User:Bill Egnatoff

I'm an Associate Professor, Computers in Education, at Queen's University at Kingston in Ontario, Canada. I'm working with colleagues in Canada and Sierra Leone on linking school communities in Canada and Sierra Leone, with a focus on peace education. This work is coupled with programs of pre-service and in-service teacher education, and graduate studies and research to document and support the peace education development.

In March two XOs will be going to the village of Mapaki, in the Paki Masabong Chiefdom, Bombali District, Northern Region, along with two teacher candidates who will be working on computer skill leadership development with people there who are highly committed to improving education, health, and agriculture in their region. For more information on the work that we are joining, see the blog of Carolyn van Gurp. This village is likely the first in the country to have high-speed Internet access, and that is opening up new windows on the world, giving access to important educational, medical, and agricultural information, and facilitating communication with partners. A research project is being designed to document the impact of this access.

My Canadian colleagues and I learned in December 2007 that the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Education is very interested in finding a way to participate in the OLPC program. Computer literacy is considered of great importance.