OLPCorps Masinde Muliro University Kenya

Revolutionary change in education through young children (750 words proposal)

We are 4 Masinde Muliro University students in Kenya and we are interested in working with primary school children of age 6-12 through collaboration program using XOs Laptops and create a movement of education change and sensitization of the impact of XOs and ICT on children of age 6-12 , thus world and locally support OLPC in education change to this children and teaming up with other teams in different areas across the Globe.

The children whom we intend to deploy the project to will be in school from May to end of July, and are always free from 2:00PM school day, making it easier to undergo the project and also the whole month of August they will be free. Dealing with children schedule the team will be free after April as the University student go for long-term Holiday until the last week of August The school that we plan to deploy is called kakamega Township and located in Kakamega town in western province, the same community that the University is located in. The majority of the children in it are from slums and rural areas. The school already has free classes which will offer room for the 230 Kg package and installed electricity recently, which will be easier for our deployment. The school is 5 kilometer from the university and 300 meters from IEARN Kenya head office.

Our local partners will be IEARN (International Education And Resources Network) which already is initiating a project on Animation voice for change and are so eager to supporting financially and technically and also overseeing the project deployment and after we leave in maintenance and sustainability through the country headquarters in the Kakamega town. We also have 100% support from our University in the deployment, maintenance and technical support, thus overseeing project after the 9-10 weeks program. Victoria Institute of Science and Technology in Nairobi is also supporting the team and the project in General with technical support and sustainability of the project after Augusts.

The project will impact the children very much to the sense that it is open source, the child is not confined in a given routine to learn but through interest and eagerness in using an XOs , owning one and sharing with peers. This creates a sense of responsibility to the child and will open more by exposing to a lot of information form peer to peer and the entire network which will lead to attaining of the OLPCorps Principles and also keep in mind constructive workshops and reference to OLPCorps Learning Guide, which will revolutionary change in the education from the fact that is a student led project. Thus the team is also eager in working with schools teachers and undergraduate student in the University to see if we can came up with an open source software’s as learning materials and trying to merge some of the school syllabus and the XOs .

The teams also look forward to expanding the team , we are already coordinating with other teams in our university and even support other schools and be able to involve more organization to enable extensive deployment and encourage research and support in this venture through the University and other organization and also the Government through the ministry if education. Our team plans to start university foundation that will spear head OLPCorps principles under OLPCorps foundation. The team is ready and looks forward for this project.

team members

Name	course	email
Duncan G. Washington (team leader)	Computer Science (assistant team leader)	gadonya@hotmail.com
Catherine Lusika	Bachelor Of Education Arts	clusika@gmail.com
Gerald Lutomia	Bachelor Of Education Arts	andrewlutomia@yahoo.com
Amos Mabinda	mass communication	amosmabinda@yahoo.com