ALEARN Network

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ROUGH DRAFT

The Active Learning, Excited And Responsive Network. Harmonee. Enthusiastic Education!

This is a support network for community deployments / communities of learning, from teachers and classrooms of students to children and their families.

Where we are?

• Austria - olpcMAP
• Cambodia/Vietnam/Thailand - olpcMAP
• Haiti - olpcMAP
• Jamaica - olpcMAP
• Kenya - olpcMAP
• Nosy Komba (Madagascar) - olpcMAP
• Philippines - Lubang olpcMAP and Mindoro Islands, Occidental Mindoro olpcMAP

Who are we ?

* Austria: OLPC Austria (Web site) has been running a small proof-of-concept project at the teaching school of University of Teacher Education Styria in Graz, Austria since autumn of 2008. Shortly after being enrolled in the school 25 pupils (and 2 teachers) received XO-1s, today they're in their 4th (and final) year of primary school. The school is an all-day school which is rather untypical for Austria.

The fact that this is part of an University of Teacher Education has allowed for various student projects, particularly final bachelor thesis, to take place in the context of the project. Additionally in 2009 and 2010 Computer Science students from Graz University of Technology worked on developing a Mathematics exercise Activity called ReckonPrimer for use in the proof-of-concept class.

For further information please visit www.olpc.at/pilot/ or contact Christoph Derndorfer.

* Haiti: Some amazing OLPC volunteers began working on a 50 XO-laptop at Ecole Shalom in Croix-des-Bouquets, Haiti in the fall of 2011. We've tried to document many aspects of the ongoing experience & challenges on these 2 blogs where we can: http://buildingaschool.org http://mapadelsur.blogspot.com Later we hope to organize many of our best learning content "rubrics" here.

This is just one of many Haiti learning technology projects & professionals we hope will become part of an increasingly innovative learning technology network for Haiti, several of which are visible here: http://olpcmap.net/?go=haiti

So many others have struggled hard helping pave the way around Haiti including Bastien Guerry, Wanda Eugene, Guy Serge Pompilus, Tim Falconer, Bill Stelzer, Laura Hosman, Bruce Baikie, Terri Bucci -- just to name a few! Contact: Adam Holt

* Nosy Komba, Madagascar: OLPC France is implementing 160 Xos laptops since 2009 in a small island called Nosy Komba, in the north west of Madagascar. All students of the primary school have a laptop. A school server was built and installed in 2010. Specific content have been deployed : one acitivity "Madagascar" was created, one ebook is in Malagasy, and an ebook librairy in french is installed.

In 2011 a long distance WiFi link brought the internet to students via the school server. The report is here.

For more information visit Nosy Komba wiki page OLPC France blog and Nosy Komba web site and here are a few pictures

* Occidental Mindoro, Philippines: eKindling (Education Kindling) is supporting the implementation, support and development of a number of pilots in the Philippines, beginning with the first pilot deployment of 100 XOs in Lubang Island, Mindoro in 2010. Through the outstanding cooperation with Municipality of Lubang, Mayor J. Sanchez, NCC (National Computer Center) Alumni Association the project was made possible with the many generous donations, volunteering, and amazing school staff, grade 4 teachers and students of Lubang Central School and Maligaya Elementary School.

In 2011, we are providing on-going support for the continual growth of the Lubang pilot having assisted with the on-going deployment of an additional 110 XOs and *specialized training* for the new grade 4 teachers & students at the same participating schools. See Remote Pilot Deployment in Lubang

Additionally, we are working with the Provincial Government of Occidental Mindoro OLPC team, in partnership with the Department of Education. The Feb 2012 deployment consist of 550 XOs deployed in 4 schools, seated in 4 municipalities. Expansion of the Provincial Government-lead OLPC project is expected to occur during 2012. See Remote Pilot Deployment Occidental in Mindoro.

eKindling is currently also supporting e.Studyante's Program at Manuel L. Quezon Elementary School.

The eKindling team has worked closely with the champion teachers and champion students with a focus on training and lesson development with eToys.

For further information see the eKindling page and eKindling website.

* Kenya: Ntugi Group has been working in northern Kenya since 2009. In partnership with the Lewa Wildlife Conservancy's Education Programme, we currently support permanent OLPC deployments at Ntugi Secondary Day School (40 laptops), Leparua Primary School (16 laptops), and Lewa's own Conservation Education Centre (12 laptops); additionally, our interns Simon and Judy visit 4 other schools with a backpack kit of 8 laptops, doing introductory training of both teachers and students at these potential deployment sites.

Ntugi Group is represented in Toronto, Canada, by 12 people from 7 families; on the ground in Kenya, the program is managed by our interns, Simon and Judy, by Godfrey, who is both our site supervisor and a teacher at Ntugi Secondary, and by the Lewa staff who supervise the project on an ongoing basis.

The program began in 2009 with four high school students and their teacher, Mark Battley, running a 'proof of concept' to see if XO's married with solar power, a Safaricom USB modem, and a Cradlepoint wireless router could bring laptops and connectivity to sites that had never had either. Three years later, we are growing rapidly, building local capacity, and investing in the talented young people from the Lewa community.

Participants / Principal Authors of Upcoming Book

• Madagascar - Laura de Reynal and all OLPC France volunteers ! - http://OLPC-France.org
• Kenya - Mark Battley - http://NtugiGroup.com etc
• Cambodia/Vietnam/Thailand? - Nancie Severs - assisted by many!
• Philippines - Mitchell Seaton - assisted by Cherry Withers with eKindling
• Jamaica - Craig Perue - assisted by Sameer Verma, Leila, etc of the OLPC Jamaica Community
• Haiti - Adam Holt - assisted by countless, priceless volunteers (but never quite enough!)
• Austria - Christoph Derndorfer - OLPC Austria

Photography, Visual Design

• Bill Stelzer
• Nina Stawski (working on post card pal network too!)
• Mike Lee

Blogs

ToDo: add individual blog urls as the Yahoo pipe coming the RSS feeds seems to be permanently broken... ChristophD 15:32, 13 March 2012 (UTC)

eKindling's community updates

Traveling Gang

#1 : Visit of Kingston's deployment ! Janv-Feb 2012

• Pictures : here, and here
• Blog posts : OLPC France's Blog | Translation (Google), Building a School : First and second post, 'OLPC Volunteers visit Jamaica!' (Nancia Severs), 'Jamaican Parents Take Action' (Laura de Reynal)
• Press : OLPC readies for roll-out
• Video: OLPC Jamaica - An Evolving Story - published on Mona School of Business website

#2: Haiti - March 2012

• Planning pad: Haiti ALEARN visit

#3 : Nosy Komba June and July 2012

• Planning pad: Nosy Komba ALEARN visit

Lesson plans

A collaborative project to come. OLPC Australia, Claudia, and many grassroots groups are working on a few different options.

Reading and thinking

"Worst practice in ICT use in education" by Mike Trucano over at the World Bank: http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/node/571

http://blogs.worldbank.org/edutech/innovation-edges

Where is the Focus of OLPC in Peru and ICT4E in General? https://edutechdebate.org/olpc-in-peru/where-is-the-focus-of-olpc-in-peru-and-ict4e-in-general/

Code Club (UK) "Inspire kids to learn to code" "Create a nationwide after school coding club for children aged 10-11."

http://www.codeclub.org.uk/

Media articles about Code Club:

Afterschool 'Code Clubs' planned to teach kids programming: http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-04/17/code-club

Programming project comes to primary schools: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-17740143

Summary:

- 12 weeks of lesson plans

- Volunteers needed (Lesson plan/content developers and After-School Teachers)

- Scratch as a focus (with UK curriculum)

- Learning tools: LEGO Mindstorm, Arduino, RaspberryPi

- Hackday post-term with project focus

- Goal 25% UK schools by 2014

Dance & Song

Think we're joking?! Just wait, SFO & Nosy Komba's performances are only the first of many =)

Guidelines for learning with the XO

• from Nosy Komba
• from Gabon
• from Australia!
• Haiti...
• ... add yours!