Posted on January 15, 2008 by Guest Writer in Content: Games, Content: Localization

I was fortunate to get involved this October with a computer project at a farm school in rural South Africa. This school had 12 computers for 185 students. None of them were XO laptops. Leaving out the R (reception or pre-school class) this left more than 100 students to share 12 systems.

OLPC classroom
A better usage model

Some immediate observations.

First, the native language of these children is Xhosa. They are at best EFL learners of English. With 12 computers, the children were limited to one hour per week of computer use.

The usage was dependent on English-speaking volunteers mostly from Europe. The volunteers mind-set was that the children's use should be productive (i.e. each child works on the task du jour) A typical session lasted a half-hour and finished when the child completed the task.

The computer labs rules explicitly prohibited playing of games. However, the computers had Mavis Bacon which included some typing games. This was the most popular activity for the children. The stated goal was for the children to become computer literate (meaning they know how to use Microsoft Office) as a byproduct of educational tasks (primarily topics on environment).

OLPC has several things right.

First, the computer is available to the child 24/7. Second, the child is expected to explore the machine, not complete tasks. Third, the screen has simple, colorful graphics. Fourth, the OLPC laptop supports languages other than English (although not as completely as it should given that almost all of the contributors are native English speakers).

I believe activities which support learning English must be a high priority. Second, activities which support reading and writing in the child's native language is critical. For example, I am trying to think how one could develop tutorials on ' how the computer works' which would communicate with minimal text (video, slideshow, simple localization of the necessary text, etc.) Third, to support these requirements we need text-to-speech capabilities in the native languages (a really tough one).

OLPC karaoke
XO laptop karaoke already?

OLPC Karaoke

In many Asian countries (e.g. Philippines), karaoke is immensely popular. I would like to see a reader on OLPC which shows the text - with audio (recorded reader or text-to-speech) synchronized with text highlighting.

This would be an effective tool to teach young readers in their native language as well as English. I have not had a chance to try TamTam, but I would also like to see tools which allow the child to make her own karaoke song - e.g recording a native folksong (or original creation) with an optional vocal track. The tool should allow the song to be shared with the original vocal or a sing-along.

Anyway, I'm hooked. I hope OLPC can meet it's goal of placing 12,000,000 machines a year.

Tony Anderson has his G1G1 order in, but doesn't expect it before mid-January. In the meantime he's trying to use the sugar-jhbuild with Ubuntu.

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Posted on December 17, 2007 by Guest Writer in Content: Localization, Software: Localization

Nepal olpc art
Limbu script on OLPC XO

And your Spanish, Hindi, Romanian, Russian, and Urdu Pootles do too. OLPC is using Pootle to help adapt the XO laptop for use in non-English-speaking countries.

Are you anxiously awaiting your laptop and still wishing you could do more? Why not spend a few minutes a day browsing a list of words in English and suggesting translations into another language, like Nepali?

How it works is that you go to the localization server for the One Laptop per Child Project. Register by creating a username and password and providing your name and email address. Choose the languages you wish to contribute to, and then the specific file of the project, like "XO Core" or "Terminology."

Pick a word from the list on the left and write a suggestion in the box on the right. Clicking "Suggest" sends the translation to the server. If your Amharic is rusty, and you're not quite sure about your suggestion, check the box beside the word "Fuzzy" to let the program know that too.

OLPC put out a call for volunteers to assist with the work at Pootle. You don't have to be a registered translator or certified expert. Right now every language needs work, some more than others. The Korean "Terminology" file is 100 percent untranslated. The Arabic "Packaging" file is about half done.

And for those thinking only technical words are needed--well, they're not. In the "XO Bundled" file, they need translations suggested for words like "Run," "Stop," and "Play." So here is another way you can help make sure there is one laptop usable per child everywhere in the world.

This story was submitted by Eden Krehbiel, a fan of the OLPC project and the Give 1, Get 1 program. You too can write for OLPC News today!

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Posted on December 14, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Use Cases: Community, Content: Localization

When I first heard about the Our Stories project, where children with One Laptop Per Child computers can collect, preserve, and share online the stories of their cultures and communities, I thought the effort laudable, but not all that different from the many other culture-recording efforts.

First there would be a big hoopla over the site, and we'd all ready glowing stories form children, and then the whole thing would fade away as there would not be any direct feedback or support to the children submitting the stories.

Then I read the BBC's glowing OLPC review by a 9 year old. Listen to how Rufus Cellan-Jones was given an XO laptop and immediately met up with children from around the world:

But the real surprise came one evening, when Rufus asked me to explain what his friends were telling him on the laptop. I thought those imaginary childhood friends from years back must have returned. But I went and had a look - and it was true - he appeared to be chatting online. So how had he managed that?

"You go on "neighbourhood", then you go to the chat thing. You go on Nigeria and you chat to them."

But why, if he was online with the children at the Nigerian school I had visited, were they sending messages in Spanish? I decided he must be linking up with one of the South American schools taking part in the OLPC project but we still aren't sure quite how that is happening.

Now imagine children sharing their culture, their stories in real time, through OLPC video conferencing, these exchanges captured in the Sugarized journal and then uploaded to Our Stories' global repository for wider consumption and celebration.

Children sharing stories across an XO laptop-enabled planet.

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Posted on July 30, 2007 by Guest Writer in Countries: Argentina, Software: Localization, Content: Localization, Software: Operating System

OLPC Tuquito's team began to work at 1st January of 2007, with the knowledge acquisition about the project One Laptop Per Child and then with development educative applications, writing documentation in Spanish, and testing XO in different operating systems as Tuquito GNU/Linux for OLPC.
olpc Argentina
We divided in different areas to work: Tests of the prototype; Documentation; Development and programming; and Adaptation of Tuquito GNU/Linux for its operation in the XO. The principal target were:Write documentation in spanish.
  • Test and install different version of Tuquito in XO. Testing performance.
  • Development educative applications.
  • Awareness and teacher qualification.
  • I am Pablo Frias, staff of Tuquito GNU/Linux, and here is a summary of project progress.

    First we testing OLPC in software emulator, as Qemu or VMWare. This way can us to test and to learn Sugar (front-end) in a PC desktop. Today there's an OLPC book in Spanish, which speaking all technical aspect in software and hardware from XO machine.

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    Posted on May 23, 2007 by Guest Writer in Software: Applications, Content: Localization

    Nepal olpc art
    A little OLPC wixipedia?
    If new here, see laptop v. education or faith v. miracles.

    There is fear that OLPC deploys the cart before testing the horse. There are questions about teachers and localized educational content. Critics say learning learning is untested theory.. this idea that curious, creative, communicative kids will somehow construct learning troubles doubters. These are reasonable concerns. So can we actually test "learning learning"? Even push toward the edge of teacherless kids constructing localized educational content? I, Duke Crawford, believe we can.

    If we narrow focus to language learning, we can test the theory in practice. How? Millions of the laptops ship soon and in many languages: Arabic, Yoruba, Hausa, Kinyarwanda, Kiswahili, French, Portuguese, Spanish. Kids may use these machines to learn some English, too. So you may dare describe these laptops as a ''multilingual'' education project.

    As these kids interact, some may want to grow bilingual, some even multilingual. How will the children learn language? Some may want instruction. Others may want construction. For these, let's provide a simple tool, maybe even with no explanation, then test the results.. Let the kids try learning language learning. Let them wixi.

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    Posted on May 18, 2007 by Guest Writer in Use Cases: Education, Content: Localization, Countries: USA

    olpc greece
    All Greek OLPC to me
    At this moment, I don't know whether the OLPC will exist next month. I also cannot predict whether Intel will continue with their Classmate project if the XO is abandoned. But I am an optimist and I will assume that, starting next year, millions of children in the developing world will take a laptop home and will have some form of limited internet access.

    Many have questioned the added value of these laptop programs in education. To inject more substance in these discussions, I want to present a specific case of real added value. Many innovative and imaginative scenarios have been given. But, frankly, I feel unable to predict such new uses convincingly. I didn't see Google coming, nor spam, so why should I be able to see the next innovation coming?

    So I will focus on a well understood part of education. This is a part of education that I have never even seen mentioned in the discussions about these projects. I will introduce the subject with an, admittedly stale, joke:

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    Posted on March 21, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Content: Localization, Commentary: OLPC News, Software: Third Party

    Right now, the estimated 550 million North American and European Internet users dominate the online world. The 96 million Latin American, 33 million African, and 19 million Middle Eastern Internet users? All together, they are only 13% of the global world wide web adventurers. As Web 2.0 participants, they are most likely even less a percentage, removed by language and culture from the hyper-participatory "developed" world antics.

    Now image the African, South American, and Middle Eastern numbers doubling, tripling, quadrupling over the next year as millions of students come online via the Children's Machine XO due to One Laptop Per Child's efforts. With 5-10 million laptops set to be distributed in the next 12-18 months (the single largest computer monoculture ever shipped), children in the developing world will be consuming and producing educational content on a grand scale.

    What will the Internet look like? What should it look like? How will OLPC impact web design, content generation, information consumption, the entire "average user experience" online? Sugar is just the beginning of the revolution.

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    Posted on February 20, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Content: Localization, Software: Operating System, Commentary: Press, Countries: Uruguay

    Dear Daniel Olivera of UTUTO:

    Thank you for your interest in the One Laptop Per Child program. It's wonderful to have another voice in the debate around the worthy goal of improving education using information and communication technologies, such as per-student computers.

    And kudos to producing UTUTO, a "GNU/Linux distribution whose name is reminiscent of a small lizard from northern Argentina". I am sure that this operating system is an improvement to the basic Linux distribution and hopefully you've developed a user interface that is localized to your users and application and content useful to them.

    But according to your quotes in Computadoras baratas de EEUU son "dominación cultural", dice Proyecto UTUTO, you may have missed the aims and the practicalities of One Laptop Per Child in your zeal to promote UTUTO as an OS option for Children's Machine XO's in Uruguay.

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    Posted on February 19, 2007 by Wayan Vota in Sales Talk: Countries, Countries: Greece, Software: Localization, Content: Localization

    Last fall, did you head the call for Volunteers for a low-cost Greek laptop by the OLPC Greek Development Team to start localizing One Laptop Per Greek Child?
    Volunteers with the time and disposition to get involved in localising the low-cost laptop for school pupils for the Greek market, currently being developed by the international non-profit organisation "One Laptop per Child (OLPC)" on the initiative of the founder of the MIT Media Lab, Prof. N. Negroponte, are being sought by [the Secretariat for the Information Society] to localise the computer for the Greek market.
    From that call, did you join the olpc@ellak.gr mailing list?

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    Posted on September 14, 2006 by David in Prototypes: 2B1, Content: Localization, Content: Reference

    The founder of wikiHow, Jack Herrick, has posted a call for wikiHow users to select the best 1000 how to guides for inclusion on OLPC's €100 laptops. Not much news in and of itself - wiki content has been discussed on OLPC News previously - however the announcement page appears to confirm the novel approach to providing large chunks of content to a machine with a tiny amount of onboard storage; they will utilise the power of the mesh network.

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