Pilot Projects

At the moment there are 7 countries who will introduce olpc in big numbers. Parallel there should be small pilot projects. The hardware is cheap it shouldn't be a problem to offer a small number of free hardware to all countries.

In every country, language, culture, climate, age, political system, ... are different pitfalls for this project. (Perhaps these are more of niches - special needs that find some equivalence in other places - that will need some customization of any or all of hardware, software and services. - Raffy, May 24, 2006)

Diversity Matrix

• Languages and literature
• Cultures
• Climate (rain, dust)
• Environment (primary forest, desert, destroyed nature,..)
• Age (6-18)
• Political system
• Village size
• Availability of electrical power
• Transport System
• Internet access
• Distance to the next internet access point
• Teachers knowledge
• Literacy
• Migration and making of the textbook into eBook format
• Level of support
• Tribe language
• Religions
• Distance to road
• Economy (agicultural, tourism, industry,...)
• Size of school

Where to do these pilot projects

• Define the matrix
• Choose schools/classes at random

Evaluation of these projects

• Benefit
• Alternative usage
• Hardware problems
• Software problems
• Special ideas
• Needs

Prior efforts like OLPC

What can we learn from previous projects using computers in the classroom?

Can we understand anything from the last five or six years in Maine?