OLPC Cook Islands

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Location of Cook Islands

Location of Mitiaro

Map of Mitiaro

Trial in Cook Islands started end of 2009 in Mitiaro High School

Update February 19th, 2010

from Thomas Samuela, Principal of Mitiaro High school

"We spent nearly the whole of week 2 working together as a whole school.

The school has a team of 6 supervisors (students from correspondence class and one from Fm. 2) who generally look after the administration of the XOs. They remedy little hiccups like battery not charging properly, application disappearing from the homepage, labeling chargers, upgrading the new version and teaching children how to “pick up” their electronic copy of the school newsletter from the server. They get together sometimes to discuss new ideas or turn old ideas to new ones. As in the following example.

Right now, all secondary students take home an electronic copy of the Cook Island news on Thursdays. This is one brilliant extension idea ( from the newsletter idea) by the two boys Nia and Joseph. These two boys are very committed to becoming administrators one day. (they think they are the godfathers of the XOs) This activity is extended to other classes. Senior students actually pick out (filter) their favourite news from the Top news and the General News section, not forgetting the sports section.

Here is copy of the in- school training that took place in Week 2. Two days were put aside so that teachers have a better idea on integrating the use of the laptops in the curriculum. In this case, Social Science, language and music. The children just loved the Bio Poems activity that the Social Science advisor had sent us. I wish that I can easily print out the Bio poems. The teachers learned a lot from the activities.

I am working on a draft Emergency plan for the XOs. I am looking at possibly purchasing some solid waterproof bins (enough to contain all laptops and the server and other equipment) so that the laptops are collected or recalled just before a major natural disaster hits . "

Photo Gallery

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School Camp - February 2010

from Thomas Samuela, Principal of Mitiaro High school "The deal with my class was that they do not take any other luxuries with them (no Ipods etc)….except the XOs of course. The students DID NOT pose for these pictures. They had to write their journals at night and in the morning, Some of them were reading the Cook Island news which they had downloaded from the school server before they left for the camp."

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Preparing the survey on domestic animals - February 25th, 2010

The Years 9, 10 and 11 students are doing preparatory exercise before they carry out a whole community survey. The survey is to find out how many domesticated animals are there in all of the homes an the island. There’s our social studies, science, maths, English (designing the survey forms and reporting) and agriculture ALL tied up in one exciting activity. And the best thing is that the community is involved. The students have designed a survey form on their laptops and agreed to use the best one. They will be using the laptop to record data (table in write activity) as they walk from home to home. The aim of this survey is to build a data base in which relevant information is stored and updated on a regular basis. This will work jointly with PARAVET program.