Last week, Jim Rex, State Superintendent of Education in South Carolina announced that South Carolina would be expanding their One Laptop per Child project. A generous donation from Blue Cross Blue Shield is funding the expansion of South Carolina’s current laptop program.
Blue Cross Blue Shield donation helps expand One Laptop per Child project
An initiative to improve student achievement by making laptop technology available to every elementary school student in the state is expanding this month with the addition of 12 schools.
One Laptop per Child /South Carolina is a partnership between the nonprofit Palmetto Project, Blue Cross Blue Shield and the State Department of Education. State Superintendent Jim Rex and Steve Skardon of the Palmetto Project accepted a $500,000 donation today from Blue Cross Blue Shield division president and COO David Pankau to help fund the expansion.
The laptop program was piloted last year in rural Marion School District 7. That rollout has been highly successful, garnering positive response from students, parents and the community. School officials expect test results at the end of the year to show students are performing better since technology has been integrated into teaching and learning.
To read the latest news about the South Carolina deployment, see their website at http://www.laptopsc.org.
I have a child that is diagosed w/ epilepsy and mitochondia disease. This has resulted in severe language disability (not speech). He is 15 years old and getting ready to begin 9th grade. I have tried working with the school district and they do not offer resources and claim no knowledge of laptops for children with disabilities. All needs are on his IEP and he has a shadow but his doctors requested laptop due to difficulty transferring thoughts and all the motor skills needed to written assignments. Laptop would allow him to have to use the majority of his time trying to process info and writing vs using a computer and have notes/ lectures, reading assignments loaded/typed on computer and he could use the remaining time actually learning. His frustration level is higher because he is still writing his assignment while his peers have written and answered. He does not have time remaining to comprehend the class work.
I know there has to be something out there to assist my son, but I run into a brick wall with getting resources for him. When I talk with parents of other disabled children from other states, especially Georgia, their educators or disability centers come forth with resources and are forward thinking with getting resourses needed to children, but so far in South Carolina I have yet to find one resource for my son. I read alot about helping other countries, which I support, but I have a child right here in the states that I cannot get the needed help. Please let me know if you are able to help or get me to someone who is willing to. Thank you
Could you please help us.
Hello Mrs. Zambrano, OLPC is not an individual charity – we don’t provide laptops to individuals, but instead to national and regional programs. I believe the Palmetto Project has distributed all of their laptops to a few classrooms.
Cynthia, I don’t know of any olpc-like programs, via Palmetto or any other projects, targetting home-schoolers. Some of our national programs such as in Uruguay are doing good work to make XO and Sugar more usable to children with disabilities, which could be adapted for use elsewhere, but they haven’t published their work yet.
This is a nice program and I’m glad for SC. However I was wondering if laptop per child program is available for home schoolers, and what programs do they have for children with learning disabilities?
Roni, that is a lovely vision. You can get in touch with the local group directly through their website at laptopsc.org .
I am a second grade teacher in a high proverty area of SC. I have had a vision for several years of each of my students having a classroom laptop to be able to access learning activities/programs that individual instruction based on individual needs as identified by testing. I would like more information on the program and how we might receive help through this great opportunity.
I am so glad to find this website. I have just started my research on this matter while taking an “Introduction to Mass Media” course. I was wondering just last week if one could also use those laptops right here in the USA. I look forward to learning more about what is going with South Carolina and elsewhere in the United States.