Learning workshops

African Regional Workshop

Kigali, Rwanda, September 29 - October 2, 2008

Cambridge Workshop

On September 17-19, 2008, attendees from around the world, mainly Colombia, Paraguay, Puerto Rico and Mexico, attended a learning workshop at OLPC headquarters. Participants walked away with a better understanding of the XO laptop, learning and the goals of One Laptop per Child.

Overview:

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Regional Workshop is designed to provide participants with a pragmatic understanding of laptops for learning at both the micro and macro scales. The micro scale involves how children learn and how children use laptops for learning in productive, joyful ways. The macro scale involves how to create high-quality learning environments for everyone, not just a few. This workshop is part of a larger series of events both at OLPC and in other countries and localities aimed at building local capacity and forming an international network of organizations to deploy one laptop per child.

The workshop will be practical and hands-on, yet it is not a mere technical training. Participants will become familiar with laptops for learning and will use the concrete experience as a basis for reflection upon the learning process. Participants will also learn from the examples of countries already adopting one laptop per child at national levels so as to plan how to best implement in their own countries. Participants will also get to know each other to form their own learning network so as to enable richer development in each country and the region.

Presentations:

Day 1:

File:International Operations.ppt

Overview of Current Deployments, Robert Fadel, VP of International Operations:

File:The XO & Learning.ppt

The XO & Learning, Claudia Urrea, Learning Team:

File:Birmingham, AL Deployment.ppt

Birmingham, Alabama Deployment, Julian Daily, Learning Team:

Day 2:

File:Software Presentation.ppt

Software, Ed McNierney, VP of Software Development:

File:Laptop Hardware.ppt

Hardware, John Watlington, VP of Hardware Development

File:Customizing Your XO.ppt

Customizing Your XO, Julia Reynolds, Assistant to Learning & Technology Teams:

File:Country Technical Support.ppt

Country Technical Support, Kim Quirk, VP of Technical Support & Reuben Caron, Support Engineer:

File:Power on the XO.ppt

Power, Richard Smith, Director of Embedded Engineering:

File:Storytelling on the XO.pdf

Storytelling with the XO, Barbara Barry, Learning Team:

File:Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn.ppt

Learn 2 Teach, Teach 2 Learn, Angel Fernandez, Youth Teacher:

Day 3

File:Connectivity on the XO.ppt

Michail Bletsas, VP of Connectivity & Advanced Technology

File:Real World Implementation.ppt

Claudia Urrea, Learning Team

File:OLPC-Paraguay.doc

Cecilia Alcala, Raul Gutierrez, Miguel Martin

Suggested Reading Materials:

• Designing Multimedia Environments for Children Allison Druin and Cynthia Solomon
• Computer Environments for Children: A Reflection on Theories of Learning and Education Cynthia Solomon
• Symbolic Computing Brian Harvey's Logo computer science books
• Mindstorms, The Connected Family Seymour Papert
• The Children's Machine Seymour Papert
• TurtleArt by Artemis Papert and Brian Silverman
• Books by Allison Druin
• File:One to One Connections, Building a Community Learning Culture by Claudia Urrea.pdf

Discussion

• The Wiki needs to be cleaned up, so that information is more easily accessed.

• Important role of university involvement in deployments.

Photos

Asia Regional Workshop

The OLPC Asia Workshop, the first of several OLPC regional workshops, was held in Bangkok, Thailand at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT) from Start date::July 28, 2008-End date::August 1, 2008. Participants came from across Asia and the South Pacific to participate; learn more about the future of learning, technology and, of course, the XO laptop.

The primary objectives of this workshop were to:

• a progressive deepening understanding of the learning process;
• how the XO laptop enables more effective learning through construction, expression, and collaboration;
• the roles of technology in general and one-to-one environments in particular;
• the pragmatics of children, laptops and learning;
• introduction to and participation in a regional and international network of practitioners of 1:1 environments

Please feel free to contact the OLPC Learning Team if you have any questions or concerns as you move forward:

David Cavallo, Vice President of Learning: cavallo@laptop.org

Nia Lewis, Manager of Learning Team: nia@laptop.org

Julia Reynolds, Asst. to Learning Team: julia@laptop.org

Or members of the OLPC International Team:

Anthony Wong, Director, Asia: anthony.wong@laptop.org

Michael Hutak, Director, Oceania: hutak@laptop.org

Presentations

Dr. David Cavallo, Vice President of Learning, OLPC coming shortly

"File:Using Computational Thinking as means for human comprehension.ppt"

Dr. Arnan "Roger" Sipitakiat, Professor, Chiang Mai University: "

"File:BB Slides OLPC Bangkok 7 28 08-1-.pdf"

Dr. Barbara Barry, Learning Consultant, OLPC

"File:Khun Pisuth Learning Community part1-1-.pdf"

Mr. Paron Isarasena Na Ayudhaya, President, Darunsikkhalai School for Innovative Learning & Dr. Suchin Petcharugsa, Teacher, Northern Region Non-Formal Education

List of Participants

File:OLPC ASIA WORKSHOP PARTICIPANTS.xls

Workshop Discussion

See Asia Workshop Discussion

• Ms. Paola Dimaio has set up a google group for all participants. Feel free to join:

http://groups.google.com/group/olpc-workshop

• Khun Pisuth Paliboonrat has set up a wiki page for the workshop:

http://stks.or.th/wiki/doku.php?id=olpc-asia