OLPC: The Educational Philosophy Controversy

As one of many on the front lines of this battle, I would like to point out that there is more information available on some of these points, mostly in the OLPC Wiki and on OLPC News (not affiliated with OLPC). See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Controversies for short descriptions and pointers to the original discussions. We have opened a discussion of what Constructionism really is, based on work of Alan Kay, Seymour Papert, and Jean Piaget.

Your summary of Constructionism is one of the better definitions I have seen, but it is necessarily incomplete. We are working on ways to give people the experiences that make this make sense. Talk is cheap, and there are some who consider our work to be all talk and no music. See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Constructionism for some more elements of the program, and pointers to much more besides.

On the issue of colonialism, I am one who argues for the OLPC XO and Sugar software as an antidote to education systems designed to keep populations in line while their countries were pillaged. These systems are like marching orders that troops are not intended to understand, while Constructionism is intended to function like a map that permits you to decide where to go, when to start, and how to get there, for yourself. In fact Internet access on the XO supports using Google Maps for roads, images, and terrain, and Wikipedia as a high-level map of human knowledge, and much more in that vein.

It is important not to start with the word Constructionism. Ministers of education, teachers, parents, and above all students need to hear and see what the XO enables them to do, and what the benefits are. Once that is clear we can summarize our understanding with the word Constructionism, but not until then.

Both Nicholas Negroponte and Ivan Krstić got it wrong. OLPC is still doing distribution, but having several models (including Windows dual-boot) is precisely what Ivan was complaining about.

Both Walter and Ivan are active on Walter's new site, Sugar Labs. Sugar Labs is working on porting Sugar software to other versions of Linux, but not to Windows due to both technical obstacles (We can't get access to Windows to put in kernel-level facilities for mesh networking and power management) and philosophical/economic/human rights issues (Software freedom, notably for Sugar porting, and for translations to local languages without waiting for Microsoft's permission).

The proposed mesh networking standard, IEEE 802.11s, will mean that mesh networking becomes common in a few years, but not yet.

I have not heard that India and China have issues with Constructionism, and would like references so I can follow up on that and understand it better. I know of entirely different motives for some in both governments, but it would take us too far afield to go into them in this note.

Lastly, we have heard that the bidding process in Brazil failed not on the cost of equipment and services, but on tax policy. One part of the government announced plans not to charge the usual 100% import duties on computers for education. This proposal was not communicated either to the other part of the administration that was conducting the bid, or to the legislature for enabling legislation. So the bid was held under the rules then current, doubling the cost of everything. Since the money spent by the government would have come back to the government, it is not clear why this should matter in reality, but it is obvious that it does matter in politics.

We have heard nothing from Brazil about where this process is going next. It is not clear why a process that is supposed to support Constructionism did not include requirements in the bid for supporting Constructionist software, mesh networking, and the like, which Intel's Classmate doesn't. I don't pretend to understand how governments really work internally.

A lot is being said about hardware and OS, if one version or the other has advantages lets see links to the success stories - lets see the enlightened faces of the lucky OLPC recipients, and view research on how their grades have improved. Give us examples of the Sugar collaborative applications, and the equivalent of what will be available packaged and free to MS OS users.

Never mind the hardware and OS argument - I give my support for accessable, GOOD, interactive apps that address remedial literacy and numeracy problems across multiple grades.

Of course a laptop would be nice too...!

The founders of OLPC were flawed in their business plan. The OLPC needs revamped to be bundled with online content delivery. It will also sell better with Microsoft OS because it is the world standard. Open source is grand for big companies with pros running IT but for non-pros Microsoft is user-friendly. The choice is in content delivery.

I adore the Chinese for a number of reasons, one of which is that they have a saying for every situation (based on thousands of years of experience) such as for example when the people were struck by the plague, the villagers discovered that mice were playing havoc with their lives –they felt that cats were the best answer to counter the mice and hence the plague. So they domesticated the cat and adopted it as a pet. On the other hand a group of “wise men” put their heads together and tried to associate the color of the cat to its hunting techniques, hence trying to identify which colored cat was the best for the job. When they asked the villagers they said “the color does not matter - whether the cat is black, brown, or white –what matters is whether it catches the rat or not.”
In reference to the above, most developing countries are plagued by poverty, poor health, substandard living, terrorism, and a number of other grave issues, of which the root cause is illiteracy. Pakistan is not an exception: during the past 60 years of independence it has failed to provide education to all school age children, and apparently it is not believed to improve with traditional “I-word” approaches any time soon.
We have carried out two XO pilot projects here in Pakistan, one in a school of an urban slum and the other in a rural school. Please note here that these schools and teachers have been religiously following Instructionalist theory. Despite which, we discovered that when OLPC’s were introduced into the schools, they had a number of positive trickle down effects on the schools, the teachers, the students, their parents, and even their communities.
The schools have become a center of attraction for the students as well as the entire community. School enrolment has increased to a point where prospective students are now on waiting lists for admission. The teacher’s self esteems have risen, whereby they are more motivated to adopt new teaching methods and their attitudes have also become much friendlier towards the students. Children’s learning speeds have accelerated, even those kids who were completely illiterate in English have started drafting basic compositions just within a few weeks of exposure. The XO laptops have unleashed their creativity and thinking abilities. Their out of the box thinking has enabled them to use the laptop in ways even which we had not imagined. Whether it is learning English language, creating a picture/painting, composing music, or having fun with the e-toys, and pippy – all these activities on the OLPC are all are contributing to a positive learning environment. The results are miraculous despite the fact that their basic form of education is still through the traditional methods as mentioned earlier.
The conclusion is, lets stop devoting precious time to what colored cat we should have, and instead focus on whether the cat knows how to do the job or not. Using Edith Ackermann terminology of C-word or I-word, the XO is playing its role and children will do what they feel best suits their learning style.

I adore the Chinese for a number of reasons, one of which is that they have a saying for every situation (based on thousands of years of experience) such as for example when the people were struck by the plague, the villagers discovered that mice were playing havoc with their lives –they felt that cats were the best answer to counter the mice and hence the plague. So they domesticated the cat and adopted it as a pet. On the other hand a group of “wise men” put their heads together and tried to associate the color of the cat to its hunting techniques, hence trying to identify which colored cat was the best for the job. When they asked the villagers they said “the color does not matter - whether the cat is black, brown, or white –what matters is whether it catches the rat or not.”
In reference to the above, most developing countries are plagued by poverty, poor health, substandard living, terrorism, and a number of other grave issues, of which the root cause is illiteracy. Pakistan is not an exception: during the past 60 years of independence it has failed to provide education to all school age children, and apparently it is not believed to improve with traditional “I-word” approaches any time soon.
We have carried out two XO pilot projects here in Pakistan, one in a school of an urban slum and the other in a rural school. Please note here that these schools and teachers have been religiously following Instructionalist theory. Despite which, we discovered that when OLPC’s were introduced into the schools, they had a number of positive trickle down effects on the schools, the teachers, the students, their parents, and even their communities.
The schools have become a center of attraction for the students as well as the entire community. School enrolment has increased to a point where prospective students are now on waiting lists for admission. The teacher’s self esteems have risen, whereby they are more motivated to adopt new teaching methods and their attitudes have also become much friendlier towards the students. Children’s learning speeds have accelerated, even those kids who were completely illiterate in English have started drafting basic compositions just within a few weeks of exposure. The XO laptops have unleashed their creativity and thinking abilities. Their out of the box thinking has enabled them to use the laptop in ways even which we had not imagined. Whether it is learning English language, creating a picture/painting, composing music, or having fun with the e-toys, and pippy – all these activities on the OLPC are all are contributing to a positive learning environment. The results are miraculous despite the fact that their basic form of education is still through the traditional methods as mentioned earlier.
The conclusion is, lets stop devoting precious time to what colored cat we should have, and instead focus on whether the cat knows how to do the job or not. Using Edith Ackermann terminology of C-word or I-word, the XO is playing its role and children will do what they feel best suits their learning style.

A quick point: Piaget was Swiss, not French.

I am from Pakistan and work for a private english medium school.We are also thinking about the OLPC initiative and i myself have been exploring the machine. What i would ask of you people, those who have already piloted the project, as to how did they integrate the laptop with their curricula? Did you people add programs according to the curricula demands or how did you make use of the avalilabl eprogrmas in some way? If anybody can help me with this, kindly write back...