He has thought his way down the far ages.
He used to think in little images in wood or stone.
Then in hieroglyphs on obelisks and clay rolls and papyrus.
Now he thinks in books between two covers.
-D.H. Lawrence (from Cass, 1967, p. 1)
Last week i visited the school , in mumbai where the Xo laptops have been deployed and have been used for classroom teaching to see the actual comfort level with the computer through observation of the students.
Since it's in a remote place and one room school , teacher had started taking classes of students from 1st standard to 6th standard in the same room .In total there were bout 28-30 students in the school and the teacher was managing the class as a whole.With the help of Xo laptops he was able to give different problems to students of different class.
Some of the inferences are mentioned below , which were observed by me
Boys jumped in more aggressively (not afraid of breaking it) while using the laptops.
Some students were ready to follow the teacher’s directions instead of problem solve.
No students got frustrated with the task given by their teacher. They were very motivated to discover. You could “see” their thinking.
Students were not afraid of failure (risk-free environment).
Some students started teaching other students , as they had started to feel confident about their learning and their knowledge.hence,wished to impart the other kids in the class.
Students were asking questions in their head and to their partners, “Is that it?”, “Will that work?”, and “Will this move?”
Students were completely engrossed in their Xo's and were busy exploring , the activities and interface even if they seem to understand what exactly it does.
They wished to explore and figure out what happens when they click on the interface somewhere.
Students felt superior and more confident if they manage to finish a task earlier than the others.
They liked to showoff what they could do with their laptops.
They were banking on visual elements more than text to navigate through the interface.
They felt more enthusiastic about activities which they could do something with as in paint etc, and then look back at them to share with others.
Along, with the students the teacher seemed to be more excited on showing off how he manages the class with laptops and how he's integrating his teachings with activities of the laptops.
It's a constant learning process for him as well , along with kids.
The kid s get to take the laptops back in their homes, where they have ample time to discover and explore the Xo. however, proper guidance is required many a times from the teacher or parents.
Even a simple task is so exciting and revealing about student’s thinking process and problem solving skills.They find their way out , and learn as they explore. However , their memory is based more on graphic elements than text elements
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