OLPCorps UIUC Kenya Anderson: Difference between revisions

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== Team ==
== Team ==


[[OLPCorps_UIUC_Kenya_TeamBio | Individual Biographies]]
[[OLPCorps_UIUC_Kenya_TeamBio | Individual Biographies and Photos]]


Eric Anderson (UIUC) – Project Lead
Eric Anderson (UIUC) – Project Lead


Ben Dobbins (UIUC) – Pedagological Lead
Ben Dobbins (UIUC) – Pedagogical Lead


Leslie Cornell (UIUC) – Technical Lead
Leslie Cornell (UIUC) – Technical Lead


Meghan Higgenbotham (San Diego) Cultural, Financial, and Logistics Lead
Meghan Higginbotham (San Diego) Cultural, Financial, and Logistics Lead


Matthew O'Rourke (Wisconsin) – Fundraising and Sustainability Lead
Matthew O'Rourke (Wisconsin) – Fundraising and Sustainability Lead


== MODEL-ITU Youth Organization Overview ==
== MODEL-ITU Youth Organization ==


By equipping youths with useful ICT skills, we hope to enable "children and youths to exploit their potentials, learn from one another, and promote positive cultural diversity and global understanding."
By equipping youths with ICT skills, we hope to enable "children and youths to exploit their potentials, learn from one another, and promote positive cultural diversity and global understanding" (http://projects.tigweb.org/model-itu) or (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76879525602). ''All quoted material referenced from these sources.''


⚫
Through Model-ITU Youth Organization-Kenya, we will work to upstart an interactive free-time school called the ICT School of Cyber Peace and Internet Safety (ISCPIS). It will be located at KU Primary School on the outskirts of Nairobi. The school mainly enrolls orphans and children from poor families and slums. Our main local contact is Michael Owino (alex.owino@gmail.com). In addition to bolstering Model-ITUs current goals, we will deploy 100 XOs to introduce the XOlympics to the ICT School.
Founded in 2008 "for and by young people," we chose MODEL-ITU (http://projects.tigweb.org/MODEL-ITU -- all quotes taken from this site) from a dozen contenders because we believe our project using the XO laptops will have a powerful, realized, and sustainable impact on MODEL-ITU's budding ICT infrastructure and ideology.


⚫
Through Kenyatta University's MODEL-ITU Youth Organization, we will work to upstart the ICT School of Cyber Peace and Internet Safety at Nyangoma Primary School in Western Kenya. Our main local contact is Michael Owino (alex.owino@gmail.com). In addition to bolstering MODEL-ITUs current goals, we will introduce the XOlympics to the ICT School.


<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-1.187039" lon="36.916552" zoom="14">
The ICT School's mission parallels OLPC's goal and our project's focus of making children agents of change.
-1.181891, 36.916294
</googlemap>


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== Site ==


⚫
The school has 600 pupils aged 6-12 with reliable electricity and good security. We will store the laptops in the school. It has the space, security, and power supply to support the laptop delivery and project.
⚫
== Site Overview ==


The children will be in school from May until August. They speak English. Students partaking in ISCPIS will gather in the school hall for three hours after class on weekdays and six hours on weekends. Our large team size will ensure maximize individual interaction with the students during our project: the XOlympics.
⚫
The school has 600 pupils aged 6-12 with reliable electricity and good security. We will store the laptops in the school. It has the space, security, and power supply to support the project.

The children will be in school from May until August. They speak English. Current plans indicate that students partaking in the ICT School will gather in the school hall for three hours after class on weekdays and six hours on weekends. For the first two weeks, we will help the students yearn basic ICT skills with the laptops. Leslie will set up the server and troubleshoot technical aspects. Meghan and Ben will devise activities, contests, and games that acquaint the students with the laptops. Eric will oversee the implementation of the XOlympics. Matthew will ensure students own the process, acting as partners rather than knowledge consumers.

The next seven weeks we will implement our project on this foundation.




== The XOlympics ==
== The XOlympics ==


We are confident our project, the XOlympics, will succeed because of its collaborative methodology that focuses on empowering the Kenyan children through an initiative that interweaves the fundamental ideas of OLPC, the Six Pillars of MODEL-ITU, and our own diverse strengths and interests.


'''''Life is richest when we follow our childhood dreams.'''''
In addition to bolstering the students' innovation and employment prospective, the project will work towards Kenya's Vision 2030 goals (LINK).


In conjunction with the ICT School, our project will focus on four objectives:


With the XOlympics, we will provide children with the necessary tools to discover and pursue their dreams. Children will develop ICT and New Media skills to become "active problem solvers in their communities and country at large."
1. To foster basic ICT skills and build ICT compliant children in the target age.


Although there may be more children than laptops, we plan to engage ''all'' ISCPIS children with the XOlympics. The XOlympics will initiate daily and weekly activities that award creativity, teamwork, and innovation. It will be a fun way to ensure wide learning. It will spark dialogue about the XO that children will bring back to their social groups.
2. To expose children to ICT based tools for positive living through interactive video plays, social networking using the XO, and student-centered research of critical community and global issues.


XOlympics events will allow the children to become citizen-journalists, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, film makers, programmers, gamers, writers, and dramatists. Students will need to use critical-thinking, teamwork, creativity, and all aspects of their XOs to succeed.
3. To create a platform for value-based interaction between our team, the Kenyan children, and US elementary school students.


For example, "Wildlife Explorer" will involve using Record to create photo slideshows of various wildlife and its biology. "Good Deed News" will involve publishing a multimedia magazine on Scratch on how the team helps the community (bonus points for helping with the XO).
4. To initiate a process that promotes the contributions of the children and control of their own day to day life activities.
We do best and enjoy life when we follow our childhood dreams. By exposing the children to blogging, video journalism, gaming, and personal care for the laptops, we will help them develop New Media narrative skills that will link them with their passions, their peers, their communities, and eventually, the world. The XOlympics will challenge children to use all aspects of the laptops to work in teams, engage their local community, and pursue what's personally fulfilling to them. Students will learn entrepreneurial and education skills. We will reward creativity and risk to help students become "active problem solvers in their communities and country at large."


Children will contribute to award selection through digital voting on the XO.
Students will develop personal blogs. Blogs will blend introspection with peer-to-peer communication. They will collaborate with peers on various journalistic assignments, from blogging about a football match to interviewing each other. These blogs will intersect with lessons on internet safety and cyber responsibility.


We will oversee small teams of students as they work on the XOlympics challenges. Students will develop team names, crests, mottos, and theme songs. They will maintain team and individual blogs. They will use writing and video journals to reflect on the experience.
We will hold an ongoing competition titled the XOlympics. A weekly mini-project competition in areas such as movie-making, essay-writing, blogging and video-blogging, radio shows, and creative artistic projects will employ the full-range of the XO. Students will work with a variety of peer groups. Friendly competition will ensure engagement and encourage innovation with the laptops.


Additionally, students will work in teams on a longer project which they will present at the bi-annual Peace Camp. [http://projects.tigweb.org/model-itu/discuss/thread/35499 February 2009 Peace Camp]
Students will work in teams on a longer project, too, overseen by one of our team members. These projects will range from devising a multimedia presentation on green initiatives in Kenya, to doing "A Day in the Life of" stories, to collaborative oral histories of their communities. Students will produce something they are proud of, that uses the range of the XO's abilities. Students will work towards presenting these projects at the bi-annual peace camp.

⚫
Our project will conclude in an XOlympics awards ceremony where we will recognize students for exemplary work using the XO. Students will present projects in front of peers and the community.

Social networking opportunities will blend individual passions with like passions allow self-exploration of interests. Children will use the laptops to discover their interests and pursue them alongside their peers' passions.

Self-introspection and networking, innovation and collaboration – we will use the XO's to instill these values to ensure dreams no longer remain dreams.


⚫
Our project will conclude in an XOlympics awards ceremony where we will recognize students for exemplary work using the XO. At the ceremony, students will present projects in front of peers and the community, showing that they can achieve their dreams.


== Sustainability ==
== Sustainability ==


⚫
We are partnering with US middle schools to act as virtual pen pals. The program will be mutually beneficial, linking the Kenyan and American children in cross-cultural friendship.
We will sustain the project in three ways:


⚫
The MODEL-ITU Youth Organization and the school management will maintain the project, monitoring, and evaluation activities. The children will share their experiences with their peers to generate curiosity for future participants. Children using the skills will become agents of change by translating the project's outcomes into action.
⚫
1. We are currently forming partnerships with US middle schools to sustain virtual pen pals. The program will be mutually beneficial, linking the Kenyan children with American students in a cross-cultural dialogue that will further awareness and friendship on both sides of the world.

⚫
2. The MODEL-ITU Youth Organization in collaboration with the school management will carry on with the project, monitoring and evaluation activities. The children will also share their experiences amongst themselves in a way that will generate curiosity on new interested group of participants. This will ensure that children using the skills acquired become agents of change in their social groups and positively translate the outcomes of the project into action.

⚫
The local group is capable of carrying on with the project since it already has a similar project in Kenyatta University where its student’s volunteers train their colleagues who join the university from rural areas on basic ICT skills in collaboration with the directorate of e-learning.

The success of the initiative relies on the children’s ability to go back to their social groups and spread the outcomes in an educative way by passing and sharing information boldly to ensure replicable sustainability.

3. Eric and Ben plan to develop a OLPC Registered Student Organization at the University of Illinois to spread the OLPCorps among more university students and uphold bonds to MODEL-ITU.


⚫
A similar project has been successful at Kenyatta University. There, student volunteers train colleagues who join the university from rural areas in basic ICT skills (http://projects.tigweb.org/model-itu/discuss/thread/35601).


== Support ==
== Support ==


⚫
US Technical Support: Troy Campbell Long (troycampbelllong@gmail.com)
These support groups will help us implement our project, troubleshoot any technical difficulties, and streamline blogs to the internet.


== Budget ==
University of Illinois Informatics Institute: https://www.informatics.uiuc.edu/display/HOME/Home


⚫
[http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pfMHa6OEOLruBrbwO-QVKFQ OLPCorps UIUC Summer 2009 Kenya Budget]
⚫
US Technical Support: Troy Campbell Long: troycampbelllong@gmail.com


The downside of our large team is our large budget. We are currently pursuing multiple scholarships and grants to defray expenses. Meghan is also seeking less costly housing.
Graduate Library of Information Sciences (UIUC): http://www.lis.uiuc.edu/


== Budget ==
== Letter of Support ==


[[OLPCorps_UIUC_Kenya_LetterofSupport | Letter of support]]
⚫
[http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pfMHa6OEOLruBrbwO-QVKFQ OLPCorps UIUC Summer 2009 Kenya Budget]

Latest revision as of 02:57, 27 March 2009

Team

Individual Biographies and Photos

Eric Anderson (UIUC) – Project Lead

Ben Dobbins (UIUC) – Pedagogical Lead

Leslie Cornell (UIUC) – Technical Lead

Meghan Higginbotham (San Diego) Cultural, Financial, and Logistics Lead

Matthew O'Rourke (Wisconsin) – Fundraising and Sustainability Lead

MODEL-ITU Youth Organization

By equipping youths with ICT skills, we hope to enable "children and youths to exploit their potentials, learn from one another, and promote positive cultural diversity and global understanding" (http://projects.tigweb.org/model-itu) or (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=76879525602). All quoted material referenced from these sources.

Through Model-ITU Youth Organization-Kenya, we will work to upstart an interactive free-time school called the ICT School of Cyber Peace and Internet Safety (ISCPIS). It will be located at KU Primary School on the outskirts of Nairobi. The school mainly enrolls orphans and children from poor families and slums. Our main local contact is Michael Owino (alex.owino@gmail.com). In addition to bolstering Model-ITUs current goals, we will deploy 100 XOs to introduce the XOlympics to the ICT School.


<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-1.187039" lon="36.916552" zoom="14"> -1.181891, 36.916294 </googlemap>

Site

The school has 600 pupils aged 6-12 with reliable electricity and good security. We will store the laptops in the school. It has the space, security, and power supply to support the laptop delivery and project.

The children will be in school from May until August. They speak English. Students partaking in ISCPIS will gather in the school hall for three hours after class on weekdays and six hours on weekends. Our large team size will ensure maximize individual interaction with the students during our project: the XOlympics.


The XOlympics

Life is richest when we follow our childhood dreams.


With the XOlympics, we will provide children with the necessary tools to discover and pursue their dreams. Children will develop ICT and New Media skills to become "active problem solvers in their communities and country at large."

Although there may be more children than laptops, we plan to engage all ISCPIS children with the XOlympics. The XOlympics will initiate daily and weekly activities that award creativity, teamwork, and innovation. It will be a fun way to ensure wide learning. It will spark dialogue about the XO that children will bring back to their social groups.

XOlympics events will allow the children to become citizen-journalists, scientists, mathematicians, musicians, film makers, programmers, gamers, writers, and dramatists. Students will need to use critical-thinking, teamwork, creativity, and all aspects of their XOs to succeed.

For example, "Wildlife Explorer" will involve using Record to create photo slideshows of various wildlife and its biology. "Good Deed News" will involve publishing a multimedia magazine on Scratch on how the team helps the community (bonus points for helping with the XO).

Children will contribute to award selection through digital voting on the XO.

We will oversee small teams of students as they work on the XOlympics challenges. Students will develop team names, crests, mottos, and theme songs. They will maintain team and individual blogs. They will use writing and video journals to reflect on the experience.

Additionally, students will work in teams on a longer project which they will present at the bi-annual Peace Camp. February 2009 Peace Camp

Our project will conclude in an XOlympics awards ceremony where we will recognize students for exemplary work using the XO. At the ceremony, students will present projects in front of peers and the community, showing that they can achieve their dreams.

Sustainability

We are partnering with US middle schools to act as virtual pen pals. The program will be mutually beneficial, linking the Kenyan and American children in cross-cultural friendship.

The MODEL-ITU Youth Organization and the school management will maintain the project, monitoring, and evaluation activities. The children will share their experiences with their peers to generate curiosity for future participants. Children using the skills will become agents of change by translating the project's outcomes into action.

A similar project has been successful at Kenyatta University. There, student volunteers train colleagues who join the university from rural areas in basic ICT skills (http://projects.tigweb.org/model-itu/discuss/thread/35601).

Support

US Technical Support: Troy Campbell Long (troycampbelllong@gmail.com)

Budget

OLPCorps UIUC Summer 2009 Kenya Budget

The downside of our large team is our large budget. We are currently pursuing multiple scholarships and grants to defray expenses. Meghan is also seeking less costly housing.

Letter of Support

Letter of support

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