Probeware and the XO

Ubiquitous computers are coming and probes are close behind

By Andy Zucker, Alvaro Galvis, and Robert Tinker

The $100 computer will soon be a reality. The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) effort led by Nicholas Negroponte has put new energy into the idea of a low-cost educational computer that could be used anywhere in the world. Today they sell for around $175, but are available only if you want to buy a few million. The OLPC team hopes to get the price down to $100 after a year or two of mass production. The point is that this represents the future—it’s just a matter of time before all computers cost a fraction of what they do now.

The XO is an extremely innovative response to the needs of kids worldwide, with special features designed for rural areas of developing nations. The XO is light and attractive. It consumes very little power, so it runs a long time on a charge and can be powered by a hand crank or solar cells. It has no hard drive to crash; it uses flash memory instead for long-term storage. It has Wi-Fi for easy wireless connection to other computers and the Internet. And the display can be seen in the brightest sun. To keep the cost down, the OLPC group depends heavily on open source, both for its operating system (GNU/Linux) and applications.

Imagine what a revolutionary impact a computer like the XO could have in the hands of children worldwide. It is an encyclopedia, library, language tutor, multimedia communicator, and music maker. It is a powerful tool for science inquiry, too, particularly if it has probeware—software and hardware for real-time data acquisition and analysis.

Probeware on the XO

Probeware is one of the most valuable applications of computers to science education, as shown by extensive research. When used with good learning activities, student experimentation with probeware is better at conveying many difficult science concepts than any other approach. The National Assessment of Educational Progress has seen a correlation between probe use and science achievement. Recent data from our Technology Enhanced Elementary and Middle School Science (TEEMSS) project shows that probeware also works with elementary students. In some cases, we were able to show that the TEEMSS approach is better than conventional instruction.

All this positive research is no surprise to educators who understand the importance of hands-on inquiry in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education. As a result, science teachers have begun to demand that any computer used in STEM have probeware: sensors, an interface, display and analysis software, and associated curriculum materials, preferably integrated with the analysis software.

TEEMSS does all that and more. It consists of 15 science and technology learning activities for grades 3-8 that have been tested extensively. The underlying TEEMSS software is open source and most of it runs on all full-sized computers, and on handhelds that are equipped with Palm and Microsoft’s CE operating systems. Probeware from any of the five manufacturers of interface hardware systems can be used with these, too. This high level of interchangeability is a boon to teachers trying to provide equipment for each lab station, because they can use almost any combination of probe equipment and computers they can round up.

When we heard about the $100 computer effort, we wondered whether it could be added to our list of supported hardware. Since last summer, we have been working with the OLPC group to add probeware to the XO using the TEEMSS technology.

Probes and portable computers are made for environmental investigations. The XO is only the latest in a line of portable computers that can get kids involved in exciting and engaging science.

Our standard desktop version of TEEMSS required more “hard drive” and dynamic memory than is available on the testing version of the XO. We reduced the amount of “hard drive” memory required by cutting down Java. However, we did not have time to analyze and reduce the amount of dynamic memory required. So TEEMSS software starts up, but it quickly uses up too much memory. The released version of the XO will have more dynamic memory, so we are optimistic our software will work on it.

Doing it yourself

Schools in rural areas of developing countries do not have access to commercial probeware, nor are they able to pay for it. Therefore, to support probes inexpensively, the XO designers made it possible to use the microphone input for probes, eliminating the need for expensive interface electronics. In effect, the microphone input is a direct analog input that can be used for other sensors as well.

The plan is to provide an inexpensive kit containing a few key components from which kids, parents, or teachers could construct their own probes. Our Information Technology in Science Instruction (ITSI) project is developing just such a do-it-yourself kit for U.S. teachers on tight budgets. It not only provides an inexpensive and flexible way of creating probes, it introduces kids to electronics and the hardware side of information technologies. The ITSI kit gives us a low-cost approach to probeware that can be used with the XO anywhere.

The ITSI kit includes a light detector, some LEDs that also sense light, two temperature sensors, a magnetic field detector, and a small DC motor used to measure rotation. It will also include some electronics to convert the output of these sensors into a voltage that is compatible with the XO input. With some ingenuity, these basic sensors can be used to measure many different quantities. For instance, the guide for the ITSI kit will have suggestions on how to extract a pH indicator from red cabbage (a common low-cost science lab) and use it with the light detector and an LED to measure pH. We will also show how to use the DC motor as a distance detector by averaging and integrating its output.

All this technology can be a challenge to teachers. Not only are there technical details to learn, electronics to master, and software to become familiar with, there are new science concepts and new teaching strategies that are needed to take full advantage of the new functions made possible by the technology. We have all kinds of supports to help teachers become expert in this environment: well-designed materials, workshops, and online resources. The activities require no technical expertise to run and the do-it-yourself hardware is fully supported with instructional guides. We also use the best online teaching techniques in a short online course that provides all the required background.

TEEMSS also includes a do-it-yourself authoring environment for creating student activities. Using this, teachers are not restricted to the 15 activities we developed. It is easy to modify our activities or develop new ones. Modifying activities has proven to be a good way for teachers to learn the material, think about the pedagogy, and incorporate their knowledge of their students into the activities.

Final thoughts

Probeware illustrates an approach to technology-enhanced education that needs to be part of any program that uses XO computers. While putting computers in the hands of millions of schoolchildren around the world is exciting, simply providing access to computers has little impact on learning unless it is part of a larger plan. Students learn best using well-designed flexible materials that provide guided exploration. Technology is necessary to enhance the range of options, but technology alone is not sufficient to generate educational gains. It requires excellent materials and guidance by well-qualified teachers.

Andy Zucker (azucker@concord.org) co-directs the Ubiquitous Computing Evaluation Consortium, a group of researchers studying 1-to-1 computing, and is the researcher for the TEEMSS project. Alvaro Galvis (agalvis@concord.org) is Senior Researcher at the Concord Consortium. Robert Tinker (bob@concord.org) is President of the Concord Consortium.