Now that I'm experienced in solving the problems that arise during laptop class, I ran another round of teacher trainings: how to manage common classroom XO issues and how to repair the XOs.With the teachers, I reviewed the laptop re-charging process, the use of "The Frame" to close unnecessary activities (the most common issue is laptops being slow/freezing as students leave activities open), and how to use the Power On button for emergency shut downs. They also had a chance to reflash, rename, and even go into the Control Panel to set the automatic "Frame" to "never," reducing another common annoyance for students.
My biggest concern is that one of the schools still hasn't purchased their 1G USBs to house their back-up operating systems. Hopefully, we can remedy that in the week ahead.
It's mid-term testing this week (week 8), so the laptops will get a well deserved rest. I'll be running the Intro Class for students at the town library on Monday and visiting the other two primary schools to discuss implementation time lines for their laptops.
During week 9, every class (at the pilot schools) has a morning or afternoon that they are allowed to use the laptops. I'm anticipating we will learn quite a bit about what needs to be changed/modified/improved very soon!
