Niue education winds down OLPC due to funding shortfall

The acting Director of Education in Niue, Lisimoni Togahai, has told Radio New Zealand International the OLPC program there is to be phased out:

The programme’s first two years went very well, with children’s computer literacy and understanding of issues such as climate change improving. She says unfortunately the scheme is expensive to run and the Education Department hasn’t got the budget to pay technicians to service the laptops.
“When the pilot ended and the school could not afford to pay for the high cost of maintaining the V-SAT that’s connected to the satellite for the internet access. So it’s just phased out.”

COMMENT: I have been unable to confirm any of these details, however as the Pacific rep for One Laptop per Child, it is distressing to read about a national program that "went very well" but is now unsustainable due reportedly to the cost of internet access.
Read more!

OLPC drives stunning gains in numeracy in remote Australia

The registered charity One Laptop per Child Australia has enlisted powerful private sector support to reach largely Indigenous communities in remote or isolated locations. Its work is starting to produce results in Australia's new nationwide student testing program NAPLAN, which in turn are starting to attract attention among Australian policy-makers. This week the Australian Federal MP, Rob Oakeshott, told the Australian Parliament:

One Laptop per Child Australia delivers results in learning from the 5,000 students already engaged, showing impressive improvements in closing the gap generally and lifting access and participation rates in particular.
Most impressive of all is the first year in Doomadgee State School in remote, largely Indigenous North-West Queensland. Doomadgee has just produced stunning NAPLAN results, boosting their percentage of year 3 pupils at or above national minimum standards in numeracy from 31 per cent last year to a staggering 95 per cent in 2011. Principal Richard Barrie and his teachers are using plenty of clever and different engagement strategies, but one important tool in the toolbox is the early and strong use of technology via the One Laptop per Child Australia program. I am willing to back this program and I ask the Prime Minister and the government to do likewise... I strongly urge the government to consider this program.

In the Pacific around 8000 OLPC laptops are being used in 46 schools in 10 countries. The Pacific's major donor partners are currently considering several requests from countries to scale up and fully evaluate the program in the region. In August, the United States committed to partnering on OLPC with the north Pacific "Compact" countries, the Republic of the Marshall Islands and the Federated States of Micronesia, which both have embarked on OLPC programs. Read more!

Solar charged Haiti project points to OLPC's renewable future

On her excellent blog, Laura Hosman documents an inspiring collaborative project in Haiti which installed solar power to charge 500 XO laptops in 8 days! (Plus a year of planning!):

We did it!! We successfully carried out our first solar powering deployment in Haiti, August 3-11! The EFACAP school in Lascahobas now has the capability to charge 500 OLPC XO laptops with a direct current (DC)-only solar system. According to our research and to OLPC, our installation has the distinction of being the world’s largest single-school solar laptop charging deployment!

Read the full post at ICT Views from the Field. Read more!

US rep at Kosrae OLPC handover: "We are your dedicated partner"

In a speech made in July 2011 at the official handover ceremony at Tafunsak Elementary School on the remote island of Kosrae, Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Peter A. Prahar, declared the United States "a dedicated partner" in the effort to roll out OLPC and improve the quality of education in Micronesia:

"Thank you for inviting me to participate in this event. I can assure you from this day forth, education – or at least educational opportunities – in Kosrae will be changed forever. I certainly don’t need to tell the students this is a momentous day. They are leaning forward towards the pile of computers that will be issued after we stop talking with the biggest smiles imaginable on their faces! But of course with every change, there is anxiety. With every change, there is a need for leaders to explain the rational and value of the change and how it might be best carried out. So let me address some short remarks to this big topic.

"First of all, a good education is rooted in the classroom, the home, the community, and the culture. A good education requires a strong, coherent curriculum, dedicated and professional teachers, students motivated to learn, adequate resources and facilities, and parents and communities that support and value education. A good education requires enormous effort by everyone involved.

"Nothing about the One Laptop Per Child Program changes any of this.

Read more!

UNESCO: "Education is a Human Right"

A thoughtful video from UNESCO Bangkok: Children all over the world talk about the issues that affect them most.


Read more!

OLPC signs historic MOU with University of the South Pacific

OLPC Foundation has donated fifteen XO laptops to the University of the South Pacific (USP) as part of an historic new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) committing the two partners to work together to further research and teacher training on 1-to-1 Computing in the Pacific.



Speaking Saturday at an official handover of the laptops at a ceremony in Suva, Fiji, OLPC Oceania director, Michael Hutak, welcomed the new partnership as a breakthrough for OLPC in the region.
"This is a great day for OLPC in the Pacific," said Mr Hutak. "USP is the leading teacher training institution in the region with campuses in all 10 Pacific countries where there are OLPC projects. Governments and ministries of education will now have access to the best minds in the region for their country to using the XO laptop in the classroom. And at the Japan Pacific ICT Centre, they will now have access to the best facilities too.

Read more!

Spotlight on Special Ed as US backs OLPC in Micronesia

Micronesia's OLPC journey is off and running with the Official Handover ceremony of 810 XO laptops on the remote island State of Kosrae. The program comes after teacher training workshops funded by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, OLPC's deployment partner in Oceania.
Kosrae's program is funded by the United States, a significant and most welcome commitment from the largest aid donor in the northern Pacific, and a move that will ensure sustainability in a country heavily dependent on external aid.
The Marianas Variety reported comments by US Ambassador to the Federated States of Micronesia, Peter A. Prahar at the handover ceremony on July 7.  Noting "the importance of embracing the digita l age," Ambassador Prahar challenged Kosrae's parents and teachers to use the program to “embody and win the solid commitment and active participation of all of the stakeholders in the Kosrae education system.” Proof of that commitment could be seen immediately in Kosrae's inclusion of its special education students in the launch activities.

Kosrean Special Education students show off their new XO laptops .

Read more!

Marshall Is. leads Pacific on ICT for kids

The Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) kicks off its OLPC program this week with consultations between Ministry of Education (MOE) officials and representatives from the One Laptop per Child Foundation and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community. Following the installation in 2010 of high-speed internet via fibre-optic cable, the remote Micronesian nation is rolling out OLPC as part of the MOE's wider "Comprehensive Technology Plan" for education.

OLPC is a key plank in the MOE's broader vision that will see RMI "schools becoming an environment where all students and staff have ready access to the best available range of current technology, software tools, and applications." The MOE is planning an innovative rollout of OLPC that will incorporate a teachers' professional development program to ensure teachers are well prepared when the laptops come to their communities.

"The Marshall Islands' investment in technology infrastructure is being matched by investment in its people too," said OLPC's Oceania director Michael Hutak, "With the rollout of OLPC in schools taking shape with meticulous planning, RMI is ensuring the next generation will not be left behind. "

Read the RMI OLPC Project document here.
Read the RMI Comprehensive Technology Plan here:

Read more!

OLPC Oceania at UN Asia Pacific Forum, Bangkok

APAC Regional Forum on ICT Applications, Bangkok, hosted by ITU, UNESCAP and the Government of Thailand.

View more presentations from One Laptop per Pacific Child

Read more!

"Let me add something raw and home based..."

In this recent post to a mailing list for Pacific educators, Brian Bird, the principal at Patukae College in the Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands, makes a passionate grass roots case for OLPC :

"Let me add something raw and home based to my previous article ... yesterday. Patukae CHS is one of the OLPC projects project in the Solomon. While it is true that technology does not in itself responsible for driving change, it is a tool that can be used to drive change in learning and in commitment to learn. In for instance which is one of the pilots in the OLPC project we accepted OLPCs as tools and we invested efforts to make them work.

Read more!