CNN – How fast can you learn? Fareed Zakaria

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Original Post here.

Ethiopia has one of the highest illiteracy rates in the world, and the village of Wonchi is no exception. Nobody there can read or write. That’s why I was astonished when I saw what Nicholas Negroponte’s One Laptop per Child organization did there.

They dropped 20 Motorola tablets, preloaded with mostly literacy apps in the village with no instructions. Within four minutes, one boy had found the on/off switch – an unknown entity in these parts – and he then taught the others. In a few days, they were each using about 50 apps each.

Watch the video for the full Look.

Universal Children´s Day Celebration: #OLPC

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We would like to celebrate the Universal Children´s Day declared by the United Nations next Tuesday.
How? We will meet in twitter and have a great conversation about OLPC. This means we will meet and mention a #hashatag: #olpc and make a session of Questions and Answers regarding OLPC and our deployments.
When? November 20th, 7p.m. EST.
Why? We can share our websites, studies, photos, videos, wiki links, etc. about kids in projects
Please find attached invitations and feel free to share and invite your friends and followers!

OLPC Shines at Project L.I.F.T. Annual Meeting

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By: Torie Leslie, OLPC facilitator at Allenbrook Elementary School

On October 26th, 2012 the nine CMS Project L.I.F.T. zone schools and community
partners joined forces to host the L.I.F.T annual community meeting. This event
included breakout sessions centered around L.I.F.T’s commitment to appropriate
technology for all students. The “OLPC Lounge” stood out as a shining star during
this time as students, their families and community members enjoyed quality time
with XO laptops and OLPC support staff members. All visitors to the session had the
opportunity to ask questions and explore Activities on the Sugar Learning Platform.

One of my favorite memories from this event was when a 4th grade student was
sitting with his sister who is in Kindergarten and he explained how to open the
Speak Activity so she could type in her name and hear the robot speak her name. He
said to her, “You can use my XO for now but you’ll be getting your own soon!”

Check out this video from the evening created by my colleague, Monique Pollock,
facilitator at Ashley Park Pre-K-8.

 

Universal Accesss Awards

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Last Thursday November 1st 2012, Knight Foundation invited OLPC to attend the Universal Access Awards at the University of Miami.

The Universal Access Awards event is designed to recognize those individuals, entities and institutions in South Florida who have made a positive impact in our community by using technology that increases access to information, reduces the cost of technology or increases connectivity among members of our community.

Robert Hacker, CFO OLPCA
George Martinez, Director/IT Knight Foundation

Knight Foundation as a proud sponsor of the event, submitted a video of OLPC’s  project at Holmes for the ceremony.

As part of the foundation’s Universal Access Initiative which supports projects in communities across the country to ensure digital access for all.

 

The awards were presented by the South Florida Digital Alliance/Miami-Dade Broadband Coalition, which works to create technology infrastructure and services to advance economic development and individual empowerment in the community.

 

Robert Hacker, CFO OLPCA
Melissa Henriquez, Educational Coordinator OLPC