OLPC India/Nashik: Difference between revisions

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=== Update 22 Jun 2010 ===
=== Update 22 Jun 2010 ===


We brought 11 XO-1 laptops from USA acquired on Ebay. Damage has accrued to many of the keyboards. [[OLPC_India/Nashik/2010Repairs|Fortunately, Rashmi Vadnagare, a local engineering student, volunteered to perform some repairs.]]
We brought 11 XO-1 laptops from USA acquired on Ebay. Damage has accrued to many of the keyboards. [[OLPC_India/Nashik/2010Repairs|Fortunately, Rashmi Vadnagare (rashmi.vadnagare@gmail.com), a local engineering student, volunteered to perform some repairs.]]


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Revision as of 10:28, 29 June 2010

Holy Mother School

Joshua wrote: Holy Mother School is an English medium school in Nashik, Maharashtra. We are a private school established in 2004 by Joshua and Heera Pritikin. My wife runs the school, and I funded it out of my own savings.

Pritikin family.jpg

Heera wrote: Teaching was something I was passionate about. Both of us thought of doing something for the society. We constructed a big building in India. There I started tutoring poor students who were not able to pass the matriculation exam. When I started teaching these students, I found that they were very weak in their basic concepts. I felt like I need to do something more significant in this area. I got the idea of starting an English medium school in Nasik, India. My husband helped me with money to build a school and procure the necessary materials. To run the school efficiently and to know more about schooling, I decided to apply for education studies at University of Oregon.

A small OLPC trial has begun as of July 2008. We are working on an Internet connection. We already have a machine to serve as a school server.

We would love to make the laptops child owned but

  • There are 120 students in 1st grade and older.
  • Students pay about 105 USD per year in tuition.

We purchased 15 laptops for 2008-2009. For 2009-2010, we ordered another 15 laptops.

Our implementation is simplistic because we are not yet trying to achieve child ownership. The laptops are owned by the school. The children spend a few hours a week working with them. As the kids and parents become more comfortable with the laptops, we expect to move towards child ownership and closer integration into the curriculum.

We hope to save ourselves from disappointment by starting with low expectations.

Update 08 Mar 2009

Since we can't afford one laptop per child, we are planning to buy 1 USB key per student. The students will own the USB keys.

Update 22 Jun 2010

We brought 11 XO-1 laptops from USA acquired on Ebay. Damage has accrued to many of the keyboards. Fortunately, Rashmi Vadnagare (rashmi.vadnagare@gmail.com), a local engineering student, volunteered to perform some repairs.


Contact

You can reach Joshua at jpritikin@pobox.com. The school phone is +91 94222 58308.