A letter from the Cook Islands...

A letter from Thomas, principal at the school on the island of Mitiaro, in the Cook Islands, recipient of the country's first XO laptops in January 2010.

"Kia Orana everyone,

"Here are some photos of the beautiful children of Mitiaro High School learning, teaching, working and having fun with their new tools – XO laptops. In Mitiaro, we are calling it the ‘Rorouira apaipai (literally translated, the carry around computer)
"We spent nearly the whole of week 2 working together as a whole school.

"The school has a team of 6 supervisors (students from correspondence class and one from Fm. 2) who generally look after the administration of the XOs. They remedy little hiccups like battery not charging properly, application disappearing from the homepage, labeling chargers, upgrading the new version and teaching children how to “pick up” their electronic copy of the school newsletter from the server. They get together sometimes to discuss new ideas or turn old ideas to new ones. As in the following example. Right now, all secondary students take home an electronic copy of the Cook Island news on Thursdays. This is one brilliant extension idea ( from the newsletter idea) by the two boys Nia and Joseph. These two boys are very committed to becoming administrators one day. (they think they are the godfathers of the XOs)
"This activity is extended to other classes.

"Senior students actually pick out (filter) their favourite news from the Top news and the General News section, not forgetting the sports section.
"Two days were put aside so that teachers have a better idea on integrating the use of the laptops in the curriculum. In this case, Social Science, language and music. The children just loved the Bio Poems activity that the Social Science advisor had sent us. I wish that I can easily print out the Bio poems.
"The teachers learned a lot from the activities.
"The photos show some of the activities and the student-supervisors assisting the others.
I am working on a draft Emergency plan for the XOs. I am looking at possibly purchasing some solid waterproof bins (enough to contain all laptops and the server and other equipment) so that the laptops are collected or recalled just before a major natural disaster hits.

"I hope to get these out to you all for some feedback. Are there funds available for this idea? (we believe it is)
 
"Cheers everyone.
"Thomas"

OLPC workbook for education officials

Pacific OLPC deployment expert, David Leeming, has shared his excellent OLPC Orientation Workbook aimed at education specialists and officials overseeing the introduction of the XO laptop in their country. Leeming developed the Workbook for his recent workshop in Tuvalu, undertaken with funding support from the International Telecommunications Union and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

Download the Workbook from our OLPC Oceania document repository or here:
OLPC Orientation Workshop Workbook (Tuvalu).pdf

"I know how to read!" -- a story from OLPC Uruguay

Uruguay has distributed the XO to all 100,000 of its primary school age children. And now they are sharing stories, including this moving story (in machine translation) from a teacher working with OLPC in the town of Durazno:

In my 6th grade class I had a 14-year-old student that didn't know how to read. He was very anxious to receiving his laptop. He had serious behavior and social problems that he was controlling inside the classrom. When the computers arrived we distributed them and I proposed to write a text in (the XO activity) Write.

He had liked very much a play at the school. He had been moved by and identified with Nacho, one of the characters.

Then he told me:

- Teacher, I want to write about Nacho... but I don't know.
- Come and tell me what you want to write.

He told me orally. He brought his laptop, entered to Write and wrote everything he proposed himself. He knew almost all the phonemes and graphemes, but he didn't know how to join them.

- What a beautiful work you did! Now you have to read it to your classmates.
- But I don't know how to read?
- Ah, it doesn't matter, you will know because you did it, I said in a low voice with complicity and a wink.

He read it many times in silence, he passed it to his notebook, he stood in the front and with tears in his eyes, he read the text to the class.

- I know how to read, I know how to read! - he would shout, excited and smiling!

For him it was an unforgettable day, he wrote and the read aloud... then he read simple texts written in his classmate's XOs... this is how he started his literacy.

Tuvalu readies for XO deployments

The Polynesian island nation of Tuvalu, population 12,000, is ready to join the ranks of Pacific OLPC countries following a senior-level workshop in the capital, Funafuti. The 10-day capacity-building mission is in advance of deployment of gifted laptops, courtesy of a tranche of 5000 XO laptops donated to Pacific Islands Countries by the OLPC Foundation.
The Funafuti workshop brought together teachers,school supervisors, curriculum officers, and the country's senior education administrators, including Ms Katalina Taloka, Director of Education. The workshop was conducted by Pacific ICT-for-education expert, David Leeming, who has provided guidance on OLPC to the governments of Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Nauru and now Tuvalu.
Workshop participants learned about:

• Principles of OLPC. Background and history, constructionist learning, and links to Open Education Resources (OER) movement
• OLPC in the region. Lessons learned from other Pacific projects.
• Technical awareness. Training on the XO Laptop and XS Server. Basics of functionality of the XO laptops, the activities on them, and the XS school server. Localisation – converting the laptop language into Tuvaluan.
• Curriculum integration. Using the laptop to support the learning objective. Integrating laptop (and server) usage into the lesson plan. Available curriculum materials. Understanding the learning curve.
• Developing an OLPC Country Program plan.
• Community and parents engagement and involvement.
• Online collaboration – setting up a Google Group and Ning social network and Wikieducator page for Tuvalu OLPC

Mr. Leeming reports the workshop was a valuable exercise for both Tuvalu and the Pacific: "It is early days yet, but I think there is a good potential from the Tuvalu project that may provide a good model for the region."
The mission was supported by Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) and the International Telecommunications Union (ITU). OLPC Oceania is a project partner in ITU’s global initiative Connecting Children. In February 2009, ITU and OLPC announced they would combine efforts to bring laptops to school children in the Pacific Islands and the Tuvalu mission was undertaken under this partnership.
Access the deployment plan for OLPC Tuvalu here.

Radio interview: OLPPC on 'In the Loop'

One Laptop per Child's regional director for Oceania, Michael Hutak, and OLPC Coordinator for the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, Ian Thomson, are interviewed on Radio Australia's "In the Loop" talk show.

Access the audio file here or visit In the Loop at www.radioaustralia.net.au/intheloop/.

OLPC underway in the Cook Islands

Cook Islands has embarked on its OLPC adventure with the deployment in early February of 72 XO laptops to children on the remote island of Mitiaro. The laptops are being deployed by the Cook Islands Ministry of Eduction (MOE) and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) division of the Office of the Prime Minister. In fact Prime Minister Jim Marurai has been personally instrumental in driving the project forward.
The laptops are part of a tranche of 5000 donated to the Pacific by the OLPC Foundation, Cambridge, distributed with the technical assistance of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.

Cooks' Secretary of Education, Sharyn Paio, told the Cook Islands News the government is "pleased that, at long last, these laptops will be put to use and trust that the children and teachers will find them useful."
We will soon share stories, photos and videos from Mitiaro.

Worrying impact of global economic crisis on Pacific education

A international conference on the impact of the economic crisis on the Pacific has been in underway in Port Vila, Vanuatu, this week. A key theme is the impact on Pacific education, where the crisis has affected both the quality of and access to education -- two key areas which OLPC seeks to address. The conference has been looking at evidence-based investment in education, early childhood development and child protection.
The website has many policy resources available for download including this excellent overview of the issues facing Pacific educators, prepared by Helen Tavola for the Pacific Islands Forum Secretariat.

OLPC holds promise for Guam's kids

Recent interest in OLPC from the North Pacific island of Guam:

"It's being called a progressive simple learning tool that will change the way we educate our children. Bruce Best, University Of Guam's Acting Associate Director of Telecommunication and Distance Education Operation says, "This unit doesn't contain Microsoft Windows or an OS system from Mac, but it's loaded with software designed for collaborative learning."