OLPC Oceania/Teacher Training

Please find below a basic outline of teacher training for the Pacific. This will be updated as we implement and fine tune the process according to our successes and feedback.

Training Topics

Introduction to the OLPC vision

• About OLPC - the vision, the mission, the 5 principles
• Concepts of the technologies - learning, creating and collaborating. Understanding that this is not a laptop project
• Constructionist learning, the concept of a learning project
• Guided learning, the role of the teacher
• OLPC around the world
• OLPC Oceania
• OLPC and this country

Resources

• Information pack on the OLPC vision
  • View
  • Download as odt
  • Download as pdf
• OLPC Peru video (as shown at the May Countries Meeting in Boston)
• OLPC PNG videos (Dreikikir, Gaire)

Lesson Plan

View a sample lesson plan for Introduction to OLPC Vision on the Wikieducator (link to be added)

Introducing the XO

• The hardware
• The software
  • Open Source
  • Designed for children
• Power issues
  • How to use/access power in the various circumstances
• Sharing content
• Sharing activities
• The server - managing and maintaining the classroom

Introduction to Activities

• All the activities on the XO
• How to download new activities and remove activities
• How to share activities
• How to integrate XO activities into the classroom - open discussion and documentation into wiki
  • Ideas for new activities - refer to 'participating in the community'
  • Top 5 apps and how to apply in the classroom for each participant
• Need some basic tasks to demo the power of the activities and collaboration - todo

Introduction to the Internet

• What is the Internet?
• Finding reputable knowledge online
• Internet safety - child safety, spam, appropriate content, the role of teachers
  • Compare with the importance of street safety. Digital safety is no less important
• Communicating on the Internet - email, blogs, instant messaging & chat, social networking, virtual worlds
• Online communities - how to find them, how to get involved, good netiquette

Educational resources

• Finding resources
  • Wikipedia
  • Education portals - eg TKI - TKI is a bilingual portal and web community which provides quality-assured educational material for New Zealand teachers, school managers, and the wider education community.
  • Wikieducator - an open learning resource for the Commonwealth
• Generating content
  • On the XO/XS - including Moodle
  • The tools for creating lesson plans
  • Public content - wikipedia, wiki commons, flickr, youtube

Evaluation

• Discussion about what outcomes teachers/admins/parents want to see - build into template evaluation
• Talking to the teachers about how to determine the outcomes of the XO in the classroom
• See the Pacific Evaluation wiki page for input
• Improvement plans for using XOs

Teacher support

• How to find/create documentation
• Basic troubleshooting
• How to get answers to questions/issues
• Participating in the community
• Training certificate

Technical training

• Configuration of all components (APs, server, XOs)
• How to reimage
• Higher level troubleshooting
• Technical support

Parent consultation

• What does OLPC mean for you and your child
• Parents responsibilities
  • Looking after the laptop
  • Safety matters - charging, surfing
  • Creating rules for sharing at home
• Signature for parents agreement

Feedback

• Discussion with teachers/admins about what worked, what didn't

Timing of training

Allowing plenty of time for teacher training is really important, including followup training post the initial deployment. Below is a rough guide to a training schedule that could be used or improved upon.

Initial training

• Day 1
  • Intro to project and the XO
  • Need to ensure there is hands on. Turning on the laptops and a couple of wow-factor tasks (including activities such as record) with the focus on the full activities run down the next day.
  • Homework task - Each participant to tell something new they found on their own
• Day 2
  • Introduction to all activities
  • Homework task - Download and learn about a new activity (not Doom!)
• Day 3
  • Introduction to the Internet and email
  • Education resources
  • Homework task - start a gmail account and email the training coordinator
• Day 4
  • Evaluation
  • Teacher support
  • Feedback
• Day 5
  • Distribution of XOs to students with teachers coordinating and doing the intro/training

The parents consultation and the admin training happen simultaneously somewhere throughout the process (before the XO distribution) and they require about only a couple of hours for the parents and up to a day for the amdins depending on infrastructure complexity and admin familiarity with ICT.

Followup sessions

• Summary of all the above - mainly led by the needs of the community
• Discussion on issues, blockers
• Discussion on unexpected consequences (positive and negative)
• Discussion about progress, usefulness, how to improve

Messages

• Remember to have fun!
• Encourage experimentation and learning
• Share with others - includes knowledge and documentation
• Be prepared to learn from children
• Child ownership