As weeping and cheering for today’s World Cup results spread across the globe, at OLPC we are hoping to recover enough to try sOccket’s power-generating soccer ball at our next weekly scrimmage. Since Ghana and Uruguay are XO countries we are exhausted from rooting for both sides.
Yesterday, Jessica Lin from sOccket visited us at OLPC and promised to trade a sOccket ball for an XO, in hopes that someday a XO can be powered by the energy of play. Learning in play was strong thread of discussion this week at OLPC. We talked to Jessica about 60+ soccer programs around the world (like the Kabul Girls Soccer Club) that help children learn about teamwork, strategy, physics, and statistics as they participate in their favorite sport. Right to Play was another kindred program we met at the UNRWA education conference, which sparked a brainstorming session about how computer games could be incorporated into RTP programs.
So, start up your XOs! Track stats of the World Cup games, Measure the amplitude of cheering when a goal is scored, or Record a set of videos of your friend’s elaborate soccer footwork!
We all have the right to learn & play…
Such a huge fan of the idea of Soccket! Another cool thing about the program is that members of the SOccket team are heavily invested in local programming for children and working through soccer clubs, schools, and other grassroots organizations in order to maintain a community and local aspect to all initiatives associated with the SOccket and give ownership to the populations they are hoping to reach, similarly to OLPC’s approach in the field!
While a soccer ball may not solve the world’s energy crisis or light up the thousands of village across the world lacking electricity, it’s an unbelievably cool idea, which shares a lot in common with the design of the XO, and is an exciting way to get kids to start thinking innovatively while getting to play at the same time! 🙂