Template:OLPCPakistan
I posted the following (now modified) message on www.Linuxpakistan.net. The purpose was to inform you of the task ahead in deploying OLPC in Pakistan. To achieve this I urgently require the following: • Volunteers 2-5 depending upon the availability of your spare time (between 9am-5pm Monday through Friday) • Two Linux developers FT/PT. • Please remember OLPC Inc is a non profit organization and cannot offer high salaries but we will compensate you for your contribution and help you make a member of the future workforce of OLPC that will be hands of more than a billion children around the globe.
OLPC is targeting kids (6-12 years) around the world so it comes in many different languages. The one we’ll be using in Pakistan is bi-lingual – English and Urdu. Apparently the English version is quite comprehensive but we need to put in lots of efforts to make it usable by children with no English back ground. Focus on Urdu is our priority. Please keep in mind that OLPC is not replacement of the current school curriculum. It only supports the way children learn how to learn. Within this context the task ahead includes:
• To prepare OLPCs material in Urdu for use in Pakistani environment. This means we need to develop e-books, spoken books, e-toys, and educational materials for children. Since the child will own OLPC and will carry it home - it must have stuff of interest to the child parents. It may include but not limit it to o Family health Hygiene, inoculations and its schedule; Seasonal diseases like Dengue fever and protective measures; Bird Flue; Environment, energy, and clean water etc. o The village folks may want information on plant protection, production crops rotation, plantation, water conservation, fertilizers, storage, and marketing o The community as a whole wants to learn about local government, democratic processes, elections at Union and Tehsil levels etc.
• Also we need to develop academic material to meet needs of our teachers for example: professional development of teachers using OLPC with emphasis on pedagogy and constructionists; How to teach – Science, Math, English; and Role of teachers in OLPC laced teaching-learning environment.
Please contact me if you have the passion to work for the children of Pakistan, and have the guts to accept this challenge. You can work from any part of the globe as long as you keep in touch with me via Internet. Soon OLPC is opening its office in Islamabad so if you are based in Islamabad/ Rawalpindi that would be wonderful. In September inshAllah a pre deployment project sponsored by the Ministry of IT is ready for launch with 50 OLPCs in remote poor rural schools. The other members in this launch are faculty and scholars of the Departments of Education and Computer Sciences of IIU. The purpose is to learn how well OLPC is received by the children, and how they interact with it. It will help the researchers and OLPC determine how best can we tailor the material to children’s’ need. In this endeavor, the President of IIU has assured all possible professional and intellectual inputs to make it successful.
For detailed information please visit these sites:
http://www.laptop.org http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Educators
Dr.Habib Khan EdD Harvard Director of Education, OLPC Inc Central & South Asia ISLAMABAD, Pakistan Cell: +92 304-201-4184 Email: habib@laptop.org
