OLPC research/papers
Please list papers to include in the research list. This includes any work on OLPC deployments of XO laptops, one-laptop-per-child deployments involving other hardware, deployments of Sugar emulators or Sugar on a Stick, and other projects involving child ownership of laptops. Please try to note in the summaries which of the five pillars each project supports.
2011
Sage July 2011
- A study of Bahrain, Jordan, and UAE education and knowledge-based abilities of their students; mainly focused on secondary schools with and without ICT interventions. older students, inconsistent ownership and saturation, good Internet connectivity, some use of open source.
Earlier research
Bentley 2007
Bentley, C. (2007). The OLPC Laptop: Educational Revolution or Devolution? Proceedings of World Conference on ELearning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare and Higher Education (pp. 647-652).
- Punchline: “An implementation program that helps governments provide a curriculum, set up learning partnerships, and evaluate the laptop program is proposed.”
Bhatta 2008
Bhatta, S. D. (2008). Tackling the Problems of Quality and Disparity in Nepal’s School Education: The OLPC Model. Studies in Nepali History and Society, 13(1), 17-48.
- Punchline: ICT-based teaching and learning approach is suggested as a means to tackle the problems of quality and disparity. The OLPC model is adopted as a viable approach, but dependent on four simultaneous areas—“digital content development, teacher preparation, network and power infrastructure development, and government capacity development” before it can reach full potential.
Camfield 2007
Camfield, J., Kobulsky, A., Paris, J., & Vonortas, N. (2007). A Report Card for One Laptop Per Child. Closing the Digital Divide via ICTs and Education: Successes and Failures. joncamfield. com/writing/Camfield_Report_Card_for_OLPC. pdf, 6, 2008.
- Punchline: OLPC effectively developed a “relatively” affordable laptop with features that could be beneficial for developing countries; however, the project appears significantly flawed as an education-based development project aimed at mitigating the digital divide between developing and developed countries.
Clark (unpublished)
Clark, J. (n.d.). OLPC and the US: The Factors.
- Punchline: Unpublished. Paper surveys the general environment and factors affecting the OLPC program in the US and suggests possible large-scale implementation strategies.
Kennedy 2007
Kennedy, I., Pass, D., & Cadir, R. (2007). One Laptop Per Teacher: Content and Curriculum for (in-service) Teacher Training. TECHNOLOGY AND TEACHER EDUCATION ANNUAL, 18(5), 2564.
- Punchline: “This paper proposes structure and content for in-service training of teachers in the use of OLPC,” thus called one laptop per teacher (OLPT). Focused on teachers using the XO to learn and collaborate
Kraemer 209
Kraemer, K. L., Dedrick, J., & Sharma, P. (2009). One laptop per child: vision vs. reality. Communications of the ACM, 52(6), 66-73.
- Punchline: The OLPC vision though noble and well-intentioned “is being overwhelmed by the reality of business, politics, logistics, and competing interests worldwide.”
Leaning 2010
Leaning, M. (2010). The One Laptop per Child Project and the Problems of Technology-led Educational Development. High-Tech Tots: Childhood in a Digital World edited by Ilene R. Berson and Michael J. Berson (2010), Information Age Publishing: Charlotte, NC .
- Punchline: The paper critically examines the OLPC project and identifies 3 areas of criticism: 1) program is grounded in technological determinism, (2) not sensitive to local context or conditions thus seem like a “colonial” approach, and (3) program is largely constructed as a technological project and not as an educational project. Suggestions are recommended for future implementations.
Niles 2006
Niles, R. (2006). A study of the application of emerging technology: teacher and student perceptions of the impact of one-to-one laptop computer access.
- Punchline: Study based on a case study of high school students and teachers. Study revealed 6 salient findings. 5 of the 6 findings “suggest that technology had changed teaching and learning, and helped to create a paradigm shift in the teacher and student roles.”
Nussbaum 2007
Nussbaum, B. (2007, September 28). Where Are The Teachers In The Debate Over OLPC? Business Week. Retrieved from http://www.businessweek.com/innovate/NussbaumOnDesign/archives/2007/09/where_are_the_teachers_in_the_debate_over_olpc.html
- Punchline: This is a newspaper/magazine piece. It highlights that the teachers are left out of the OLPC debate and emphasis and evaluations have been largely student-centric so far.
Purington 2010
Purington, D. (2010). One Laptop per Child: a misdirection of humanitarian effort. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society, 40(1), 28-33.
- Punchline: Paper assails the OLPC project as a grandiose project that misdirects needful and scarce dollars to an unsustainable technology project. Speculates that the project is too expensive to implement even if desired.