Learning Health

  This page is part of the OLPC Health Project. Hardware | Software | Content | Health Jam

Project Overview

Health education is fundamentally different from most other learning that will happen on the laptop. In math science and other academic subjects, you don't want kids doing things by rote, you want them to fundamentally understand what they are doing and why before they start doing it or as they are doing it. In health education, children need healthy habits even before they have the capacity to fully understand why those habits are important. Additionally, an understanding of the health issues does not automatically lead to healthy habits - I know biologists who do not always wash their hands after using the restroom. Habits learned as young children are powerful. Habits learned as young children and subsequently reinforced through a thorough understanding of the underlying reasons are even more powerful. Health education that ignores either component is incomplete.

Normally if we tell a student something with our content on the XO, we explain *why*. This isn't always possible with Health materials. This difference of learning styles needs to be addressed.