The initiative
The initiative begins in early 2009:
The students of the 6th grade of the 2nd primary school in Florina and those of the 3rd grade of the junior high school of Sminthi at Xanthi region are experimenting, on a daily basis, with educational concepts and collaborative processes through the use of XO-1 student laptops. With the financial help of EEL/LAK and the coordination of Re-public 45 ΧΟ-1 laptops have been dispatched to these classes since the beginning of the school year. At the same time, the procedures for a pilot order of more ΧΟs are set, since our presentations in conferences and other events always end up with questions from teachers on how they could do the same thing in their own classes.
An open call directed to teachers/classrooms/schools:
The possibility for an order of 500 more ΧΟ-1s in 2009 results to an initial open call for participation directed to primary and junior high school teachers. In the next 3 workshops (at Thessaloniki, Athens, and Patras) on what has been done up to now and how the action will continue, approximately 60 people take part (teachers and students) so that a network of directly concerned people is created. In all the schools that sign up, via their teachers, at least one classroom is designed to work with the laptops.
See the list of teachers/classrooms/schools that are now using the ΧΟ-1.
The approach
This project includes three modules that aim at the introduction of new tools in the educational process, tools that on the other hand:
- make, through their design and use, the school lesson more collaborative
- invite the teachers, as well as the students, to learn and create through new ways for the diffusion of educational concepts
- the teacher is, always, a central point of reference but not only point of reference in the educational procedure
The three units of action include: a) the upgrade and dispatch of laptops to the participating schools, b) the collection of specifications for the creation of applications by volunteers (i.e. application for the design of graphs), c) the creation of real and virtual spaces where teachers and other participants share their experiences.
In addition, the following activities are organized:
- the local support for dealing with problems that will come up in participating schools on a regional level (i.e. through university groups, Technological educational institutes) but also the study of the project from diverse research perspectives
- the creation of simple informative procedures for the development of new educational applications and contents for the OLPC ΧΟ.
- the drafting of the basic conclusions and of the differing approaches on the use of the student laptops in the educational process
- the participation of teachers and students in Conferences for educators and technologies (Chania, April 2010, Thessaloniki May 2010, Athens and other cities June 2010)
