Laptop scheme rolls-out to Marshall Islands students

[Stacey King]

ABC RADIO AUSTRALIA Updated Tue Jun 16, 2009 4:19pm AEST
The One Laptop Per Child program is gaining momentum in the Pacific, with Marshall Islands the latest nation to adopt the educational scheme. The OLPC attempts to supply every child in less-developed areas of the world with a high-tech laptop suitable for each country's climate. The laptops have already been piloted in the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Niue, Nauru and Papua New Guinea.

Presenter: Elizabeth Parkinson
Speaker: Ian Thomson, Secretariat of the Pacific Community; Michael Hutak, Regional director of OLPC Oceania; Rangan Srikhanta, OLPC Australia executive director,

Listen: Windows Media

PARKINSON: The XO Laptop has been specially designed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for children in developing countries, living in some of the most remote environments. It's about the size of a small book with a built-in wireless connection, extremely durable and energy-efficient.

The Marshall Islands agreed to trial the laptop after they were approached by the Secretariat of the Pacific Community's Ian Thomson.

THOMSON: I've been travelling through the northern islands going through Palau, FSM and Marshall Islands, talking to them about the program and the Marshalls showed considerable interest in that and we're now working with the Ministry of Education there to see how we could implement a project.

PARKINSON: Ian Thomson manages the Pacific Rural Internet Connectivity System and OLPC Oceania projects. The Marshall Islands has joined twelve other countries in the OLPC project. The laptop will run on approximately 95 per cent less watts than a normal laptop and has been made suitable for the environment.

THOMSON: It also doesn't have a fan built into it and one of the issues in the atolls of the Marshall Islands will be salty air so salty air can't get inside the laptop to cause rusting and corrosion.

PARKINSON: Michael Hutak, Regional director of OLPC Oceania, says the local communities have met the program with great enthusiasm.

HUTAK: Initially when you bring these laptops into a community there is just elation that they finally have access to such technology.

PARKINSON: Research conducted by the OLPC shows that the laptops increase school attendance as the community level demand is strong. OLPC Australia executive director, Rangan Srikhanta, says that the rewards are multi-faceted.

SRIKHANTA: Kids are extremely engaged in the process of learning but what we are also seeing is that through additional work we have done, especially here is Australia, teachers are becoming engaged and that is what is really heart-warming.

PARKINSON: Niue already has a laptop for every child, but Michael Hutak emphasises it is not just about the technology.

HUTAK: It's all about actually, providing a catalyst and a focus for governments and educators to improve the quality of basic education in the Pacific.

PARKINSON: Countries are adopting different teaching methods with Nauru focusing on a task-based system of advancement instead of the traditional year-level system.

Ian Thomson stresses that the laptops are merely tools.

THOMSON: What we are trying to do is to give them modern learning skills, so we are trying to move away from the teacher-centric, learn-by-rote model into a student-centric, enquiry-based model so that they are developing skills to find resources and evaluate resources. So we hope that those skills will make them better suited to move up into the next levels of secondary and tertiary education.

[Marlie Rota]

I was fortunate to be part of a workshop in Sept, 08 on Knowledge Societies, where Ian Thomson & David Leeming along with Michael Hutak of OLPC were able to show us that the One Laptop Per Child concept will certainly improve the quality of basic education. There has been success stories for our Pacific countries that have piloted these 'special' laptops, and here is a link to one such story - http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPC_Solomon_Islands. Fiji's Ministry of Education released this on Jun 11, 09 -

One laptop per child

The Ministry of Education on behalf of the Government of Fiji is taking part in the One Laptop Per Child [OLPC] initiative and will take part in a national implementation programme as part of the OLPC regional programs.

The senior staff of the Ministry in consultation with representatives from relevant educational institutions and agencies is in the process of developing an implementation strategy which aims to commence and pilot selected schools by January 2010.

The Ministry of Education is embracing the project because it is a relatively low-cost way to have a material impact on children’s education and their future and the future of society.

OLPC opens up new opportunities to learn by doing (by searching out information, evaluating it and turning it into knowledge).

The XO laptop is the first generation laptop from OLPC: a very low-cost, child-friendly laptop computer.

Computer Labs are generally for learning how to use computers.

With the OLPC approach; every child having a laptop uses the computer to learn.

OPLC will contribute to the greater understanding of how Information Communication Technologies [ICTs] can improve children's education.

One Laptop per Child [OLPC] is a non-profit organisation created to design, manufacture and distribute laptop computers that are sufficiently affordable to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression.

OLPC is focused on providing one laptop per child in developing nations in Central and South America, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

Emerging nations in these regions lack legacy computing systems and provide a green field for OLPC.

Minister for Education, National Heritage, Culture and Arts, Youth and Sports, Labour, Industrial Relations and Employment, Local Government, Urban Development, Housing and Environment, Mr Filipe Bole.