50% of One Laptop Kids in Peru Are Teaching Their Parents How to Read & Write.

Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the One Laptop Per Child foundation, said on stage today at the Techonomy conference that "50% of the kids in Peru who use One Laptop Per Child are teaching their parents how to read and write." That's seriously disruptive, isn't it?

Peru is one of the most supportive countries of the OLPC computers, the government there purchased more than 260,000 of them.  But according to a critical blog post on the OLPC site, written by a Peruvian non-profit technologist, the reality on the ground is not as triumphant as advocates would have us think.  Distribution is chaotic and two years after launch, less than 5% of the OLPC laptops in Peru are connected to the Internet, the post alleges.  

Hopefully that will change. 

Comments

[Kikomayorga]

wow... this post takes me back in time with no advice...

as a post of mine from 2009 is referenced here, and itś now one year later,

i would like to say:

i`m a technologyst and i know how things would look like in my own expectations. (and certainly my own expectations about olpc deployment in peru are similar to the ones of some of you, if you are now reading this text)

50% of "laptop kids" can of course be teaching their parents how to read, and that is possible because they all (kids, teachers, parents, etc) get excited about the olpc...and it works often fine for typing and reading and a bunch of other amazing things

but as a technologyst i expect really some more things to get solved - thatś my personal expectation - connectivity is terribly needed for updating the software, and for follow up. Teacher training gets complex in the geography of peru, and connectivity isnt there...

i'd like to challenge anyone to show me a top ten list with links where we can find real reports from students, teachers, school directors or whoever discussing or documenting about the problems he has and how he solves them, etc... or for instance can someone show, -say- 100 pics taken by the kids themselves in the country? is there such an archive? even offline -but together?

please let me know if you can.. then i will feel relieved and very pleased.

things are always more complex than they appear,, :/

the money for the extra investment in connectivity and training or whatever, is there, http://tinyurl.com/27pj5w8 but peruvians got so used to live without resources that later they cannot use them anymore...by pure innertia and the need of internal friction...

i hope someone could solve our challenge ,, ha

you can follow me on twitter (in spanish and mostly peru related) @kikomayorga

[Kikomayorga]

Well i´m afraid nobody seems to read this,, still, since this is happening now,, just to let some of you know:

Peru is doing some things in a different way from what OLPC recommends:

1. Kids are not always able to take laptops home

2. connectivity is not thought to be important and left away

3. Some kids are actually "left out" (i´ve seen that with my own eyes at a real school. 10% of kids didn´t have machines. And that tends to increase because of broken parts, and uncontrolled software self blocking system.)

Since implementation is so different from the original olpc project some things should get revisited:

* should olpc accept to sell (or facilitate) their machines when thier filosofical design rules are violated? is that ethical? could´t that cause really bad performance example of the olpc project?

* shouldn´t peruvians be able to know if "the new working theory" devbeloped by the current state politicians is working efficiently or not?

As we proposed earlier today to a group of researching studentes, there are many things to do about this "disruption".

To start, we would like to propose:
http://openetherpad.org/sugerencias-chang-negroponte-bender

here i copy the proposal in spanish as it looks right now:

Reunión Ministerio de Educación, Nicolás Negroponte, Walter Bender
Organizada por equipo de estudiantes de maestria MBA de hult.edu

Agenda empezada por Enrique Mayorga y Sebastián Silva desde Lima, Peru:

Somos un equipo de investigadores independientes que venimos hace más de 2 años intentando seguir y participar en el despliegue OLPC Perú.

Diagnóstico

* No nos es posible acceder a participar en el programa a nivel oficial
* No nos es posible seguir los avances del programa
* No nos es posible encontrar registros de éxito
* No nos es posible encontrar documentación de evaluación.
* Conocemos de problemas que tiene el despliegue: dificultad de los docentes para aprovechar la herramienta, falta de comunicación y conectividad, dificultad para mantención y actualización del software, dificultad en logística de reposición/contabilidad de equipos, dificultad en la administración del sistema de bloqueo antirobo, dificultades de acceso, etc.

Hipótesis
* El conjunto de actores vinculados al programa, (en gran porcentaje docentes/directores y técnicos del MED) no tienen la familiaridad tecnológica necesaria para catalizar el proceso de incorporación y optimización de la herramienta.

Propuesta: "Fomento a la investigación y el voluntariado para el aprovechamiento óptimo del programa OLPC Perú"

"Destinar fondo para fomentar iniciativas de adaptación y documentacion y optimización del proyecto olpc en el perú. Fondo debe estar dirigido a investigadores en tecnología, educación, sociedad a través de un concurso de propuestas."

* Caracteristicas del apoyo económico deben ser:
- Muchos fondos pequeños (por ej: 40 fondos de $10 000) (equivalente a costo de 1600 laptops = 1% costos hardware?) en cuatro etapas semestrales.
- Apoyo a participantes de cualquier disciplina o nivel de formación siempre que demuestren capacidad comprobable a través de CV y entrevistas/propuesta
- Apoyo a participantes de cualquier país, siempre que sustenten viabilidad y relevancia respecto de las dificultades propias del contexto y particularidaes de la dinámica real actual del despliegue local.
- Difusión en lenguaje accesible y plataformas "jóvenes". La convocatoria debe ser accesible y atractiva.
- Proceso de selección abierto y transparente, con criterios definidos y publicación de resultados y feedback.
- Seguimiento y publicación de los resultados de los proyectos.

Alcances esperados:
- Participación de muchos jóvenes profesionales, técnicos y creativos que por ejemplo:
* son agentes locales/internacionales de transformación
* están muy familiarizados con la informática
* tienen habilidades de comunicación
* formalmente no podrían acceder a participar oficialmente del programa por no cumplir con requisitos tradicionales y oficiales del ministerio