Teach [+] Tech [=] Nexus

The XOs are coming. The goal: To provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. The vision: Create a laptop computer for children that costs $100. More importantly, this laptop is designed to work in rural areas, even hostile climates. They run open-source software and can connect to the Internet or each other through a mesh network. It is user-powered or plugs into a solar adapter or AC.

In the beginning, the laptops cost more, but we can get involved.

Give 1 Get 1

Starting November 12, One Laptop Per Child will be offering a Give 1 Get 1 Program for a brief window of time in North America. For $399, you will be purchasing two XO laptops—one that will be sent to empower a child to learn in a developing nation, and one that will be sent to your child at home. To give a laptop today or to sign up for a reminder about our upcoming Give 1 Get 1 program starting November 12, visit xogiving.org.

Features

Video camera, microphone, headphone jack, speakers, flash hard drive, integrated 802.11b/g wireless Internet, USB ports and an SD card slot. Check out the XO's specifications.

The estimated product lifetime is at least five years. To help ensure such durability, the machines are being subjected to factory testing to destruction, as well as in situ field testing by children.

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I've signed up to participate in the first release. I hope that other SCC staff will be interested as well. Wouldn't it be fun to gather on the quad and mesh for a flex activity?

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3AM on November 12, 2007 - I've placed my order for 'give one get one.' The OLPC offer closes on November 26th.

Barbara Davis-Lyman (Psychology/Sociology) stopped by today to brush up on word processing and email skills. While we were talking, she mentioned comments shared from Marybeth Buechner (Biology @ CRC) regarding tech savvy students might lack the evaluation and analysis skills from online resources. Here is the message Barbara passed on:

A recent article from the Faculty Resource Network notes that the ubiquitous use of technological tools by our "millennial" students doesn't mean that they have the intellectual tools to analyze data or judge the validity or reliability of the information that they obtain from the sources on the Internet (1).

Over 90 % of US school children under 17 who use the Internet use it for schoolwork and many say it is the major source of research information for school reports. The millennial college students have been using the computer since they were very young; 20% have been computer users since they were 8 years old or younger. Nearly three-fourths of today's college students use e-mail every day. (2) There can be little doubt that we have a technology focused student population, at least in some senses.

In spite of integration of technology into their everyday lives, the evidence suggests that high school and college students aren't particularly good at evaluating the information that they find on the Internet. Trail and Gutierrez note that "With information bombarding them from all sides, students have little basis on which to judge the value of what they find nor have most of them formed the habit of critical evaluation. Many students equate typing a broad topic into a Web browser with doing research." (1). There seems to be a substantial gap between the ability of students to access information and their ability to evaluate its accuracy or significance.

Betsy Barefoot wrote in the Jan 2006 Chronicle of Education that "few first year college students can easily distinguish fact from fiction in online and print sources, and even fewer have ever been exposed to the scholarly resources that can be found in a college or university library." (3). A survey of California professors noted that incoming college students "cannot adequately analyze information or arguments and cannot synthesize information from multiple sources. Only a minority can evaluate online resources". The same study found that professors indicate that only about 1/3 of entering students are sufficiently prepared to analyze or synthesize information (4).

References:
(1) Trail MA and R Stockton, 2006, Familiarity Breeds Misconceptions? Information Technology Savvy Millennials Show Surprising Information Literacy Skill Deficits, Network: A Journal of Faculty Development, http://www.nyu.edu/frn/publications/

(2) Rainie, L, Kalchoff M, and Hess 0, (2005) Pew Internet & American Life Project Data Memo [Online]. Cited in Trail and Gutierrez (see above)

(3) Barefoot, Betsy, 2006 "Bridging the Chasm: First-Year Students and the Library" Chronicle of Higher Education 52(20) 816.

(4) Academic Literacy: A Statement of Competencies Expected of Students Entering California's Public Colleges and Universities. 2002. Intersegmental committee of the CCC Academic Senate, CSU, and UC. http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate/reports/acadlit.pdf 88 pages

Hope you get a chance to read the online articles.