Assessment Overview of One Laptop per Child Projects One Laptop per Child Foundation Learning Group Zehra Hirji, Research, Design, and Implementation Specialist Barbara Barry, Director of Learning, OLPC Middle East Robert Fadel, Vice President of International Development Shannon Gavin, Research, Design, and Implementation Specialist September 2010 1 Abstract Future recommendations for OLPC based As a relatively new organization, One on evaluations thus far most often concern Laptop Per Child awaits in-depth longitudinal technology improvements related to battery assessments of the program from our life of the computers, hardware concerns, partners. Existing literature, however, and facilitating software development. In produced by partners and independent many remote regions of the world where organizations, provides insight into the initial OLPC operates, limited access to electricity stages of various OLPC projects throughout and Internet connectivity can directly impede the world. Evaluations of programs on the achieving the full potential of learning ground have been coordinated by a host of opportunities with the XO laptop. OLPC has diverse organizations with the assistance of enabled a solar panel and hand crank to government actors and groups. Through the counteract energy concerns and continues to variety of different mechanisms for evaluations address technical issues as they are reported we have gained understanding of how the back from distributions. Beyond the technical, XO laptops adapt to work for children in other suggestions largely focus on improving different environments; each evaluation report capacity and knowledge building programs reflects the rich diversity of each community for teachers and children alike. Calls for experience. more training, greater coordination in XO distributions, and overall preparation plans The methodology, timing and conduct of for adopting XOs to classroom use have been the evaluations have been affected by the strongly voiced. Families and community variations in project implementation models: members have also voiced a desire for more affirming the individualized approach in the training to assist children at home and in evaluation process so as to reflect program school. Fortunately, however, the ease of implementation based on the country and learning and education in the informal sector region of deployment. Therefore, the findings has been flourishing. Community feedback and from existing evaluations range from anecdotal the demand for more training programs is a to quantitative, when addressing the specifics large indicator that the laptops are contributing of child usage, family impact, and teacher to the active community engagement and experience. The findings are also largely broader societal interest in the future of positive in nature; the impact on childhood childhood education. education has been considered successful overall, with the use of laptops at home and in Monitoring and evaluation of the wide array the classroom, and we eagerly await more data of OLPC programs is an exciting learning on specific improvements by subject, by region, opportunity for OLPC. We look forward to and by timing and context. continued work with our partners to understand how technology creates educational change. 2 Objectives of Overview One Laptop per Child (OLPC) serves to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. It aspires to motivate and engage children in their own education through opportunities to learn, share, and collaborate and thereby transform the world of childhood education. Founded as recently as 2005, The OLPC project, launched out of MIT’s Media Lab, has already managed to impact millions of children with its mission to enhance childhood education through technology for the most disadvantaged children in the world. As a relatively new organization, the One Laptop Per Child program has had few longitudinal assessments of its impact, however, the existing literature provides expansive in-depth insight into the various OLPC projects throughout the world. Through the variety of different mechanisms for evaluations we have been able to gain further understanding of how the XO laptops transform and adapt to work for children in different environments. From the method of evaluation, to the style of interviews for community members, or the data analysis based on varying community needs, cultural and environmental phenomena have been adequately addressed in the existing literature, which serves as a rich tool for OLPC learning on various projects. 3 Children in the Rafah Refugee Camp celebrate the arrival of XO laptops in Gaza. UNRWA, The United Na- tions Reliefs and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees, OLPC’s official partner in Gaza, organized an exciting launch event! This OLPC report serves to review and various communities with respect to learning summarize the successes and challenges with the XO and transforming environments of of OLPC programs in different contexts, education. This report also hopes to serve as a and provide familiarity on existing external resource for activating methods for improving observations and evaluations of OLPC monitoring and evaluation based on the programs. OLPC does not initiate or conduct existing initial evaluations. Currently lacking official evaluations of XO projects in various more robust longitudinal studies, we hope to global communities, but rather seeks now inspire efforts for research on new and existing to aggregate the findings in order to aid all OLPC projects. of our partners and to drive future OLPC design, research, and development efforts. The conceptual underpinnings for determining We recognize the distribution of 2 million XO the learning opportunities of OLPC programs computers in 40 countries as an unprecedented are based in furthering the access, quality, opportunity to understand what happens and relevance of childhood education and when young children are given ownership development. The OLPC program strives to of a connected, robust, low-power tool for provide access to education and connectivity learning. We connect local and national in remote environments, societies in conflict, OLPC stakeholders in international childhood and developing communities at large with education for evaluating progress and the mission to transform the trajectory of development, and use the existing literature education. Linking children to uninterrupted as an important learning tool for the future access to ducation and global networks can be of OLPC. By closely examining the variety of an essential tool for international development different contexts in which OLPC operates, and global stability, and most importantly the we glean insight on the different issues facing prosperity of the world’s children. Beyond 4 access, ensuring quality and improving specific societies; enabling communities to standards is the next step to creating robust access and create content that is relevant to educational opportunities for the world’s most their needs, their history, their language, and disadvantaged children, recognizing that their context, and two, ensuring that the XO the status quo is completely unsustainable. laptop is relevant to providing consistent access Simply providing school structures and hours to education and preserving its status as an of attendance is not enough. Guidance and indispensable learning tool in the way that it communal support for the learning and well- transforms, galvanizes, and evolves the entire being of children demands global sharing of underpinnings of our global system of childhood new ideas, findings, and practices such as education. those of the One Laptop Per Child Foundation in order to support the intellectual and social Methods of Assessment for OLPC Programs abilities of children and provide them with an avenue for success. Additionally, a commitment The various external approaches to evaluation to relevance addresses the importance of have employed a diverse array of methods for promoting the goals and visions of the OLPC gauging the success of XO laptop programs in mission, designed for “collaborative, joyful, different schools and communities. Empirical self-empowered learning”. Maintaining analysis, data collection, focus groups, and relevance is key on two important levels: one, general qualitative analysis are merely a few ensuring that the XO laptop is relevant to of the approaches discussed in the existing the classroom and community values within literature on OLPC evaluations. Figure 1 : The current global distribution of XO laptops across the world. Detailed information on each distribution can be found at www.laptop.org/en/children/countries/ 5 When considering qualitative analysis, evaluators embarked upon formal and informal methods of data collection in order to gain a robust understanding of the effects of the QuickTime™ and a decompressor programs. In Uruguay, evaluations took a are needed to see this picture. creative twist, where evaluators developed a sticky-note activity for younger children, actively engaging them to write key words about how the XO affected their education and their attitudes towards learning. Children were Figure 2 : ‘Stick-Note’ Children’s excited to discover the best word that they felt Evaluation Activity Uruguay encapsulated their XO experiences in different