XOs in rural Honduras

6th grade graduation

2011-12-01T23:09:00.001-05:00

First, thank you for reading this. Today was the 6th grade graduation in San Miguelito. I felt so proud when I saw the pictures of the students I met in 2010 and 2011. I have no way to tell at this time how the XOs have impacted the education of these students. I hope to stay in touch with them and ask what they think when they meet other students in middle school who did not use computers. The teacher made me the godmother of the graduating class, which was very touching.

I know that the students in the other two schools I worked in this summer have also finished the school year. The second school in the area of San Miguelito received 14 computers in September. One student called me about a month ago to ask why the teacher was collecting the XOs. I explained that they needed to stay at the school for the students to use next year.

I also heard from the friend I made this summer who works with the government's national project. She said they were receiving training on the XOs this week. The implementation of this project has had some bumps, but hopefully it will move forward steadily.

Arrived!

2011-08-27T00:45:00.000-04:00

I got good news today. The computers for Siguatepeque have arrived. It will take some time to get them ready and handed out to the students, but it's very encouraging to know they are there.

Summer of computers

2011-08-08T00:34:00.000-04:00

I want to start by saying by thanking you for reading my blog. I have not kept it up-to-date, but I will try to give a good overview of the past 2 months. I traveled to Siguatepeque, Honduras, on June 26th with 20 some computers from the project last summer. I met up with the team, and we made the daily trek to Santa Rosita in a pickup. We had nearly 60 students from kindergarten through 8th grade. We worked outside due to the limited space in their rented adobe building. The community set up a tarp for us and had the desks outside waiting after our first day.

We gave the students as much as an overview as was possible working with so many at one time. We had a local journalist do a report on tv about the project which you can watch here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHAeVJ6DnTo&feature=youtu.be

We left a few computers in the community to be used until the shipment of computers arrives. From Siguatepeque I headed back to Tegucigalpa where I was able to meet a friend of a friend who is working on the government computer project. I was surprised to see my own picture on a govt poster when I entered the office of my friend. I went to a public school where the govt had already given out laptops (not XOs) to the students. I was able to observe part of their training for parents.

From Tegucigalpa I traveled south back to the school where I was last year. I spent two weeks working with the students. We went over things they had learned last year and looked at some new things as well.

As I continued to wait for the arrival of the computers purchased by the Owen Project, I realized that I needed to go ahead and start a new project. Once again the students from last year lent their XOs so that other students could learn. A highlight for me was having 5 & 6th grade students accompany me each day to help their peers learn. We worked intensely for 6 days and saw the students make a lot of progress. We overviewed quite a few activities and only touched on Scratch, but I think the students did quite well for only having 6 days of instruction.

The main breakages that we had were chargers. One of them actually opened so that we could see inside. I don't know what is causing the chargers to fail. There are a few XOs that can no longer take pictures. I'm not sure what happened to the cameras. One screen broke an XO as well. I hope to buy a replacement part and get it back to a student in Honduras. Hopefully the shipment of Owen Project computers will arrive this week and students in all 3 schools can start using XOs as a tool for learning.

New friends and old

2011-06-08T11:00:00.000-04:00

I'm heading back to Honduras in 2 weeks. I have 2 XOs in hand. I'm joining with the Owen Project in a village near Siguatepeque for 10 days. Then I will head back south to check on the students I worked with last year. I have about 30 mice and one replacement battery and one charger. I want to buy some keyboards, but I have not found a source that has them in stock. I rejoined an online meeting about XOs and learned about a conference in Costa Rica at the end of June. Costa Rica conference
I can't go because I'm committed to helping a group in Honduras at this time, but I hope to get a report on how it goes.

A new school year

2011-04-27T01:23:00.001-04:00

The school year in Honduras begins in February. On March 11, I talked to the teacher at the school, and she said that in an expected turn of events the first lady of Honduras was supposed to visit the school. At the same time national teachers' strikes started. So, the special visit has not happened.

Classes did resume for a few weeks before Holy Week. Schools in Honduras are closed for the week, and some families travel to visit friends and relatives. I was surprised when I was using Facebook last week that two of the students had requested to "friend" me. I'm not sure who might have helped them, but the 5th grade student chatted with me for a little while. She was able to type well enough to keep the conversation going. I asked her if she is still using her XO and what activities she is using. She told me that she uses Tux Paint, Scratch, Record, and others. She and her brother who is in 4th grade both had pictures uploaded to their profiles and 15-20 friends. We did not use the internet while I was at the school, but I hope that they have developed some computer skills that will help them as they navigate the internet.

I have yet to collect information about the condition of the XOs and any repairs that are needed. I also want to find out if they are bringing the XOs to school and using them there. I hope to have updates soon.

A new school year

2011-02-12T00:49:00.000-05:00

The public school year begins next week in Honduras. The classes in Zapote will be starting as well. This year there are almost enough laptops for each student to have one. My #1 priority for this year is to find a way to get the school connected to the internet. I am open to ideas about how to accomplish this and suggestions about the hardware needed.

I am continuing my own learning by taking two online classes about constructivism and Web 2.0. It's so important to stay in touch with what educators think are the most useful websites, programs, and tools. I'm still supportive of what students can do and learn with XO computers that are not connected to the internet, but when students can connect to the internet the possibilities increase exponentially.

I also want to recommend a website to you about another XO project in Honduras that will begin this summer. http://theowenproject.posterous.com/
I'm very excited to learn what other people are doing around the world with XOs and especially in Honduras.

Useful links

2010-12-06T10:41:00.001-05:00

This past week I attended the Virginia Society for Technology in Education (VSTE) conference. I was able to share about my experience with OLPC in Peru and my small deployment in Honduras. I encouraged teachers and school technology specialists to use Scratch and Sugar with their students.

If you are looking for informtation you might consider some of the following:

One Laptop Per Child

Learn Scratch This website has some nice, basic tutorials.

Scratch This is the home page for Scratch. This is the site where people all over the world share their Scratch projects.

Sugarlabs You can find out what is happening with Sugar and create your own USB memory stick to boot your computer into Sugar from.

Checking in

2010-11-04T17:06:00.000-04:00

I have not posted any news in the past month, but I did decide to go to Honduras at Christmas. I hope to see the students and find out how they have been using their XOs. I don't think they have used them much in school since I left. I am still trying to get the XOs I bought this fall upgraded to the new version of Dextrose.

I have the opportunity to share about Sugar and XOs at a conference for teachers in Virginia at the beginning of December. I am excited to tell them about my experiences in Peru and Honduras, but I want them to come away with the desire to try out Sugar with their own students. If you have any great ideas for ways US students can learn with Sugar, I would love to hear from you.

More laptops

2010-09-23T11:00:00.000-04:00

I have now purchased 4 XOs off of ebay. I need to get developer keys for them to be able to do all the updates that I want to do. Then I have to figure out how to get them to the students in Zapote. Let me know if you are traveling from Virginia to Honduras any time in the next few weeks. I hope to participate in the
OLPC SF Community Summit 2010
via the internet or phone. I want to help the project in Honduras to move forward, but I'm not sure how at the moment. I hope that this conference will offer some ideas. All contributions towards the cost of the 4 XOs I bought off of ebay are welcome. Another option is to buy an XO off of ebay and donate it to the Zapote project. We need 6 more laptops to give one to each student enrolled at the school now.

Upcoming event

2010-09-23T10:50:00.002-04:00

I will not be able to attend in person, but I think it will be a great event.

Good News

2010-09-08T23:32:00.001-04:00

The XO I brought back from Honduras not working is now fixed, AND I was given a second XO. I also purchased two more XOs on the internet. That should bring the grand total to 23 laptops. 30 would mean the teacher and each current student has their own. There are two boys in 6th grade who will be finish elementary school this year. I don't know how many new students there will be next year.

On another note, the teacher and I have discussed what to do with the XOs over the 'summer.' The school year ends at the end of November and starts again in February. I would like the students to hold on to the XOs during this time so they can use them. The teacher is concerned that the laptops will break and that it will be harder to get started next year. Any thoughts?

Far away

2010-09-04T00:54:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I got a call in the evening from one of the first grades from Zapote. She told about school and the weather and said that she missed me. She asked when I am going back. It was really nice to hear from her. This has been a busy week for me going back to teaching in Virginia, so it was great to hear a little of what has been going on in San Miguelito for the last week. I have talked to the teacher at the school 2 or 3 times. It's going to be challenging to keep the momentum going with the computers.

Getting to school

2010-08-31T01:37:00.001-04:00

These students cross this river to get to school every day.

One way to get across.

Another way to get across. Notice that the boy on the left is holding his shoes and those of the other boy. Where the boys are crossing is actually a road when the water level goes down. The bottom of the river is all rocks, and it hurt my feet too much to get even half way across.

XO projects need friends

2010-08-31T01:10:00.002-04:00

Here are some local friends who supported the Zapote project.

Recent presentation

2010-08-31T01:07:00.000-04:00

This is a presentation from today about several XO projects. http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/9251465
You may need to skip some of the beginning to get to the presentation.

The last few weeks

2010-08-31T00:59:00.001-04:00

We succeeded in having two weeks of class every day. I don't know if the time that I was at the school was typical or not, but out of the seven weeks I was there I think there were only two full weeks of class. The last week we had two days of class and Wednesday the school had a goodbye party for me. The details were a surprise even though I knew they were planning something. As the teacher and I were leaving after the party there was a huge thunderstorm. A bolt of lightening landed so close and was so loud I suggested that we go back to the school, but instead we walked up the first hill and stopped at the first house owned by a retired teacher. She hosted us until the storm ended.

Thursday at 1am the teacher and her two brothers and I got up and waited for the local bus (a US yellow school bus) to come at 2am and take us to Tegucigalpa. The road had been mostly blocked on Sunday from a landslide, but part of the road was cleared by Thursday and the bus made it through. I have a lot of admiration for the bus driver!

I had very smooth flights back to Virginia on Friday, only to be welcomed back to the DC area by a huge back up on the beltway at 10pm. I took the first exit and made it home on the back roads.

Saturday I had a great time talking with two friends who have been observing XO computer development and projects for several years. Right away they asked me- What's next? We talked for about 5 hours, and I still don't have the answer other than they kept telling me whatever I did it would be hard. I'm going to collect my thought some more and write a post about it soon. For now I will just share some pictures.

I think this girl would be a great poster child for a national ad campaign.


Look carefully. What do you see?

For the goodbye party, there were no uniforms.

Un resumen en español

2010-08-31T00:45:00.000-04:00

Escribi eso junto con la maestra de la escuela:

El 13 de Julio empezó el proyecto de los XOs en San Miguelito, F.M. en la escuela de el Zapote “Marco Aurelio Soto” . Había 20 maquinas- una para la maestra y 19 para los 29 alumnos. En los primeros días no había energía ni en la escuela ni en el pueblo. Entonces solo en la segunda semana usábamos los XOs.

Cuando por fin los niños tenían los XOs la enseñanza empezó con como encender la maquina, como abrir y cerrar una actividad, y la partes de maquina- antenas, micrófono, cámara, etc. También los niños aprendieron del sistema operativo Sugar y el vocabulario de la computadora, por ejemplo icono. Aprendieron del Diario y que se guarda automáticamente todo lo que ellos hacen. Practicaron como conectar una USB de memoria. Usaban las teclas de cambiar de vista principal hasta vecindad, de ver el marco, y de apagar actividades con Control + Q. Las primeros actividades que probaron eran Grabar, Hablar, y Maze (Laberinto). La maestra organizó una sesión de padres de familia y los niños mostraron a sus papas lo que han aprendido durante 2 días y tomaban fotos de los padres que llegaron.

Los niños se familiarizaron con otras actividades después- Pintar, Implode, Escribir. Ellos también usaban Rompecabeza, TamTamJam y Memorizar. A los niños les gustaban mucho las actividades con sonidos.

Un día los niños usaban Escribiendo a la Tortuga para practicar a teclar y familiarizarse con el teclado. Otro día la maestra presentó la actividad Tux Paint. Esa actividad tiene varias botones que tienen diferentes funciones. La escuela recibió 2 USBs de memoria con fichas, guías de maestro, y los libros de Lectura y de Español para los grados 1, y 3-6. Los niños abrieron los documentos en la actividad Leer. Practicaron como avanzar de pagina y como ampliarlas.

En la cuarta semana de usar los XOs las maestras enseñaban de Scratch. Esa actividad es muy avanzada y introduce a los niños a programación. Había 3 adultos ayudando a los niños a entender los menús y botones de Scratch.

En la quinto semana la clase paso un día usando TortugArte. El siguiente día la maestra noto que apareció un señal de Internet. Los niños se conectaron a la red y aun que no funcionó el Internet ellos podrían usar la actividad Charlar y unirse con otros para hacer otras actividades como Maze juntos.

La sexta semana los niños retroalimentaron la actividad Scratch, haciendo diferentes proyectos como una tarjeta de felicitaciones. También usaban la red para compartir la actividad Escribir. Los niños de primero y segundo practicaban con Tux Paint, Hablar, y los juegos de Scratch. Las maestras observaban que los niños usaban sus computadoras en maneras originales. Por ejemplo, unas niñas de primer grado usaban Hablar con sus libros de ciencia para entender las palabras que no sabían como leer. Otra niña encontró en Tux Paint dibujos de blanco y negro que uno puede colorear.

En conclusión podemos observar que los niños ya manejan las diferentes actividades de Sugar. Tienen suficiente conocimiento para seguir usando las computadores para aumentar su aprendizaje. Las maestras están contentas que el proyecto logró establecer sus metas propuestas. Los alumnos han progresado de ser principiantes en el uso de las computadores hasta tener un nivel intermedio. El día miércoles 25 de agosto, 2010, se hizo una despedida muy especial a la profesora Becky Young realizando un pequeño programa en donde en que le dieron palabras de agradecimiento de parte de la profesora Delia Suyapa Molina Funez y también participación de los alumnos y padres de familia.

Saying Goodbye

2010-08-15T14:42:00.001-04:00

Gretchen's plane should have taken off a few minutes ago. We had a great week together and we managed to finally have classes every day this week. I spent most of the week teaching the students how to use Scratch. I think things are going well, but I know my time is running out. We are leaving the capital in the next hour, and I don't know if I will have a chance to update my blog again before I get back to the US on Aug. 27. Thanks for reading this and keeping tabs on our project.
Becky

5 days of classes in one week!

2010-08-15T14:40:00.000-04:00

August 11, 2010

Last Sunday we had rain again and the power went out for a while. The river was high, so not all the students came to school on Monday. Not all the students had their computers charged, so we only used the computers for a little while. We took some pictures to share at the meeting in Tegucigalpa Wednesday. The next day the men came to install the electricity, so I took the students to the local soccer field and most of them played soccer. Some of the students (mostly girls) used their laptops. We also took some more pictures. I’m pretty sure all of the students we present. When we dismissed the students I walked to the river with the ones who live on the other side. I saw firsthand how a second grader and his uncle (who is in 5th grade) went across. The second grader took off all his clothes (except his underwear) and his shoes and put them in his backpack. Then the two waded across.

Wednesday the teacher and I went to Tegucigalpa for a meeting at INICE, an office of the ministry of education. The businessman with whom we had met two times previously was giving a presentation about the plan for implementing the XO program nationwide. We served at the pilot program and were able to share our feelings about how the project is working in Sapote. There were 20 people present, and they seemed pretty interested in what we are doing. Most of them don’t know where San Miguelito is located, but they want to come see what we are doing.

I had an American friend coming to visit Sunday, so I just stayed in Tegucigalpa for the rest of the week. The teacher had a required meeting on Friday, so the students really only had class on Monday. I have a better understanding of the realities of education in Honduras now.

We had 3 adults at school on Monday- the teacher, my friend from the US, and myself. We started learning about Scratch, an activity on the XO for kids to learn about programming. In the afternoon the men finished installing the electricity.

Tuesday was the first day this school has ever had light. We were able to use the computers the whole day- first with the younger students and then later with the older students. Each student was able to have their own computer, although some of them had to borrow one from the students who were not using computers at that time. This made a big difference. The students were more engaged and were each responsible to follow along on their own computer. Because it was the first day of having electricity some of the students didn’t bring their chargers, but by sharing chargers we were able to keep all the laptops going.

Wednesday I worked with the older students using the Read activity. Our businessman friend provided us with electronic versions of the school textbook for reading for each grade (except second grade). The students learned how to advance the pages, zoom in, and close the read activity. After recess we continued with Scratch. The older students have now used it for 3 days and are starting to figure things out on their own. This is great from the creativity point of view, but often it means that they are not paying attention to my instruction.

I bought a book about Scratch that I am using to learn myself. It teaches through activities, so we are doing the activities from the book with the class. I still have a lot to learn, including how to help the students learn the curriculum through using Scratch.

Tomorrow the teacher is supposed to go to a local meeting for principals of elementary schools. If she doesn’t go, she has to pay a fine (only $2), but she wants to skip the meeting and come to school so she doesn’t miss what we are doing in Scratch.

I can’t believe I only have 11 days of class to work with the teacher and the students (if we don’t have any more interruptions). The time has gone by really fast. I have been asked several times when I’m coming back. I don’t have an answer to that question.

News from OLPC

2010-07-30T18:51:00.000-04:00

http://blog.laptop.org/2010/07/29/welcoming-indias-tablet/

Read about plans for computers in India. The head of OLPC shares his advice.

Start and stop, start and stop

2010-07-30T18:41:00.000-04:00

Well this week has not turned out exactly how I planned. Sunday night we had another storm and the power went out, so Monday we had school but no computers. Also, the Red Cross showed up unexpectly to weigh and measure the infants and toddlers in the community. This led to a very extended recess for the students.

Tuesday I needed to go to the capital, Tegucigalpa, again. I decided to drive to the school, so that I could be there an hour and then head out. As I was leaving the school I had to drive over some rocks in the road, and I ended up with a flat tire. I called Noel who came about 10 min. later only to find that we didn't have all the parts to the jack. He called the house and two more family members came about 25 min. later with borrowed tools. They got the spare tire on quickly and we made it to Teguc. later in the day.

Wednesday I was able to pick up some items that I sent in a container. Yeah! Thursday I got a call in the morning from Melba who I met online through the XO conference I attended in May. She has completed her Masters in Math Education and is looking for a job. She would really like to see a nationwide deployment of XOs and would like to be employed as part of the project. We met and went to the national congress where we met with the head of the Commission on Education and with one of the representative's assistants. I'm not sure how productive these meetings were, but it was interesting to visit the legislature.

Today I was supposed to have a meeting, but the teachers in the capital are on strike and they blocked the road from where I am staying to the rest of the city. So we postponed the meeting until tomorrow. I hope to be back at school on Monday and have fewer interruptions in August. A friend from Virginia is coming for a week to help out, which I'm excited about. To those who are reading, thanks for your interest and for your comments.

Showing mom how the XO works

2010-07-23T15:33:00.000-04:00

The teacher I am working with and her brother

2010-07-23T15:31:00.000-04:00

The view from the town park

2010-07-23T15:29:00.000-04:00

Day of Lempira and Meetings

2010-07-23T14:49:00.002-04:00

7/22/10

Yesterday the elementary school teachers of the community organized a raffle and food sale in the central park for the Day of Lempira http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lempira_(Lenca_ruler) The mayor provided a local band for entertainment. Some students came, but there was no real program. There were several historical questions that were asked to the crowd and whoever answered got a free portion of food.

Band playing for the Day of Lempira

Wednesday the school day got off to a good start. The students brought their XOs from home. Some had tried new activities and shared what they had learned with their classmates. I explained what the Journal is and that their work is saved to the Journal. We practiced how to change the layout of the home page and tried Tux Paint for the first time. We have one extra student, the teacher’s nephew, who is on vacation from his school. He does not have his own XO, but I noticed he was using an XO and asked him where he got it. He said that it was on the teacher’s desk. I realized that it was the same XO that I tried to repair the night before but had not fixed. I asked him what he did. He said he just turned it on and waited and eventually it booted up. I was very happy that it fixed itself.

The parent meeting was scheduled for 9am, but I think we really got started around 10/ 10:30. The teacher and I invited the parents to come in as they arrived and observe the children using the laptops. I encouraged the students to use the activity Record to take pictures of our guests. When the meeting got started, the teacher had a number of items on the agenda, but there was time for me to talk about the XOs. The parents seem very happy that their children have the opportunity to use the XOs. Hopefully the electricity will be installed in the next few days. The teacher asked the parents for their support and participation with the installation.

Parent meeting at the school

Today there were no classes because the teacher had to go house to house again checking that there were no places where bugs that might infect people with dengue could grow. I went to the capital and was able to meet with the man working to get a national program going in Honduras. I was able to show him pictures of the parent meeting and discuss plans for the next few weeks. He is going to do a workshop for some people in the government that he invited me to. I plan to participate in the workshop to meet the people who will be involved in a national deployment and share with them our experience in Sapote.

Handing out the XOs

2010-07-23T14:44:00.000-04:00

7/19/10

Thursday it was impossible to use the laptops because we had no way to recharge them. The teacher was assigned by the local authorities to go house to house checking to see if people were taking the necessary precautions against dengue, which has become almost a national epidemic lately. The teacher took almost all the older students with her, so I had the students from 1-3rd grade. Friday the teacher had another required meeting, so I was again the teacher for the day. Thankfully there are quite a few books where I am staying that I can use with the students. I have not visited the houses of many students, but I can make a pretty good guess that they don’t have any books at all in the homes. Over the weekend Noel and I went to the capital, and Noel bought the necessary supplies for installing electricity at the school.

Things got off to a better start today (Monday) because the electricity came back on yesterday and I was able to recharge all the XOs. The teacher was also present, so we divided up the school 1-3 and 4-6. Even though I was there 3 day last week, three students appeared today that I hadn’t met yet. Between the teacher having other responsibilities and being away from the school and students being absent, there are a lot of days missed. That was one point that was made at the meeting I had the first Saturday that I was here- that the XOs can help students continue their learning even when they aren’t in classes.

We reviewed the different parts of the XO and then I handed out cards with information about different keys on the keyboard and their function. The students read their card, some of them shared, and then they were responsible for sharing the information with the rest of the group. Many of the students in this school are quite shy about speaking up. We also went over the first rule that we learned last week-
Make sure your hands are clean before you start using the XO.

Then I taught the students a second rule-
Don’t touch other people’s XO. If you want to help them, use words to explain what to do.

Another thing that was new today is that the students did not have an external mouse to use. I forgot them at home, so they got practice with the touchpad. Some of the touchpads are difficult to use, which is why I bough a mouse for each computer, but it was good to at least practice. I also showed the students two kinds of memory- a USB and a chip that can be used with the XO. The students tried out the activity Implode which is a little like Tetras and enjoyed it.

After recess and a snack, I gave an XO to each family with their names already saved in the computer. At the moment there are 29 students and only 20 XOs. Hopefully we can get some more later. The teacher and I talked to students several times about how to take care of the XO when they take it home. We don’t have any spare parts here, so we are out of luck for the moment if anything gets broken. Then for the rest of the school day I worked with the younger students and the teacher joined us so she could learn too. The older students had an assignment to work on by themselves. While they worked, I called students over one at a time to teach the younger students. That way I could be more of a helper and the older students got practice being in front of a group and explaining what they had learned in the morning. It worked pretty well. As the students were leaving at the end of the day, I told them I would find out what the best way to clean the screen is so that we don’t end up making them worse than they already are. One student asked if it was better to recharge the XO when it was turned off than when it was on. I thought that was a good question. I told him turned off, although I don’t know if it really matters. I was satisfied with how things went. Later in the evening the teacher got a phone call from one mom asking how long it takes to recharge the XO.

Tomorrow there is no school because the teachers have a special activity selling food to the community. It is the Day of Lempira, a famous indigenous person who fought against the Spanish. Wednesday morning the parents are supposed to come so the teacher can talk about what needs to be done to get the electricity installed. My plan is to review what we have learned and introduce new activities a little at a time. Maybe by the beginning of August we can work on some of the more challenging activities like etoys and Scratch.

I did run into one technical problem today that I haven’t been able to fix yet. One of the laptops being to boot and then freezes and never continues. I reflashed it and it did the same thing. Tomorrow I am going to check if I updated it to the q2e44.rom file. Other than that I don’t have any idea what to do.

Getting started

2010-07-23T14:35:00.000-04:00

7/14

Almost any project requires flexibility and an understanding that not everything will work as planned. This is especially important in rural Honduras. I arrived in San Miguelito last Monday afternoon, and the teacher had a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, so there were no classes. We did go to the school and clean the floor and make sure everything was ready for class the next day. Tuesday night there was a big thunderstorm that knocked out the power. The teacher had another meeting Wednesday, so I was in charge for the day. The students hadn’t had class since the Wednesday before, so not everyone showed up. There were 18 students, and we were able to use the computers with the batteries charge they had from Virginia. We went over the various parts of the computer using a guide from Peru. We tried several of the activities, including Maze, Speak, and Record. The students really enjoyed using the laptops for the first time. Most of the batteries lasted long enough that the students could use them for the whole class.

2010-07-11T13:39:00.000-04:00

Safe arrival

2010-07-11T13:34:00.000-04:00

My dad dropped me at the airport with 2 bags at exactly 70lbs. They made it safely to El Salvador and then to Honduras. I was asked to explain to customs what I had in my bags, but when I showed my letter from the Honduran embassy in Washington I was waved through. A visual check of all the XOs didn´t turn up any problems.

Saturday morning the teacher I will be working with and I met with a business leader who is leading the effort for a national deployment in Honduras. We had a very profitable discussion. We talked about many ideas as well as specifics of getting 11 more XOs and installing an internet connection. I plan to go to San Miguelito tomorrow and get things set up to start working in the school. I think access to the internet will be difficult to find there, but I plan to write updates and save them on my computer until I have an opportunity to post them.

Off to Honduras

2010-07-10T08:15:00.000-04:00

Putting the last touches on and ready to go! Thanks Jen!

2010-06-19T02:41:00.000-04:00

Another XO!

2010-06-19T02:29:00.000-04:00

A fellow Peru intern contributed his XO from last summer. It just arrived today. That means I have 13 XOs in hand, 2 in Honduras already, and 2 more promised soon- a total of 17. A big thanks to a dear friend who bought one of these XOs off ebay to donate to the project. I talked with the Honduran teacher at the school, and she thinks that 20 households are represented at the school. It would be great to have a laptop for each home.

I purchased 18 mice for the children to use. I also bought a few tools in case we have to do some repairs. I still need to buy some replacement parts so that there is something to make repairs with. I also bought an LED light that plugs in to a USB port (just for fun) and 3 calculators. Thanks for reading my blog. Your comments are very encouraging.

Preparations

2010-06-15T03:09:00.000-04:00

There are a number of items that are on my "To Do" list. I am still checking with the teacher about getting electricity to the school. It seems that the supplies have been purchased and the next step is installation. I certainly hope that happens in the next month. Also I talked with the teacher about how many households are represented. Since I don't have one laptop for each of the 30 students, I would like to have one for each house. There are between 17 and 20 houses, so the 14 laptops I have come up a little short. Any additional donations would be welcome.

I want to update the operating system (again) on all the laptops. I need to see if there are any other activities or ebooks that I want to add. Also, I need to purchase spare parts- batteries and power cords. Then I need to take all steps possible to get the laptops through customs without any charges.

I have purchased two books to learn about Scratch http://scratch.mit.edu/ and two to learn about Python. I also attended the Realness Summit where I met many people helping children to get access to and use XO laptops in locations spread across the globe. I try to join online meetings once or twice a week- sometimes in English and sometimes in Spanish, to learn from others who have projects in place or are planning projects similar to mine. Soon it will be time to "just do it."

XOs in Honduras

2010-02-20T00:31:00.001-05:00

I just spent 5 short days in Honduras. On Monday I had the opportunity to go to two elementary schools and show 2 XOs to the students. I left the XOs with two teachers. I hope to return in the summer and have many more XOs for the students. Here are few photos.

OLPC Peru

2009-06-13T22:02:00.000-04:00

Greetings from Peru. Check out Lee's blog for stories, pictures and a few videos about the OLPC intern program.
http://leeisinperu.blogspot.com/

Thanksgiving Celebration

2007-11-21T00:19:00.000-05:00

Our school has a very nice dinner and awards ceremony to celebrate Thanksgiving. It was great to meet the families of some students. We even had a book fair.

2007-11-21T00:17:00.000-05:00

ESOL workshop

2007-11-10T11:24:00.000-05:00

Attending a workshop this morning inspired me to start my own blog. I want to make the most of what technology offers. I need to start using a blog to get better at it.