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[img_assist|nid=74|title=E-Paati Main Page|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=600|height=384]

OLE Nepal’s first demo of learning activities are out just in time for Dashain. Download them from here (43 MB). To run the demo you must first download and install the Squeak plugin, which is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. Please download, comment, and enjoy.

This is the Main Page for all activities. We currently only have Grade
2 activities for mathematics and English. We wanted to have a very
simple starting interface to make both the children, parents, and
teachers comfortable. The subjects listed are Nepali, Math, Science,
English, and Library.

The word in Devanagari script at the top is "E-Paati." OLE Nepal’s General Secretary created this term. "Karipaati" means blackboard and we use "E-Paati" to refer to any kind of computer, such as a desktop, laptop, or PDA. OLE Nepal’s unofficial slogan right now is "From Karipaati to E-Paati." We think this slogan expresses that using laptops in schools in simply the next logical step in education. We prefer the E-Paati over "laptop" or "computer" because both are seen as luxuries in Nepal. Karipaatis are not seen as luxuries but essential to education. We hope to convince the Nepali public that in this day in age E-paatis are essential to a quality education.

For the next 10 months we are focused on developing learning activities for Grades 2 & 6 that match the Nepali curriculum. We are working w/ the Nepali govt to make sure that the activities match the learning objectives for these grades. This ensures our activities will be part of an eventual government pilot of OLPC.

[img_assist|nid=76|title=Current Math Activities|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=600|height=384]

Our Education Director, Dr. Saurav Dev Bhatta, instructed the development team to build several learning activities to teach the same concept in several different ways. The activities listed under math test the same kind of problem several different ways. The first activity asks kids to add actualy physical quantities of items, such as 2 flowers + 3 flowers = how many flowers? The second activity uses actual numeric symbols, e.g. 2 +3 = ?

Then we move on to rephrasing the same question as a word problem.

We made these activities somewhat familiar to existing Nepali textbooks. So far, Nepali kids and adults really like them. We hope to build activities that are both constructionist AND make Nepali teachers, officials, parents, and kids comfortable.

[img_assist|nid=77|title=A Word Problem|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=600|height=384]

The OLE Nepal Content Development Team are:

Programming:
Surendra Sedain
Ram Krishna Singh
Luke Gorrie

Graphic Design:
Om Yadav

With continual advice and support from educator Christine Stone and Dr. Saurav Dev Bhatta

We have not licensed these activities yet but we expect to license them under either the BSD License or the Squeak license, which is very similar to BSD. Either way they will be open source. All activities developed by OLE Nepal will be open-source. We have not yet determined the licenses for some of the images used in these activities. Some may be proprietary (we got a few from google images). This is only a demo. After Dashain we will go through and make sure all the images used are open-source.

We welcome contributions and comments. A 10 day Nepali holiday starts today so much of our development team is out trekking in the Himalayas until Oct 29th.

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Ram Krishna Singh – Software Engineer

Ram has been a software engineer for five years. He earned his Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Bapuji Institute of Engineering in India.

[img_assist|nid=72|title=Ram's Self Portrait|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=230|height=300]

For the last several years he has been the acting chairman in Shree Shanti Vidyashram school management committee, located in Patan Dhoka. Recently, he managed the renovation and reconstruction of the school. He is also an active member of the local group “Maitri Parivar” whose sole aim is to provide much needed financial support to educate poor and destitute of remote villages.

His principle hobby is pulling a large wooden deity through the streets of Kathmandu. He also likes to work on micro-hydroelectric projects for rural Nepal.

Surendra Sedhai — Software Engineer

Surendra earned his degree in Electronics Engineering from the Institute of Engineering, Pulchowk Campus in Lalitpur, Nepal.

Om Yadav — Graphic Designer

Om coordinates the content development team. He has many years of experience in graphic design.

Punyashil Gautam — Curriculum Expert

Punyashil is a distinguished artist, art educator, and teacher
trainer. He will use his experience to help the development team make
learning activities that meet the needs of teachers, Nepali students,
and are beautiful.
Punyashil helped found the prestigious Rato Bangala School in Kathmandu.

Christine Stone — Curriculum Expert

 
Christine has over 25 years of working in Nepal, Christine has worked in all
aspects of education, from teaching English and math in Gorkha and
Namjung to writing textbooks with the Secondary Education Project in
Sano Thimi. Stone also works with the Kathmandu International Study Center (KISC) and Room to Read.

Most recently she wrote math textbooks for Grades 5 and 6. She is a native of the U.K. Read more about her in a great article from the Nepali Times.

Luke Gorrie – Software Engineer

[img_assist|nid=51|title=|desc=|link=node|align=right|width=200|height=320]

Luke Gorrie has been programming since he learned to read and has spent the first part of the 21st century deeply involved in the Erlang and Common Lisp programming communities. He was a core developer in the two most successful Erlang startup companies (Bluetail and Synapse) and was a founding developer of the popular Lisp development environment SLIME. His other software is available by way of his crufty old website.

Luke grew up in Australia, spent a long time living in Sweden, and is now in Kathmandu with the plan of pushing One Laptop Per Child forward as best he can. He’s volunteered to spend one year of his life helping to kickstart OLE Nepal in Kathmandu.

Luke arrived in Kathmandu in early September 2007 and he already loves dal bhaat, traffic bandhs, and Nepali pop music.

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