OLPC Golden State Mission

First off, I'd like to say thanks to everyone I've contacted. This is my first global effort, so I'd like to thank all those who have supported calls and Skype sessions with me. Everyone was extremely patient in helping me to understand their organizational infrastructure and vision:

Habib Khan, PhD - Director of Education for South and Central Asia, OLPC
Sreeram Dhurjaty, PhD - Medical electronics consultant
Michail Bletsas - Director of Network Computing, MIT Media Lab / OLPC
Arnan (Roger) Sipitakiat, PhD - former MIT Media Lab grad / OLPC Thailand
Santi Tisayakorn - DSIL Provost
Dr.Thaweesak Koanantakool - VP of NSTDA / OLPC Thailand
Dr. Stephen J. Atwood, MD - Unicef EAPRO
Phonchan (Newey) Kraiwatnutsorn - Director of Youth Venture
Sinee Chakthranont - Ashoka Thailand



For those not really familiar with the XO laptop let me discuss some of its unique capabilities:

DURABILITY: Certified to operate in temperatures up to 45 degrees celsius; withstands 125G of shock due to lack of a hard drive; dual-mode screen (reflective B/W mode) that can be read in direct sunlight

MOBILITY: IEEE 802.11s. For those not familiar with geek-speak, it's a standard for MESH networks, where only one computer needs to maintain an internet connection. Thus it creates the potential for internet access and connectivity where technical infrastructure doesn't exist. According to early tests, the WiFi antennae range reached 1000 meters.
Check out this interactive flash demo

EFFICIENCY: Consumes about 2 watts, 1/10th the power of standard laptops. Low-power consumption allows the XO to be recharged through human powered alternatives.

More technical details can be found here


However, the most interesting feature of the XO that allowed us to explore non-traditional application extensions is the dual-mode microphone input that also serves as a SENSOR INPUT. The embedded Analog-to-Digital converter facilitates the integration of various biological sensors:

• Electrocardiogram (ECG) = Heart rhythm analysis
• Arrythmia, Heart Failure
• Electromyogram (EMG) = Muscle condition
• Nerve compression or injury (Carpal Tunnel Syndrome)
• Spirometer = Breathing measurements
• Asthma (Occupational), Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease
• Pulse Oximeter = Oxygenation of blood
• Bioelectrical Impedance = Body fat analysis

We’ve introduced a very powerful computing platform that can perform diagnostics on the human body, but how specifically can we leverage this technology to help others?

Can we bring basic primary care to others in rural villages?
Can we help elders manage chronic illness?
Are our bodies endangered by our surroundings?
Can we educate others about basic sanitation, dietary needs, etc.?

We could certainly develop a hardware peripheral for remote patient monitoring to address issue #2, but this form of patient management has been around for some time and we didn't want the focus of our effort to stray from the educational goals of the organization: the enrichment of the children.

OLPC Educational Proposition
It is critically important to adequately educate all the children of the emerging world. Simply doing more of the same is no longer enough, if it ever was. If their citizens are to benefit, as they should from the spread of the technology-based, global information economy, these nations must rethink the old top-down classroom paradigm, and replace it with a dynamic learning model that leverages the children themselves, turning them into “teachers” as well as “learners.” The tool with which to unlock their enormous potential is the XO. Put this ultra-low-cost, powerful, rugged and versatile laptop in their hands, and the kids will do the rest.

OLPC Golden State's mission is driven by this proposition. We truly believe that one of the most effective ways to improve the lives of youth is to empower them to realize their own ability to make positive social change.

- Engage the children to think about health concerns in their community
- Educate the students about basic health diagnostics and primary care/preventive medicine
- Develop HW peripherals and SW applications geared towards health related issues they want to address
- Support deployment and execution of pilot projects

Since there is much complexity behind these health issues and fundamentals, we realize a great deal of mentorship from technical and medical disciplines is needed to produce an effective project. Yet this is what makes our effort much more than just another technical effort. Here is just one example of how we can make a social impact...

Sample Case: Air Pollution in Bangkok

Situation: Over the past 5 years, the air pollution in BKK has become better, but it continues to plague those in the most urban areas. Air pollutants can worsen asthma and allergies and induce asthma attacks even in healthy people.
Main Barrier Addressed: Insufficient evidence that air conditions are better for all citizens. Despite an overall better Air Pollution Index record are certain segments of the population still at risk?
Experiment: Use a spirometer to gather demographics.
Results:
Create awareness of pollution levels
Educate urban dwellers how to protect themselves (asthma treatment/prevention)
Early detection of asthma (occupational asthma)
Education of asthma/allergy management

MAKE THE CASE! Tell us how you could see diagnostics improving society!

OLPC Mission

Mission Statement (courtesy of http://www.laptop.org)

Most of the nearly two–billion children in the developing world are inadequately educated, or receive no education at all. One in three does not complete the fifth grade.

The individual and societal consequences of this chronic global crisis are profound. Children are consigned to poverty and isolation—just like their parents—never knowing what the light of learning could mean in their lives. At the same time, their governments struggle to compete in a rapidly evolving, global information economy, hobbled by a vast and increasingly urban underclass that cannot support itself, much less contribute to the commonweal, because it lacks the tools to do so.

It is time to rethink this equation.

Given the resources that developing countries can reasonably allocate to education—sometimes less than $20 per year per pupil, compared to the approximately $7500 per pupil spent annually in the U.S.—even a doubled or redoubled national commitment to traditional education, augmented by external and private funding, would not get the job done. Moreover, experience strongly suggests that an incremental increase of “more of the same”—building schools, hiring teachers, buying books and equipment—is a laudable but insufficient response to the problem of bringing true learning possibilities to the vast numbers of children in the developing world.

Standing still is a reliable recipe for going backward.

Any nation's most precious natural resource is its children. We believe the emerging world must leverage this resource by tapping into the children's innate capacities to learn, share, and create on their own. Our answer to that challenge is the XO laptop, a children's machine designed for “learning learning.”

XO embodies the theories of constructionism first developed by MIT Media Lab Professor Seymour Papert in the 1960s, and later elaborated upon by Alan Kay, complemented by the principles articulated by Nicholas Negroponte in his book, Being Digital.

Extensively field-tested and validated among some of the poorest and most remote populations on earth, constructionism emphasizes what Papert calls “learning learning” as the fundamental educational experience. A computer uniquely fosters learning learning by allowing children to “think about thinking”, in ways that are otherwise impossible. Using the XO as both their window on the world, as well as a highly programmable tool for exploring it, children in emerging nations will be opened to both illimitable knowledge and to their own creative and problem-solving potential.

OLPC is not, at heart, a technology program, nor is the XO a product in any conventional sense of the word. OLPC is a non-profit organization providing a means to an end—an end that sees children in even the most remote regions of the globe being given the opportunity to tap into their own potential, to be exposed to a whole world of ideas, and to contribute to a more productive and saner world community.

Until then, stay tuned.