Tag Archives: partnership

OLPC Announces Partnership with Zamora Teran Foundation

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One Laptop per Child (OLPC) announced today a partnership with the Zamora Teran Foundation, a non-profit organization, dedicated to the successful implementation of OLPC programs throughout Central America. OLPC, in partnership with the Zamora Teran Foundation, will provide innovative teacher training, professional development opportunities, and related implementation services, to OLPC programs around the world.

The Zamora Teran Foundation  has distributed more than 42,000 OLPC Laptops to children in Nicaragua and is currently providing implementation support services to more than 50,000 OLPC Laptops in Honduras and 5,000 OLPC Laptops in Costa Rica. The results are impressive, with improvements in school retention rates and academic achievement.

“We are extremely pleased to have the opportunity to share our expertise in OLPC program implementation with schools and communities around the world,” said Maria Josefina Teran Zamora, President of the Zamora Teran Foundation. “We believe that in joining forces, we are creating a better future for all.”

The services offered by OLPC in partnership with the Zamora Teran Foundation focus on six components that are essential for a successful OLPC Laptop program.  The organizations offer a comprehensive teacher training program, as well as a full logistics and implementation solution. Services include the provision of advanced technical support and training to local, on-the-ground teams to ensure program sustainability. Monitoring and evaluation services are available to ensure that the goals of each program are defined and achieved. The organizations work with each local community to develop a strong community of volunteers  to support the program, and a strong network of development, to ensure the expansion of each program. With these six essential components, OLPC offers a comprehensive ecosystem of support to each program.

For more information about the One Laptop Per Child the Zamora Teran Foundation, please contact Leah (leah@laptop.org) .

OLPC was founded in 2005 with the goal of transforming education through the provision of a durable, connected, laptop computer to every child in the world. To date, OLPC has distributed more than 3 million laptops to children around the world.

Lanedo enriches One Laptop per Child’s multitouch experience

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Open source experts from Hamburg improve the devices’ software platform. Code will be available under free license to the worldwide community.

Lanedo, Hamburg-based Open Source firm, is proud to announce their contribution to OLPC’s newest device, named XO-4 touch. The 7.5“ convertible notebook, expected in 2013, focuses on multitouch technology as one of its main features.

Lanedo was involved from the very beginning to extend the OLPC sofware platform called Sugar, enhancing the user interface with touch functionality and therefore laying the foundation for future developments. The team not only improved the X.org graphical subsystem with numerous multitouch-related bug fixes, but also extended the respective functionality of the GTK+ toolkit, used for drawing windows, icons and other UI widgets.

Sugar has been a significant diferentiating factor in the worldwide user community for the XO laptop. We appreciate the support of Lanedo to continue the development and enrichment of the Sugar platform, says Rodrigo Arboleda, CEO of OLPC.

One of the most exciting features is the new intuitive text selector, that allows on-screen selection using handles for exact positioning. Furthermore, several commonly known gestures like zoom, rotate and swipe have been added to the Sugar environment, available throughout the system. Lanedo has also contributed to XO-4’s word processor, based on AbiWord, which not only had the same text selector implemented in native code, but also saw improvements in scrolling and other multitouch functions. Likewise, many other bundled applications have been enhanced.

Martyn Russell, one of Lanedo’s founders and managing director, is excited about the work done: Lanedo is proud to have had the opportunity to engage in such a noble project as One Laptop Per Child. It has been a great experience and we are thrilled at the prospect of contributing to the Open Source based platform in the future.

Following the principles of free sofware, developers can take advantage of those new features in their own projects, as all code writen will be made available freely to the benefit of the worldwide community – the GTK+ enhancements have already been incorporated in the 3.6 releases.

 

Focus Reports in partnership with OLPC to support Sonora, Mexico

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Focus Reports, an independent publisher of sponsored supplements for the global energy and healthcare sectors, announced on September the 26th, the launch of its partnership with the One Laptop Per Child Association, Inc. (OLPC).

Under the Agreement, if the donation reaches USD $20,500.00, OLPC agrees to donate 100 XO laptops version 1.75 to support the existing One Laptop Per Child program in Sonora, Mexico – a country where Focus Reports has traditionally been very active, and also country of origin of two of Focus Reports staff members.

According to the terms of the agreement signed between Focus Reports and OLPC, Focus Reports teams will engage in fundraising activities for the entire and exclusive benefit of OLPC from September 1st to December 31st 2012.

To donate directly to the program click here

To celebrate its 10th year anniversary, Focus Reports challenged its employees around the world to organize a social activity of their choice and allocated a specific budget for this purpose. The Selection Committee unanimously decided to put the money into a seed fund. This fund is to serve as the source capital for Focus Reports’ first fundraising campaign that will raise money for OLPC. “By creating this seed fund, not only will we donate more, but we’ll raise awareness and connect people – all for the benefit of OLPC” say Solène Pignet, Leonardo Barquero and Julie Avena, the three members of the Selection Committee.

Focus Reports Project Director, Koen Liekens, was the first to praise OLPC’s cause. He explains: “From poverty to racism and HIV to breaching human rights: many solutions start with education. While it’s one of the necessities for social and human development, educational tools and infrastructure are often still lacking. It’s not a new area to go social in, but we, as a media company, have not only the direct interest but also direct responsibility to raise literacy levels worldwide. To grow our next readers, to nurture the brains of our next generation of journalists, we have a role to play in ensuring that -at least- the tools are there for the less fortunate to be educated according to the requirements of the digital age.”

“The Focus Reports team has decided to allocate the entirety of the budget that was given to them to utilize their great fundraising capabilities and engage with people and companies to transmit the idea of OLPC across the globe,” says Diana Viola, CEO of Focus Reports. “Once again, our team has demonstrated that they are true to their values: bold, accountable, resourceful, trustworthy and hands-on. We are confident this initiative will be a success and the team knows they can count on our full support.“

The first fundraising event will take place in Mexico City.

About Focus Reports
Focus Reports (www.focusreports.net ) serves business professionals in the Pharmaceutical, Oil and Gas, Energy and Aviation industries with a portfolio of 5 websites, as well as country reports independently published as sponsored sections in world class trade publications.

To this end, Focus Report is organizing their first fundraising event in Mexico City to be held on October 24th, during which we will be hosting a raffle in order to raise funds.

Focus Report for SonoraFocus Report – Sonora

 

For any enquiries, please contact:  Julie Avena juliea@focusreports.net

One Laptop Per Child and Common Sense Media Partner to Foster Worldwide Digital Literacy

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MIAMI–(BUSINESS WIRE)–One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a nonprofit organization whose mission is to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression, announced today that it has signed an agreement with Common Sense Media to offer Digital Passportâ„¢, the interactive web-based platform on OLPC’s XO laptops and tablets in the U.S. and internationally. The agreement with Common Sense Media follows a recent announcement between Sesame Street and OLPC and demonstrates OLPC’s continuing use of third party content to supplement its Sugar educational software platform of 300 applications.

Common Sense Media’s Digital Passportâ„¢ is an interactive learning environment designed for students in grades 3-5 who are just beginning to use media and technology independently. Through a series of engaging videos and games that address topics such as online privacy, appropriate sharing, respectful cell phone use and content selection, children learn to safely navigate in a technology-enhanced world. This student-centric approach to learning fosters increased confidence in children to further explore technology, while teaching critical skills around being safe, respectful, and responsible digital citizens.

“As OLPC and others expand the use of connected laptops by children for learning, it becomes increasingly important for children to better understand the digital environment and Common Sense Media offers the most comprehensive and well accepted curriculum on this subject,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, President and CEO of OLPC.

“Providing laptops to children opens up their worlds and prepares them for success in the 21st century,” said Amy Guggenheim Shenkan, President and Chief Operating Officer, Common Sense Media. “By making digital literacy and citizenship education a priority and outfitting OLPC XO laptops with Digital Passportâ„¢, OLPC is demonstrating an admirable commitment to helping kids to safely and constructively engage in their own education.”

About OLPC:

One Laptop per Child (OLPC at http://www.laptop.org) is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide every child in the world access to new channels of learning, sharing and self-expression. In partnership with the public and private sectors and non-governmental organizations and supported by comprehensive implementation and pedagogical services, OLPC seeks to provide each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power connected laptop that empowers individual learning and growth.

Contacts

One Laptop per Child
Giulia D’Amico, +1 305-371-3755
giulia@laptop.org