Advisor

• Dr. Paul Resta

Degree

• Masters

Abstract

The One Laptop per Child (OLPC) Association was formed in 2005 to build, sell, and distribute affordable laptops designed for children in developing communities. To date, Uruguay has the largest deployment of OLPC's first model, the XO-1 laptop. The Uruguayan educational initiative overseeing the laptop program, Plan Ceibal, has distributed nearly four-hundred thousand XOs, one to every public school child aged six through twelve throughout the entire country. As the largest and most progressive OLPC deployment in the world, Plan Ceibal represents the first time that OLPC's model for educational reform has been implemented on a national scale. This thesis will evaluate Plan Ceibal as a case study of OLPC’s educational model in practice. By looking at Plan Ceibal since its inception in 2007, this study will evaluate OLPC's model to determine its viability to produce results on a national level. Because it is the first of its kind and scale, Plan Ceibal is an important learning opportunity. Learning from Uruguay's experience will assist OLPC in future deployments and other prospective countries looking to emulate Plan Ceibal. In order to assess Plan Ceibal, this study will build upon an existing scientific framework called the Essential Conditions. The Essential Conditions, published by the International Society of Technology Education (ISTE), are fourteen conditions that an education system must meet to successfully leverage technology in their curriculum. Using the published documentation of OLPC and Plan Ceibal, as well as personal oral interviews with professionals in Uruguay working with Plan Ceibal in various capacities, this study will look at each condition first to determine if Plan Ceibal meets that condition, and second to understand the obstacles, innovations, and adjustments Plan Ceibal encountered throughout the process. This information will form the basis to evaluate OLPC's model and provide suggestions for future deployments. Upon completion, this study found that Plan Ceibal does meet the Essential Conditions. I therefore predict that Uruguay will see improvements in their national education system in the near future. Contributing to this success were Plan Ceibal’s technical innovations regarding laptop distribution, set up, and maintenance, as well as strong leadership driving the project, overwhelming community support, and a high preexisting level of development and infrastructure. Many of Plan Ceibal's successes depended on their own finances and labor force, apart from OLPC rather than in conjunction with it. This surrounding infrastructure is not currently provided by OLPC, but is just as important as the provision of laptops to the overall success of the project. I conclude that Plan Ceibal's success is repeatable in other countries. In order to aid in future deployments, OLPC should work with the countries to provide services beyond what currently comes with the XOs. These services should include an assessment schema to measure results, a laptop repair guide and suggested procedure for fixing the XOs on a large scale, teacher training curriculum, and more educational software for the XO. Countries looking at using the XOs in a similar laptop program should work with OLPC to find a way provide these services because they are vital to the project.