OLPC pilot projects

It’s been nearly four years following the launch of the OLPC program, and nearly 750 000 laptops have been distributed in various countries (as of February 2009). The countries where the program has been launched include Afghanistan, Brazil, Cambodia, Colombia, Ethiopia, Ghana, Haiti, India, Iraq, Kazakhistan, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, Mongolia, Mozambique, Nepal, Nigeria, Niue, Pakistan, Palestine, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Senegal, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Thailand, United States and Uruguay. Some of these countries have documented the deployment of the laptop and have shared their information. Nepal is a good example where there are plans to integrate the program into the national curriculum. The country also views the project as an opportunity to bridge the gap between rich and poor. Relevant information is available here.

A case study- Ethiopia

An Ethiopian child is seen tending to his cattle in a field. He wields a whip in one hand and has an XO in the other. This is not a figment of imagination, but was reported on OLPCnews.com. Check out the full report here.

The OLPC program was introduced in Ethiopia in 2006. Two classes in a primary school in Addis Ababa received 80 XO machines. In 2008, the government took complete ownership of the program and deployed 5 000 XO machines. The program focused on training teachers and providing all Ethiopian textbooks online.

In Ethiopia, it was found that the children considered the laptop as a learning tool and it was found to increase their learning time. It also helped them improve their logical reasoning and encouraged them to attend school. After 4 months of deployment, it was found that the academic performance increased by 13% in schools where the laptops were used.

However, the program was not without hiccups. The laptops were banned in Ethiopian classrooms by teachers who considered it a toy which distracted the students. Some of the parents also reportedly had the same opinion. In Ethiopia, children are required to study the lessons taught by the teachers and pass exams based on these lessons. By some accounts, the XO laptops reportedly disturbed the system by shifting the knowledge base to the machines. Teachers perhaps found this to be a threat to their authority.

This highlights the need to integrate the program into a national curriculum and involve teachers in its implementation. This is an important concern to be addressed in the overall plan in any country.

Setting up benchmarks

The OLPC program is yet to set a benchmark for evaluation. This is because the existing evaluation reports are of small pilot projects in different environments. A good monitoring and documentation process is necessary to set the benchmark for the program. However, the program has received global appreciation for its efforts and is certainly headed in the right direction.

The challenges

One of the major drawbacks of the program is the inability to provide educational content appropriate to the countries where it is deployed. The program also requires supporting technology, such as school servers, for large scale implementation of the program. The program also needs to successfully prove itself with results in large-scale implementations. There is also the need for a well-laid out plan for implementing programs. The slow progress is also a major setback. As of today, only a few countries have proceeded with large-scale implementations, contrary to expectations. It is also important to focus on bringing about a shift from the current educational practices in the developing countries to pave a way for an XO-based education model. A detailed overview is available here.

Conclusion

The OLPC could become an important factor that children of the developing world can depend on to overcome problems caused by hardship, lack of knowledge and neglect,. In spite of the obstacles on its way, the OLPC has succeeded in planting the seed of transformation and has set the stage for education based on technology. Given the large canvas of the project, it is a great challenge, and at the same time, worth all the effort.