Math4Team/RIT

Math4 at RIT and in Rochester NY

It started as a big idea.

Then Dave Nalley, a Fedora Ambassador, asked for XO laptops to work on that big idea.

Meanwhile, in Rochester NY on January 22, 2009, an OLPC Community SIG was starting. At this initial meeting Karlie Robinson learned that Rochester Institute of Technology Professor, Stephen Jacobs, wanted to teach a class around the XO using machines being donated by Nortel.

On February 7, 2009 David Nalley announced the Fedora Developers XO program. A pilot program in North America that would begin to tackle the 4th grade math curriculum using volunteers equipped with 100 donated XO laptops.

This presented an interesting opportunity for the Fedora Project to work with RIT. RIT wants to do an XO class but doesn't have many machines. Fedora is looking for volunteers and has machines to give. Talks began.

On February 26, 2009 it was settled. The Rochester NY OLPC Community SIG and Professor Jacobs class would participate in the Math4 project.

To prepare for the first day of class at RIT, the following has been done;

David Nalley has sent RIT 25 XO laptops for the class.
The FourthGradeMath mailing list[1] has become active
Steve Jacobs has updated the mailing list [2] with details about the RIT Honors Seminar, Developing for the OLPC XO
- Note that the link just above this line, will also get you to the page on Current games relevant to our end goal.

/Students

Alumni

/Alumni/Spring-2009

/Projects

Math4 at RIT FAQ

What year are most of the RIT Students?: Most students are juniors or seniors in their major field of study. Some students are freshmen or sophomores, but it's a lesser amount.
What are they learning?: Their participation in the development of XO Activities based around a 4th grade math curriculum will give them experience with Open Source Software development. Beyond that, the students will be choosing what areas of development they participate in.
Are they math majors? Eduction majors? Mixed volunteers?: As of this writing, we do have a mix of community volunteers working on this project. The RIT students are divided between several majors. Computer Science, Networking and Systems Administration, Information Technology, Software Engineering and Telecommunications majors are all majors seen within the FOSS minor. There are also a variety of instructors and volunteers with different sets of experiences and backgrounds to help contribute to the students' learning.
Do they have 4th graders lined up?: Some. Depending on the class size and readiness of the projects, there are field trip excursions to elementary schools for live playtesting with 4th grade students.