They think they can tame you, name you and frame you Aim you where you don't belong They know where you've been but not where you're going And that is the source of the songs - john gorka...
the OLPC airdrop model Thu, 17-Jan-2008 (teefal)
Yesterday in a talk with OLPC, we were again confronted with their "airdrop model" of laptop distribution (the term is mine). OLPC advocates a "full saturation" approach to giving laptops to schools and countries. When Waveplace then says, "Our plan is to start with a smaller pilot and scale teacher training to assure effectiveness", they counter with their belief that larger numbers have a magic all their own. Their experience is that full saturation is more important than scaled training. Now these are smart guys with a lot of experience at this, so I'm tempted to believe them. I'm also...
Overwhelmed and Honored Sun, 20-Jan-2008 (teefal)
(written by Dionne Wells, GBS principal, from newsletter) First let me begin by thanking Timothy Falconer and the Waveplace Foundation for having this grand vision. It is through their foresight that we are able to say today how successful this pilot program is going at Guy H. Benjamin Elementary School. I am proud to be associated with this endeavor and look forward to watching it grow from school to school and across the entire district. When you walk onto Guy H. Benjamin School, you see fourth graders walking around the campus with green and white laptops in their hands. I...
good press Wed, 23-Jan-2008 (teefal)
Great article about Waveplace in the St John Tradewinds. Talks about our Virgin Islands pilot, which is into its second week. We also launched our new website, which has a terrific new video from our trip to Haiti earlier this month....
News from the St John Pilot Fri, 25-Jan-2008 (bill)
(from newsletter) Thursday January 10th was a historic day for the Caribbean. After months of behind the scenes work by Waveplace foundation, we finally handed out the OLPC laptops (among the first off the manufacturing line!) to the fourth graders at Guy Benjamin. As I rolled video, Principal Dionne Wells spoke to the kids while LaReesa Williams began passing out the XO laptops. Needless to say everyone was pretty psyched. Before you knew it everyone was plugged in, charging and setting up their XO's with their own names and custom colors. Next I took the kids on a tour of...
Hope For Fancy Mon, 28-Jan-2008 (mscotti)
(from newsletter) The villages above the dry river on the north windward side of St. Vincent are distinct from the rest of the island. Populated by the indigenous Carib peoples, they have been largely cut off from the rest of the island ethnically, socially and environmentally. Change is in the air as a new bridge spans the river and a new road is under construction to link these rural enclaves to the rest of the island. Still the children here are sorely lacking resources that many of their Vincy peers take for granted. The children of Fancy village, the northern-most...
St John Day 4 Tue, 29-Jan-2008 (bill)
Came to class with three more reflashed XO's, hopefully would clear up some of problems. Brought too Squeak Installer and eToys image on my USB drive. Also before class I spent a lot of time trying to think how to motivate the kids, to get them looking forward, as we had been pretty much stuck on lesson two for the past few classes and I wanted them to get an idea that there was more to etoys than just having the objects interact on their own. Thought it might be a good idea to at least introduce them to the...
Waveplace in Haiti Thu, 31-Jan-2008 (teefal)
(written by Susie Scott Krabacher, president of M&S, from newsletter) On our January trip to Haiti we had a special treat to show the kids at our Mercy House Orphanage, the new XO laptop designed especially for children by the geniuses at One Laptop Per Child. OLPC had just announced the country recipients of the donated laptops from their Give One Get One program and, praise be, Haiti made the list. (Although as the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere it's hard to imagine how it couldn't!) After setting everything up with Tim Falconer, president of Waveplace Foundation, our Mercy...
St John Day 5 Thu, 31-Jan-2008 (bill)
Prepared for class by getting last two XOs reflashed with the latest system build. (Tuesday Elvis wouldn't give up his computer, willing to deal with occasional cursor madness, so he could bring it home with him) Spent the drive out to Coral Bay thinking about class, most especially how to get the kids motivated to learn this stuff. Today is the fifth class and there are still kids who don't have lesson one down. As usual, had kids run around to burn off excess energy. Easy to forget that some of these kids have started as early at 6:30 am,...
