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The one laptop per child (OLPC) training project conducted at a community school in Kabjisa, Thimphu ended on 10th October.
The five-day training was conducted by volunteers of OLPC (Asia-Pacific) to familiarise teachers and students of Kuzhungchen community primary school with the XO laptop computer, previously known as the $100 laptop.
“Our team is impressed by the attitude and reception of this concept,” said OLPC (Asia-Pacific) president, Anthony Wong. The OLPC president, who was also one of the five trainers, said that, despite the short duration of the training, both teachers and students had picked up the basics of the XO remarkably fast. “One student is already quite good at animating,” said Wong.
Students and teachers, most of whom had never used a computer before, were trained on how to browse the internet and search for information, using the wireless enabled XOs. They were also introduced to recording and editing their own music and videos, in addition to basic functions like writing, and drawing. An animation application software also allowed students to discover that not everything needed to remain static.
In compliance with the OLPC ideal, the students were also allowed to take their laptops home.
“We’ve gone beyond what we’ve expected,” said communications secretary, Dasho Kinley Dorji, who also reiterated the government’s commitment to make the OLPC mission succeed in Bhutan. “Looking at their faces, there’s no need to say anything more,” said the secretary, referring to the students at the closing ceremony, almost all of them preoccupied with their little green laptops, and oblivious of the speeches.
“We look forward to more assistance, so that we can expand this,” said Dasho Kinley Dorji, referring to the international telecommunications union(ITU) and OLPC funding and training.
Despite the government’s commitment to the OLPC project, the government will be dependent on international agencies to fund the project.
ITU regional representative, Sameer Sharma, told that although the IT (information technology) arm of the UN was committed to the development of Bhutan using IT, there was still a need to monitor the OLPC project in Bhutan before it could be determined what kind of role ITU would take in the future. The ITU representative said teachers, who had undergone the five-day training, are responsible for monitoring and determining whether the XOs will improve the learning process of students in Bhutan.
No specific time period has been allocated by ITU to determine its future role in the OLPC Bhutan project.
OLPC (Asia Pacific) president, Wong, told that more donations by OLPC could be possible, but that the project could not be successful without a large deployment of the computers. This means purchasing the computer, currently priced around USD 180, but with shipping and other costs added, USD 200, for over 40 thousand rural primary students – a daunting task by any means, perhaps best reflected by a communications official speaking at the closing ceremony who said, “I don’t know how we’re going to do it, but we hope to reach a point when where every child is holding a laptop.”
Although, obstacles like the unavailability of electricity and internet connectivity have been raised, teachers also expressed concerns that they were not trained enough on the laptops to be able to teach the students adequately to do the same. But Wong said the OLPC concept was different from the traditional top-down teacher-student model. “We’re trying to teach students to learn by themselves, to be better than a teacher,” said Wong. “Children learn much faster than adults.” Wong said the laptop was not designed to replace the teacher, but to make learning more about imagination and creativity, which is “very important today.”
source Kuensel |
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