OLPCorps Bucknell Nigeria

Synopsis

The Bucknell OLPC is committed to bringing 100 XO laptops to children ages 6-12 in the rural village of Umuariam, Nigeria. We plan to improve the lives of the students in the village by giving them access to the tools that will enable them to communicate with the world. Communication is a key component of our deployment. We are not engaging in this project to simply teach children. Rather, we intend to empower these students such that the world may learn from them.

They learn. We learn. The World Learns.

The Team

Name	Degree
Kyle Olivo	B.S. in Computer Science '09
Ahmed Kodouda	B.A. in International Relations '10

Location

<googlemap version="0.9" lat="5.594118" lon="7.075195" zoom="7"> 5.557898, 7.328568, Umuariam, Nigeria </googlemap>

Proposal (Draft)

Learning Through Exploration, Communication, and Innovation.

We Learn Socially
We do not learn alone. We are social beings. As such, we have made communication a central part of our project through a proposed collaboration between a US primary school and the deployment school. The students will be provided with blogs and a student partner from the collaborating institution. In this way, the students can broaden their understanding of the world and different cultures by sharing personal their experiences.

Who We Are
The Bucknell OLPC team consists of three primary members:

• Kyle Olivo – B.S. in Computer Science '09
• Ahmed Kodouda – B.S in International Relations '10
• Tejal Raichura – B.S. Neuroscience '09

Where We Are Deploying
We have an established family contact at the Samflora Academy in Umuariam, Nigeria, a rural village in the state of Imo. We plan to deploy between June 18th and August 18th. Our contact, and the school's founder, is Barrister O. Samuel Anyanwu. Mr. Anyanwu has a vested interest in the Umuariam community. He has been involved in building community resources in Umuariam for approximately fifteen years, and is responsible for the construction of the school, an Internet cafe, as well as the village's telecommunications and utilities infrastructure.

The school itself consists of around 100 students between the ages of 6 and 12 years. The children speak English, so no language barrier exists. Each child in the given age range will receive a laptop and we will also host student led teach-ins to give the children an opportunity to teach their fellow schoolmates about technology.

The school presently has a stable power and Internet infrastructure that will be able to support the demands of the laptops. Mr. Anyanwu has stated his intention to cover the additional power and Internet costs associated with the use of the laptops. In the event that we should experience power or Internet related problems, Mr. Anyanwu has connections with local technicians who will assist in handling larger infrastructural issues.

The school will only be out of session during the month of July, and we can use this time to teach the instructors about the laptops to help facilitate their use in classr. We will also hold voluntary school sessions during this month; the community is excited and willing to facilitate these sessions in any way they can.

Educational Objectives
We realize that our goal is not to solely instruct the students through traditional Western educational means, but to show them how they can best use the technology we are providing to better their own lives. We believe that it is communication with other individuals that ultimately leads to increased knowledge. With this in mind we are in the process of creating a partnership between a Lewisburg, Pennsylvania school and Samflora Academy in Nigeria.

Blogs will be given to all of the students from both of the partnering schools. They will either be provided individually or as a group in the form of a classroom blog. With the blogs, the students will be able to hold a personal correspondence with a designated “blogmate” and the world. By providing both groups of students with blogs, we believe we will foster life-long connections.

The Superintendent of the Lewisburg Area School District is aware of our program and is excited about the possibility of linking the two schools. Bandwidth and technology permitting, we also intend to bring the schools face-to-face with video chat.

Technical and Financial Commitment
We want this project to be sustainable, and Mr. Anyanwu has assured us that infrastructural costs will not be an issue. We are relying on Mr. Anyanwu's school and his technical contacts to provide the bulk of the continued support for this project. We believe his long history of investment in the community shows that he and his organization are fully capable of sustaining the project after we leave.

The Bucknell OLPC organization will continue to support this project either as a separate entity or as a component of the Bucknell chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). This will ensure that Bucknell students will be ready to provide financial and technical assistance to the community should it be necessary.

Further information about the project can be found on our wiki: http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_Bucknell_Nigeria

Letters of Support

Samflora Academy: Barrister O. Samuel Anyanwu - File:Anyanwu - Samflora Academy.pdf

Budget (Draft)

Airfare Items	Cost	Quantity	Item Total	Dates	Airline
Airfare (IAD – LOS) Roundtrip	1574	1	1574	June 16th – August 18th	British Airways
Airfare (IAD – KGL) One-way	1163	2	2326	June 5th	Ethiopian Airlines
Airfare (KGL – LOS) One-way	860	2	1720	June 18th	Ethiopian Airlines
Airfare (LOS – QOW) Roundtrip	102	3	306	June 16th – August 18th	Aero Contractors
Airfare (LOS – IAD) One-way	1623	2	3246	August 18th	Ethiopian Airlines
		Subtotal	9172
Other Items	Cost	Quantity	Item Total
Transportation	0	0	0
Lodging	0	0	0
Food	500	1	500
Vaccinations	250	3	750
Visas	150	3	450
		Subtotal	1700
		Total	10872

Note: Lodging and transportation will be provided by Samflora Academy.

Download budget as PDF: File:Bucknell OLPC Budget.pdf

Activities

Blogging Partnership

The idea behind this activity is to allow the students of a US based school to communicate with the newly XO equipped Samflora Academy in Nigeria. Classroom or individually based blogs will be created so that the students will be able to post about their experiences, wishes, and ideas. In this way, both schools gain an understanding of another culture and its values.

We have established contact with the Superintendent of the Lewisburg Area School District and he is very supportive of this idea. He suggested extending this idea to include video chat between the partnering classrooms. Bandwidth permitting, we intend to pursue this idea.

Student Teach-ins

The 100 recipients of the XO laptops will inevitably be learning about technology at an amazing pace. Student lead teach-ins will give the students the opportunity to show their community what they have learned and how technology can better their lives. The decision to include student teach-ins was heavily influenced by the experiences of Indiana University's OLPC team (see 1:42 min into the video).

Planning

Airfare

Travel expenses became quite complicated for the two passengers traveling between Kigali and Owerri (near Umuariam). We are still in the process of completing the budget, and more details regarding airfare will be posted shortly.

Health

The following vaccinations are recommended by the CDC for all travelers to Nigeria:

Vaccine	Cost*
Hepatitis A	$80
Typhoid	$50
Yellow Fever	$80
Meningococcus	XX
Polio	$35
Hepatitis B	XX
MMR (measles/mumps/rubella)	XX
Tetanus	XX
Rabies	$600 (For 3 Shots)

* Costs are specific to vaccinations administered at Bucknell University.
XX: Vaccinations required for Bucknell admission -- cost irrelevant.

Malaria

The Malaria in Nigeria is resistant to Chloroquine, the standard anti-malaria drug. The alternatives (Malarone, Doxycycline, and Mefloquine) vary highly in cost and form of side effects. We will likely use Doxycycline due to its low cost and mild side effects. If anyone has suggestions, please comment.

Infrastructure

Samflora Academy possesses a stable power and Internet infrastructure presently. In addition, many households have been equipped with electrical power. The school itself also has a backup generator. What this community possesses in electrical infrastructure, it lacks in computational power. The XO laptops will server as an invaluable asset in the education of this communities youth.

Technical Support

Technical support for Internet infrastructure issues and general laptop maintenance will be provided by technicians employed by Mr. Anyanwu. We will take the time to train these local technicians on the laptops before we the end of our time there. This ensures that after we leave, the laptops and supporting infrastructure will serviceable by local individuals.

Our Commitment

While Mr. Anyanwu's organization is fully capable of supporting the project once we leave, we'd like to prepare for unexpected financial and technical needs. The Bucknell OLPC team will either continue as a separate organization at Bucknell, or it will be absorbed by the existing Bucknell chapter of the ACM (Association for Computer Machinery).

Contact

We are very interested in hearing your thoughts! You are an integral part of making this proposal stronger! Please let us know of any recommendations you may have. We are particularly interested in hearing from those of you who have valuable firsthand experiences to share from previous OLPC deployments.

Please send all correspondence to: kyleolivo@gmail.com