From f5a5b7b984e353ec17d11885c7cdd6f22cde9491 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: bernie Date: Fri, 11 Jun 2010 21:02:41 -0400 Subject: [PATCH 1/1] Edit page MicrosoftTactics --- MicrosoftTactics | 4 + blog-all | 2 +- blog/2010/06 | 196 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 201 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) create mode 100644 blog/2010/06 diff --git a/MicrosoftTactics b/MicrosoftTactics index c4ced75..855630a 100644 --- a/MicrosoftTactics +++ b/MicrosoftTactics @@ -95,6 +95,10 @@ steve_ballmer_bill_gates_i_wish_i_knew_how_to_quit_you.jpg * [[http://www.codeplex.org/|CodePlex foundation]] -- Motivation behind this initiative is still unclear (as of Sep 2009) +=== Targeting Microsoft customers === + + * [[http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2010/06/microsoft-slips-ie-firefox-add-on-into-toolbar-update.ars | Microsoft hides mystery Firefox extension in toolbar update]] + == Help wanted! == Please help expand and verify this list! diff --git a/blog-all b/blog-all index 60a30d3..ebf2edd 100644 --- a/blog-all +++ b/blog-all @@ -1 +1 @@ -{{ blog/????/?? | reverse=1 | limit=100 }} +{{ blog/*/* | reverse=1 | limit=30 }} diff --git a/blog/2010/06 b/blog/2010/06 new file mode 100644 index 0000000..932dcbf --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2010/06 @@ -0,0 +1,196 @@ +== June 2010 == + +=== Sat, Jun 5 - Report from the Realness Summit === + +I'm just back from a very productive vaca^W meeting in the Caribbeans, +where I met plenty of interesting people from various deployments and some old +OLPC friends. + + +==== Uruguay ==== + +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/CarlosRabassa.jpg | Carlos Rabassa | class=thumbright }} + +Uruguay confirmed some of the things we knew already from Paraguay: the nation is +completely transformed by the project, you see children everywhere in +the streets using their laptops to do everything from school work to +videogames. Many children arrive to school earlier in the morning to get +Internet access, but when school starts batteries are already low. +Parents are extremely supportive of the project, to the point that the +new government elected last year was basically forced to continue what +was started by their opposition. Plan Ceibal has often been criticized +for not doing enough on the teacher training front, but apparently the +short-term goal is global connectivity and hopefully triggering the +"generation inversion" phenomenon in which children help their families +learn about technology. A generation of teachers with strong ITC skills +will come along as a byproduct of this revolution. + + +==== Afghanistan ==== + +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/mikeDawson.jpg | Mike Dawson | class=thumbright }} + +Like Paraguay, [[(http://www.olpc.af/ | OLPC Afghanistan]] is also running +a pilot with 5000 laptops. Before expanding the program further, the +ministry of education wants to see factual evidence proving that children +who have been learning with the XO are doing substantially better than a +control group on which the same $250 per student has been spent on traditional +school infrastructure: libraries, video projectors, extra curricular +activities, and so on. + +This approach made a number of eyebrows raise among the most +constructivist participants. After some discussion, we reached the +agreement that some scientific data would be nice to have even though +the "drug study" methodology may not apply well to radically different +teaching paradigms. Afghanistan does not seem like a nation obsessed +with assessment, as students get the first standardized tests of their +lives when they apply to university. + +Mike Dawson of OLPC Afghanistan proposed that a fair comparison does not +necessarily have to focus on traditional curriculum. If we're looking +for increased critical thinking, problem-solving ability and creativity, +we could challenge students with puzzles designed to measure these +skills. + +==== eXe ==== + +Mike Dawson also introduced [[http://www.paiwastoon.af/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=50&Itemid=23&lang=en | eXe]], +a free and open source authoring tool capable of crearing simple interactive +learning games. Its strength is that it can be used by curriculum experts +with absolutely no computer programming skills. + +Mike is looking to form an inter-deployment coalition to develop +the basis for a library of reusable blocks which could be used to build +a national curricula, in the style of [[http://www.ck12.org | CK12]] or +[[http://www.curriki.org | Curriki]]. These projects already provide very +high-quality static content in PDF and HTML formats, while we're looking +to create is media-rich and interactive activities. + +Mike will be meeting this week with representatives of the Sugar +community in Boston to propose eXe as an official Sugar Labs project. +There's a lot of technological and pedagogical similarity beween eXe and +the [[http://karma.sugarlabs.org/ | Karma project]] sponsored by OLE Nepal +and Activity Central. Perhaps the two projects will cooperate rather +than compete in this area. + + +==== OLPC ==== + +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/adamHolt.jpg | Adam Holt | class=thumbright }} + +Richard Smith, very skilled firmware engineer from OLPC, helped +Waveplace to resurrect a pile of "bricked" laptops donated by former G1G1 +donors. Richard gave me a serial cable and taught me how to carry on the +procedure. Hopefully we'll be able to replicate this in Paraguay to recover +some of the broken laptops at no cost. + +Adam Holt came with a bunch of very interesting books, from "Disrupting +Class" to "Rethinking Education in the Age of Technology". I couldn't +finish any of them during the meeting, but the first chapters +anticipated very interesting conclusions. + +Because of his Sugar/OLPC duality and technical/educational balance, +Adam was able to recruit and organize a huge army with diverse +backgrounds, interests and nationality. Many of us see him as a central +reference point for a wider community which includes both Sugar and OLPC. + + +==== Haiti ==== + +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/timFalconer.jpg | Tim Falconer | class=thumbright }} +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/bethSantos3.jpg | Beth Santos | class=thumbright }} + + +The non-profit organization [[http://waveplace.com/ | Waveplace]] has +been running pilot projects in Haiti with orphans and other unprivileged +children. Since the earthquake, they redoubled their efforts with the help +of other international aid organizations. + +The team of educators and technologists led by Tim Falconer developed a +set of comprehensive lesson plans for grades 3-6 based entirely on +[[http://www.squeakland.org/ | eToys]]. + + +==== US Virgin Islands ==== + +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/christineMurakami.jpg | Christine Murakami | class=thumbright }} +{{ http://realness.org/content/people/full/billStelzer2.jpg | Bill Stelzer | class=thumbright }} + +In parallel with the Realness Summit, a group of high-school students +from the [[www.columbusschoolforgirls.org/ | Columbus School for Girls]], Ohio, +organized an after-school program for all the three schools of the tiny +St. John island. The program was also sponsored by Waveplace and adopted the +same eToys teaching materials developed for Haiti. + +Even though I already knew eToys, it was surprising to see how flexible +and powerful it can become in the hands of skilled teachers. At the end +of the two-weeks program, children were able to create complex stories +by making objects move around and interact with each other. + + +==== Austria ==== + +{{http://realness.org/content/people/full/Christophd.jpg | Christoph Derndorfer | class=thumbright }} + +Christoph Derndorfer, one of the [[http://olpcnews.com | OLPC News]] editors, +reported about the status of pilots projects organized by OLPC Austria. +Like the St. John pilot, this is also an after-school program tailored at +augmenting traditional school rather than restructuring it. +The Austrian Ministry of Education would also like to see some hard numbers +proving the effectiveness of ICT in education before putting their full weight +into the project. + +Christoph summarized the status of the general OLPC/Sugar community. +Like me, he would like to see much more academic participation. On the positive side, +[[http://www.uni-graz.at/E/ | Graz University of Technology]] is working on +[[http://www.ist.tugraz.at/projects/isac/rp/ | RekonPrimer]], a Sugar activity +tailored at improving skills on the four basic arithmetic operations. + + +==== Real conclusions ==== + +By the end of the summit, a strong binding was formed among all the +participants, regardless of our widely different professions and +approaches to world-wide education. + +Many of us asked to follow up by creating some kind of +super-organization embracing volunteers from all camps: OLPC (hardware), +Sugar Labs (software), educators and deployments. + +As a representative of Sugar Labs, I'd be more than happy to embrace +this idea. We've been traditionally been very weak on the education +front and loosely connected with deployments. We've been trying to solve +the problem by attracting people with those interests into our +organization, but our overly technocratic community managed to repel them. + +By starting off with a balanced blend of educators and technologists, we +might be able to achieve what our individual organizations couldn't. +Rather than trying to focus everyone on one particular aspect of education +technology, it would endorse a wide spectrum of skilled professionals +involved in solving the same fundamental problem of radically improving +education world-wide through technology, constructionism, interactive +curriculum, free software, rugged laptops, teachers without borders and +the organized enthusiasm of thousands volunteers. + + +=== Tue, Jun 1 - Realness Summit === + +This week a bunch of hard-core OLPCers and representatives from several deployments gathered +on a tiny island of the Caribbean sea for the first [[http://realness.org | OLPC Realness Summit]] +organized by [[http://waveplace.com/ | Waveplace]]. + +I also gave three short talks: + + * [[http://people.sugarlabs.org/bernie/sugar/slides/realness-leading-sugar.odp | Leading Sugar Development ]] + * [[http://people.sugarlabs.org/bernie/sugar/slides/realness-sugar-roadmap.odp | Sugar's Roadmap ]] + * [[http://people.sugarlabs.org/bernie/sugar/slides/realness-paraguay.odp | Report from Paraguay ]] + +We all had a great time together. Besides seeing again my old OLPC colleagues, +it was great to meet plenty of new friends who played different roles towards +our common goal to provide free and open basic education to all the children +of the world. + +{{Pictures/conf/Realness_2010/IMG_0813.JPG | maxwidth=800 | Maho Bay, where the summit took place }} +{{Pictures/conf/Realness_2010/IMG_0823.JPG | maxwidth=800 | Children of one of the Waveplace pilot schools }} + +See [[Pictures/conf/Realness_2010 | all the photos]] from the event. -- 2.25.1