Starting a new Project
Starting up a new OLPC trial school project
Profiling the site
Prepare a short profile of the school:
● location, photos, map
● enrolments
● classes / streams / grades
● teachers and names, and email addresses where available, ICT experience and any particular ones who might be good technically
● power availability including timings of generators used
● solar insolation – how much sun does the school get?
● transport options to the site, costs and timings
Profile of education system
If starting a trials site in a new country, assemble a brief outline of the school system. Is there an education action plan? How might OLPC fit into the existing education reform, and teacher training system in particular.
Planning
Develop a clear framework for the trails project (refer to example from Solomon Islands). This tends to give focus and clear terms of reference / roles for everyone.
Develop a TOR for a project officer at the site. He/she should work alongside any appointed volunteers and district education officers. He/she would report ack to project management and/or the Ministry / Department of Education.
Consider how curriculum content can be made available for the school server. This might involve working with the official curriculum development division. SPC will give technical advice on formatting etc. By all means identify non-formal or TVET materials and other sectors with educational materials that might be ported to the school servers.
The Ministry / Department should identify a technical person whom can be trained in setting up school servers, content issues, power issues, etc.
The Ministry/Department can consider setting up a OLPC steering group or national association, to coordinate with NGOs, educational institutions, external agencies including SPC and OLPC and other partners.
Deployment activities
The deployment program involves: ● briefings, planning and awareness for government / committee
● briefings and awareness for the school and education officers
● training for teachers (3 days / afternoons)
● training for students (2 days / afternoons) with all teachers participating
● community consultations
● parents briefings
● official handover to students, ceremony and launching
● technical training for key persons
● infrastructure installations (server, power, connectivity) Supporting materials
The OLPC Oceania wiki pages at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Oceania has details of developing strategies on content, evaluation, teacher training, etc.
There are guidance materials including “lesson plans” and feedback on ideas for teacher training under development at http://wikieducator.org/OLPC_Oceania
Please see the Youtube video of Batuna, Solomon Islands, for visualisation of a trial deployment a rural school (http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Solomon_Islands).
Other important videos:
● OLPC Peru
● Dreikikir, Batuna and others from the OLPC Oceania trials (contact David Leeming and Ian Thomson)
Recommended reading ● OLPC Model in Nepal (http://www.olenepal.org/images/olpc-model-in-nepal.pdf)