[dundee] Taylug Weekly Articles 8 - POMS

[Rick Moynihan]

On 06/02/2008, Gary Short <gary at garyshort.org> wrote:
> -------- Original Message --------
> > From: Rick <rick.moynihan at gmail.com>
> > Sent: 06 February 2008 12:03
> > To: gary at garyshort.org, "Tayside Linux User Group" <dundee at mailman.lug.org.uk>
> > Subject: Re: [dundee] Taylug Weekly Articles 8 - POMS
> >
>
> > As Andrew and others have said, the laptop is designed to be used in
> > conjunction with a more formal education.  Simply giving a laptop to a
> > child who's had no education in reading/writing is likely to fail, or
> > at best only result in negligible improvements.
>
> Agreed. However, the problem of how to enhance education where a teacher can't be present all the time, has already been solved; the Australians have a tried, tested and proven system, as do we (in a limited form). If money is limited for help in this area, why spend it on developing a new solution, why not used the proven one? If you think a new solution is needed and may be an improvement, then by all means experiement and see if you are right, but why not experiment in the west where we have the money to fix any educational "damage" done if the experiment fails? Let's not experiment in a place where if we feck it up totally and walk away they'll be screwed for generations to come.

Sorry Gary, but specifically what system are you referring to that is
used by Australia and us when a teacher isn't available?

Obviously we shouldn't experiment and walk away, but developing
nations are in a fantastic position to adopt new technologies with
next to no legacy!!  This means that they can jump straight in and
find the best technologies for their own unique problems, without
worrying about disrupting the status quo, or having to overcome
bureaucracy.  I know many of the health care professionals in the
twinning clinics project are keen to know how Malawian heath centres
can skip the systems legacy and bureaucracy found in the NHS.  In turn
they hope to use these case studies to better inform our own
processes.  What works for us may not work for them, particularly
given their lack of infrastructure and rural communities.

Learning how to effectively deploy new systems of education in these
environments, isn't simply an experiment, but a process of finding out
how to do it correctly.  Yes, there are some hypotheses being tested
here, but hopefully the project (and the laptop) will be flexible
enough to adapt to the challenges ahead.

What do you think are the costs of it going wrong?  Is it simply the
opportunity cost of not having invested in teachers and not having
educated people sooner?  Or are you speaking of some additional risks
beyond that?

> > > 3. In short the problem that OLPC tackles has been solved, there are tried, tested and proven methods and techonologies in this area already; why throw that away and spend millions developing a solution to a problem that has been solved? Why not invest in the current (proven) solutions? It does smack a little of NIH.
> >
> > Here you seem to be arguing that education has been 'solved' via the
> > 'classroom model', yet I don't think we're arguing about this.  The
> > argument here is (or rather SHOULD BE) about the merits of the
> > classroom vs 'exploratory learning'.  So I'm not convinced that the
> > laptop smacks of NIH, or represents a new model.  Computers have long
> > been proven as a means of education and learning.
>
> Agreed, but they've never been used in this way before. I submit that a poverty stricken, developing country is not the place to try out a new way of using computers (or anything else for that matter) in education.

I'm not convinced that it's really a radically different way of using
computers.  Yes, the laptop itself is radical in terms of it's design.
 But the things it does and the styles of interaction it supports are
relatively well understood.  YES, there is tonnes of innovation here
but innovation is usually the end result of 20-30 years of R&D!!  We
might not yet know exactly how the laptops will be deployed in each
and every case, but then most IT systems are a unique mix of processes
and technologies!  All organisations are slightly different, and every
deployment does something new.  The corollary here is that I don't
believe a 'straight port' of our education system necessarily
acknowledges the unique challenges faced in the developing world.
OLPC has simply tried to design a system that's as flexible as
possible within this environment.


> > The laptop is not just a laptop.  It's a portal to a world of
> > knowledge and information.  The schools with laptops will be able to
> > easily distribute ebooks and even high quality web resources to their
> > children.  Nobody would argue that the printing press changed the
> > world.
> >
> > Here the question is:  Would Providing developing nations and schools
> > with a 'turbo-charged printing press' for distributing educational
> > materials efficiently at next to no cost (beyond the initial
> > investment).  Do more than providing more teachers/textbooks etc?
>
> Damn right it would! But why go to the expence of designing a new computer if all you really need is a PDF reader? Again, are we using the limited investment in the best way?

Yes, given a choice between a PDF reader and a laptop we are using the
investment in the best possible way.  A PDF reader is not a printing
press, it's merely a way of consuming and (if we can assume a DRM free
PDF reader) copying content.  The printing press wasn't just a means
to copy existing texts, but was also a new way to create content and
broadcast it.  The ability for the laptop to enable content creation
as well as everything else means it is infinitely superior to a device
limited to consumption.

I've also already argued that the expense of designing the laptop
would have unlocked funds not  available for teachers.  Further to
this the technologies developed are an investment beyond the
educational project which are likely to either turn a profit or lead
to economic growth.  e.g. the investment in screen technologies found
in the XO will either turn a profit through direct licensing or by
providing royalty free licenses leading to growth and development
elsewhere.

Because of this I think the most compelling arguments about the cost
of the project are to be made in the cost of the device to developing
nations or charities.  And hence the opportunity cost of not investing
in teachers.

> > I'd argue that computers provide the most efficient form of
> > information exchange and knowledge creation that we know of.  Shipping
> > physical books around is incredibly costly in terms of teacher/student
> > resources etc...  A book can only be in one place at a time.  With N
> > laptops it can be at N places at once, with far less distribution
> > cost.
>
> Yeah I kind of agree but not totally. The textbook (whether paper or electronic) in and of itself is not much use. On my desk right now there is a book on financial quantative mathematics, I can understand most of it, and certainly the bits I need to for the application I'm writing, but there are certain parts of it where, if I need to understand it, I need to speak to one of the mathematicians in the team. Same for the OLPC, the textbook itself might not be a lot of good, you need a teacher to lead you through it. Western countries with rural populations have already solved this problem, so spend your limited money on something you know works, don't gamble it on something new.

You're privileged to have access to a mathematician (though unlucky to
be doing financial quantitative mechanics ;-) ).  I however don't.
Having graduated I no longer have access to such experts directly, so
where's the best place for me to turn?  Online communities offer me
the chance of connecting to people with skills not otherwise available
to me.  Though the XO's reach may at times be limited to the meshwork
it's still likely to allow me to make connections with students in
higher years, who can provide assistance where needed.



--
Rick Moynihan
rick.moynihan at gmail.com
http://sourcesmouth.co.uk/blog/