OLPC research

This page provides links to research reports related to the OLPC project. See also Experience for articles and other anecdotal evidence.

Papers

• Ethiopia Implementation Report, September - December 2007,

Bjorn Everts, Matthew Herren, David Hollow, Eduvision, February 2008

See the Discussion about this document.

• Tackling the Problems of Quality and Disparity in Nepal's School - Education: The OLPC Model,

Dr. Saurav Dev Bhatta, OLE Nepal, June 2008

... The paper argues that utilizing the full potential of the OLPC concept requires simultaneous work in four areas: digital content development, teacher preparation, network and power infrastructure development, and government capacity development. And it also emphasizes the need for a systematic approach to implementation where the implementers start by learning to solve implementation challenges in a test phase...

• Evaluation of the Teaching Matters One Laptop Per Child (XO) Pilot at Kappa I V

Dr. Susan Lowes, Director, Research and Evaluation; and Cyrus Luhr, Research Assistant. Institute for Learning Technologies, Teachers College/Columbia University, June 2008.

"Although the students saw the advantages of the XO in terms of its various specificfunctions or pieces of software, one theme that ties all these reported activities together is the several ways that the XOs allowed students to share: whether they were using the XOs for writing, taking photos, making videos, chatting, or whether they were rotating their screens or using the software to share them virtually, they were in every case sharing their thoughts or sharing their work.

"When asked if there were existing functions that they would like to use more frequently, [the students] listed the creative software (Etoys, TurtleArt, and TamTamEdit) that could have educational uses but are not currently integrated into the Teaching Matters curriculum."

Conference materials

• Designing Appropriate Collaborative Learning Technologies for the Developing World

Christopher Hoadley, Sameer Honwad, Kenneth Tamminga. 205 ECC. September 26, 2007 10:00

In this presentation we report on two attempts to intervene in rural Himalayan villages with educational technology, one involving desktop computer technology, and one involving participatory video. We describe the unique constraints of designing appropriate educational technology for the developing world, and we propose a fourfold framework for design.
A criticism of OLPC appears in the last section of this presentation.

• Laptop Power

Richard Smith, OLPC, Cambridge Country Workshop, May 20 2008

Ongoing Research (not yet published)

Evaluation of the OLPC with Usability Engineering

Other Resources

Education Biblographies

The following selected bibliographical links have some connection with the Sugar enterprise and Constructionist education, including information on uses of a variety of technologies in education, research on child development (especially Constructivism), and evaluations of programs in use. Resources are also included bearing on other approaches to education, and resistance to Constructionism or to any other education reforms.