Report Outline

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This page contains a draft outline of our final report/paper.

Contents

Abstract

The OLPC XO-1 Laptop is presently being distributed to classrooms around the world; however, there are still relatively few classroom-based software applications available for it. The Classroom Presenter for the XO project’s goal is to enable teachers to more easily integrate the XO laptop into their existing curricula. Based on UW Classroom Presenter, it allows a teacher to distribute a deck of slides (or other visual materials) to an entire classroom. Students can follow along with the presentation, view the slides, and then add their own notes and annotations, called “ink.” The ink can then be submitted back to the teacher, who can review the submissions and select a few to share back with the entire class. XO Classroom Presenter is implemented as an “activity” on the XO laptop and it integrates with the operating system and other installed activities. The collaborative features are supported by the XO’s Sugar operating system.

(Evaluation & Conclusions)

Introduction

  • Problem space: XO laptops being distributed; available classroom-based software is still limited
    • XO has a lot of good activities that employ collaborative features for student-centric, constructivist learning, but fewer activities for teacher-driven instruction
    • XO lacks activities that allow collaboration and interaction while still allowing a teacher to present materials
    • XO laptops will be easier to integrate into existing curricula if teachers can use materials they already have, such as PowerPoint presentations and paper materials

Related Work

Approach

  • Develop an adaptation of UW Classroom Presenter that works on the XO
    • Not a straight port, because some UW Classroom Presenter features don't make sense on the XO, and the XO may benefit from things not part of UW Classroom Presenter
    • Possibly place more emphasis on allowing students to take control than exists in UW Classroom Presenter
  • Focus on distribution and presentation of content; content can be created on a desktop PC where more power and tools are availble
    • At the same time, limited content creation may be useful on the XO laptops; this would allow students to make/share slides as well as view them

Implementation

  • Develop as an activity bundle for the XO and make use of frameworks and models on the XO so it integrates well with the rest of the system, and works on the mesh network in places where there is no network infrastructure
  • Application must scale well
  • Ink must be fundamentally different from UW Classroom Presenter, since the XO is not a tablet PC
    • In some cases, mouse drawing may be acceptable
    • Include basic drawing tools for shapes, etc.
    • Allow typing on slides
    • Use pressure-sensitive writing area if workable drivers appear
    • Camera may be used to place images on slides as ink, of student projects or of annotations/solutions written on paper and then digitized
  • The camera may be useful for document digitization for use of existing materials

Evaluation

Methodology:

  • Demo at a local elementary school with 8 XO laptops
    • Observe software in use
    • Request feedback from students and teacher
  • Compare with UW Classroom Presenter
  • Publish activity and code to OLPC wiki; forums for people to try
    • Request feedback from users

Important questions to answer:

  • Is the application full-featured and complete? Does it meet the needs of teachers/students/its users?
  • Is the application user-friendly and easy to use? Are teachers and students both able to figure out how to use it without extensive documentation? Does it integrate well with the rest of the Sugar environment?
  • Is the application scalable? Does it work reasonably with anywhere from a few XOs to an entire classroom-full?
  • Is the application robust? Does it handle problems in a reasonable manner?

Societal Implications

  • Similar to societal implications of XO laptop itself

Conclusion and Future Work

  • Possibility of continuing to work on project after graduation

Acknowledgments

References

Software API References

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