What ELSE? – XO Computer Information Sharing

By Daniela Papi – PEPY Executive Director 

This is the third post in a series about what ELSE PEPY does.  Click here for the first post.

2) XO Computer Information Sharing – As one of the first schools in Cambodia to receive XO Computers from OLPC (One Laptop Per Child), we recognize that our work at PEPY is pioneering the way for these “$100 laptops” to enter Cambodia.  Though the laptop was designed by educators who would sneer at the word “curriculum” and the laptop is designed to be explored by kids themselves rather than “taught” by a teacher, we recognize that there is training and guidance needed in the realm of experiential education for those Cambodian facilitators being hired to lead students through XO classes.  This year PEPY was lucky enough to draw PhD candidate Brenton Faubert to Cambodia to do volunteer work and research for his degree which involved documenting lesson ideas for teachers working with XO computers.  Brenton recently presented his research from working with PEPY at a conference on international education in Charleston, South Caroline.  

In the spirit of spreading our lessons learned, PEPY has hosted teachers from three other organizations to provide training on the model we are implementing in Chanleas Dai and hosted other groups for visits to monitor the program.  In addition, Managing Director, Maryann Bylander, organized a meeting for all of the organizations using XO computers in Cambodia to share ideas, successes, and failures.  Many were interested in the work Brenton had done and this was shared with the group in exchange for help translating the document into Khmer.  Our hope is that, as our teachers, like Channeang and Chiva, continue to use the XO computers they can create their own training materials and guides for those who follow in their footsteps.