Presentation by OLPC Oceania Director Michael Hutak to Ministry of Education, Government of Vanuatu, in Port Vila,16 Aug 2011

1. One Laptop per
Vanuatu Child
Planning an OLPC Oceania
Country Trial Project in Vanuatu
Michael Hutak,
Regional Director, Oceania
One Laptop per Child Foundation
GoV, SPC, OLPC Consultation
16 August 2011, Port Vila

2. Context

3. “As the world grows smaller,
our common humanity
will reveal itself.
Pres. Barack Obama,
Inauguration Speech, 2009

4. Benefits of Investment in Education
• Increases national and lifetime
individual earnings and
productive output
• Less crime, slower population
growth, reduced poverty,
a cleaner environment
• Positive relationships between
education and:
 Health
 health of family members
 schooling of one’s children
 life choices made
 fertility choices
 infant mortality AFGHANISTAN
SOURCE: OECD

5. Benefits of Investment in ICT for Education
• builds income-generating skills
• realises productive potential
• stimulates economic development
(esp. Infrastructure – power, communications , internet)
• fosters the digital economy, e-governance, transparency
• ensures future long-term competitiveness
in an interconnected, globalised world
• SOURCE: OECD

6. Benefits of providing access to the Internet
• growth benefit in developing countries
approx 1.38 % increase in GDP for each
10 % increase in broadband penetration.
• greatest impact in remote areas without
direct access to medical specialists and
qualified teachers.
- World Bank 2009

7. New types of ‘literacy’ in the C21…
Information literacy: skills to search for, organize and analyse
information.
Critical literacy: skills to think critically, and judge the intention,
content and possible effects of written material.
Mobile literacy: skills to use mobile technology, and its non-voice
features.
Cultural literacy: the ability to understand cultural, social and
ideological values in a given context.
Legal literacy: knowledge of basic legal rights, how to protect them.
Visual literacy: interpretation of images, signs, pictures and non-
verbal (body) language.
Using ICT to Develop Literacy, 2006, UNESCO ICT in Education Programme, Bangkok

8. What role can ICT play in promoting literacy?
Using ICT to Develop Literacy, 2006, UNESCO ICT in Education Programme, Bangkok

9. Who is OLPC?

10. “An education project,
not a laptop project…
…children are our mission, not our market.”

11. One Laptop per Child

12. One Laptop per Child
OLPC MISSION:
create educational
opportunities for
the world’s poorest children

13. One Laptop per Child • Global non-profit organisation
• Developed by MIT Media Lab
• First project in Senegal in 1982
• XO laptop launched at WEF in 2006.
• First deployment Feb ‘07
• Mass production Nov ’07
• 2.4m laptops to children & teachers
• Projects in 40 countries
in 19 languages

14. One Laptop per Child OLPC Foundation
• 1-to-1 computing
• constructionist learning approach
• bridging digital divide
• champion for children and joyful learning
OLPC Association
• develops and manufactures the XO
• manages supply chain
• works w/ Govts, MOEs and partners
on deployment

15. Partners
One Laptop per Child • Governments
– Ministries
– Departments
• Development partners
– IGOs
– NGOs
• Private Sector
• Communities, Volunteers
• Academia

16. OLPC global private partners

17. OLPC global public partners

18. 2.4m kids, 40 countries, 19 languages

19. Technology: meet the XO

20. The XO laptop
• Connected, rugged,
low-cost, low-powered,
Indoor/Outdoor screen
readable in sunlight
• E-book reader
• Loaded with content and
software to foster joyful, self-empowered learning
• Created expressly for the world's poorest children,
living in its most remote environments;
• Suitable for all children, with utility for all families,
for all communities

21. The XO 1.5 (from Feb 2010)
Rugged, no moving parts, VIA processor, provides 2x
the speed, 4x DRAM memory and 4x FLASH memory.
Runs both the Linux and Windows OS.
• VIA C7-M 1GHz Ultra Low Voltage Processor
• 1GB DDR2
• 2GB/4GB/8GB NAND Flash Storage
• Compressed JFFS2 file system: ~1GB
• Integrated Wireless
• Audio and Video Support
• USB 2.0 Ports (3)
• SD Card slot
• US$209 unit cost
• US$250 TCO
SIERRA LEONE

22. XO ships with >100 approved applications
19 address literacy
22 address numeracy.
• Documents
• Chat, mail and talk
• Media creation (music,
images, video, audio)
• Programming
• Maths & Science
• Maps & Geography
• Media players
• Games
• Teacher tools
• Collections
Dual boot: Sugar (Linux) and WindowsXP PALESTINE OT

23. FOSS Educational resources

24. Approach and Impact

25. • Children lack opportunity not capability
• Learning to learn; learning by doing
• Inquiry beyond school, school hours
• Reaching the poorest, most isolated kids
• Using ICT to learn, not learning to use ICT!
a child-centred
approach
SOLOMON ISLANDS

26. Pedagogical approach

27. Five core principles
1. child ownership*
2. low ages
3. saturation
4. connection
5. free & open source
* In the Pacific,
child is custodian
SOLOMON ISLANDS

28. Educational impact
PERU
Afghanistan:
across six schools, an
average improvement
of 21.33% in standard
test results after just
2 months classroom
use.
Evaluations to date*:
• Haiti
• Uruguay
• Nepal
• Solomon Islands
• Ethiopia
• Australia
* Evaluations of One Laptop per Child,
OLPC Learning Group, 2010

29. 2
Source: Plan Ceibal – Uruguay deployment 2009; 400,000 students received laptops and took part in survey.

30. 3
Extending the time for learning
Source: Peru deployment of 500,000 laptops to children in Peru; 80% of students included in survey results.

31. Global experience

32. URUGUAY
• 400,000 XOs
• 100% saturation
• 2nd (and
largest) country
in the world to
achieve OLPC*
• Increased 1st grade
registration levels
• Lower instance of
school violence
• Decreased number of
children sans papiers
• Societal transformation
project
• * Niue was first!

33. PERU
800,000 XOs
in primary and
secondary
schools
• Challenging geography
with cultural diversity
• Remote small communities
with no access to electricity

34. RWANDA
120,000 XOs
• Established in 2009 the OLPC
Regional Learning Center
• 'Feed the mind, feed the body' –
partnership with OLPC and
World Food Program to distribute
food and laptops

35. OLPC in Asia
• Afghanistan (4k)
• Cambodia (1k)
• China (1k)
• Indonesia (550)
• Philippines (200)
• Armenia (3.5k)
• India (800)
• Sri Lanka – WB (3.6k)
• Malaysia (100)
• Mongolia (14.5k)
• Nepal – WFP (6k)
• Pakistan (500)
• Philippines (100)
• Thailand (500)
• Kyrgyzstan (>100)
• Kazakhstan (10k)
SICHUAN, CHINA

36. Pacific action

37. One Laptop per Pacific Child
Regional Partnership
provide every child
with a rugged, low-cost,
low-powered, connected
laptop, loaded with content
and software for collaborative,
self-empowered learning
Target: 700,000 kids
in Basic Education in
22 Pacific island nations.
SOLOMON ISLANDS

38. One Laptop per Pacific Child
• Focus on partnership
• Empowerment of communities
• Country-led national programmes
• Regional coord & tech assistance
• Country-to-country exchange
• Collaborative, inclusive approach
NIUE

39. SOLOMON ISLANDS
OLPC Oceania
• a coalition of global, regional, national, local and individual actors
• governments, donors, civil society, educators, academics and volunteers
• TA to countries to establish 1-to1 computing as a sustainable reality.

40. OLPC requested by the governments of:
• Fiji • Samoa*
• FSM* • Solomon Is.*
• Nauru* • Tokelau
• Niue* • Tonga*
• Palau • Tuvalu*
• PNG* • Vanuatu
• RMI • Fr. Polynesia
• Cook Is.* • Kiribati
• Marshall Is.
• New Caledonia * = active projects
Funds expended to 2010– US$2.5 million:
• OLPC donates 5000 laptops to Pacific worth US$2m
• OLPC and SPC assign resources worth US$500k.

41. >6000 XOs in 41 schools in 10 Pacific countries.
Funds expended – US$2.5 million:
OLPC donates 5000 laptops to Pacific worth US$2m
OLPC and SPC assign resources worth US$500k.

42. Pilot Phase: lessons learned
• OLPC adds value for children, communities,
countries
• aligns with Pacific goals and plans, inc. the MDGs
• High country-level demand in the Pacific
• Strong support at both political and community
• Small pilots provide an insufficient evidence base
• M&E integrated at the outset
• Broader-based TA needed to build country capacity
PAPUA NEW GUINEA

43. Pacific Education Development
Framework (2009-15)
“Preliminary results from
OLPC trials show Pacific
countries can make a
quantum leap forward in
realising goals of access,
quality and equity in education…”
SOLOMON ISLANDS

44. OLPC Policy touchstones
1990 – Convention on the Rights of the Child
2000 – Dakar Framework on Education for All
2000 – Millennium Development Goals
• MDG 1 – poverty and hunger
• MDG 2 – universal primary education
• MDG 3 – gender equality
• MDG8f – “In cooperation with the private sector,
make available the benefits of new technologies,
especially information and communications.”
2005 – Tunis Commitment to bridge the digital divide,
WSIS

45. OLPC Policy touchstones
2007 – The Pacific Plan, Pacific Islands
Forum
2007 – Pacific Regional Digital Strategy,
Pacific Islands Forum
2009 – Pacific ICT Ministerial Forum
Communique
2010 – Pacific Education Development
Framework
2010 – Framework for Action on ICT for
Development in the Pacific

46. Vanuatu policy framework
• National ICT Services Policy
• The National ICT Vision is “ICT for all”
-Goal 2: Ensure development of human resources &
institutions in the use of ICT.
Policy Statement 2: Education, Training and development systems and
facilities in the use and provision of ICT will be established and made
available to all…..objective 1,2 and 5
-Goal 4:Support achieving a healthy educated nation
Policy Statement 3:Ensure effective use and application of ICT to enhance
effective delivery of health and educational services and preserve and
enhance cultural values and language……objective 1,2,3 and 6

47. SPC’s PACRICS:
‘Every remote
internet site
is an OLPC hub’
• Small 1.8m satellite
dishes and ‘network-in-
a-box’ server allows
Internet connectivity,
WiFi networking
• Rural Internet
Connectivity Systems
are highly
complementary with
OLPC.
SOLOMON ISLANDS

48. Case Study: OLPC-PACRICS impact on 10,000 remote
rural people in the Solomon Islands
OLPC-PACRICs Site at Patukae College; Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands. Provides internet access to 9 Schools ,
1 health clinic, 16 villages; 1 resort; 6 small businesses. OLPC in 3 schools

49. Case study : Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Is.
Outcomes
• for students…’younger children in grades 1 and 2 also use laptops to
learn to type words and learn mathematics’
• for Principals and teachers…’OPLC has made learning more focused
and concentrated’. The main positive outcomes identified in the
students were ‘independent learning, sharing and collaboration and
increased motivation’
• for parents…’using the laptops improves spelling and
pronunciation….they write and then they type the word’. With these
laptops children are seen socializing and their attendance in school
has improved.
• for the community…’it has enhanced learning’ and also community
participation and support.

50. Country level coordination

51. Solomon Islands Govt Independent Evaluation:
Recommendations
1. more teacher training
2. more guidance for parents
and communities
3. adapt curriculum for
digital delivery
4. train local community in
tech support
5. address power solutions
6. provide peripherals:
printers, ‘mice’, servers
7. close involvement MOE
8. sufficient laptops for new
enrolments
9. install M&E at outset;
establish baseline data

52. OLPC Pacific deployment model: supporting sustainability
A Develop Community Awareness
•Educate population on program benefits and XO functionality
•Develop social inclusion campaigns to achieve local support
•Launch training programs to promote XO usage, including teachers
B Customize XO platform to address local needs
•Meet with officials from the minister of education to align on curriculum requirements
•Develop customized applications
•Digitize textbooks, perform translations
C Train the core team
•Government to select 'Core Team' for execution of local program (IT expertise, etc)
•Train core team in all learning and technical elements of the product and program
•Train a set of local trainers who will be sent throughout the country
D
Develop infrastructure
•Provide advisory/ support for government in development of infrastructure (Electrical, IT, network mgmt)
•Local capacity building (inventory management, logistics, distribution, maintenance, financial tracking)
•Development of Internet access and connectivity infrastructure
E
Monitoring & Evaluation
•Initial field assessment baseline study
•Monitor initial program roll out; evaluate social, academic impacts annually

53. Coordination Model: National Core Team
Cross-cutting “whole of government” approach
• Cabinet sub-committee, led at Ministerial level
• Reports to National Planning Committee
• Workplan developed at Dept Secretary level
• Five core sub-teams...
Pedagogy Team
Political Team
Logistics Team
Planning Team
Technical Team
Prime Minister Min. Treasury & Min. Education Min. Public Min. National
Finance Services Planning and Rural
Min. National Development
Min. Foreign • teacher training
Affairs Planning & Rural Min. Info and
• content, • Supply chain
Development Communications
Cabinet Min. Community curricula • shipping,
Development • localisation distribution,
• monitoring & • security, • Deployment
• National
• planning and evaluation • repairs, • Infrastructure
leadership
project maintenance • Power
• Strategy, Policy
management • Sweat Equity • Communications
and Partnerships
• Donor Relations • identifies • Connectivity
schools and
sequence of
roll-out

54. Principles for community inclusion
• The XO Laptop should be deployed through a process of community
consultation; should only proceed with assent of the entire community,
taking account of their needs and concerns; and should be fully
integrated into existing systems and tools
• Without compromising child education, access to the XO Laptop should
be available not just for the child, but the family and the community
• Communities should develop their own principles and guidance for
coordinating communal use of the XO Laptop
• Where appropriate, children should be included and encouraged to
actively participate in using the technology for whole-of-community
actions and projects
• The technology should be available to contribute to community efforts
and solve community problems and not be leveraged for private
personal profit or commercial gain
• Knowledge and data generated with the laptop is in the public domain,
and needs to be freely available and shared

55. Principles for community inclusion (cont)
• Without discouraging community-level market activity which support
sustainability – such as microfinance, technical services, spare parts
repairs and maintenance – communities should put in place
disincentives to the emergence of a secondary commercial market for
the XO.
• Communities should share local knowledge, best practices and lessons
learned with like communities and within their sub-regional, national
and regional contexts.
• Deployment should, wherever possible, proceed in alignment and
harmony with existing regional and national efforts on education for
sustainable development, and should be designed to strengthen and
enhance those efforts.
• An "end of life" program should be put in place to recover derelict
laptops to avoid environmental damage and hazard.
• An Internet Safety program should be established wherever the XO is
deployed.
- Developed for further discussion at OLPC Asia Learning Workshop,
Bangkok and SPC, August 2008

56. Vanuatu

57. Education in Vanuatu
• The 2010 Examination results for years 8 and
10 have shown that the education quality in
Vanuatu is low and need many
improvements, according to the National
Director of Education in Vanuatu Roy Obed.
• “The examination results clearly indicate that
the quality of education in Vanuatu is far
below the expected level and this is not good
enough. (Daily Post 2 Jan 2011)
• Overall literacy rate is very low(64%),as of
1999 96% attended primary education while
23% attended secondary education.

58. Vanuatu PM’s
Statement,
• lipsum Sept. 2010
• “The freedom to
connect is like the
freedom of
assembly, only in
cyberspace.”

59. Vanuatu PM’s
Statement,
Sept. 2010

60. ICT Courses in Vanuatu
• Areas that offer ICT Courses: WSB , CNS , USP ,
most secondary schools.
• Case study : Wan Smol Bag (OLPC)
21 XOs were donated to WSB in 2008 to help facilitate with the ongoing
computer classes and also increase with the current number of
computers. Facilitators report students were helped a lot in their
writing, spelling, reading, and pronunciations with the help of the
audio and writing and different activities installed in the laptops. These
simple activities has improved the literacy of most youths and most
especially children with the age of 6 and upwards.

61. Regional Assistance

62. Pacific dev partners
Australia SPC, PIFS
New Zealand ITU
Japan ADB
China UNESCO
Taiwan World Bank
USA UNDP
European Union UNICEF
Corporates, HNW

63. US backs OLPC in Nth Pacific Compact countries,
July 2011

64. USP signs MOU with OLPC, July 2011

65. USP signs MOU with OLPC, July 2011

66. Community and teacher online training

67. OLPC Pacific Pool
What is it? How can Donors help?
• The Pacific Pool (PP) is a standing stock of 5,000 XOs in the • Support the establishment of the Pacific Pool
region to feed country deployments in a timely manner • Assume the role of Lead Coordination Agency, partnering
• Laptops can be despatched to countries when they have with SPC and OLPC Oceania
achieve capacity and readiness to undertake an OLPC trial • Finance the purchase of 1000 XO laptops (approx US$210k)
with sustainability, in terms of: to “fill the pool”
– teacher training, • Seek matching seed-fund commitments from other
– IT skills development agencies to establish a pool of 5000 laptops.
– content development
– community preparedness.
• The PP would feed countries which are focused on trialing
and scaling up, as part of a regional effort.
• The PP would not feed small ad hoc projects
• Inventory in the PP would be maintained at a level to ensure
machines are always available for deployment when they are
needed.
• The PP enables countries to come onstream with OLPC in a
more timely manner than at present, where there is a 4-5
month lag in delivery due to a long pipeline of orders from
the rest of the world.
• The PP would be managed and maintained operationally by a
Lead Implementing Agency.
• The Secretariat of the Pacific Community would assume this
role as OLPC Oceania’s Deployment Partner in the Pacific
• The PP needs seed-funding by Pacific development partner
organisations to become established.
• The PP needs a Lead Coordination Agency to address
resource mobilisation.

68. XS Server Partner
What is it? How can Donors help?
• The Pacific XS School Server is the heart of every • Partner with the OLPC Oceania Technical Working Group
OLPC school • Support the provision of an XS School Server for every
• The XS School Server is a software implementation OLPC school in countries conducting an OLPC Oceania
that can be installed on almost any modern PC. Country Trial**
• Every OLPC School needs an XS Server to: • Support capacity building in Pacific countries to:
– Enable children to save their files and work from – Train technical staff to install and configure the XS Server
the XO laptop – Develop a standard body of content appropriate to their
– Distribute wireless internet connectivity among XO schools that will be loaded on each server
users
– Provide cyber-safety and cyber-security controls for
educators
– Store appropriate digital education materials drawn
–
from “Open Educational Resources”
Run Moodle*
OLPC School Network
• As a repository of digital resources, the School Server
is of intrinsic value to a school, whether it has OLPC
laptops present or not.
• OLPC Oceania Technical Working Group needs
an international agency to “own” the Pacific XS
Server
* Moodle is a free, open-source PHP web application for producing
modular internet-based courses that support a modern
pedagogy. It is the standard e-learning teaching tool the world
over.
** An OLPC Oceania Country Trial is an implementation model for
Pacific countries to test OLPC in their country, supported by
regional technical assistance provided by the OLPC Oceania
Tecnhical Working Group
See: http://www.box.net/shared/nj7y91uh5j

69. Conclusion

70. Better quality, value-adding
• Catalytic effect on governments to deliver better quality education
• (by) creating community demand for better quality
• (while) mobilising resources and partnerships to meet demand
• adds value for children, countries, communities and donors
COOK ISLANDS

71. OLPC adds value – for children
• learning to learn (constructionism)
– “using ICT to learn, not learning to use ICT”
• better quality basic education, better teaching
• access to latest curricula, the world’s info, and
culture
• thousands of books online
• opportunity to contribute themselves
• skills for lifelong learning (information literacy)
• protection of their own culture and language
• extension of time spent learning
• bringing new skills and knowledge home

72. OLPC adds value – for communities
For remote communities, OLPC opens up
access to:
• govt services
• telemedicine
• health and nutrition info & edu
• microfinance
• markets and market data
• weather info, disaster and emergency
preparedness and response
• will help arrest urbanisation

73. OLPC adds value – for countries
• Unlock human resources the productive capacity;
• Drive dev. of knowledge and skills economy
• stimulate new jobs and markets in hardware and
software support, maintenance, repairs, spare parts
• Catalytic effect on govts to extend power and ICT
infrastructure
• kickstarts e-commerce, e-government, microfinance,
microcredit markets
• support livelihoods w/ new channel for rural and
remote poor to access critical information

74. OLPC adds value – for donors
• Alignment with global,
regional and national
agreements, plans and
strategic frameworks
• Country-led and driven
• More regional cooperation,
integration and thus security

75. We need to know...
 Does it work for children?
 Does it work for teachers
and families?
 Does it work for Vanuatu?
 Will it scale?
We need to gather the
evidence to answer these
questions
We owe it to our children –
and to their future – to
find out
SOLOMON ISLANDS

76. Next steps...
 Country Core Team
 Curriculum & Content
 Resource Mobilisation
 Teacher training
 Connectivity
 Power
 Identify Trial Schools
 Grass roots
engagement
SOLOMON ISLANDS

77. Painting created using the XO by 8yo child from Gaire, PNG, 2008.
Painted on the first day the child received his laptop

78. Thank you.
www.laptop.org
http://olpcoceania.blogspot.com