Distribution Day

We scheduled our distribution day to fit with the end of teacher training. As a team we agreed to have Fridays off to serve as a reset button and a way to reorganize and discuss any upcoming events or topics specifically related to OLPC. As such Thursday July 9^th served as the end of teacher training and we would distribute the XO’s on the following Monday July 13th.

Sunday July 12, 2009 was the celebration of 34 years of Sao Tome independence, we learned about it Thursday after teacher training, but it didn’t register in our mind that our distribution day would follow a large country wide celebration. We woke up at 7:00 to make sure we were up and running Monday morning at 8am (which was the time we told the headmaster to have the kids there by). We made it to school at 7:45 and set up the rooms for the distribution only to find about 4 janitors and 1 kid there. 8am came around and no one was there so we decided it would be better to delay the distribution until Tuesday. The next day we had expected a few children to show, but we ended up with about 48 children coming in to get the XO’s.

We had composed a contract for the children and parents to sign stating that they would come to trainings and would also agree to not sell the XO’s. Tuesday about 7 parents showed up to sign the contracts, we were eager to see if the children would bring the XO’s back after we had given them full ownership over the summer. We had originally scheduled for XO training to be a 4 week task, the distribution days took somewhat longer than we expected so the training my end up being shorter than we had planned for.

Some of the parents were not able to write their names so we had them write an X…surprisingly one parent had to have their child write what an X looked like. This surprised me and made me think about the prospects of the XO in bringing knowledge to children as well as their parents. This strongly lamented OLPC’s principle of child ownership and made me rethink our proposal. Although we had talked numerous times about the way things should be there is always a better plan under circumstance we could have come up with.

Plantations

So this blog is just catching everyone up on the events of this weekend and Monday. Friday Judy, Chika, Danielle, Mike and myself all took a taxi to a plantation near the northern tip of the island. This plantation used to be a large cocoa plantation and still produces some today. ( a couple of tons a week) At one point the Portuguese had developed Sao Tome as the primary cocoa exporter in the world. Today it represents a larger percentage of the exports than all others combined. Our taxi driver showed us around the plantation which had one of the largest and best hospital in West Africa. We walked around the hospital complex which was nearly abandoned and stripped of any valuable wiring and flooring. (see photo).

This area was also where the kids played with their home designed racing cars (see photo). There was a slight incline so they would race their cars down the slope. Its really amazing to see what children can come up with when they have limited resources. The plantation factory for drying and producing the cocoa beans was much more modern and engineered than I expected. After visiting the plantation we took our driver and another guy who joined us on the tour for lunch at a local resturant where we had red fish and rice. :)

The night is darkest just before the dawn

We began the day with a meeting about our goals for the day. We had a discussion the previous night about how we can improve in terms of teaching, because the previous Monday was border line failure. At the first meeting after the Monday we discussed having more meetings. we had previously just went in with a general plan and tried to execute. That worked for the first two days, but when we actually tried teaching use of the XO in the classroom we crashed and burned. The teachers were bored and they didn't understand the overall objective of what we were attempting to teach them.

SO...this morning we met to discuss our goals and objectives. Before our meeting; Chika, Mike, and I we sitting around and I raised the question of measuring progress in the classroom with the XO's. Its one thing to have a new toy to play around with but if you can't measure the benefits how can we expect to sustain this project and the further use of the XO's in this country for that matter. With that being said we laid out some goals for the day and they went exceedingly well.

Mike taught scratch, which in my mind, is one of the most difficult programs on the XO. They seemed to grasp the idea of the program and the functionality pretty fast. We also taught distance today, this program sends out sound frequencies and measures the distance between the two XO's in meters.

I have always expressed some displeasure with the XO's not being effective for the amount they cost (about $180). As I often tell people you can get an Acer or some other netbook for about $200-$250 that performs 10 times better, but OLPC's vision and drive to make the laptops affordable and a useful tool for children drives this program to be much more effective than a store purchased computer.

Tonight is another meeting about tomorrows plan (the server, index, scratch, and moodle).

Simple Gifts

Previously we asked the teachers to come up with some lessons they could teach in class after we have left. Unfortunately, something got lost in translation or they didn't care much to do so, but they came with nothing prepared. Our goal today was to exploit the differences between Western education and African education. My goal was not to change the foundation of their educational system, but rather to make sure these laptops are being used to the greatest advantage.

I have noticed a stark diffrence in the metods of education in Africa (Rwanda, Sao Tome) and America. Teachers and students ask questions of each other with the hopes of either engaging in a debate about the best answer to questions or to find a definitative answer. Here teachers ask nothing more of the students than to recite the answers they have been given previously. This method works when technology is not present, but with the enormus capabilities of the world wide web and the amount of information available a transformation in education needs to take place...even if its as simple as having children answer simple questions or do basic research.

The rest of the day we spent lounging around our house. Chika was appointed Minister of External Affairs so he went to the UN compound to request a meeting with UNICEF to discuss projects on the island that we could participate in. We are waiting on a response.

Chika, Mike, and I went to get haircuts and met Judy and Danielle at the fish market. They were there talking to a woman named Arlene who tried to feed us all the alochol she had. Palm wine, vodka, and Rosema (the national beer). It was closing time at the market, but the people stay there, clean and prepare for the next days work. It smelled there, but I had the opportunity to speak French with a drunk man.

Teacher Training

This post serves as a way to play catch up since I have been slacking on updating my blog.

During a meeting with the Minister of Education on Tuesday, he suggested Sau Jauo secondary school. We visited the school the following day and found a eager headmaster although everyone in this country will seem eager to do anything (which scares me because they will never say no, no matter how unfitting the proposal)

Everything is going well so far. The only difficulties we often run into are communication problems. Finding a good translator has proven to be somewhat difficult, but we may have solved that problem with our current translator Abilio. He's eager to expand his English and the team is impressed the his style of translating.

At the beginning of last week we began training the teachers on the XO's. Our translator arrived some 15 minutes late and that sparked all sorts of hatred for Americans and their propensity to only learn English while the rest of the world learns their native language, English, and in some cases a third language.

Once the translator arrived I began the training by explaining out project and our goals. My experience in Kigali had led me to tread lightly in terms of "dictating" what should be done with the XO's in the classroom. Mike brought up a good point we he requested I ask if the teachers even wanted to use the XO's. He made the argument it would represent a significant change to the way they taught and the amount of work they would need to do to prepare for the next days lesson.

(Our plan to distribute the XO was as close to saturation, in my opinion, we could get. Our plan is to distribute the XO's to 6th graders and have the children return the XO at the end of the school year to be distributed to the next 6th grade class. Over the summer the school would keep the XO laptops and re-distribute them in the fall again. There are five 6th grade classes of about 45 so only 2 classes can receive the XOs)

The teachers did want to use the XO, but as with the introduction of any new tech. to a place that doesn't have much experience with it, there is skepticism.

Mike and I at Ned's about to jump/ climb in the ocean.

Mike and I with members of the University of Indiana team

The group at the beach with the One Laptop Per Child logo drawn on the sand

Hurry Up and Wait

Yesterday we began our official deployment. We visited our partner here STeP UP. We had a sit down with one of the associate directors Roberta. We explained to her our goals in Sao Tome and we worked together on how best to achieve those goals.

Our initial deployment had called for 6 sites. We realized this was a bit over our heads and our capacity was limits so we further limited our deployment to 4 sites (two in Sao Tome city and 2 in the outlying regions), after Mike and I attended the Kigali workshop we found it would be better if we limited it to two sites. Mike expressed some concern with two sites because of OLPC principle of saturation (every child should own a laptop). I had believed the experiences with a laptop would be much more different in urban areas than in rural areas. I wanted to be able to discuss the differences in use of technology at the conference at MIT, but due to our limited capacity and the fact that this should be a pilot project and go smoothly we all agreed on what Mike had proposed…one site that we do extremely well.

This week is much more of a hurry up and wait week than I planned. We are waiting on several phone calls (Minister of Education’s office, CST, Roberta for school selection, and media). Apparently everyone knows we are here and is excited about the prospects of what One Laptop Per Child could achieve here. In my opinion this piece of equipment may not be the most economically friendly, but it represents a quantum leap in the education gap between African countries and the majority of the world. It has always been my belief that knowledge is the biggest hurdle to poverty. Once people know how/when/why things happen they are more inclined to make changes…more informed changes.

Welcome to Sao Tome…runway too short

SO we arrived in Sao Tome today (5:30am). This is the normal time everyone wakes up in Sao Tome. We arrived at the airport, it had only one runway like most African countries and small cities in Europe and the United States. The airport is really different from most because there is no real fence surrounding the airport. The reason is because the airport divided a fishing village and this allows them to access the fishing areas and the markets to sell their goods.

We arrived at our house a short while after takeoff. Its about 5 minutes from the airport, and a short walk from the beach. The house has four rooms, teo bathrooms, a kitchen, porch, and living room. We also have an attachment that used to be old slave quarters. We will use this area to store our XO’s the server and solar panels. Speaking of solar panels…we didn’t order them so we may have to ship them back to OLPC or where ever they came from.

We took a walk around the city centre and saw the library, theatre, and museum. Don’t be fooled, these are not the normal planes in America, they have an African feel. The theatre only plays two movies.

Paul and a friend of his went to pick up the XO’s from the airport while we explored the city. There was some problems at customs and we ended up paying $40 for customs. Compared to what other teams may experience this seems relatively cheap, thanks to the on-going relationship the University of Illinois has with the Sao Tomean government. Unfortunately, other teams may have to pay as much $2500 to get their XO’s and adapters through customs.

Freedom without Learning is always in peril and Learning without Freedom is always in vain

We were asked to define our goals in distributing the XO’s this summer. After some thinking, my main goal, which may be different from the team, is to provide a basis for knowledge. In my opinion, the most important block to prosperity in many African and poor countries for that matter are poor because of a lack of knowledge. The most basic educational attainments that we have in the United States are not yet realized in the African countries. Many in Africa are afraid of the powers of technology and many just simply do not know the capabilities of technology.

On Friday we went to Rwamagana to provide a workshop for teachers who currently do not use the XO’s often in the classroom. One program was being pushed by OLPC members in our talking sessions (Scratch). This program is one that teaches children to program certain characters (called Sprite’s) on a background to perform certain tasks. It is similar to Visual Basic language…for example. If x happens move y for 20 steps. This program is said to teach problem solving skills. While it teaches problem solving skills, there is something inherently missing in their ability to use the XO. Their learning seems to be based on instruction rather than curiosity about the program. American children for instance, learn the concept and can teach themselves the program.

Africans are much more apprehensive to learning the new technology and is the primary reason the constructivist view about learning in my opinion will not work in Africa. For a constructivist method of learning its subjects need to be (1) excited about learning and (2) not afraid of technology and learning. I cannot identify what the African people are missing in this respect, but it is the primary reason when we introduce the technology to the teachers they are hesitant to utilize it.

To be comfortable with the technology the teachers need to be excites about the technology and have the capacity to teach using the technology. Therefore we need to teach them not to be afraid of the XO’s and use them to provide a basis for educating. Therefore, out goals will be educating the children and the teachers about the best way to obtain knowledge. This may be through learning

FORGET “MIND THE GAP”

If anyone has ever taken the Underground in London if you take nothing away from it you always remember to “Mind the gap”. Apparently the Brits are clumsy when exiting the train onto the platform because at EVERY stop “Mind the Gap” is announced and the ironic thing is…there is no gap. Mike and I woke up at 3:30 and caught the shuttle bus to Heathrow Terminal 3 where we were told by the concierge to take the Underground to terminal 4. Apparently terminal 4 is on the other side of the airport. We arrived at terminal 3 only to find the station does not open until 5am or so. No minding the gap for us. We were put into panic mode because KLM closes the check-in counter 30minutes before take-off. We found a taxi to take us to terminal 4. The driver gave us some pretty stern advice…”The trip to terminal 3 to terminal 4 would be £22 pounds that’s $38.00 about the cost of a trip from Chicago to O’Hare and the distance of about 3 miles. WOW that’s roughly $12 a mile.

We made it to the terminal and there were roughly 200 people in line at 5:00am, the gate supposedly closes 30 min. before so we went into our second panic mode of the day. Once our nerves settle we actually found out that the bag check in didn’t open until 5am and all of the people in front and the now 80 peopele behind us were on KLM flight 1000 leaving at 6:30

The food and service on the KLM flights were amazing. Free wine coffee…much better than the American airlines. One flight was from London to Amsterdam, another from Amsterdam to Nairobi, Kenya. We had a two hour layover in Kenya where we found some other OLPCers. After some confusion on the tarmac (four planes which all look the same and we were pointed in a general direction) we found the plane. Ironically two people “were missing from the gate to the plane” so for security reasons their luggage had to be removed from the plane.

Our arrival in Kigali was met with an abrubt landing. The runway is smaller than most and could barely handle a Boeing 737. I stepped off the plane and got in the bus which took us literally a quarter mile from the plane to customs.

We met with the OLPC members and they took us to our hotel Chez Rose.

Just touchdown in London town (JUNE 6TH)

We arrived in London roughly at 8am. The flight was good and what made it great it that there were 3 seats empty next to me. I was able to stretch out and relax a little. I was not able to sleep though; for some reason I cannot sleep on flights. Hopping the pond wasn’t all that bad and Virgin Atlantic made it a lot better. Our meals were great and it seems every hour we were served some sort of snack or beverage. Our plane arrived at Heathrow around 8am. Mike and I jetted off to customs and found ourselves at the end of an enormously long line. I am not a fan of waiting.

The border agent though it odd I was only staying in London for a day and then proceeded to ask for my flight itinerary, etc. Mike and I didn’t have a hotel when we landed, we thought we would find some place inside Heathrow (no idea where) to throw our stuff maybe shower and hit the town. After that flight…it didn’t happen we were almost ripped off. We went to the “Hotel Desk” at Heathrow and the agent told us “The cheapest we have is £150. That’s about $1.5Billion. Not really, but close. She then said oh..now the cheapest is £100 so I figured she wasn’t giving us what we wanted.

Mike and found the internet (Hotwire) and got a hotel for $50. I still think there will be some conversion rates applied, but only time will tell. SO our grand plan of hitting the town had to be put on hold, because hotels in London do not allow you to check in until 2pm. We sat in the lobby and passed out. It was probably 3am in the US around this time and jetlag was creeping its way through. Mike talked to the receptionist and she let us in at noon. I don’t think I feel asleep any faster than that ever in my life.

We woke up around 5:30GMT and took the Underground to central London. The Underground was about £7.50 for a day pass. This was my first time in London so I wanted to do a little sightseeing. Mike’s been there before with the band so he knew of a couple cool touristy spots for us to check out (Big Ben, Westminster Abby and London Bridge). The day pass was useful in getting around because…the taxi’s are “so damn expensive” (Taken the movie). We took some cool shots and Mike got asked about 4 times what kind of camera he has. It’s huge and for the pros. We ate at some pizza place and had some wine. After the bill came we noticed that for pizza and some wine and tip we easily spent £40 on dinner that wasn’t so amazing. London is expensive. Our flight tomorrow is at 6am. The train ride back home was the most interesting part of the day in London. We saw a group dressed as pirates, 80’s dancers, and some Aussies making there way to a pub that Mike and I got off the train to join, but then realized we wouldn’t be able to make it home if we did. SO back on the train and the rest of the night we slept.

Task v. Relationship

Greetings all, this is my first post and my first blog ever! I guess a synopsis of today's activities related to the OLPC project is in order... At noon was Michael and I last group meeting with the OLPC team and the GSLIS team.

At the meeting we had a representative from the Leadership Center come in to discuss ways of dealing with different leadership styles. (Task v. Relationship: We took a test three weeks ago to see where we fit. Task oriented people are more concerned with the result rather than the process, they are often less focused on maintaining interpersonal relationships. Relationship oriented people are believed to be more process oriented and builders of relationships they often make sure everyone has their voice heard before attempting to complete a task.

With that being said, I fell into the task oriented group (no surprise). During our meeting two weeks ago, I noticed many criticized the task oriented group because we were more concerned with completing a project (which we did and the relationship people did not) and in the process there was division of work and yelling on our parts. Later we were told that division of labor isn't good in a team setting. That got me thinking about the best way to complete tasks.

I gave it some though and I think task oriented people aren't so bad. The way I view it is we are able to think and perform simultaneously...at least that's they way I see it. I don't mind yelling and disagreement because in the end we are working towards completing the same goal. IN our meeting this week I commented saying, "Certain circumstances call for task oriented people and others call for more relationship oriented". When a project has time constraints or any constraints for that matter, its time for the task oriented people to lead. On the other hand when time constraints are not present or not apparent relationship oriented people should take a more active role.

So...a person with both traits and the ability to recognize when and how to be task oriented one day and relationship oriented another day really is what one could call a great leader. So kudos to those people.

As for the rest of the day, I am still working on the deployment guide for our project. We are faced with the task of balancing what teachers, students, parents, partners, and officials want. I just hope we do not forget who our primary focus should be on and I hope we ultimately serve the children more than anyone. We have 8 weeks and 4 sites to serve. Task v. Relationship which will help achieve our goal of providing a basis for learning though technology, only time will tell.