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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>From <a href="http://www.olpcnews.com/">http://www.olpcnews.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div style='mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-left:solid #00CC00 6.0pt;
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<h2 style='margin-top:0in;background:white;border:none;padding:0in'><b><font
size=4 color="#00cc00" face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:15.0pt;
color:#00CC00;font-weight:bold'><a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/academia/one_laptop_per_child_premature_scaling.html">One
Laptop Per Child and Premature Scaling</a><o:p></o:p></span></font></b></h2>
</div>
<h3 style='margin-top:0in;background:white'><i><font size=1 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:9.0pt;color:#333333;font-style:italic'>Posted
on July 20, 2007 by Robert B. Kozma in <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/" title="">Commentary</a>: <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/commentary/academia/" title="">Academia</a>, <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/people/" title="">People</a>: <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/people/negroponte/" title="">Negroponte</a>, <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/" title="">Hardware</a>: <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/hardware/production/" title="">Production</a> <o:p></o:p></span></font></i></h3>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><a href="http://robertkozma.com/index.html"><font color="#36414d"><span
style='color:#36414D;text-decoration:none'><img border=0 width=199 height=174
id="_x0000_i1025" src="cid:image001.jpg@01C7CB1F.94092340"
alt="olpc robert kozma"></span></font></a><br>
</span></font><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>Students in <st1:place
w:st="on">Latin America</st1:place></span></font><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>Prior to
becoming an independent consultant, advising government and non-governmental
agencies and corporations on the use of technology to support developing
countries, I was a <a href="http://robertkozma/publications/html">professor and
research scientist</a> for thirty years. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>I did a
considerable amount of research on the impact of technology on teaching and
learning. I also developed educational software for the Macintosh.
Consequently, I can attest that empirical data are the <i><span
style='font-style:italic'>sin qua non</span></i> of both scientific research
and engineering design. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>Scientists
posit their theories as testable hypotheses and conduct experiments to validate
their propositions. Engineers design artifacts to achieve goals or solve
problems. They test out these designs on a small scale and refine them before
implementing on a large scale. Collecting test data is a standard practices in
both fields.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>But
apparently Professor Negroponte doesn't follow these standard engineering or
scientific practices, at least when it comes to OLPC. Without the benefit of a
single study in support of their efficacy, Professor Negroponte feels that
developing nations should spend hundreds of millions of dollars to purchase
millions of XO computers to hand out to its students. At a <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/implementation/plan/implementation_miracle.html">meeting
of the Inter-American Development Bank</a>, he claimed that developing nations:
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'>". . . need to do things which isn't futzing around and
moving deck chairs. And they can spend the next five years planning. But that's
not what they should do. They have to take action. They have to take big
action. To do a pilot project is ridiculous!"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'>Now, the suggestion that drew Professor Negroponte's ire at the
IADB meeting was a rather modest one. It was made by Dr. Andrew Zucker, a
former colleague of mine at SRI's Center for Technology in Learning. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>Having done
extensive research in on 1-to-1 computing in U.S. schools, he suggested that
educators in developing countries would do well to start with a pilot program
and test the use of laptops in schools against defined metrics before rolling
them out to a larger group. Professor Negroponte disagreed with him. He was
even more forceful in his distain of pilot tests <a
href="http://www.olpctalks.com/nicholas_negroponte/negroponte_ted_speech.html">at
TED 2006 when he claimed</a> about the OLPC:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><a
href="http://news.com.com/2300-1041_3-6175025-8.html?tag=ne.gall.pg"><font
color="#36414d"><span style='color:#36414D;text-decoration:none'><img border=0
width=200 height=226 id="_x0000_i1026" src="cid:image002.jpg@01C7CB1F.94092340"
alt="Nigeria OLPC"></span></font></a><br>
</span></font><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'><a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/nigeria/nigerian_school_laptop.html">OLPC
Nigeria press event</a></span></font><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'>". . . this is not something you have to test, the days of
pilot projects are over. When people say 'Well, we'd like to do three or four
thousand in our country to see how it works.' Screw you, go to the back of the
line and someone else will do it. Then when you figure out that this works then
you can join as well."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'>I am glad to hear that some countries are thinking of conducting
pilot tests, despite Negroponte's reproach. But these have to be <a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/sales_talk/countries/south_africa_pacific_pilot.html">something
more than a press event</a> when XO machines are given to groups of children as
the cameras roll. And they have to be something more than just testing the
robustness of the hardware and operating system. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>The kind of
test that Dr. Zucker and I have in mind would involve the introduction of the
XO into a small sample of schools and classrooms in a country. Children and
teachers would actually use them for at least several months, if not an entire
school year. OLPC researchers would observe the teachers and students
periodically and collect data on the extent to which the computers are used,
the ways they are used, the artifacts that students create with them, and the
problems they encounter as they do so. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>The observed
data would be compared to a pre-specified set of desired behaviors related to
student interaction with the machine and with each other and to a set of
desired learning outcomes - the kinds of things the OLPC has in mind when they
say the XO is an education project and the kinds of results that would make
governments feel that their investment paid off. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>Given the
"openness" of the project, these findings should be publicly shared
with the larger development and educational community. If the behaviors and
outcomes are on target, it's ready for full implementation. But if they fall
short of the desired set or if the students and teachers encounter significant
problems, then the hardware, software, or enabling conditions would need to be
re-engineered and retested. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>This cycle of
testing and retesting increases the likelihood of success during a full-scale
implementation. Final testing by independent researchers would assure that the
results were not unintentionally skewed by the OLPC researchers.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333"
face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";
color:#333333'><a
href="http://proyecto-ceibal.blogspot.com/2007/06/bbc-mundo-una-computadora-por-gur-la.html"><font
color="#36414d"><span style='color:#36414D;text-decoration:none'><img border=0
width=200 height=232 id="_x0000_i1027" src="cid:image003.jpg@01C7CB1F.94092340"></span></font></a><br>
</span></font><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:9.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'><a
href="http://www.olpcnews.com/countries/uruguay/">OLPC XO's in Uruguay</a></span></font><font
size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span style='font-size:10.5pt;
font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>To do
otherwise is both contrary to standard practice and irresponsible. Countries
that adopt OLPC without pilot testing are in effect conducting a nation-wide
experiment. It is a roll of the dice. If the OLPC predictions are correct, the
nation and its children win. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>Of course,
had they conducted a pilot test first, they would have also won. Indeed the
probability that they would win increases dramatically; it just would have
taken a little longer and cost a little more than without the test. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>On the other
hand, if the grand national experiment fails, it is developing countries and
their children that are least able to manage the consequences of this failure
or recover from the expended costs. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p style='background:white'><font size=2 color="#333333" face="Trebuchet MS"><span
style='font-size:10.5pt;font-family:"Trebuchet MS";color:#333333'>This makes
Professor Negroponte's dictums not only irresponsible but unethical.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Arial'>_____________________</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 color=blue face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;color:blue'> <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>Robert B. Kozma, Ph.D.</span></font><font
color=blue><span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>International Consultant</span></font><font
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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=blue face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:blue'>Technology in Service of Developing
Countries</span></font><font color=blue><span style='color:blue'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
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