Teacher Training

This week marks the beginning of one of the most challening projects that I have faced so far in my internship with OLPC in Rwanda. With the massive teacher training that is supposed to take place, I'd like to provide my suggestions for how the teacher training should be structured so that we can yield the most beneficial results in the teacher that attend. Being that one of our biggest issues with teach training is the lack of interest from the teachers to integrate the XO into their daily lesson plans, it is important to focus on communicating the diverse capabilities of the XO to the teacher and allowing them to discover and note how significant of a tool the XO can be in the classroom.

That said, on the first day, teacher training would need to consist of an introduction to the XO and the mission statement of OLPC. The teacher need to understand the significance and mission behind the organization and the ultimate goal of transforming primary education worldwide. Once the teacher realize the necessity of the program and learn a bit more about OLPC's history in Rwanda, I think they will be more eager to learn about the XO and more open to incorporating it into their lessons. Then, we provide and introduction to the Sugar operating system, showing the the ultimate capabilities of programs like TurtleArt and Scratch by previewing the samples. It would also be helpful to use some time to get into trouble shooting with the XO (for example, what to do when the mouse freezes) and also general maintenance guidance. In terms of how the laptops could be distributed in the classroom, we could use this time to show teachers that each laptop has its own unique serial number, giving them suggestions on how they could disseminate and keep track of the laptops on their own. With that, our first day will probably be exhausted and we would have aready whet the appetite of the teachers.

On the second day, we could start to get into some of the fundamental and basic tools of the XO. We could introduce Browse, WikiBrowse, Write, Record, and Etoys, so that the teacher can see how the XO an be applied to even the most simple of assignments. If we can show all these programs during the first half of the second day, we will have made very good time. I understand that there is no way to give an in depth approach, but just an initial introduction will be optimal. For the second half of the second day, it would be great if we could have teacher begin to brainstorm how to include the XO into their personal lesson plans. We could split the teachers up into the three subject groups: Math, Social Science, and Scince and have them come up with some brainstorms on how the XO could be used for their individual topics. While we would hope that they could begin to come up with their own learning projects, it would be fantastic if they coud just open up their minds on how the XO could be incuded.

On the third day, we can begin to give a introdcution to programs like TurtleArt and Scratch. While I know that these programs would be impossibe to teach in a short amount of time, a broad overview would be great so that the teachers can continue to explore on their own in the future. During this day, when there are breaks, we can show the teachers how to use some of the pre-installed games like Memorize, Maze and Implode, so they can get a feel of some of the logic games that are included. On this day, we can ask the teacher to go home and look through some of their textbooks and find a way that the XO could be incorporated into some of the subject matter that they need to be teaching. We can ask the teachers to find one topic and to incorporte it into one of the programs.

I think the fourth day would be a good time to show the teachers some of the pre-existing learning projects that we have. In this way, they can have an introduction to how the XO could be included in the various topics that they are already teaching. It would be great if on this day, we asked the teachers to bring in their textbooks and the lessons plans they have created, so that they can send some more time brainstorming how the programs they have been taught in the XO could be used for their specific topics. I think the fourth day should be devoted to having the teachers discover ways that the XO can be taught in parallel to their lessons. In this way, we can ensure longevity to our teacher training and to make sure that the teachers are using the laptops in the classroom.

On the fifth day, we can divide the teachers into the three aforementioned subject groups and have them conduct classroom simulations where the rest of the teachers will act as the audience/teachers. In this way, the teachers can have more experience teaching with the XO and can attain more confidence presenting it in the classroom setting. In addition, fellow teachers can learn from each other on how to incorporate lessons into their XO teachings. In order to make it more fun and interesting for the teachers, we can have it be a competition where the best teacher presentation will be voted upon by the fellow teachers and will be given a prize. Following this, I think it is integral to have at least an hour of feedback coming from the teachers so we know what we should continue to do and what is unnecessary.