On Thursday 29 October 2009 07:49:15 pm Carlos Rabassa wrote:
What would you like me to tell our fellow Squeakers about your background?
I am one of the trustees Sikshana Foundation (www.sikshana.org), an NGO in Bangalore, India that assists public schools to enhance the quality of education. I introduced Squeak in my neighborhood schools in 2006 because it is a virtual computer tailored for young learners that insulates them from rapid changes in the computer marketplace. See http://enduringbits.blogspot.com/2007/06/one-computer-per-child.html for the background.
You say you assist teachers. Are you a teacher yourself?
No. I am a software engineer by profession and I study learning as a hobby. I help design technology pilots for Sikshana. We have placed notebook computers and 7000 USB flash memory chips in 120 village schools. I assist around 600 teachers in using computers to motivate and educate their students. There are many economic and cultural issues in making computing meaningful for these schools. It is bit like trying to introduce ox carts into Los Angeles to reduce carbon footprint :-). I depend on teachers' feedback to help me tune the deployment. You can track the unfolding story at sikshana.blogspot.com
Subbu