Ekindling/Lubang 100 XO Updates

OLPC Philippines grassroots group

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XO 1.5 Journey... to the Island of Lubang,Mindoro Philippines!

Behind the scenes, before the 100 XO Lubang Pilot.

After, a month stay in customs.

Scene 1

Courtesy of Tesaa Yuvienco:

Good news kindlers!

1. As of 7.12pm of Oct 22, Mayor Johnny sent an SMS saying that the XOs are at his house in Sta Ana.

2. Rom will start mobilizing our student volunteers for the testing and configuration of the laptops. Hope they will be ready by Tue (Mon is a holiday due to barangay elections.) and are still in Mla (sembreak has started).

3. One NCC lab/room is available beginning Tue to house the XOs for one week. Beyond next week, there won't be any guaranteed room.

4. Joel and I are ready to pick up the XOs on Tue.

5. eKindling volunteer Ana B. is ready. Let us know who else will be available to help. NCC lab/room is only available for 4-5 days starting next week. You may give my mobile phone no 09178383892 to those who would like to help.

6. We might have to sponsor the meals of our student volunteers or perhaps ate Meg could ask ate Susan if she's still willing to do this.

7. Ry, pack your bags now!

8. Cherry, the XO release is so timely for your talk at OLPC summit. Break a leg!

Will keep you posted for more updates.

Cheers! Tessa

Scene II

Hi folks!

Day 1: 1.Picked up 21 boxes of XOs at Mayor J's house in Sta Ana at 7.30am. We had to open each box to check if all 100 were in. All told there are 100 and1 not dalmatians but XOs!

2. Headed straight to NCC. Since the head of security is newly appointed, he was hesitant to let us bring the units to the lab without logging each serial no. So my friend, (who happens to be a director now of cict training) was able to assure him that there was a letter given to Chairman Uy about this arrangement. Security officer finally gave us a go on the premise that we would give him all the serial nos that morning.

3. Initially, we thought of using Joel's bar code scanner app on his htc to scan the serial nos. But the app was so sensitive that it needed the perfect lighting to scan the bar automatically. After scanning two units for almost 15 minutes, we gave up. Next we tried taking a photo of the bar codes on each box, but the nos couldn't be read clearly. Finally we decided to do it manually and started typing each serial no. It was a lot faster because we only changed the last 3 characters. We were done by 12.30. Good thing the ever reliable Ana Banaag was around! We created a database for the XOs to log the machine name, serial no, update issues, etc.

4. After lunch, Joel left to go to Ateneo. So Ana had until 2pm to help me prep the first 2 units. We started naming the units LS1 (lubang student) and LS2. Ana and I were so grateful that Cherry was our online help desk. She also prepared the guide (hooray!) Then she started walking us through the process of updating. Unfortunately, the updating task was not successful due to intermittent internet connection. Ana had to leave then. So it was just Cherry and I trying to update the 2 units when 6 UP student volunteers (SVs) arrived.

5. The team lead, Kee, checked out the scope of the task. We started discussing the game plan for the next 3 days. He couldn't guarantee a 100% attendance of the same SVs. But he assured me that there would be SVs who would help out starting tom, Wed. I might have to pick them up at Comp Sci building to take them to NCC at 8am. My concern now, ate Meg is their meals. Would ate Susan be around this week to find out if she could sponsor their meals? Sandeep, would we still have funds left to buy their food? If not, we'll find ways to feed them.

6. Lastly, another good friend of ekindling from NCC, Bobby, has made arrangements for the extension of the room use til next week. Yey! That is, if we don't have enough SVs to finish the tasks til Fri.

So there you have it kindlers, a detailed account of Day 1 . Pictures to be posted soon.

Keep you posted

Scene III

Hi there!

The laptops have finally reached their final destination as of Oct 30. Hurrah!

Now, the next task is to register the units onto the server. The challenge is, there's only one Lloyd to do it. We are still waiting for the reply of the student volunteers. I have a feeling that they won't be available, so if you could suggest other volunteers who could help Lloyd. I texted him though saying that perhaps he could tap the support team since Ham mentioned that this task was part of the April training. The mayor will take care of the transportation, food, and accommodation of 2 volunteers. Mafe, pls let me know if you could recommend 2.

Tons of thanks to Cherry for helping us during the entire testing and configuration. Thanks to the 6 volunteers too and Sheli, their teacher, and Rom.

Cherry, I will follow up Ray about our corporate name, education kindling.

Let me know who else we could suggest to be invited to the event. I already told him about the 2 officers from NCC who have been helping us with all our endeavors.

Keep you posted.

Cheers, Tessa

Scene IV

Program planning and brainstorming, the date, who to invite and activities.

Tessa's Feb 2011 Recent Lubang Visits

Here are some highlights from my recent Lubang visit and some breaking news from the QC HQ:

1. General feedback and suggested solutions* a. Teachers

- Connection in the classroom is still difficult.

• AP to be re-installed in the 4th grade area by next week (Feb 14-18)

- Connection is off by 5pm so Ts couldn't chat with eKindling.

• Champion Teachers could always request Karen to use Ms. Medrano's office beyond 5pm.

-Maligaya School still doesn't have Internet connection.

• The Municipality will take care of the subscription.

b. Tech Squad Team Parents

- Tech Squad Team:Eurebe, Faith, Anjeanette, Jane, usually help kids who encounter problems in the use of the laptops.

- Most of them get frustrated when projects are not done but persist in finishing them.

- They have a tendency to exhibit a "senorita" attitude because of the projects to be done; usually make the school projects as their excuse for not doing house chores.

• Parents' Meetings should be held at least once a quarter (during card distribution) to talk about effective house rules on the use of XOs.

• Parents will encourage the kids to share with them the skills learned from the varied XO activities, e.g. use of spreadsheet, Abi Word which are usually used in offices

• 1st Parents' Meet scheduled in mid Feb.

c. Lloyd

- Some kids usually go to his house to request the re-installation of some activities that were accidentally deleted.

• Lloyd will teach the Tech Squad Team to do this since they could handle these simple re-installation tasks.

2. Hand-holding Sessions with Champion Teachers (CTs)

- Regular once a week chat sessions with Cherry (especially for some Sugar activity tutorials) and Friday sessions with Tessa

- Hand-holding sessions are done not just to help them look for appropriate activities but also to help them connect the concepts to real-life by using available tools on the XOs. Example: English topic "Making Announcements", Teacher could ask the kids to take photos of the public announcements posted on the walls of the Municipal Hall, or record the announcements done in church. Then Teacher gives inputs on how to make announcements. Afterwards, Teacher asks students to compare the announcements they got from public places and an ideal announcement. As class output, students can do both real and virtual announcements of the town's main events for February and March.

-Teachers will be introduced to ePals Community.

- If Ham will be available on my next visit to Lubang, Teachers are requesting him to give a refresher course on the use of Moodle. Otherwise, Joel can introduce them to another Learning Management System platform.

3. Monthly/Quarterly Report Incentives

- Ray, Lloyd, Mayor, Ms. Medrano all agreed that the incentive for the monthly/quarterly reports will be in kind. One suggestion is the Internet monthly subscription dedicated solely for the OLPC Program, or money could be used to purchase a laptop for each teacher. Attention Ryan

4. Mayor meets the CTs

a. Mr. Samonte's Comments/Feedback (Science):

- Kids look at it as a learning tool. - Some responsibilities are neglected like doing homework. - Some grades decreased (which also happened even without the laptop) - XOs supplied the need for insufficient book content. - Boosted self confidence -Students who discover other info/knowledge have started learning how to share -Sometimes projects are given as homework and Teacher is clueless as how to do it himself. But when outputs are checked, they are impressive

b. Mrs. Masangkay (English)

- Since the fast learners are usually those who could formulate sentences, the XOs somehow helped the slow learners in constructing sentences.

-Kds are not afraid to explore and they become better.

c. Mr. Aldave (HEKASI)

-The grades increased, participation increased, the slow learners are more inspired. -There's a collection of varied sources that are made available and easily accessible.

d. Mrs. Sanchez, Math Teacher was out for the whole week to accompany a contestant in Math Competition.

e. Mayor posted the question: Should we continue with the OLPC Program?

-Yes, because they learn globally. (Science) - Yes, they can express themselves at least in writing (English) -Yes (Hekasi)

f.

Concerns:

- 3 units are defective (2 power and 1 screen) Ask OLPC for help: Attention Mafe, Ryan - Internet access should be regulated like setting a firewall for adult sites and games

g. Next Steps

- Feb 18 meeting with partner schools, APC, UP to discuss software development, other hardware options for the succeeding batches; meeting with the National Computer Center Outreach c/o Tita Susan and Ate Meg.

- CTs will start searching for the next set of potential CTs for SY 2011-12. Survey questions will also be drafted to screen possible next gen CTs. Attention: Tessa, Ryan