XO as a Tool

First Steps
We have just distributed over 100 XOs to children in grade 4, 5 and 6. We started by exploring the mesh network, identifying one's place in the network and learning how to share activities. For us, this is one of the most fundamental lessons of using XOs; sharing the learning with your friends. We wanted to highlight this in the initial stages so sharing would become part of the students' XO culture. This week will be a week of exploring, taking photos, updating, debugging, and trying out every single activity there is. It is a necessary step, then there will be a pause and then the children will begin to really use the XO. It will no longer be a new 'toy' but something they can build things with and pull out whenever they want. It will be a tool for them to use whenever they need it. It will allow their imagination to go wild...and it might just make Maths a little more comprehensible - or relevant.

Maths and Other Activities
Scratch is a good stepping off point for engaging the students in mathematical processes. Scratch is still in a very preliminary Beta testing stage on the XO, but it can be used even at this stage. Etoys is more suited to older children: grade 6 and above. For lesson ideas, please view the Scratch Math projects on the Scratch website. The numbers button reveals a whole world of mathematics. Children should first understand x-y coordinates and how positive and negative numbers affect programming and movement.

Also, if you download Scratch on to your own laptop it comes with some basic project examples. Simple activities, like making a sprite (for example, your students' names) get bigger and smaller requires an understanding of negative and positive numbers, as does making your sprite jump up and down.

The OLPC wiki is building up a resource centre for teachers to access. There are some good learning activities @ http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Category:Learning_Activities. There is also an XO Teachers' page under way.

Lots of project guides and information for ETOYS (known as Squeak off the XOs) can be found at http://www.squeakland.org/ go to school stuff> elementary. This may be too involved for your students at this stage but it can trigger some simpler project ideas.

Nader has found a great way to use the XO; to document and record information. For example, if the students are growing seeds, this can be documented and photos taken each day. For mathematics, use Scratch, or turtle art to explore geometry. How do you make a triangle, a square, a circle? Can the children program their Sprite to write their own initials? These are some of the initial steps Roger cited at the workshop in February. The memory game is a great way for students to practice arithmetic and have fun.