University of Pennsylvania OLPC

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Introduction

In education Cameroon has recently seen a series of successes focused primarily on raising attendance rates in the traditional school system. This however has not alleviated the over 40% poverty rate, the majority of which is focused in rural communities. Due to the failings of the education system and the lack of diversity in vocational training and work opportunities rural flight has endangered the success of both rural and urban communities. The answer to these problems is a community leader in education that focuses primarily on a child-centered learning curriculum. The United Action for Children, in the southwest province, is the answer to these problems. The UAC focuses on a child centered model that encourages children to seek out answers and solve problems for themselves rather than the rote memorization that most schools employ. Through small class sizes of no more than 25 students and individualized teacher attention the UAC schooling model is the future of Cameroon’s education system. This is why it is the perfect vehicle for the OLPC 100 laptop deployment. Despite these successes the UAC is in great need of essential resources to advance their agenda and extend their influence into the remotest rural regions of Cameroon.

The University of Pennsylvania and the United Action for Children Partnership ==

We are three students from the University of Pennsylvania passionate about the power of child education and energized by the opportunity to deploy these community changing tools into a Cameroon’s educational structure. We have developed a partnership with the United Action for Children to complete the mission of the OLPCorps Africa. With a focus on child centered learning, small classroom sizes and individualized each attendance we believe that the UAC’s education model is perfect for deployment of 100 laptops. We will develop a new initiative called “Schools on Wheels.” The goal of this project is to reach students that cannot access the resources of UAC’s main site the Jamadianle School in Buea, Cameroon. As three students from the University of Pennsylvania we will organize the facilitation and deployment of 100 XO laptops into the villages of Upper and Lower Bokova. The school populations for these two sites are 97 students between the ages of 6 and 13 years old: 35 students from Upper Bokova and 62 from Lower Bokova. The students will work daily with the XO’s in a series of projects that focus on the partnerships three primary goals: Ownership, Communication and Literacy. Through these three project themes students will become a central influence in their own society.

Team Structure and Deployment Plan

The partnership consists of two teams. The International team is composed of three undergraduate students at the University of Pennsylvania. Samuel Ribnick is the Logistical Lead. Siler Bryan is the Pedagogical Lead. Both have worked in administrative positions in a multi-site tutoring and education program in local West Philadelphia public schools. Michael Chen is the Technologies Lead. He currently serves as an ITA and the manager of the computing system of one of a Penn College Houses.

The Local team consists of the Senior Management of the UAC. One of the founders and current Director of the United Action for Children, Mr. Orock Thomas Eyong is extremely enthusiastic about our project. In our onsite deployment we will be assisted by a minimum of two teachers as well as the IT staff including the Head of Computer Programming Mr. Oforka Anslem and staff member Njang Raphael.

The deployment schedule will begin in the first week of June when we arrive in Buea. We will spend this time with orientation for teachers, parents and students in our primary community of Upper and Lower Bokova. Mr. Eyong is currently mobilizing students and families to develop this summer program in lieu of our arrival. Following our return from the retreat in Kigali, we will spend eight weeks implementing an XO project based curriculum using our established wireless internet access (Mr. Eyong has determined that this is feasible for this location) and the connecting resources of the Jamadianle School. In short our projects will be divided into three parts: Ownership, Communication and Literacy.

Ownership- Ownership ensures total saturation. Laptops will be provided on a 1:1 basis to the students to assist in creative and active exercises already implemented in the Jamadianle School such as the One Child, One Chicken and Tree Program.

Communication- Each days students will connect with children in both their local community of Buea through the Jamadianle School and in Philadelphia. The International Team will partner with the Philadelphia Freedom Schools for this project building both international connections and increasing literacy.

Literacy- The students will complete activities that focus on interacting with each other and their XO laptops to transform the way they build vocabulary, develop their comprehension and express their thoughts on paper. We will use activities and multimedia presentations to diversify the subjects that they study focusing on everything from science to farming to history so that they can develop their own passions and personalize their laptops.

Sustainability and the Future of the Partnership

This summer will serve as the beginning of an exciting next step for the United Action for Children. With the infusion of the XO laptop into this rural site, the UAC can begin to shrink the distance between villages and develop a strong rural regional identity. During the school year the teachers will easily be able to continue their work with these students, while receiving the excellent support of the Jamadianle’s Computer center. This deployment is also easily replicable and, in the future, this partnership will expand our projected successes in the Bokova villages to other remote villages. Each additional laptop integrated will help transform education and build a regional community.