OLPCorps BTH Ethiopia: Difference between revisions
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== Project Idea == |
== Project Idea == |
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[http://www.example.com Ratson's] mission is to improve the deep rooted development problems of target communities living in the country especially |
[http://www.example.com Ratson's] mission is to improve the deep rooted development problems of target communities living in the country especially women, youth and children by promoting genuine participation of the target constituent and all stakeholders through community based rural and urban development programmes. Ratson currently supports eight elementary schools of which four are in the rural part of the city of Debre Zeit. |
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We are aiming to focus on bring change in the rural areas as they are the ones with the greatest gap with technology. Based on the OLPC requirement, Ratson has selected the Ude elementary school for deployment of the laptops. Ude elementary school students will be on break between June-August. Our local partner, Ratson, has assured us to make the students available in school during the summer as the students live close to the school. All of the students are able to speak in Amharic, the official language, but some of the student’s mother tongue is Oromifa. The deployment team is native speakers of Amharic language. We will be assisted by facilitators capable of speaking both Amharic and Oromifa to better communicate with the children in their regional language. The facilitators are volunteer teachers from the school who would assist us in the learning activities as well. |
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Ratson has provided us with the list of schools that they supporting in the rural areas. The main challenge is the enormous number of students in the schools. |
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We need to bring technology to the most rural parts so that the people’s awareness changes significantly. Due to the enormous number of students, we will be selecting students by giving emphasis on gender equality. Ratson has promised to provide educational materials that can be digitized and easily accessed by the children by the XO laptops. We are planning to teach the children art, English, math, basic document formatting and HTML formatting using the XO laptop. We are planning to focus in the age range 9-12 since it is easier to make them focused. Participating children of this age is critical to self development and nurtures learning activity by enhancing their creativity. |
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The following is the number of students in the rural elementary schools. |
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We plan to make the children the agents of change by letting them pick a friend in their class and share the knowledge they have acquired. We believe this would have two main benefits; knowledge transfer and measuring the impact of change by observing the progress of the knowledge gain by the additional students. |
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1. Ude elementary school - 3800 students |
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In addition to focusing on the children, we are planning to conduct TOT training for the teachers on using the Internet for gathering information and use the laptops as an additional learning medium. We have also included optional activities that will be implemented depending on the availability of remaining funding after the major activities. |
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2. Hidi elementary school -3500 students |
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3. Godino elementary school -4000students |
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4. GandaGorba elementary school - 238 students |
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Based on the OLPC Africa requirement, Ratson has selected the Ude elementary school for deployment of the laptops. We are aiming to focus on bring change in the rural areas as they are the ones with the greatest gap with technology. We need to bring technology to the most rural parts so that the people’s perception and awareness changes significantly. We are currently trying to come up with a transparent way for selecting the students that participate in this project. We are also emphasizing on gender equality in the selection of students. |
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With respect to pedagogy, we have very little expertise and would welcome any assistance. But Ratson has promised to offer children educational materials that can be digitized and used with the XO laptops. We are thinking of participating more than 100 students in the summer learning activities. We want to emphasize on the students to share the knowledge they have with anyone they are comfortable passing on to. We are still brainstorming on this but our strategy includes considering to make the children pick a friend in their class and pass on the knowledge they acquire whenever they can. We believe this would have two main benefits. The first is knowledge transfer. The second benefit is that the knowledge gain by the additional students can be used to monitor the impact and measure the effectiveness of the project after the summer. |
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In addition to the schools, Ratson is engaged in financially supporting university students. We are planning to provide hands on training on troubleshooting and maintenance of the XO laptops to these university students. This will allow the children with an easily accessible local support in case of fixable equipment failures and software upgrade requirments. |
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== Team Members == |
== Team Members == |
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Revision as of 13:00, 29 March 2009
About us
We are a team of two post graduate students at the Blekinge Institute of Technology, Sweden. We are partnering with a local NGO, named Ratson, which is working on community based development program in the city of Debre Zeit in Ethiopia. We are currently in constant contact with Ratson to come up with a strategy to deploy the laptops and make the project sustainable.
Project Idea
Ratson's mission is to improve the deep rooted development problems of target communities living in the country especially women, youth and children by promoting genuine participation of the target constituent and all stakeholders through community based rural and urban development programmes. Ratson currently supports eight elementary schools of which four are in the rural part of the city of Debre Zeit.
We are aiming to focus on bring change in the rural areas as they are the ones with the greatest gap with technology. Based on the OLPC requirement, Ratson has selected the Ude elementary school for deployment of the laptops. Ude elementary school students will be on break between June-August. Our local partner, Ratson, has assured us to make the students available in school during the summer as the students live close to the school. All of the students are able to speak in Amharic, the official language, but some of the student’s mother tongue is Oromifa. The deployment team is native speakers of Amharic language. We will be assisted by facilitators capable of speaking both Amharic and Oromifa to better communicate with the children in their regional language. The facilitators are volunteer teachers from the school who would assist us in the learning activities as well.
We need to bring technology to the most rural parts so that the people’s awareness changes significantly. Due to the enormous number of students, we will be selecting students by giving emphasis on gender equality. Ratson has promised to provide educational materials that can be digitized and easily accessed by the children by the XO laptops. We are planning to teach the children art, English, math, basic document formatting and HTML formatting using the XO laptop. We are planning to focus in the age range 9-12 since it is easier to make them focused. Participating children of this age is critical to self development and nurtures learning activity by enhancing their creativity.
We plan to make the children the agents of change by letting them pick a friend in their class and share the knowledge they have acquired. We believe this would have two main benefits; knowledge transfer and measuring the impact of change by observing the progress of the knowledge gain by the additional students.
In addition to focusing on the children, we are planning to conduct TOT training for the teachers on using the Internet for gathering information and use the laptops as an additional learning medium. We have also included optional activities that will be implemented depending on the availability of remaining funding after the major activities.
Team Members
Eyaye Bekele is a student in software engineering. He has been mostly working on system and web development. He has also been working with an NGO that is focusing on communication strategies to combat HIV/AIDS. Eyaye has been involved in the networking of the Ratson head office in Debre Zeit.
Daxious Mengistu is a student in electrical engineering. He has been mostly working in the telecommunication industry.
Contact
You can contact us at eybe08@student.bth.se or dame08@student.bth.se