Curriculum Jam Taipei/Invitations

For participants

Would you like to join the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project in creating free educational materials for children around the world? Curriculum Jam Taipei is a great place to start.

http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Curriculum_Jam_Taipei

ccTaiwan is running an OLPC Curriculum Jam in Taipei from August 1-2, just before the main Wikimania conference. We're looking for participants to help us build cool things for education, and we would love you to join us.

An OLPC Jam is a content creation crunch that gets participants from idea to reality in just a few days. For this Jam, we'll be creating learning activities in making small collections of materials that kids can use to teach themselves something, whether it's math or art or a Russian folk dance. Entries will be made in both Mandarin and English.

On Sunday afternoon, a judging panel of local schoolchildren will review the submissions and declare the winner. After the Jam, we'll upload all the lessons plans we've generated to the internet and release them under an open content license so that students and teachers around the world can use them. It's a great chance to learn about open content and education, as well as a way to contribute and get involved in the OLPC project.

Participation is free. Registration instructions are at http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Curriculum_Jam_Taipei/Registration - admission is on a rolling basis and there is limited space, so sign up now!

If you have any questions about the Jam, contact Mel Chua at mel@laptop.org.

Thanks - hope to see you there!

For judges

Would you like to be on the judging panel for a competition to make free educational materials for kids in the developing world?

Next weekend, a whole bunch of writers, musicians, teachers, and makers from many different countries are coming to Taipei to create lessons and activities for the One Laptop Per Child's XO, an open-source laptop that's going to be given to kids in classrooms all over the world.

They'll be making their activities in less than 44 hours and giving a big demo on Thursday afternoon, August 2, and since we're making the activities for kids, we're looking for a panel of 5 kids (ages 9-14) to come and judge the event. Would you be interested? You and your parents would come from 1-5pm on Thursday, August 2 (we have snacks), and your job would be to play with the things we've made on the XO laptops and tell us what you think and which one is best.

The event will take place at Chien Tan Oversea Youth Activity Center, Shilin District, Taipei. See http://wikimania2007.wikimedia.org/wiki/Venue for directions (we'll be judging in lounge 319, an open space on the first floor). Email Mel Chua if you're interested at mel@laptop.org if you're interested.

Thank you! We hope to see you there - it would be great to have you as a judge.