OLPC UK/Pilots/London2009/Proposal
The UK members of the OLPC UK group present the below proposal for joint discussion with OLPC Boston to advise on its merits and areas of improvement:
In developing OLPC (UK) we aim to establish a 100% volunteer organization and platform for OLPC in the United Kingdom. The intent of OLPC (UK) is be to support the co-deployment of XO computers in both UK schools, where defined needs are identified, and also in developing countries, similarly where defined needs are identified.
Project Particulars
Name of Project
OLPC UK Pilot London 2009
Overview and significance:
The value of this project to OLPC is significant because it:
- Is the initial focus of the emerging OLPC organisation in the UK
- Will generate valuable fundraising and publicity opportunities for OLPC and OLPC UK.
- Precedes a variety of domestic and international projects OLPC UK will be able to promote and market using the pilot success
Web page
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_UK/Pilots/London2009/
Shipping Address
- Warren Pimm's address here
Loan Length—How Many Months
- 1 Year - August 2009 to August 2010
Team Participants
- Warren Pimm – OLPC UK Lead Organiser
- Head Teacher TBD - School XYZ Head Teacher
- Teacher 1 - School XYZ Year NNN teacher
- Teacher 2 - School XYZ Year NNN teacher
- IT manager 1 - School XYZ IT manager
- IT support coordinator 1 - Volunteer group ABC IT support coordinator
- Peter Robinson – OLPC UK Project Manager
- Martin Dengler – OLPC UK Software
The team will be ably supported by all OLPC UK participants; details of all contributors can be found in the People section of the OLPC UK wiki.
Objectives
1. to successfully deploy the XO Laptops in a pilot class of 30-35 students, partnered with the deployment of 30-35 XO Laptops in a developing country school;
2. to enable extension from the initial success of a class pilot into a full school deployment in either January 2010, and/or September 2010;
3. to create general educator, press, developer, and corporate support for OLPC (UK) in the United Kingdom.
The aim of OLPC (UK) is to work with schools that are interested in integrating the XO and the Sugar learning platform into childrens' education as structured in the UK.
This pilot will enable OLPC UK to effectively demonstrate the community benefit gained from the program to interested and potential supporters.
Plan of Action
We have prepared:
- Pilot School XYZ (name school and link) and supportive teachers 1 and 2 (name teachers and link)
- /Lesson Plan (TBD)
- /Teacher Training Plan (TBD)
- /Infrastructure Plan (TBD)
Still a work in progress:
- /PR and Marketing Plan creation
For a detailed timeline, see the Timeline section.
Needs
To ensure pilot success we need sufficient laptops for a full Year TBD class, laptops to form a pool for interested teachers in the school to assist in preparing teachers for the next phase of OLPC UK, full school deployment, and a small number of spares to cover for damaged and malfunctioning XOs until the Repair Centre can repair the originals. The exact numbers are detailed in the following section.
To ensure pilot success we need sufficient laptops for a full class to ensure that:
- Every student has a laptop
- Every teacher involved int he pilot class has a laptop
- The IT department at the school has one
- That sufficient XOs are available to cover damaged units
- That sufficient XOs are available that content for and knowledge of the XO and OLPC is generated among other teachers at the school
Hardware
We have a firm commitment from school XYZ for a Year NNN class of 30 kids, so we are requesting laptops for:
- Teachers - 1 class's teachers - 3 laptops
- Students - 1 class's kids - 30 laptops
- In-class spares - 1 class's worth - 2 laptops
- Teachers support - to use by teachers to create/test lessons during the project - 15 laptops
This is a total of 50 laptops.
Sharing Deliverables
Progress will be reviewed monthly throughout the program as per the timeline above, and the details of those reviews will be updated to OLPC and OLPC UK by email and the above wiki page. Formal quarterly reviews with school staff will also be conducted on the success of the pilot and issues and improvements that are identified.
Progress reports will be archived here: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_UK/Pilots/London2009/Progress
Quality/Mentoring
Education
Head Teacher 1 and a variety of talented teaching staff including Teacher 1 and Teacher 2 at School XYZ, along with other educational staff involved directly with OLPC UK, are committed to contributing to the curriculum development and enabling the school to maximise the impact of the pilot.
Management
With Warren Pimm’s exceptional pedigree managing IT programs within education organisations we have the knowledge to manage the programme
Technical
Both Martin Dengler and Peter Robinson have significant experience both with the XO and generally in IT projects and will be able to professionally manage the deployment resources
Warren Pimm
bio summary here
Peter Robinson
bio summary here
Martin Dengler
Martin Dengler is a software engineer with 13 years of experience in the banking and hedge fund industry. His programming language skills include Python and Java, and he is equally experienced with Linux (Fedora), Solaris (sparc), and Windows platforms. A keen free / open source hobbyist, he has contributed code to OLPC and Sugar Labs. He graduated Dartmouth College with a AB in Computer Science and moved to the UK ten (10) years ago and now lives in central London.
Timeline
Month | Actions |
---|---|
July 2009 | PR and Marketing Plan Finalised |
August 2009 | Teacher Training. Curriculum and Infrastructure plans signed off. |
September 2009 | Pilot launch |
December 2009 | Initial Pilot Assessment |
March 2009 – | Second Pilot Assessment |
June 2009 | Third Pilot Assessment |
September 2010 | End of Pilot & Final Assessment |
Laptop Return
We agree to pass on the laptop(s) to a local OLPC group or other interested contributors in case I do not have need for the laptop(s) anymore or in case our project progress stalls.
Colophon
Format adapted from: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Contributors_program/Project_proposal_form , but as this request has some distinctive attributes the format was modified to enhance the clarity of the proposal.
The proposal has been discussed on the OLPC UK mailing list.