OLPC Oceania Teacher Training Strategy

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Please find below a basic outline of teacher training for the Pacific. This will be updated as we implement and fine tune the process according to our successes and feedback.

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OLPC Oceania Teacher Training Strategy: Training Topics

Introduction to the OLPC vision

  • About OLPC - the vision, the mission, the 5 principles
  • Concepts of the technologies - learning, creating and collaborating. Understanding that this is not a laptop project
  • Constructionist learning, the concept of a learning project
  • Guided learning, the role of the teacher
  • OLPC around the world
  • OLPC Oceania
  • OLPC and this country

Introducing the XO

  • The hardware
  • The software
    • Open Source
    • Designed for children
  • Power issues
    • How to use/access power in the various circumstances
  • Sharing content
  • Sharing activities
  • The server - managing and maintaining the classroom

Introduction to Activities

  • All the activities on the XO
  • How to download new activities and remove activities
  • How to share activities
  • How to integrate XO activities into the classroom - open discussion and documentation into wiki
    • Ideas for new activities - refer to 'participating in the community'
    • Top 5 apps and how to apply in the classroom for each participant
  • Need some basic tasks to demo the power of the activities and collaboration - todo

Introduction to the Internet

  • What is the Internet?
  • Finding reputable knowledge online
  • Internet safety - child safety, spam, appropriate content, the role of teachers
    • Compare with the importance of street safety. Digital safety is no less important
  • Communicating on the Internet - email, blogs, instant messaging & chat, social networking, virtual worlds
  • Online communities - how to find them, how to get involved, good netiquette

Educational resources

Finding resources

Generating content

  • On the XO/XS - including Moodle
  • The tools for creating lesson plans
  • Public content - wikipedia, wiki commons, flickr, youtube

Evaluation

  • Discussion about what outcomes teachers/admins/parents want to see - build into template evaluation
  • Talking to the teachers about how to determine the outcomes of the XO in the classroom
  • Improvement plans for using XOs

Teacher support

  • How to find/create documentation
  • Basic troubleshooting
  • How to get answers to questions/issues
  • Participating in the community

Forums

Technical training

  • Configuration of all components (APs, server, XOs)
  • How to reimage
  • Higher level troubleshooting
  • Technical support
  • Pulling the XO apart

Parent consultation

  • What does OLPC mean for you and your child
  • Parents responsibilities
    • Looking after the laptop
    • Safety matters - charging, surfing
    • Creating rules for sharing at home
  • Signature for parents agreement

Feedback

  • Discussion with teachers/admins about what worked, what didn't

Timing of training

Allowing plenty of time for teacher training is really important, including followup training post the initial deployment. Below is a rough guide to a training schedule that could be used or improved upon.

Initial training

Day 1

  • Intro to project and the XO
  • Need to ensure there is hands on. Turning on the laptops and a couple of wow-factor tasks (including activities such as record) with the focus on the full activities run down the next day.
  • Homework task - Each participant to tell something new they found on their own

Day 2

  • Introduction to all activities
  • Homework task - Download and learn about a new activity (not Doom!)

Day 3

  • Introduction to the Internet and email
  • Education resources
  • Homework task - start a gmail account and email the training coordinator

Day 4

  • Evaluation
  • Teacher support
  • Feedback

Day 5

  • Distribution of XOs to students with teachers coordinating and doing the intro/training

The parents consultation and the admin training happen simultaneously somewhere throughout the process (before the XO distribution) and they require about only a couple of hours for the parents and up to a day for the admins depending on infrastructure complexity and admin familiarity with ICT.

Followup sessions

A follow up session is suggested a few weeks after the initial training

  • Summary of all the above - mainly led by the needs of the community
  • Discussion on issues, blockers
  • Discussion on unexpected consequences (positive and negative)
  • Discussion about progress, usefulness, how to improve

Messages

  • Remember to have fun!
  • Encourage experimentation and learning
  • Share with others - includes knowledge and documentation
  • Be prepared to learn from children
  • Child ownership
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