Tony Forster posted videos of recent work with OLPCs in East Timor. Â He has been travelling around the world helping smaller deployments for much of the past year; I last caught up with him at LinuxTag this spring, and was delighted by his stories. Â I hope to see more visual field reports like this from the most rural schools as well.
From the Very Exciting dept. : Nickelodeon Latin America (part of MTV Latin America) is partnering with OLPC to run an international contest to design multimedia about improving the environment.
Elementary school children in OLPC schools will be challenged to develop multimedia content in an international contest focused on creating a better environment. The winner will be awarded with a trip to the Teen Nick Halo Awards, a show where celebrities give awards to amazing, accomplished and inspiring kids who work hard to make the world a better place. From our joint press release:
This initiative is in line with OLPC’s desire to enable a generation of children to think critically, connect to each other and the world’s body of knowledge, and to create conditions for real and substantial economic and social development. Nickelodeon and OLPC will work together to leverage the advantages of the XO laptop in elementary school education and promote strategies for increased access to laptops and connectivity in Latin America.
“We are delighted to partner with One Laptop per Child for this important initiative,” commented Mario Cader-Frech, Vice President of Public affairs and Corporate Social Responsibility for MTV Networks Latin America and Tr3s: MTV, Música y Mas. “OLPC has done an outstanding job of bringing technology and computer-assisted learning to kids around the world. This contest not only inspires children in the region to make a difference in their communities but also helps them to develop new skills that will prepare them to become productive members of tomorrow’s workforce.”
“OLPC is constantly looking to engage with private sector companies to achieve mutual objectives for children and education,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, CEO of OLPC – “Nickelodeon joins a distinguished group of OLPC partners that includes General Mills, Marvell, Procter & Gamble and BHP Billiton, all devoted to bringing quality education worldwide”.
Children will be welcome to participate across Latin America. Â We can’t wait to see the first submissions come in — and to seeing similar storytelling projects start in other parts of the world.
Press contacts at MTV Networks Latin America:
International Axel Escudero (5411) 5295-5270 axel.escudero@mtvstaff.com Miami & Colombia Argentina & Chile Marimar Rivé Vanina RodrÃguez (305) 938-4910 (5411) 5295-5272 marimar.rive@mtvstaff.com vanina.rodriguez@mtvstaff.com Mexico Erick Zermeño Guillermo Reyna (5255) 5080-1729 (5255) 5080-1766 Erick.zermeno@mtvstaff.com guillermo.reyna@mtvstaff.com
This Friday at 2pm EST, Scott and others will talk about how OLPC creates student-centric learning experiences, and how the software stack could become less shallow in terms of providing a narrative and journey to those experiences.
Those interested in joining are welcome to come to OLPC’s new offices at the American Twine building for the discussion. There will be streamed and higher-res posted video of the sessions as well. See Dr. Ananian’s blog for further details.
Last year, Uruguay published Plan Ceibal, the Book (with Prentice-Hall), describing the world’s first national-scale implementation of one laptop for every child.  This month they released an amazing video looking back on the first four years of the project:  “Much more than a computer“.
The 15-minute video ranges from what students work on in school, outside, and at home, and how the teaching community thinks about the classroom now. Â It is shot mainly outside, emphasizing working with nature and laptops as a part of everyday life. Â There is a lot of student work with multimedia in the background. Â And they share the view of this work from Ceibal as institution – what the program means for supporting schools across the country, and what it means for the influence of schools in their communities.
“transformamos un privilegio en un derecho” —Plan Ceibal
The OLPC Bhagmalpur project, which Sameer started in 2008 with support from the Digital Bridge Foundation, is finishing a renovation that will provide regular power from a generator at the local school, and close to giving the students there their own XOs.  They visited with the students recently, one of whom is featured in our second Mission video, to show them how many people are following the school’s progress.
A talk from the London Business Forum on ‘Imagination strategy‘: Where do new ideas come from? And, what environment generates them?