This was a talk I gave to the students and professors of Kigali Institute of Education. If focused on the ideas that founded OLPC and the problems a large scale project faces.

1. Laptops and High-
quality Education for
Every Child
Juliano Bittencourt
Learning Development

2. How the world will
looks like in 2020?

3. How the world will
looks like in 2020?
• A child that enters P1 in 2009 will graduate high school in
2020

4. How the world will
looks like in 2020?
• A child that enters P1 in 2009 will graduate high school in
2020
• What the young adults of 2020 will need to know in
order to enable a peaceful and prosperous society?

5. How the world will
looks like in 2020?
• A child that enters P1 in 2009 will graduate high school in
2020
• What the young adults of 2020 will need to know in
order to enable a peaceful and prosperous society?
• How we need to change our schools in order to prepare
the citizens of the next generation?

6. School Change

7. School Change
• While we can not know
what the world will look
like, we can be certain the
world will be different.
Ongoing change is one
definite constant;

8. School Change
• While we can not know
what the world will look
like, we can be certain the
world will be different.
Ongoing change is one
definite constant;
• The role of technology; the
need to creatively solve
new, unforeseen challenges;
and the necessity of
innovation are also definite;

9. School Change
• While we can not know • The task to prepare children
what the world will look for a changing, unpredictable
like, we can be certain the world where competitive
world will be different. advantage goes to those
Ongoing change is one who create differs radically
definite constant; from the past educational
reality
• The role of technology; the
need to creatively solve
new, unforeseen challenges;
and the necessity of
innovation are also definite;

10. How the school should
looks like when
information is one click
away?

12. • The best preparation for
thriving in the 21st
century is to develop a
love of learning and the
skills to learn well

13. • The best preparation for
thriving in the 21st
century is to develop a
love of learning and the
skills to learn well
• If one can only recite
from memory, then one
will be at a huge
disadvantage in a future
that differs from the past

14. • The best preparation for • Being fluent with
thriving in the 21st technology and learning
century is to develop a to channel creativity
love of learning and the through technology is
skills to learn well what will enable
children, and their
• If one can only recite countries, to prosper.
from memory, then one
will be at a huge
disadvantage in a future
that differs from the past

15. Dewey
Montessori Paulo
Freire
Children learn best when they are actively engaged
exploring, creating and constructing in areas of study
where they have interest

16. Jean Piaget
How children learn?
Despite the fact that we know much more today about how children learn, teaching
continues based on the ideas and practices from the 19th century

18. • Children learn by doing and thinking about
what they do. Thus the foundation of
educational reform must be for children to
have better things to do and better ways to
think about doing these things

19. • Children learn by doing and thinking about
what they do. Thus the foundation of
educational reform must be for children to
have better things to do and better ways to
think about doing these things
• The computer is humanity’s greatest tool for
active learning. Computers have enabled the
tremendous growth of knowledge in the
world. Since the mission of children is
learning, it is our obligation to provide them
equitable access to the most powerful learning
tool invented: connected laptops

20. • Children learn by doing and thinking about
what they do. Thus the foundation of
educational reform must be for children to
have better things to do and better ways to
think about doing these things
• The computer is humanity’s greatest tool for
active learning. Computers have enabled the
tremendous growth of knowledge in the
world. Since the mission of children is
learning, it is our obligation to provide them
equitable access to the most powerful learning
tool invented: connected laptops
• This change will not happen by merely having
children sit passively watching pretty animations
flash across computer screens or only through drill
and practice. Computer Aided Instruction was
widely tested worldwide and failed usually in
miserable ways.

21. Where does OLPC
come from?

22. Thinking out of the box
In the late 60’s, a South African mathematician named Seymour Papert imaged a way
where computers could help young children to do and understand complex math. Kids
learn more when they teach the computer than when the computer try to teach them.
Papert created the LOGO programming language to kids teach the computer.

24. Projects
• Diverse projects at MIT in the 60’s
• Alan’s Kay projects at XEROX PARK at the 70’s
• First school saturated with computers (Apple II in the
80’s)
• Laptops saturation of the middle school students in Maine
(90’s)
• Project Lighthouse (Thailand - 90’s)
• Initiatives in many other countries (Brasil, Uruguay,
Senegal, Australia, England, ...)

26. Since than, we discovered that computers
can be used by children to do wonderful
things. But they weren’t cheap enough so
we can use them in large scale. Since
companies said it was impossible to do it,
a group of MIT professors decided to do
it

27. Since than, we discovered that computers
can be used by children to do wonderful
things. But they weren’t cheap enough so
we can use them in large scale. Since
companies said it was impossible to do it,
a group of MIT professors decided to do
it

28. What is OLPC

29. What is OLPC
• OLPC is an international
Non-Profit organization.
We aren’t a computer
company nor a laptop
manufacture

30. What is OLPC
• OLPC is an international
Non-Profit organization.
We aren’t a computer
company nor a laptop
manufacture
• The XO laptop is the
result of a big research
effort and contains lots
of innovations. It isn’t
just a cheap computer.

31. What is OLPC
• OLPC is an international • To create a revolution in
Non-Profit organization. education we can’t do
We aren’t a computer the same things as they
company nor a laptop always done.
manufacture
• The XO laptop is the
result of a big research
effort and contains lots
of innovations. It isn’t
just a cheap computer.

32. Core principles

33. Core principles
1. Children Ownership

34. Core principles
1. Children Ownership
2. Young Children

35. Core principles
1. Children Ownership
2. Young Children
3. Saturation

36. Core principles
1. Children Ownership
2. Young Children
3. Saturation
4. Connectivity

37. Core principles
1. Children Ownership
2. Young Children
3. Saturation
4. Connectivity
5. Free and Open Source

38. Scale

39. Scale
• Incremental Change is Insufficient

40. Scale
• Incremental Change is Insufficient
• Computer labs: The Mathematics of Computer Usage in
Schools

41. Scale
• Incremental Change is Insufficient
• Computer labs: The Mathematics of Computer Usage in
Schools
• Saturation, Spread and Systemic Change

42. Scale
• Incremental Change is Insufficient
• Computer labs: The Mathematics of Computer Usage in
Schools
• Saturation, Spread and Systemic Change
• If the overall goal is high-quality education for all, then
what must be maximized is not immediate, low-impact
access for the most children in the fastest time, but the
best initial actions that enable the greatest transformation
of quality for all children in the shortest time

43. Rwanda

44. Rwanda
• Global Center of Excellence for Laptops and Learning

45. Rwanda
• Global Center of Excellence for Laptops and Learning
• Research center with the objective of developing R&D
and Basic research related to laptops and learning

46. Rwanda
• Global Center of Excellence for Laptops and Learning
• Research center with the objective of developing R&D
and Basic research related to laptops and learning
• Develop cutting edge research taking advantage of the
large number of laptops to be deployed in Rwanda
(content, technologies, materials, etc)

47. Rwanda
• Global Center of Excellence for Laptops and Learning
• Research center with the objective of developing R&D
and Basic research related to laptops and learning
• Develop cutting edge research taking advantage of the
large number of laptops to be deployed in Rwanda
(content, technologies, materials, etc)
• Run a number of programs to support the laptops
initiative through the development of people and ideas

48. Rwanda
• Global Center of Excellence for Laptops and Learning
• Research center with the objective of developing R&D
and Basic research related to laptops and learning
• Develop cutting edge research taking advantage of the
large number of laptops to be deployed in Rwanda
(content, technologies, materials, etc)
• Run a number of programs to support the laptops
initiative through the development of people and ideas
• Support the region and the world through innovative
new programs

49. Thanks
Juliano Bittencourt
juliano@laptop.org
Silvia Kist silvia@laptop.org