-year development effort that produced the system, and discuss lessons learned. | Freudenberg, B. |
