http://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-39630389?SThisFB

Ethnographer and photographer Laura de Reynal has been documenting the work of organisations, such as Mozilla and One Laptop per Child who are helping communities to get online for the first time.

 The first online experience for these 16-year-olds in Madagascar was browsing Wikipedia and writing what they had discovered on a blackboard.

The One Laptop per Child project was one of the first to deploy small laptops in classrooms in developing countries, more than a decade ago.

The children were able to practise their algebra by shooting spaceships.

One Laptop Per Child continues to expand its educational program in Africa. Thanks to a generous donation from the Nommontu Foundation, OLPC provided 27 OLPC Laptops to Centre de Chirurgie Orthopedique et de Rehabilitation Sainte Marie de Rilima,  the top health care facility in Rwanda for children with health issues.  The Center cares for approximately 70 children for three or more months while they receive treatment.  With this donation, these children have access to education and technology during their stay in the Center. OLPC provides ongoing training and guidance to facilitators and children.  The OLPC team continues to work closely with the staff in the Center, as we strive to guide the process of technology integration into the lives of these children who otherwise would have no opportunity to receive a formal education or learn to use technology while they receive care at the Center. The children are delighted with this opportunity to learn and use technology to create and experiment. These children are truly a model of hope for their parents, community, nation and the world.

Tundikhel, an only vast open space in between the city, is now filled with families who lost their homes in the recent earthquake. As we drive, walk or ride pass through the lanes alongside Tundikhel, we can see numerous tents – some donated by China and some made locally by the sufferers. When OLE Nepal team visited the ‘refugee camp like place’ it was heart wrenching to see people in need of necessities required for survival. Many organizations from various backgrounds provided immediate relief effort, such as food, water, shelter, sanitation, etc.

Amidst all the chaos, OLE Nepal are particularly concerned about the welfare of thousands of children who have been affected in more ways than one – distressed, displaced and completely traumatized by the scenes of devastations all around them. As we try to rehabilitate communities, it is utterly important to pay special attention to the emotional and physical well-being of these children. Along with their physical safety, their psychological security needed to be duly addressed as well.

With so many schools destroyed, and communities displaced, many children are deprived of education and will be for months, if not years. In this critical time, it is important to give children the space where they can enjoy their time in quality learning and exploring.

In Kirtipur, Khokana and Bungamati, OLE Nepal is now providing relief to the children at Tundikhel. Following are the photos taken during the first day of our relief effort.

The Manuelita Foundation is a Colombian organization
founded in 2014 with an emphasis on teaching
technology, English and leadership skills to students.
Its emphasis is to educate on a one to one basis,
with a comprehensive model that leads teachers
to enrich the learning environment using modern
methodologies and technology, with the ultimate
goal of developing life skills for students. The program
works to create motivated and happy learners.
The Foundation has delivered 240 XO Laptops to
students in kindergarten through third grade and
other equipment to students fourth grade and above,
including teachers. The program has reached more
than 670 students and 430 families. The program
has a social component specifically designed for the
whole family.
The program “Educating One to One” is implemented
in the city of Palmira Valle del Cauca and benefits
the surrounding neighborhoods, including four
educational institutions of Antonio Lizarazo. The pilot
program began in Rosa Zárate de Peña.

General:

This course meets approximately once per week. The general outline is as follows:
First Semester:

Learn the Sugar operating system

• Learn to add and delete activities, how to use the journal, and basic Sugar features
• Develop ways to teach Sugar
• Learn Etoys
• Learn Scratch
• For each lesson, come up with teaching strategies and ideas for a companion “game” to go along with the lesson
• Learn how to take apart (and put back together) an XO laptop
• For those interested, troubleshoot some of the broken computers to see if they can be repaired

Second Semester:

• As a class, select a subject for which we would like to develop a ten-lesson teaching “unit” 
• Break the subject into an appropriate number of lessons, and have each student work on a single lesson for use by global  communities. Sometimes, CSG Lower School teachers are used as subject matter experts. Sometimes CSG students are our beta testers. 
• Review Sugar, Scratch, Etoys and Etoys teaching strategies
• Teach CSG’s 4th graders to practice “in front of a room”
• Prepare for the trip

The trip:

• Work with the school to teach 3rd-8th grade students Sugar, Scratch, and Etoys.
• Develop curricula to be used by students in developing nations. 

Thanks for your interest! Please check back periodically to view our progress.

Pilot project provides laptops, training

Eric McCarthy newsroom@journalpioneer.com
Published on March 7, 2017

John J. Sark Memorial School students give a demonstration of the digital animation skills they acquired using laptops donated to them by Princes Charities Canada and One Laptop Per Child Canada.

LENNOX ISLAND – Carson Thomas thinks he will be better equipped going forward in doing Internet searches for school projects.

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Thomas and his fellow Grade 5 and 6 students at John J Sark Memorial School on Lennox Island spent two hours after school each day last week receiving computer animation and programming training.

Prince’s Charities Canada, the charitable office for His Royal Highness, The Prince of Wales, partnered with One Laptop Per Child Canada to provide computers and training to indigenous youth. Lennox Island was one of seven First Nations across Canada to benefit from the pilot project this winter.

Thomas said he learned how to change colors on computer projects and how to make his name animated and dance.

Matthew Rowe, Director of Operations, Prince’s Charities Canada, said the participating schools and their students get to keep the computers.

Rowe said the students in the Lennox Island project created digital animation projects, talking mostly in Mi’Kmaq, about the traditions of their community. “The idea was to build digital skills while getting them to create projects that were giving them a chance to use the language and to learn it,” he said.

While digital animation is a new approach for the students, Rowe said the Grade 5 and 6 students was a good age range to work with. “They actually soak it up like sponges,” he said of the simplified coding language.

Grade 5/6 teacher, Nicole Gorrill, said the students already possessed basic computer skills but the shared project taught them new skills. “What happened, for most of the students, it really piqued more of their interest for technology,” she observed. “They’ve been learning these new computer skills, but they are also now able to kind of take what they’re learning in their cultural class here at the school and they have a new way of displaying that so that they can teach their friends or other family members,” she suggested.

“It’s been really, really good to boost their self confidence.”

Grade 6 student, Kavon Bernard is excited about the potential. He’d like to “make animations, set them up to the internet and get famous on animation.”

The students, working in teams of two, prepared one to two minute animation projects which they shared with other students, family members and elders. Lieutenant Governor Frank Lewis and former premier Robert Ghiz, a member of the Prince’s Charities Advisory Council were in attendance for the presentations.

“Lots of big, big smiles today,” Gorrill said in describing her students’ sense of accomplishment.

Rowe said schools involved in the pilot project also receive a year of ongoing support.

http://www.journalpioneer.com/news/local/2017/3/7/lennox-island-students-learn-digital-animation.html