| Time | Nick | Message |
|---|---|---|
| 18:29 | dogi | OLPC Boston @ Cosi Meeting |
| 18:50 | presentationstarts soon | |
| 19:12 | http://qik.com/carolinemeeks | |
| 19:13 | CanoeBerry | Is the video working for others? |
| 19:14 | dogi: Stalled for me.. | |
| 19:14 | dogi | it was working 2min ago |
| 19:35 | CanoeBerry | O well, video froze..i'll try to transcribe a bit :) |
| 19:35 | Beth Santos now presenting on Sao Tome deployment... | |
| 19:35 | Arrive Oct 09 til Dec 09 | |
| 19:35 | Needed classroom space! | |
| 19:36 | Started learning TurtleArt etc, teach teachers basics in 3hrs crash course... | |
| 19:36 | Beth is not technical in her schooling, but they learned en route :) | |
| 19:36 | Basic understanding sufficient in a lot of cases, 5 teachers involved with the 100 kids & 100 XOs. | |
| 19:37 | 500+ other kids in the school did not get access to the XOs. | |
| 19:37 | dogi | :P |
| 19:37 | CanoeBerry | Kids begged to play games after class -- which was permitted. Saturay attendance was extraodinary. |
| 19:37 | Kids arriving 1hr before the teachers, 8am Saturdays! | |
| 19:38 | Teachers & Beth had long talks, knowing Beth would need to disappear back to the USA in Dec. | |
| 19:39 | Beth pushed teachers to become completely independent week-by-week, not yet knowing Beth will (liekly) return summer 2010. | |
| 19:39 | Meetings w/ teachers early Fri afternoon. | |
| 19:40 | Days when energy works all day... | |
| 19:41 | But often you lose power for 12hrs in a single day, or multiple days on end. | |
| 19:41 | Stops you from using Internet for sure. | |
| 19:41 | But XOs / basic mesh can still work til batteries die. | |
| 19:42 | 1st class period was a disaster, lacking power -- kids were asked to charge XOs at homes certain times. | |
| 19:42 | Usually there's electricity at school or home, rarely was there outages across the whole country / island (Sao Tome) | |
| 19:42 | Contructivist idea ;) | |
| 19:43 | Kids great at helping out here / remembering to charge in future! | |
| 19:43 | 1st week: basic intro to computer. | |
| 19:43 | After OLPCorps team went home to Illinois in August. | |
| 19:43 | culseg | CanoeBerry: ask Beth to generarlize about what kinds of repair issues are most prevalant? |
| 19:43 | CanoeBerry | (Beth arrived in Oct 09, and her "native" Portuguese helped a ton!) |
| 19:44 | culseg: will do, remind us as we're getting bogged down in questions. | |
| 19:44 | Computers were allocated randomly to the 100 lucky kids -- and not to the 500+ unlucky kids in the school :( | |
| 19:45 | Some kids kept hoping later, but sadly no luck til next year, when the XOs will be reassigned to new kids in/after May 2010. | |
| 19:45 | Kids wrote about their parents/families (class newspaper attempt too..) | |
| 19:46 | Education articles about Malaria, campaign working out very well in Sao Tome (eliminating most all disease in under-5's using mosquito nets etc) | |
| 19:46 | Beth was fixing computers all day, so missed some of the malaria storytelling action,. | |
| 19:46 | Digital stories of kids acting cute, pretending they were their moms sleeping with newborns etc to avoid malaria. | |
| 19:46 | Paint program used... | |
| 19:47 | Write program... | |
| 19:47 | Drawing/writing about their house. | |
| 19:47 | 7th week they went to the beach! | |
| 19:47 | Lilke exam week, but no exams. Half days allowed this field trip. | |
| 19:47 | Reporter from Voice of America arrived.. | |
| 19:47 | Piece about kids preparing for Christmas? | |
| 19:48 | But all the kids would talk about was their computers :) | |
| 19:48 | Hoe this has/will be broadcast. | |
| 19:48 | 1 girl's screen failed the 1st week, due to dropping from window sill? | |
| 19:48 | Her parents asked: should she still come to class? | |
| 19:48 | Answer: yes, sharing with friends where possible.. | |
| 19:49 | Schools (mostly functional now) wireless drew in other citizens.. | |
| 19:49 | Including local rapper musician, hanging with local kids. | |
| 19:50 | Young girl taught this older guy to shut down XOs properly! He was totally embarassed, being lectured by 10yo.. | |
| 19:50 | Kids use their computers walking home and in the market, keeping them on while walking. | |
| 19:50 | Quite a creative group of kids teaching themselves.. | |
| 19:51 | Kids asking to download music, teacher(s) did not know how, but kids figured out recording music from the radio on their own.. | |
| 19:52 | culseg: Beth Santos says she will address your question soon. | |
| 19:53 | Beth will post her PDF / Powerpoint | |
| 19:53 | Beth at slide 8 of 11 now. | |
| 19:53 | Beth will discuss challenges soon/now. | |
| 19:55 | CHALLENGES: not remembering to recharge, kids losing programs from home view, connecting to Internet, help program was in english but not Portuguese unfort, scratch-turtle art in english, unresolved HW probs (keys that didn't work, Kadema's story), language barrier! | |
| 19:55 | Well-know mesh / network problems! | |
| 19:56 | Beth spent lots of time with helpful OLPC volunteers online, struggling, but then reflash helped a ton "saving quite a number" of these computers. | |
| 19:56 | Ongoing translation of documention helping a lot now, had been very problematic prior to this. | |
| 19:57 | Beth apologized for her lack of Hardware knowledge, saying her ignorance here hurt the project. | |
| 19:57 | EG. letter 'c' was broken on one XO. | |
| 19:57 | EG. strange colors appeared on one kid's screens. | |
| 19:58 | "Elvis" colleague helped taking apart some XOs. | |
| 19:58 | He's continuing to help here, so kids aren't "screwed for life" :) | |
| 19:59 | Losing access to their only PC forever :( | |
| 19:59 | Screwdrivers not nec the problem. | |
| 19:59 | But there was apprehension and lack of time on the teachers' part. | |
| 19:59 | Broken screen -- Beth and others did not know it was replaceable. | |
| 20:01 | Paul from Illinois will return to Sao Tome to help soon. | |
| 20:01 | Beth will arrange some broken/parts machines via OLPC's Contributors Program soon. | |
| 20:02 | Beth not completely fluent in Portuguese -- she's humble -- her "computerese" in Portuguese lacked :) | |
| 20:02 | 90 XOs to kids, ~5 to teachers, others parts/broken? | |
| 20:03 | Beth showing us photos of her great autumn experience -- eg. fun photos now of kids waiting for electricity to turn back on :) | |
| 20:03 | Challenge: bringing computers home. | |
| 20:03 | 3hr battery life got kids thru class periods. | |
| 20:04 | Challenge: teaching kids to take care of computers, not allowing sibling to break them -- computer that broke 1st week was a great lesson warning the other kids. | |
| 20:04 | Kids took great care after this! | |
| 20:05 | Some kids took this too far, keeping XOs in cardboard boxes to protect them obsessively :) | |
| 20:05 | No computers stolen? | |
| 20:05 | Indeed: none stolen. | |
| 20:05 | Big issue at first-- | |
| 20:05 | But Beth insisted kids take XOs home to improve their computer literacy etc. | |
| 20:05 | culseg | when Internet does work, do teachers and students access web sites in Brasil for support in Portuguese documents and stuff? |
| 20:06 | CanoeBerry | Beth living w/ Ned & cook-- concern that a cellphone had been hawked/sold earlier, but no theft problems. |
| 20:07 | Parents & kids had been asked to sign contracts earlier (July 2009?) protecting the computers and taking the educ experience seriously etc. | |
| 20:07 | That prob helped! | |
| 20:07 | Kids required to come Saturdays... | |
| 20:07 | Sibling using computers at home was fine of course. | |
| 20:07 | Sao Tome & Principe is a very special country, with very little crime/theft problems. | |
| 20:07 | Paradise! | |
| 20:08 | Goal: Introducing computer to families & friends as often as possible. | |
| 20:08 | Avoid: keeping computers locked in director's office. | |
| 20:08 | (Beth takes OLPC mission to heart) | |
| 20:09 | Beth came up with this on her own. | |
| 20:10 | Had heard a bit about 'child ownership' but insisted on her own.. | |
| 20:11 | Kids lose class if they don't take the computers home to recharge! | |
| 20:11 | (Cause school so often was missing electricity, whereas homes typically retained power) | |
| 20:12 | Kids were asked to pay $1.40 for field trip. | |
| 20:12 | No US Embassy in Sao Tome & Principe! | |
| 20:12 | But they (Step Up program) asked the US Embassy in nearby Gabon. | |
| 20:12 | They were rejected. | |
| 20:12 | Still hoping.. | |
| 20:13 | Question from audience in Cambridge, MA: how much involvement from the govt? | |
| 20:13 | Beth: Govt was very interested at the outset, ongoing interest we shall see? | |
| 20:13 | Beth: teach payment is an issue | |
| 20:14 | (teacher payment for Saturday work) | |
| 20:14 | Beth hadn't thought about it--she was devoting herself free on Saturdays.. | |
| 20:14 | Ministry of Educ paying teachers for class periods, weekdays. | |
| 20:16 | Beth asks about countries funding ongoing larger deployments.. | |
| 20:16 | Sao Tome has no money. | |
| 20:16 | 612 students need computers in this school | |
| 20:16 | PC's not frivolous. | |
| 20:17 | Using them in-class every day of week. | |
| 20:17 | Their question: how can they buy 512 more computers? | |
| 20:17 | Should they scale down and get a Dell Lab instead? | |
| 20:17 | Beth's conclusion: computers should not just be used from computer literacy. | |
| 20:18 | 24x7 strongly prefered. | |
| 20:18 | Their ongoing discussions -- they need a stronger boost than parttime computer literacy. | |
| 20:18 | Seems Beth's preaching to the choir! | |
| 20:19 | kevix1 | (I am not sure who the presentation is being present to-- missed opening of meeting) |
| 20:19 | CanoeBerry | 10 ppl in room here at OLPC. |
| 20:20 | Beth recap'ing Step Up. | |
| 20:20 | Mr Sullivan was director of Peace Corps in Sao Tome until they pulled out 10+ yrs back. | |
| 20:20 | culseg | a small group at OLPC in a once-monthly Boston XO user's group |
| 20:20 | CanoeBerry | Step Up - "Sao Tome e Principe Union for Promotion" |
| 20:21 | Sign up here if you want to join the Boston-area community: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Boston | |
| 20:21 | Ned Sullivan? | |
| 20:21 | Beth used to work at Voice of America. | |
| 20:21 | She met Ed, kicking this all into gear by a marvelous coincidence.. | |
| 20:22 | Sorry "Ned Sullivan" not "Ed" | |
| 20:22 | Volunteers come from US and other places. In exchange they get free room & board. | |
| 20:22 | OLPC & Unic of Illinois contacted Step Up. | |
| 20:23 | Beth not sure exactly how they identified this very large middle school in the capital city, but it seems to make sense. | |
| 20:23 | Lots of folks affiliated w/ "Step Up" had strong loyalty. | |
| 20:24 | Country exceptional in its can-do trusting atmosphere, despite extreme poverty. | |
| 20:24 | About $1000/yr annual average income. | |
| 20:24 | culseg | a round of applause for the speaker, let's plan for the wider OLPC community to "step up to the plate" and help this project |
| 20:24 | CanoeBerry | Beth's interest? |
| 20:24 | She had no job! | |
| 20:24 | Wanted to help a Portuguese-speaking country! | |
| 20:24 | She has an Art History degree, and can use Scratch and Paint :) | |
| 20:25 | Both her bros & dad in technology/engineers, but not her. | |
| 20:25 | 2 more slides to go. | |
| 20:26 | Slide 10: Evolution of the Teacher Role | |
| 20:26 | kevix1 | (were the xos part of a contrib. prog. effort?) |
| 20:26 | CanoeBerry | 100 XO's were from OLPCorps, the Illinois team that left in Aug: http://xomike.blogspot.com |
| 20:26 | kevix1 | ah. cool. |
| 20:26 | CanoeBerry | Beth (by an extraordinary coincidence) adopted the program 2 months later in Oct. |
| 20:27 | Beth's 5 phases of Teacher Role.............. | |
| 20:27 | Phase 1: Not knowing what the hell they were doing | |
| 20:27 | kevix1 | I chatted with someone from Sao Tome a few times on #olpc-help |
| 20:27 | CanoeBerry | Phase 2: Equal excitement and interest as the kids; Beth is primary teacher |
| 20:28 | Phase 3: Beth splits teaching role with teachers | |
| 20:28 | Phase 4: Beth hids in teachers' lounge fixing computers while teachers hold class | |
| 20:28 | -Culture clash during slow passing of the torch- | |
| 20:29 | Phase 5: Teachers receive guidebook and are instructed to keep in regular touch. Beth prays (current phase!) | |
| 20:29 | kevix1: when did you speak to Sao Tome person on #olpc-help , this autumn? | |
| 20:30 | Apologies #olpc-meeting cannot accomodate Beth's really great photos. | |
| 20:30 | kevix1 | over the past 6 months, maybe 3 times |
| 20:30 | CanoeBerry | PDF should be posted later tonight. |
| 20:30 | kevis1: likely you talked to Beth if it was Oct-Dec | |
| 20:31 | kevix1 | I assume so too |
| 20:31 | it was about reflashing | |
| 20:31 | CanoeBerry | kevix1: and/or the quite organized Univ of Illinois group if earlier this summer |
| 20:31 | kevix1: Beth bragged about you across the country | |
| 20:31 | kevix1 | and IIRC a missing activity |
| 20:32 | CanoeBerry | She says you are her guardian angel, literally. |
| 20:32 | "Saved her life!" | |
| 20:32 | kevix1 | oh, goodies, I can double my pay ;) |
| 20:32 | CanoeBerry | Quadruple. |
| 20:32 | She'd like to meet someday. | |
| 20:32 | kevix1 | even better |
| 20:32 | CanoeBerry | FYI http://www.linkedin.com/pub/beth-santos/7/810/33a |
| 20:34 | Culture allegory: Teachers insisted "class then field trip" impossible -- Beth had very diff attitude. Leading to Phase 4 above.. | |
| 20:34 | Tech tricks saved the day many times. | |
| 20:34 | Beth gave a very long class at the end, writing her short manual she gave these 5 teachers at the end. | |
| 20:35 | Several questions from the audience her in Cambridge, Massachusetts, from a Botsawana man very interested in exploring similar in his home country. | |
| 20:35 | Question from Caroline Meeks: other Portuguese deployments elsewhere? | |
| 20:35 | Beth: Brazil, Mozambique.. | |
| 20:36 | kevix1 | I wish there was an indexed list of deployments by location and by language? |
| 20:36 | CanoeBerry | Brazil emails did not deliver so far.. |
| 20:36 | Beth discusses Portugal's own "Magellan" project | |
| 20:37 | Those really expensive.. | |
| 20:37 | Final Slide: Plans for the Future | |
| 20:37 | kevix1 | well at this rate, the cherrypy africa pc is $99. |
| 20:38 | CanoeBerry | Teachers vested in DOING ANYTHING to make this program work. |
| 20:38 | Beth askes teachers Not to say "program is a success" (b/c they want more computers donated!) | |
| 20:38 | CMeeks asks: did mesh work here/there? | |
| 20:39 | Beth responds: peer-editing didn't fully take off -- so many kids at once | |
| 20:39 | Chatting etc interrupted. Wrong mesh. | |
| 20:39 | Smaller groups'd be more manageable. | |
| 20:39 | Kids have shared stuff over mesh for sure. | |
| 20:40 | Plans for future: | |
| 20:40 | * getting the teachers to take personal ownership of the project (ongoing!) | |
| 20:40 | Headed by Miguel | |
| 20:40 | Guia de Problemas | |
| 20:40 | Teachers will email Beth every week with updates | |
| 20:41 | * pedal-powered desks | |
| 20:41 | need pedal-powered martyr needed to power wireless internet! | |
| 20:41 | Step Up gets funding, they are hopeful.. | |
| 20:41 | using Sao Tomeans to create desks | |
| 20:41 | kevix1 | the video mentioned that the island, the parents, teachers and kids dont have a strong desire to complete the educational process if kids have to redo grades and this is not stigmatized (or that was my impression) |
| 20:42 | CanoeBerry | boost local economy making Afghan-style pedal-powered desks |
| 20:42 | * need: 500 computers | |
| 20:42 | idea of program is not to learn HOW to use computers but to actually USE them in all disciplines | |
| 20:42 | DC friend experienced in fundraising may help her | |
| 20:43 | * fundraising thru http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com -- selling kids photography! | |
| 20:43 | Finally: http://www.stepup.st | |
| 20:45 | kevix1: just asked yr question to Beth | |
| 20:45 | She says here it's different in the US. | |
| 20:45 | College-oriented drive defines US. | |
| 20:45 | Different in Sao Tome. | |
| 20:46 | That track does not exist in Sao Tome. | |
| 20:46 | This country does not have colleges apparently! | |
| 20:46 | Unless you leave the country -- and don't come back commonly. | |
| 20:47 | Exports: Fish, chocolote, coffee | |
| 20:47 | kevix1 | yeah, I figured no college. |
| 20:47 | CanoeBerry | Education's important to a certain extent -- deeply appreciated, but different. |
| 20:47 | kevix1 | I would assume folks would not seek higher ed unless it lead to a job requireing it which may be lacking on an island |
| 20:47 | CanoeBerry | Repeating a grade is normal there, not horrible stigmatization. |
| 20:47 | Absence policy. | |
| 20:48 | Kids don't show for class - or final exam. | |
| 20:48 | So Beth instituted a "lose her XO permanently if you don't show up" policy. | |
| 20:48 | Everybody showed up every time after that. | |
| 20:49 | "Push-push-push to college" culture does not exist. | |
| 20:49 | kevix1 | exactly, with motivation, the kids will come to school, with the XO itself being the motivation |
| 20:50 | in an island with few jobs needing a college education, why seek to go to college. | |
| 20:50 | CanoeBerry | Botsawana guest here agrees. |
| 20:51 | Kids culture / motivation different. | |
| 20:51 | Repeating class not fatal. | |
| 20:51 | Not perceived as "dumb kids" | |
| 20:51 | kevix1 | sure. thank goodness for that. |
| 20:51 | CanoeBerry | Normal often, if parents pulled kids away or such. |
| 20:52 | Many different reasons for kids to miss class in developing countries! | |
| 20:52 | kevix1 | indeed. until they reach a higher stage of development. |
| 20:52 | CanoeBerry | Yeah students failed -- but Beth believes this is As We View Retaking An Exam! |
| 20:53 | kevix1 | wondering if there are a few really inquiring minds amongst the bunch -- something like a 'mel chua' :) |
| 20:53 | CanoeBerry | Teacher Miguel studied in Portugal, and then began in Brazil. |
| 20:53 | kevix1 | or that boy in Africa who built a windmill from a book |
| 20:55 | CanoeBerry | kevix1: i asked yr question |
| 20:55 | Beth answers: perhaps no Nobel Prize candidates just yet, but PLENTY of kids who mastered programs far before teachers. | |
| 20:55 | Kids teaching the teacjers. | |
| 20:55 | Home views w/ 70 icons.. | |
| 20:56 | Quite a few of these students who were very good at figuring these things out. | |
| 20:56 | Are artsy too. | |
| 20:56 | kevix1 | maybe the news of the computers will spead by word of mouth to the rest of the island |
| 20:56 | CanoeBerry | OK: We'll wrap up soon here now after 3hrs at last!! |
| 20:57 | Final questions? | |
| 20:57 | cjb | sad he couldn't be there |
| 20:57 | in an airport :) | |
| 20:57 | CanoeBerry | ~137000 ppl on the island. |
| 20:58 | Everybody in the town wanted to be involved. | |
| 20:58 | The 100 kids were like "All Stars" in the community. | |
| 20:58 | "Step Up" needs to update their site! | |
| 20:58 | CMeeks question: are there computer cafes in Sao TOme? | |
| 20:58 | Beth: outdoors, affiliated w. hotels. | |
| 20:59 | 85degree direct sun, but you can't plug in. | |
| 20:59 | No real internet cafes that Beth saw. | |
| 20:59 | Only real city on the island. | |
| 20:59 | 50,000 ppl in this capital city. | |
| 20:59 | kevix1 | where ever westerners go, there will be cybercafes |
| 20:59 | CanoeBerry | Beth couldn't find a cyber cafe in this tiny country. |
| 21:00 | No real newspapers. | |
| 21:00 | But folks understand current events. | |
| 21:00 | B/c they listen to radio and talk (both obsessively!) | |
| 21:01 | kevix1 | they could build a local island internet and setup their own news website |
| 21:01 | a few linux servers, apache, drupal and a few 1,000 ft of cables :) | |
| 21:02 | CanoeBerry | We sent Beth to Mike Lee as she moves back to DC: http://olpclearningclub.org |
| 21:03 | CMeeks question: what's next in Beth Santos' life? | |
| 21:03 | Answer: Lots of questions / possibilities! | |
| 21:03 | Step Up trying to developer a program LIKE the Peace Corps, but using Sao Tomeans, as Peace Corps types tend to disappear (after 2 yrs especially) | |
| 21:04 | She might work at Sao Tome embassy in DC perhaps? | |
| 21:04 | Beth was in art & media so she could go anywhere... | |
| 21:13 | Beth wants to repeat-- for the love of God volunteers helped save her deployment. | |
| 21:14 | And volunteers' enthusiasm (Alex's joke: even if nothing else!) | |
| 21:14 | Signing off now-- thanks all online and in the room. | |
| 21:16 | kevix1 | any activities that might be useful |
| 21:17 | culseg | a round of applause for the speaker, let's plan for the wider OLPC community to "step up to the plate" and help this project! |
| 21:17 | CanoeBerry | Recap video: http://qik.com/carolinemeeks |
| 22:35 | dogi | #endmeeting |