[p2p-research] Thanks for: Suggestions wanted for education to p2p practices and attitude

[Michel Bauwens]

great article on Nepal Marco, thanks,

Michel

On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 at 11:57 AM, M. Fioretti <mfioretti at nexaima.net> wrote:

> On Fri, Nov 27, 2009 04:30:52 AM +0700, Michel Bauwens wrote:
> > >Yes, but TeacherMate and similar are much less vaporware than OLPC.
> >
> > What makes you think that OLPC is vaporware?
>
> You are right, I used the wrong word, sorry. I should have said
> something like "much less hype and much more able to deliver big
> improvements in short times with a fraction of the investment".
>
> > it's massively deployed in peru, ruanda, etc... Whenever its effects
> > have been studied, the results have been dramatic, like doubling
> > rates of attendance, etc.. OLPC is definitely not based on the
> > assumption you assume
>
> Massively deployed, yes. Whether it is actually working and being used
> as originally advertised is another matter entirely. Of course
> attendance rates increase when there's a new shiny toy in school that
> nobody else in the valley has AND when (as they do in Nepal) the
> school gives you the XO but keeps the charger... It would be the same
> if they put in each classroom a 128 inches plasma monitor running
> different cartoons every day.
>
> Besides what I described here:
>
> http://stop.zona-m.net/education/schools/one-hour-xo-laptop-nepali-school
>
> while I was in Nepal I talked with people using OLPC there and in
> other countries. I got more than one confirmation that OLPC is used
> and doing good but not because it'ts the OLPC as Negroponte "sells"
> it: that is, people take it because it's the only cheap laptop they
> can get in volumes, but then don't really care about mesh networking,
> put their own software on it and use it a-la-teachermate, that is as a
> teacher support tool. Meaning that yes, it's doing good, but not
> because of:
>
> > constructionist learning principles, on cooperation with the
> > teacher, but yes, it aims to make children partly autonomous of
> > dysfunctional school systems, based on their desire for
> > self-learning.
>
> > The result of OLPC villages is that the children are now teaching
> > literacy to their parents.
>
> Of course. The result of the first wave of *any* mass schooling that
> reaches some community is children teaching literacy to their
> parents. I just don't buy the idea that this happens only where the
> OLPC arrives, or because the OLPC is used as Negroponte advertises
> it.
>
> What I'm saying is that, probably, any other improvement of
> traditional teaching, with or without ANY computer in the classroom
> (remember the lady I mentioned in my previous post) or any other
> "trick" to lure children and their families into regular attendancy
> (the World Food Program gives daily meals to children... but only in
> the schools they build) would have given similar results, and maybe at
> a lower cost.
>
> But yes, I admit that "vaporware" was the wrong word to describe this,
> thanks for pointing it out.
>
> Marco
>
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