Updates from the field
Hi David
Just to give you a quick update. we are now up and running at Patukae and everything was working bang on time. it was out this morning but when we needed it connectivity was available. Brian showed me some graphs and it seems that someone has been downloading mp3s and other files ( thats where most of the bandwidth has gone ) , since no one was using it at Patukae yesterday or at Uepi he was not sure who was maxing the bandwidth out.
we are going to concentrate on the lesson plans. a strong idea that is forming is that we take the kids and teachers for a bush walk with cameras with indigenous knowledge expert. vincent vanghuni who is very knowledgable. and form a lesson plan that way and of course identifying and talking about different species on the way.
one of the dicussions that came up was the need to expand the olpc laptop, i said that possibly what could be used as evidence is our mutual work with the wiki as a very local need.
i think i have also found some young guys who can also help with some of the translations of the wiki menu/terms
off to a planning session now
cheers, Teanau
Hi David
we had a session with tony from the curriculum division yesterday along with aseri. and people found that it was easier and faster for them to start the lesson plans in Marovo, facilitated mainly in Marovo and Pidgin with some english, using the template that tony brought up - they then will be translated into english - of which we can pass onto you for final editing. the lesson plans are being done on paper. we have so many new people, that im taking a few steps back to do wiki formatting again. i will work with the people you had at the first workshop and get them confident so that they can in turn teach the next lot comming in along with the others here. we have them in the bush at the moment with indigenous knowledge expert vincent vanguini - i have picked the ones who are more proficient with the wiki to use the cameras. and then ill do some small group work with them on uploading images that sort of thing. and then we'll do some big group work and ill givem them two or three teachers each to reinforce basic wiki skills. we also have a history first. we have been working on new ict terms in the marovo language which they have been enjoying immensely with very interesting discussions. one of them remarked that it was like when the bible was first translated with the first converts and that they were first converts to computers. very interesting stuff
cheers, Teanau
