Laptops go a long way Around 40 kilometres from the city of Lampang a small remote village sits in a valley.
Published on October 30, 2007
Children from Ban Samkha school use their rugged laptop computers in biology field experiments.
At Ban Samkha, the beauty of nature and the traditional rural way of life have been preserved. Yet adults and children in this faraway land have not been left behind - they can get access to knowledge and learn constructively within their own environment.
Every morning the enthusiastic children wake up early to prepare for school. Apart from packing books to use in class, during the past seven months they have never forgotten to also pack their small, green laptop computers.
One Laptop per Child, or OLPC for short, is a new device which has become a part of learning for children at Ban Samkha school. No matter where they are around the village, the computers are always in their bags.
During classes the machines are a crucial tool to search for information for assignments while outside classes they are used to collect data about the environment around the area and sometimes be part of scientific experiments.
Ban Samkha school is the first pilot site in Thailand where children have a chance to use the advanced educational tools. The computers were designed by a group of researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with the hope of using them to improve education and learning skills for children around the world. Around 20 machines were donated by MIT through OLPC Thailand for a trial project.
The National Electronics and Computer Technology Centre (Nectec), as a technology organisation helping to test the machines, brought OLPC to Ban Samkha School in March and found that children in this remote area could use the computers to improve their learning.
"We brought the laptops to Ban Samkha seven months ago. From the first day the children received them they could use them by themselves while they taught one another with no need of our help," said Nectec's assistant researcher Sanya Klongnaivai, who is also the project leader to test the machines in Thailand.
Nectec is one of the founding members - apart from Darunsikkhalai School and the Institute of Field Robotics at King Mongkut University of Technology Thonburi - to initiate the OLPC Thailand project to bring the new educational tools to Thailand.
Even though the OLPC devices look very much like small notebook computers, the easy-to-use machines are not designed to be computers at all but rather a learning tool for educational purposes. Coming with graphic icons, children can learn by themselves and understand the functions needed to get into each activity in the machine. The laptops were built on the idea of offering children a new way to learn through independent interaction and exploration.
At Ban Samkha, teachers were also trained to understand the concept of OLPC and use it to help their teaching systems. The 52-year-old teacher, Srinuan Wongtrakoon, said the machines were a key tool for her students to learn both inside and outside the class. With the learning features included, they offered new opportunities for students to learn independently.
"As the machines were designed to fit in with our normal constructive way of learning, they can help our children develop and improve their thinking and learning processes," the teacher said.
The children are allowed to carry the machines anywhere they want - to and from home, on the playground or even in the forest. The machines are like companions to keep information, collect knowledge and learn.
Instead of using the normal notebooks and pencils, a group of selected primary students uses the laptops to search for information, make reports and complete assignments. In the classroom their small fingers are constantly tapping on the green rubber keyboards, typing in search words. Within a few seconds they come out with the result they want.
Outside the class, OLPC is also a crucial tool in the exploration of the environment. Along the way to Check Dam, behind the village, the machines were used to keep data about plants in the field during a biodiversity project.
While collecting the data, a nine-year-old girl found an unusual, small flower on the ground. Along with her friends, she took the laptop from her schoolbag and used it to capture a photo of the flower with a digital camera built into the machine.
"It's really useful and fun," the girl said. "Every time I find something interesting, I keep it in my machine. When I get back to school I'll find more details about things I want to understand from the Internet and I can share files and information with friends."
The laptops come with a special network adapter so they can connect to Internet access points wirelessly. Called mesh network, the network also allows each OLPC to connect with others automatically in a range of between 500 and 700 metres and this allows children to share files and do other activities as a group. In some cases, if the children are in the forest, far away from the Internet connection, they can utilise the mesh network to connect to the Internet via another OLPC terminal which is closer to an Internet access point. "This really benefits children's learning," Sanya said.
The machines also come with a variety of applications, which are called activities.
Not only do they search for information, they allow children to do many activities including mathematics, scientific experiments, drawing pictures, taking photos, playing games, chatting, writing documents, learning Logo programming and playing music.
Since the children can take the machines back home, Srinuan said their parents also had a chance to become involved with the new tools.
"The machines are not only for children," she said. "The children often use their laptops to help their parents find information. Some students have to run back to the school to get access to the Internet to search for information for their parents. After getting the result, they run back home again and show their parents the result on the screen," she said.
Srinuan said that with OLPC, a new style of learning had emerged. The teacher also hoped that new knowledge would flow into the community and this would eventually help people at Ban Samkha improve their way of life.
The new educational tools are now being tested with students at Dhammapanya School and Yotheerachsudtharam School in Nakhon Nayok province.
The trial, which is done under the HRH Princess Mahachakri Sirindhron project, involves giving 80 OLPC machines to students and teachers at the two schools. The 80 machines are part of 100 machines donated by MIT.
Asina Pornwasin
Pongpen Sutharoj
The Nation
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