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Project Proposal for North Central State College XO Development Lab

1. Project Title & Shipment Detail Name of Project: XO Educational Software Project (XO/ESP) Shipping Address: Douglas Kranch, Ph.D., 439 Marion Avenue, Mansfield, Ohio 44903 419-524-9885 dkranch@ncstatecollege.edu Number of Laptops Requested: 5 Loan Length—How Many Months: 24 with possible extensions based on work accomplished

2. Team Participants Name & Contact Info: Douglas Kranch, Ph.D., dkranch@ncstatecollege.edu, 419-755-4788 Employers: Professor, Computer Information Systems, North Central State College, Mansfield, Ohio Past Experience/Qualifications: Doctorate in instructional design via computer interfaces, research work and publishing on the training of novices; master’s degree in computer science. Taught CIS courses in programming, database design, client/server information systems, and networking for over a decade. Came to Haiti in March, 2012, with Dr. Terri Bucci of Ohio State University – Mansfield on a fact-finding trip to prepare for this project.

3. Objectives The XO laptops will be used as (a) test units for proof of concept tests with low-cost robust server designs using wireless routers and access points, and (b) test units for math and science modules developed jointly by North Central State College (NCSC) Computer Information Systems students and Ohio State University (OSU) graduate education students.

4. Plan of Action NCSC has a fall course on developing client/server applications and a spring capstone project course for graduating students. Students are expected to develop projects in each of these courses. One or more projects involving OLPC hardware and joint OSU-NCSC development of OLPC teaching modules will be completed each year. The hardware projects will be tracked for their durability and success in satisfying the needs of the local schools that use them. The learning modules will be tested in Haiti beginning in the Croix des Bouquets area, accompanied by teacher training and follow-up research that measures the modules’ effectiveness.

5. Needs Why is this project needed: • Locally? This project will give the students an opportunity to apply their creativity, knowledge, and skills to real projects that help others. • In the greater OLPC/Sugar community? The results of these projects will increase the expertise of the community in applying learning modules on XOs in ways that have demonstrated their effectiveness. • Outside the community? The XO educational modules will be tested by elementary school teachers in Haiti beginning with the Croix des Bouquets area. The effectiveness of these tests will be shared with the academic community via articles. • Why can't this project be done in emulation using non-XO machines? Hardware development requires that actual machines with which the hardware must communicate for accurate range tests to be conducted. Using actual machines will also give the student educational developers and programmers certainty that the code and educational strategies they use are suitable for the keying sequences and resolution of the Xos Why are you requesting the number of machines you are asking for? Several XOs are needed for statistical server tests to be sure the results are not an anomaly. Multiple XOs are needed for educational unit authoring to allow multiple units to be developed by multiple teams simultaneously. Will you consider (1) salvaged/rebuilt or (2) damaged XO Laptops? Any XOs would be considered as long as they are fully functional representations of the XOs that are used in the field.

6. Sharing Deliverables: Project URL—where you'll Blog specific ongoing progress: How will you convey tentative ideas & results back to the OLPC/Sugar community, prior to completion? When student teams are working, weekly progress reports will be blogged to the project URL. How will the final fruits of your labor be distributed to children or community members worldwide? Hardware specifications and parts lists will be published to the OLPC Web site. Educational modules will be listed and described on the OLPC Website and made available for downloading in the appropriate compression format. Will your work have any possible application or use outside our community? Definitely. If yes, how will these people be reached? They will be reached via articles in professional journals. Have you investigated working with nearby XO Lending Libraries or Project Groups? No. The continual use of the laptops by the proposed project would make borrowing XOs impractical unless the library or other groups would be willing to forego use of their XOs for the life of this project.

7. Quality/Mentoring Would your Project benefit from Support, Documentation and/or Testing people? They would be useful as reviewers of the hardware and its specifications during development. Teachers' input into Usability? We will be using teachers and students in Haiti to gain this input. How will you promote your work? We have already promoted it to a group of teachers in Croix des Bouquets and found them eager to test our learning modules once we begin developing them. Can we help you with an experienced mentor from the OLPC/Sugar community? Dr. Terri Bucci at the Ohio State University – Mansfield has already been in contact with OLPC and will serve as our mentor.

8. Timeline: June 2012: Complete initial server project, Developer Manual rewrite, and learning interface project. August 2012: Have courses developed for developing learning modules. December 2012: Complete preliminary work and prototypes of XO hardware projects. April, 2013: Complete learning module prototypes and beta test them. June 2013: Complete learning module revisions. July 2013: Deliver learning modules to school test sites in Haiti and train teachers. August 2013: Begin second round of learning unit development.

Timely reports (weekly or monthly, depending on the number of groups in development) will be published to an OLPC blog to keep the general community apprised of our successes and obstacles.

1. Project Title & Shipment Detail Name of Project: Ecole Mixte and Friends

Project Objectives: Friends Academy is seeking to establish a long-term partnership with Ecole Mixte Choubert Alexis in Gonaives, Haiti, an accredited school that was devastated in the 2010 earthquake. The school would be one of several schools in our network. Our objective is to collaborate with students around the world on the kinds of projects that require teamwork, complex communication, creativity, technical competence, and other 21st century skills. These projects can take many forms. Imagine students at one school creating storyboards, students at another school designing the artwork, students at a third school composing the music, a forth class producing the final video. This kind of project and those like it differ from the usual correspondences and pen pal exchanges that teachers initiate with their international partners. We will also have these initial exchanges, but expect more out of these partnerships in the long-term. The projects we propose provide students with genuine learning experiences. They also build friendships, cement relationships, and bridge cultures. They require intense and sustained collaboration. Apps like[ http://translate.google.com/ ] translate.google.com can help with the language barrier. Email, wikis, and blogs allow us to network, share and collaborate. These projects allow children to share their stories, experiences, culture, values, ideas, and dreams. We believe projects like these can be powerful and transformative. Students can share, learn, and grow together. Technically, we hope they can build on their skills. These projects tie in to our school’s vision “to develop students who have strong global literacy” and to one of our technology goals “global communication and global awareness.” Teachers at the other schools will carve out their own goals. For one teacher, these collaborations might be an avenue to teach English, for others, it might be a way to teach the writing process, art, music, or theater. 4. Plan of Action Plan and Procedure for Achieving the Stated Objectives: Ours is a simple, but powerful idea that only requires a few technical pieces and time to work. The other structural and pedagogical pieces are already in place.  We only need the laptops for the children at Ecole Mixte Choubert Alexis. We have assembled a dedicated and talented team of educators and technologists. We have the trained staff, the Internet connectivity, curriculum ideas, and a gaggle of excited children. When the computers arrive at Friends Academy, we’ll test the machines to see if we can install the same suite of open source software we use: GIMP (an image editor), Inkscape (a vector art editor), Open Office (for word processing), Audacity (for audio editing). There are also web-based apps students could use like Google docs or Aviary. Choubert Alexis, the director at Ecole Mixte, has an Internet connection that we tested in December. We have our project ideas and could get started as soon as the children learn how to use the laptops. Choubert Alexis has a license in computer science and can be trusted to deliver the instruction.

Needs Why is this project needed? Locally? Outside the community? The inspiration for this project came from a child. After watching reports of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a student approached her teacher and asked if there was anything her classmates could do to help the children there. We learned about Ecole Mixte through a student at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. What started as a simple art project- sending hearts and messages of goodwill- has blossomed into something bigger. We want to do something meaningful. By providing the school with technology, a curriculum, and project ideas, we believe we can transform the lives of all the children involved. This is the kind of project that is consonant with our values, aligned with our vision, and integrated with our curriculum. We can provide the leadership, the social network, and the curricular piece. We need partners to help us procure the hardware, which is the most important piece we lack.

Timeline (Start to Finish) Please include a Proposed timeline for your Project life cycle: (this can be in the form of Month 1, Month 2, etc rather than specific dates) This project is ready to launch immediately. If we were granted the equipment, we’d take the steps outlined above. Month 1: Familiarize ourselves with the machines/OS.   Month 2: Deliver laptops to Ecole Mixte. Provide initial training and instruction to teachers. Month 3-12: Provide Haitian partners with curriculum ideas, tech scope and sequence. Year 2: Begin collaborative projects.