Peru plans OLPC expansion for next year

Peru is planning to expand their OLPC program to reach every primary school in the country next year.  Last week, during a meeting with regional leaders from the country’s 24 departments, Oscar Becerra commented on plans for the program to reach over 16,000 primary schools across the country – though not every child in each of those schools will have an XO at first.

Peru is working with the department leaders to help them organize regional programs to complete the saturation of their schools.  They are also expanding their awareness and training programs for teachers, with an event last Friday for over 500 teachers. Walter and Rodrigo were both present for some of last week’s events (Walter has been visiting many of the South American OLPC deployments, as anyone following the Sugar digests will know), and the general vibe and feedback from both administrators and teachers was quite positive.

Apostle of the Apoxolypse: Derndorfer’s wandering star

Christoph Derndorfer, widely known for his ministry to young XO pilots, fashion sense, and active speaking / writing /editing about OLPC, has recently kicked off a Latin American Tour.  (Todd Kelsey, where are your tour-badge-printing skills when we need them?)  He plans to visit all of our country partners in the region with significant deployments this summer, documenting his experience.

Christoph’s travel reports are enchanting.  Take for instance the recent photoessay from Montevideo’s  eXpO photo exhibit in Uruguay – composed entirely of photos taken with XOs by students in 4 primary schools.  And with his iconic beard, long hair, and thousand-meter stare (seen below by the pool at the Fame Factory), Christoph is becoming as known for his xoly presence as for his love of good design and Sugarized icons.

ChristophD caught mid-sentence, with an open XO in his raised left hand

ChristophD preaching the End Times (or at least the Shutdown Screen Icons)

To stalk with him across the southern slopes, deployment by deployment, you can follow his online writings, photos, and twext.  He is looking for personal contacts along the way, especially people who have played a role in OLPC deployments, so please get in touch with him if you know someone he should meet.

http://christoph-d.blogspot.com/

How classroom XOs can help Rwanda’s economy

Rwanda aims to complete deployment of their next 100,000 children by next summer. National project coordinator Nkubito Bakuramutsa was interviewed this week for an article in the Irish Times.

They discuss recent successes and policies at the Rwandan schools that have deployed the first batch of XOs in the country. Kagame and the teachers involved are both optimistic that they will transform their society into a leader in technology advances. Kagame aims to triple the nation’s economic output over the next 10 years.

New OLPC site in the works

Our design partners have been developing a new design for the OLPC website, one that draws in contributions from our partner and chapter sites around the world. I saw the latest designs this week, and loved them!  We’ll have more updates about the site soon, once everyone’s back from the Realness Summit and we’ve heard from Mike Massey, our new photo maven.

The biggest change: we’re going to convert the homepage from a big logo to a series of full-screen images from deployments, with background details and links to more information. If you have any amazing photographs or stories you’d like to see featured on our homepage, please post a link to them.

Teasers:

An overview of stories
an OLPC world map

New Year’s newsletter : 2009 in review

Here is our first take on recent events at a glance, in a new, flexible format.  This alpha edition covers milestones from our work this past year – what better time to reflect than now, as 2009 draws to a close? We are sending this out as an update to our past supporters as well. 

If you want to share this, or read it on a mobile device, you may find it easier to view it on laptop.org. Enjoy these flashbacks, and have a Happy New Year!

One Laptop per Child
Introducing the XO-3 Introducing the XO-3 XOs on horseback in Uruguay Uruguay gives an XO to every child
 Rwanda plans one laptop per child by 2012 Rwanda plans one laptop per child by 2012 Thank you for everything you do! Thank you for your support. Please help us do more: give a laptop or donate in another way.

OLPCorps blog roundup

Here are blogs from our first 29 OLPCorps teams. (The 30th team, working in Kibwezi, received only hardware support).

University of Miami        Mauritania
Cornell : Mauritania
Tulane/U at Buffalo : Sierra Leone
UMaryland/Princeton : Sierra Leone
UPenn : Cameroon
Kwame Nkrumah U of Sci & Tech : Ghana
CUNY Baruch : Ghana
University of Education, Winneba : Ghana
University of Ibadan : Nigeria
ULagos/Royal Holloway/USalford : Nigeria
Texas A&M University : Nigeria
Dalarna U/Royal IT : Ethiopia
Laval University : Gabon
University of Illinois : Sao Tome e Principe
Colorado College : Uganda
MIT/Wellesly : Uganda
UC Berkeley Uganda
Utah State University : Rwanda
UWash/New School : Kenya
UT Antonio/Baylor : Kenya
University of Kinshasa : Congo
Tumaini University : Tanzania
GW University/UMaryland : Madagascar
Macalester U/Midlands State U/U of Zimbabwe : Zimbabwe
Harvard/MIT : Namibia
Teachers College/Caprivi College of Ed : Namibia
Indiana University : South Africa
UMASS-Boston : South Africa
Gettysburg College/Rhodes U : South Africa