Pakistan Weekly Reports

Observations

Impact of XOs on Teacher Temproment

Impact of XO on a Kid in Slum Area School

Reports

Weekly Report 17 May 2008

                              "Weekly Report from Pakistan May 17, 2008"

                                      "Dr. Habib Khan, EdD"

We have two projects on going in Pakistan where we adapted different strategies. In the first pilot at Pirwadai slum area school we did not prepare teachers and treated them at par with children. They were given an XO each. In this case our team visited the school almost daily and responded to any situation demanding trouble shooting. The children, teachers and the school all depended on our team. As against this strategy. for the second pilot we first prepared teachers through TPW-101 and we decided to make the teachers in charge of the whole show and that our team will visit twice a week.

After one week we were amazed to see the potential of the children who adopted and learned to use XO and were very eager to show what they have been doing with their laptops.

Observations:

The academic year is coming to an end. The fifth graders will be graduating and moving onto another school soon. As per local tradition the juniors arranged a farewell party for their graduating peers on campus. Though all parties are exciting, this party was particularly exciting. Everyone was not only dressed for the occasion but also equipped for it. And surely where there is a party, there has to be music. The kids in genuinely brought their OLPC’s along with them, and played music on them. They also tried to capture the fond moments on screen by taking pictures and making videos with their friends. Once again, the OLPC was the show stopper and rocked the party.

Everyone knows that the OLPC has been a great source in spreading smiles. Students and teachers alike are smiling all the time. And why not, everyone smiles the moment they see a camera and a picture being taken, right? Well that’s exactly what the OLPC has been doing for these kids. They’ve discovered a new hobby, photography. Children are often found trying to ‘strike a pose’ or experiment with lights/lighting and back grounds, and snapping away – many have taken snapshots of their parents and siblings and tried to create family albums, while a few advanced students also experimented by making short videos for things that interested them.

Michael Angelo must have had a start somewhere. Perhaps not with the OLPC, but we’re sure if he had one, he would have used the painting activity for all children exposed to it have come to love it.

Work is great, but children must also be made to play. Many children enquire why there aren’t any game’s present on the XO’s. Many teachers’s also suggested that educational games be added.

Impact on Teachers:

The most interesting thing that we noted was, when teachers said we didn’t formally taught children about XO and how to use it. They were able to figure out how to use Sugar on their own which shows the constructivist approach of Sugar interface. They said they only helped the kids if they were having trouble understanding what specific activity did and what was its purpose. Some teachers showed concerns that children don’t study their course books and spend most of their time on XOs, whereas other teachers were appreciative of the fact that students were helping teachers in how to use a specific activity.

Most of teachers were suggesting making school curriculum available on XO. They believed that they would explore it better not that the curriculum is thrilling but because of the excitement XO offers.

Impact on Parents/Family:

The essence on the families was also very positive. Children let their younger brothers and sisters use XO with them. This is what they called One laptop per Family. In addition, it was very encouraging for us to receive calls of thanks to OLPC for their valuable experiment. Parents were proud to inform us how OLPC has made their children as center of the whole family and neighbors and the entire community. In traditional evening sittings they discuss XO and their positive influence on children.

Issues and Problem:

Most common problem we faced was the problem of sticky mouse. This is the problem being faced by every deployment including Nepal and Peru etc. Children were very frustrated due to this problem and said that this cursor won’t work as they wanted it to work. We provided them the solution discovered by a kid in the slum area Atlas school – rub a bit of chalk dust on the touch pad. It tames the cursor.

Problem was with the journal was also reported by teachers. When the journal gets populated with data it slows down the machine and it is not easy to erase the journal.

Marketing Efforts: Presentations:

In collaboration with Pakistan National Commission for UNESCO we made presentation on OLPC and its deployment in Pakistan. The following presentation were made:

a. UNESCO and UN Education team in Islamabad.

b. Dhaka Ahsania Mission, Islamabad

c. Bunyad Education Foundation, Lahore. All these organizations decided to visit our pilot sites and have the opportunity to appreciate the changes due to introduction of OLPC in school, children, teachers, and community.

Meeting with Federal Minister of Education

Habib met with the Federal Education Minister twice during this month. The first meeting was on Habib request where as the second one was asked for by the Federal Minister, Prof Ahsan Iqbal. He wanted to thank OLPC for inviting him to the May Meeting in Cambridge and was sorry to miss this opportunity.

The Minister discussed in detail issues and plans about deploying OLPC in Pakistani school. He took the time to have a hand-on experience with OLPC and at the end wished it could also run Windows. He assured Habib that he will support deploying XOs to realize the dream of improving quality of education. He self-confident to do all that is possible as elected member of the Pakistan Parliament for OLPC.