OLPC Niue

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Deployments in Niue will commence in July 2008

Contacts:

• Ian Thomson, RICS Coordinator, Secretariat for the Pacific Community (SPC) SPC
• Niue Computer Society (Inc.) is very supportive of the idea NCS

A localisation project is being opened on the OLPC Pootle server for the Niuean language.

Deployment Goals

• Full knowledge transfer to locals (including full documentation on the wiki)
• 100% working network, server and laptops for all children in both schools
• Support mechanism for ongoing support to teachers and admins

TODO

• Need to determine power solution for access points (both POE and power require a cable, need to plan and then purchase appropriate number of both APs and POE adapters)
• To investigate Argentinian plugs for XOs
• Create custom installer for XOs (to include flash and speak)
• Setup agreed upon ongoing support mechanism - eg, forums for Q&A to complement the wiki documentation
• To get legal adapters

Deployment Plans

There are maximum 2 sites (one primary school and one secondary school) on Niue and we will be doing a 100% saturation rollout throughout July 2008.

Components of rollout:

• XOs - provided by Ian

 * Need to create customised image (for Pacific) including Flash, Speak and other apps
 * Need to sort out power requirements
 * Need extra USB keys

• XS servers (one per school) - provided by Ian and setup by John/Silvia)

 * To have default XS installation
 * Probably doesn't need Actives Aerials as we are using APs and can plug an AP into the server via ethernet to create connectivity between XOs and the XS

• Access Points

 * Will use the WRT54GL v1.1 access points (provided by Pia and setup by John/Silvia) with WDS
 * Running DD-WRT v24

• Interschool connectivity

 * May need to setup connectivity between schools (Jabber) for virtual classrooms

Basic Timing

• 4th July - Ian to fly into Australia with 2 servers and transfer to John/Silvia
• 4th July - John and Silvia to arrive in Niue and setup wireless network and OLPC XS servers. To test with their own XOs. Also to document all work and if possible work with some locals for kowledge transfer and testing
• ~7th July - Pia and Ian to plan sustainability and support around Niue project. Pia/Ian to implement any needed components prior to the 25th
• 25th Pia, Ian and other volunteers to arrive, do teacher training and setup XOs

Training sessions

• Training sessions for teachers have been carried in both primary and secondary schools.
• Monday 28 July, both schools were closed. Primary and secondary school teachers gathered in the sport field of the secondary school. The school's director gave an introduction together with the Minister of Education. Ian Thompson gave an introduction that included the OLPC mission statement, principles, project overview and gave examples of other rollouts in Pacific countries. The training session included the following: journal, camera, tamtam (music), memorize, write, personal view and network view. Parts of this session can be viewed in the following video (Ian to provide link).
• Tuesday 29 July, each school (primary and secondary) had a two hours training session. The morning training session was at the secondary school. The training included the following: Chat, Browse, Write -sharing and joining documents-, E-toys, and Dolphin. The afternoon session was at the primary school. The training there included: Chat, Write -sharing and joining documents-, Ruler, and Flipsticks.
• Wednesday 30 July, there was a two hours training session on each school. The Wednesday session was focused on emphasising the areas of interest of each of the teachers. The morning session at the secondary school focused on: Browse with emphasis on searching of learning resources (School server resources, TKI, ESFS, Google images, NCEA courses), TamTam music, Write and Colors activities. The afternoon primary school session focused on Memorize and Write again, with emphasis on class delivery and having a teacher asking students to join documents for corrections. The Memorize activity focused on creating activities where teachers can match a picture, a sound, a question, with a word or an answer e.g.: it could be used to teach language, geography, etc.
• Thursday 31 July, there was a two hours training session at the secondary school. The training session focused on future enhancements that would integrate with OLPC. These enhancements will be made by another program of work to be implemented in the school which will make use of the application Moodle, that has been installed in the school server.

Helpers

• John Ferlito, Silvia and Ben Pfeiffer - going on the 4th July to set up the wireless network and XS servers. Will also be there on holiday :) Organised by Pia. Confirmed.
• Pia Waugh (OLPC Australia) - helping with volunteers, technical support, setting up peer to peer support and on the ground assistance. Going on the 25th July for a week. Confirmed.
• Grisel Carriera - going on 25th July with Pia and Ian for user/teacher training and such for a week. Confirmed.

Useful Links

• Wikipedia Niue link
• Wikipedia Niuean language link