Theoretical Foundation

The Give 1 Get 1 XO laptop designed by the MIT media lab and touted by Nicholas Negroponte. Lest we forget that part of the articulated goal of the OLPC program is to offer children a notably constructionist (not to be confused with constructivist) atmosphere for education. The core foundation of the constructionist theory is that children develop knowledge through experience and the developing of mental models around social objects. It is remarkably related to constructivism according to the Wikipedia article. I find this noteworthy because the laptop.org site articulates that the XO embodies constructionist theories (look under standing still section).

So is it fair for folks to say that the XO is not useful for education or to be disappointed in it? Is it perhaps true that naysayers have misunderstood the machine’s intent?

The machine has been tested in lots of different ways but I have yet to see anything other than anecdotal results. I watched a video linked to by Silvia Martinez in this post (which you should read).

Now remember, I speak Spanish and lived in Peru so I understand both the language and cultural context behind the video. I also understand the unique needs of a small town like Arahuay where kids come to stay the week since the school is so far from home.

Affordances

In dealing with new technologies, be it a fancy web 2.0 tool or a shiny new computer, the question has to be asked what the affordances are, that is to ask, what can you do with the new tool that you could not do before, or cannot do with something else. For example, a teacher assigns students to create a travel brochure for ancient Egypt, which they have been studying recently. The goal would be to ask students to highlight three tourist attractions from ancient Egypt. Is there really a benefit for students to complete this assignment (assignment criticism aside) using a computer (i.e. MS Publisher, a Wiki, Powerpoint/Keynote, a digital story) as opposed to just drawing it on paper? Is the use of the computer (given that limited scenario and goal) really going to offer a change?

Naturally, what seems to follow here is a suggestion that a shift in pedagogy needs to happen. Lots of folks offer lots of rhetoric about the skills and literacies needed for the next century. Ok, but given this assignment, is the benefit to students really there to do it via computer?

I’d say no.

I would fall into the category of people that would suggest a change in assignment. What if kids told the story of a kid about their own age who was traveling through Egypt. What if it were more creative and more about storytelling and less about just the facts of a spot. Now I can justify lots of things using buzzwords like higher-order thinking skills, storytelling and can justify the potential use of technology.

Flash back to the video I mentioned earlier. As opposed to just walking outside and looking at the plants and flowers around the school the kids are taking pictures of them. What’s the benefit there? Is it that they are learning to take pictures along with learning about the plants? How is this more beneficial than taking pictures with an older camera and having the pictures developed, assuming the cost difference is negligible?

I highlight this due to the lack of sharing ability with the outside world. Ok, so the kids can take pictures of flowers and share it with their neighborhood. Perhaps kids can share the pictures they’ve taken with their classmates. Is that beneficial? I wonder if it really is.

Now, if there was a built in way they could share those pictures with the outside world, well, now we’re talking! If Flickr export capabilities were built-in with an automatic tag that would make all pictures taken with an OLPC accessible, I’d posit immediate benefits due to the interaction with the greater world.

Same with video. Because there are no editing capabilities inherent within Sugar I find it hard to believe that the videos created will be of any real value. Perhaps a student might create something noteworthy, but I’d imagine that many,many more are created just for fun and are not of any real sharable value.

If there were built-in Youtube export (and of course even watching Youtube videos is awfully poor quality) perhaps the level of accountability and global interaction would spur kids on to greater heights of video production.

Maybe.

I’ve managed to get Flash, Skype, and even Doom installed on my XO. My plan is to do all of the things I’ve mentioned in this post and then post the results. I’ll make a video using my XO, and not just a proof-of-concept video. I’ll make something that I think is at least watchable. Maybe a day-in-the-life-of video or something, I’m not sure.

The point is this, in the edubloc we talk so much about openness and transparency in education. The XO is a fantastic opportunity for that to happen. Maybe in future builds it will get better and easier to use. I could spend an entire nother post talking about the high levels of cognitive load I’ve experienced and my daughter’s experienced trying to interact with the machine. It’s also noteworthy that kids need instruction on how to use it, and alongside the use, which sort of defeats the whole constructionist/constructivist ideal. Maybe kids are still creating their own mental models but I’d bet the models don’t differ too much from child to child.

Curious as to your thoughts…

Chris

Update: Added the picture of my my daughter’s XO running Skype out. Didn’t want to show my contacts…

Here is my comment, which I will expound on in a future post:

Hello.

I am doctoral student in Educational Psychology and Research (learning theory is at the core), a 6th grade teacher, and a parent to a 5 year-old.

Oh, and I got my XO on December 21. I’m pretty good with Linux, running Ubuntu on two machines at home, but no expert by a long shot.

I disagree with the notion that these machines provide a magically constructivist environment. If anything, the confusing environment makes it terribly difficult to navigate and is counter-intuitive. In fact, I would posit that the level of cognitive load experienced by users not familiar with the operating system will be very high initially. Would it be so high on Windows? No, because there is established schema.

Now, does that mean they are not useful? Certainly not. I speak Spanish and lived in Peru for a while so watching the interviews with kids in Arahuay has proven interesting. They are not doing anything with the laptops in terms of education that they could not do with less expensive equipment. For example, they take pictures of the few plants around their school. What is the affordance of this as compared with sketching the plant on construction paper? The technology is not necessarily a benefit.

Perhaps video is a bit of a benefit, but we’ve not seen any videos created in that environment, and the lack of editing makes only a certain quality of video available.

The Internet is a big deal, but a previous commenter mentioned that the kids read up on soccer and do research. I would imagine that kids are using web sites for research without checking for validity. I don’t know this first hand but access to a spotty internet connection does not a smart kid make.

I’m curious to see more of what comes out of these areas, and I’ll post more about this on my blog at www.crucialthought.com.

Chris

I began by noticing the XO logo on the box and couldn’t help but be a little excited about it. I knew what it was from the second I pulled in the driveway and saw it sitting on the porch.

I opened the box to find a very minimalist packaging design.

I kept going, unwrapping and snapping photos.

I had read about how to open it so no problems there.

I inserted the battery, plugged it in and it fired right up. Now the pictures get larger to make the point…

The interface is interesting. I recall having tried it out at some point using VMWare Virtualization but I didn’t give it a whole lot of time since it was an early Sugar release. After playing with it for a bit yesterday, I was left a bit disappointed. I am sure the software can be upgraded, and it will be interesting to see if anyone puts a different version of Linux on it, but it was darn hard to use. I’m pretty geeky, but I’m thinking about my little girl who will have a really hard time using it. Perhaps I am underestimating her, but the interface is fairly counter-intuitive in many respects. Darned if I couldn’t figure out how to make some of the applications even work.

I did manage to connect to a local open wireless network but it was distant and slow. I didn’t try with WPA or WEP at all since there was no wireless at my parents’ house where I unboxed.

I am following a few OLPC feeds (olpcnews.com, experiencing the xo) to see what folks do with it and how they make it work. I’m thinking of the need for more than a web browser, I’d love to see someone make Skype work.

I’m not giving up, it’s far too early. I’m really curious to see how Tom Hoffman’s xochat.org turns out and I’m sure I’ll be bugging him for help if he doesn’t mind.

I want to see this project succeed, but boy is this going to be an interesting road. I’ll be back with more thoughts as I dig into it. In the meantime, can you suggest anyone to follow/read/subscribe to that’s exploring this thing further?

Update: Here is the link to my olpc flickr set so you can see all the unboxing pics at a larger size.

Update 2: Now I understand this comment a bit better.