Upsetting the Information Pyramid

Sameer Verma, Ph.D. Professor Information Systems Department San Francisco State University San Francisco, CA 94132 USA [email_address] http://verma.sfsu.edu Seminar, CB MIS Program University of the West Indies, Jamaica Creative commons license http://creativecommons.org/ One Laptop per Child: Upsetting the Information Pyramid hello! Unless noted otherwise

Classic MIS Pyramid http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_systems_%28discipline%29

The Internet

Can information flow like water? http://ltse.env.duke.edu/files/ltse/images/India%20Persian%20wheel%20irrigation%20Ganges%20Plain.jpg

Power battery http://www.flickr.com/photos/jommev/393200096/

A water “battery” http://www.flickr.com/photos/easyecoblog/4304158871/

Can we build information batteries?

~ 70% unconnected http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm

Viva La Revolución Can we spark a paradigm shift by providing equitable access to information all over the world?

Somebody is finally thinking of the children! To create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. — OLPC Mission Statement, It's an education project, not a laptop project. — Nicholas Negroponte

Multiple hats... Disclaimer: I do not work for OLPC. I am only a volunteer!

in the beginning...

Must. Have. Laptop. (July 2007)

Give 1 Get 1 – Nov 2007

Next thing I know... De facto founder of OLPC San Francisco http://olpcsf.org

Then I run into this guy... Click here to learn more...

Next thing I know... De facto founder of OLPC Jamaica! http://olpcjamaica.org.jm

A tremendous “Thank you!” to the UWI community for making this happen. http://olpcjamaica.org.jm Providence Basic School, Kingston, Jamaica August Town Primary School, August Town, Jamaica

Mission OLPC's mission is to empower the world's poorest children through education We aim to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop. To this end, we have designed hardware, content and software for collaborative, joyful, and self-empowered learning. With access to this type of tool, children are engaged in their own education, and learn, share, and create together. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

Worldwide 40+ countries, 30+ languages, 2.2+ million laptops, 350+ applications

Where no computers have gone before...

School Galadima, Abuja City, Nigeria See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Galadima

Samkha village located in the suburbs of northern Thailand See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Thailand/Ban_Samkha

Khairat school is India's pilot site. See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India

Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Ulaanbaatar

Ethopia http://www.reactivated.net/weblog/archives/2008/10/olpc-ethiopia-updates/

Ghana http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/2921143251/

Cameroon http://www.flickr.com/photos/olpc/3110907018/in/set-72157611290673682/

Afghanistan refugee camp, Pakistan http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Pakistan/Atlas_School

Colombia http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Colombia

Peru http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Peru

Rwanda http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Rwanda

Iraq http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Iraq

Haiti http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Haiti

Solomon Islands http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Solomon_Islands

Nepal http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Nepal

Uruguay: Every primary school child has an XO. http://olpc-ceibal.blogspot.com/

postage stamps too!

2.2 million XO laptops and counting See Google Maps Deployments worldwide Also see: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Property:Number_of_manufactured_laptops

A glimpse... Deployments

India http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Khairat_school

Resident artist!

Khairat school is India's first pilot site. See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India

Khairat school is India's pilot site. See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_India

Khairat Photos http://www.zooomr.com/photos/sameerverma/sets/40064/

Bhagmalpur project
Location:
Village: Bhagmalpur
District: Jaunpur, Uttar Pradesh
Railway Station: Shahganj
Bus Stop: Banuwadeeh
School:
Classes: 1 to 8 class
Children: 1087
Teachers: 11
Internet: none
Computers: none
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Bhagmalpur

What's a laptop?

Under a tree...

Bhagmalpur photos Bhagmalpur School http://www.zooomr.com/photos/sameerverma/sets/40063/ Bhagmalpur Village http://www.zooomr.com/photos/sameerverma/sets/40075/

Jamaica http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Jamaica

Maroantsetra, Madagascar http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Madagascar/Maroantsetra

Kandahar, Afghanistan

Keur Sadaro, Senegal http://www.extrasleepy.com/keursadaro.html

OLPC Headquarters 1 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Little green machines...

Cost Electricity Networks Content Languages Pedagogy Age Security Theft Appropriateness ... The challenges

Cost US $140 at the factory My Lenovo Thinkpad cost me > US $2500

Electricity Non-traditional sources...

Yo Yo Charger http://www.potenco.com/products

Hand Crank Charger http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Peripherals/Hand_Crank

Pedal power OLPC Afghanistan http://www.olpc.af/images/HPM/dscf1324.jpg

Solar Panel http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahlness/2850027972/sizes/o/in/set-72157603501402908/

Moo power... http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Cow_Power

Networks Offline Moodle Rise of the Sneakernets WWWOFFLE

Content Open content standards (SCORM, IMS-CP) Creative Commons Offline Wikipedia 1.6 million books from the Internet Archive

Language Diversity
India: 28 states and 7 union territories
The Constitution of India recognizes 22 languages
1. Assamese 2. Bengali 3. Bodo 4. Dogri 5. Gujarati 6. Hindi 7. Kannada 8. Kashmiri 9. Konkani 10. Maithili 11. Malayalam 12. Manipuri 13. Marathi 14. Nepali 15. Oriya 16. Punjabi 17. Sanskrit 18. Santhali 19. Sindhi 20. Tamil 21. Telugu 22. Urdu

Languages Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Arabic (Syrian Arab Republic), Armenian, Aymara, Basque, Bengali, Bengali (India), Bislama, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese (China), Chinese (Hong Kong), Chinese (Taiwan), Crioulo, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dari, Dutch, Dzongkha, English, English (South Africa), English (US), English (United Kingdom), Estonian, Filipino, Finnish, French, French (Canada), Friulian, Fula, Galician, Georgian, German, Greek, Gujarati, Haitian Creole, Hausa, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Igbo, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kannada, Khmer, Kinyarwanda, Korean, Kosraean (Kusaiean), Macedonian, Malagasy, Malay, Malayalam, Maltese, Marathi, Marovo, Mongolian, Moorish, Nauruan, Nepali, Norwegian, Norwegian Bokmal, Papiamento, Papua New Guinea Pidgin (Tok Pisin), Pashto, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Portuguese (Brazil), Punjabi, Quechua, Romanian, Russian, Samoan, Serbian, Sindhi, Sinhala, Slovak, Slovenian, Solomon Islands Pidgin, Sotho, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Tongan, Turkish, Tuvaluan, Tzotzil, Ukrainian, Urdu, Uyghur, Vietnamese, Walloon, Wolof, Yoruba Tutorial: http://opensource.sfsu.edu/node/452 Translate: http://translate.sugarlabs.org/ 100+ languages

Pedagogy Constructivism, Constructionism. Same difference? See http://www.sugarlabs.org/ for more.

FOSS: Free and Open Source
When the project started FOSS was the only option that was flexible enough for this project
No vendor lock-in on formats
No royalties on redistribution
No discrimination based on fields of endeavor
Scalable global model for software and content
Encourages a shared resources approach
Software methodologies lead to collaborative content creation.

Tools of Expression
The laptop is a "thing to think with"
Principle of "learning through doing"
Constructivist learning
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Constructivism
Seymour Papert (constructionism)
Lego Mindstroms
http://www.gizmowatch.com/entry/lego-mindstorms-nxt-robot-tailored-to-solve-sudoku-puzzles/

school...to go

Educational device or trojan horse? Surprise! Its a REAL computer. It can do REAL computer things!

Laptop can also be a:
Phone (Voice over IP)
Healthcare monitor (O 2 , pulse sensors)
Micro-finance platform
Record yield, income, loans, payments, etc.
Anthropological documentation platform
Family tree
Photos, birth/death records.
http://blog.laptop.org/2009/04/08/low-cost-heart-rate-monitor/

OLPC XO Speaker Rotate screen Keyboard Mouse pad Microphone Antenna Camera Gamepad Power Battery USB

water “battery” information “battery”

XS: OLPC School Server The Internet in a Box

School environment Manage content Manage access Manage assessment

School Server

http://olpcmap.net

Mailing lists
Educators
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/educators
Software Developers
General development
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/devel
Sugar UI
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/sugar
All mailing lists are at http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/

Community lists
Everyone
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/grassroots
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-open
OLPC San Francisco
http://lists.laptop.org/listinfo/olpc-sf

Slides made with the “free stuff” http://libreoffice.org

Upsetting the Information Pyramid

by Sameer Verma

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