OLPC Afghanistan

On Monday June 24, 2013 at 5PM EDT (New York time) OLPC Afghanistan founder Mike Dawson & his partner Carol Ruth Silver will be interviewed live @ http://facebook.com/UnleashKids

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Afghanistan

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... and thanks for visiting the Afghanistan "OLPC" related Wiki-Pages, for the One Laptop Per Child Universal Primary Education project. This is an "Open Commmunity" project, similar to the Wikipedia and Open Source Community projects, like Linux, OpenOffice, etc. and it is working along Agenda 21 and Millennium Development Goal nr.2: Bringing Universal Primary Education.

• 2' video - OLPC Intro part 1
• 2' video - OLPC Intro part 2

The aim of this educational project is to bring Universal Primary Education by 2015 as - anno year 2000 initiated - United Nations Millennium Development Goal nr.2. For this and above approach, - and also a lot of lobbying by the right persons on the right places and time - the United Nations is a Partner in this Open Community project! It is the largest educational project undertaken by Humanity ever... and deemed by many as one of the most inspiring projects out there ... and things are moving very fast indeed: over 86.000 eBooks available, all education disciplines covered, 2008 saw the first 3 developing countries with full coverage, i.e. with all kids age 5 to 12 equipped with these smallest schools in a box-laptops.

OLPC is a not for profit that tries to remain as small as possible and is focussed on making sure the One Laptop Per Child initiative and hardware stays open source and open hardware. OLPC offers tools for the community to collaborate in working on the soft and hardware and helping out with deploying OLPC projects. OLPC soft and hardware is free to be used by all. OLPC has not opened and will not set-up any legal OLPC Afghanistan entity in Afghanistan. OLPC is sure that there are competent individuals that will come together in an organization or that some existing organization will take up the lead in building a dynamic community that will take the OLPC initiative into Afghanistan. It is not possible in making a profit on the laptops. The prices are open and the same to everybody and merely depend on massive numbers. The only way to eventually earn money is by providing assistance to deploy - get through the different phases - and accompany the project, assisting the government in deploying One Laptop Per Child, assisting with training teachers, collaborating in making dedicated ebooks, etc.

Afghanistan is a very multi-cultural society with a very diverse diaspora. We hope that this diaspora will work their way to these pages and that the Afghanistan society will benefit from these citizens with one leg in Afghanistan and another still in their countries of origin to develop leadership for OLPC, Agenda 21, the MDG's and accelerate bringing the level that our planet can be a nice place for all humans to new and inspiring heights for generations to come.

Please feel free to create sub-categories or list or start collaborating, teaming up and expanding our and your projects, existing and new ones in one of the sub-categories.

Background Country background and overview: OLPC Afghanistan/Background School deployments This is the official Wiki page for "One Laptop Per Child Afghanistan" project. Learning outcomes could be massively improved using technology to overcome obstacles in both mainstream school and community based education environments. The OLPC Afghanistan Pilot is working to overcome technical, content, and cultural issues to harness the power of technology in even the most challenging environments to improve learning outcomes; contributing to the future development and prosperity of Afghanistan. Schools teach in shifts, learning time can be quite short (2.5hrs/day). Blended Learning with OLPC can effectively extend learning time using classroom time to share learning outcomes Teachers often lack time / resources for providing feedback. Enhanced learning content and instant feedback could be provided to guide learning and improve learning outcomes. Library resources are sometimes scarce. Using the offline digital library system even without Internet huge amounts of learning resources can be instantly available. Interactive learning resources and encouraging sharing between learners could lead to improved creativity, problem solving skills and life skills. Especially crucial for rural areas with power constraints, this XO model only uses about 25% of the power usage of a regular laptop, and has the ability to be solar or foot powered. The laptops will be integrated into teaching curricula, providing students with a vast educational resource, access to word processing, educational programs, email, and internet browser software. Families will then have access to training, job information, and resources to develop and improve farms and small businesses. Targeting current and historical conflict zones, including Afghanistan, correlates with OLPC’s mission of offering equal-access education to the most isolated children in the world-- with the additional advantage of promoting world peace. Although providing immediate relief for health and infrastructure appear to be of more critical importance in war ridden areas, in order to fully rebuild a war torn region, educating the youth and future leaders provide the most hope in the construction of a politically stable country. A number of full proposals about how to proceed with a large-scale deployment have been presented, including a 2010 briefing note by the NGO's AIMS and Paiwastoon. Educational Content Hardware is but a gateway to content. The OLPC Afghanistan team has: Completely translated Sugar / standard activities as well as EToys Translated GCompris to Dari and Pashto A digital library in each school Teacher training materials freely available for download Family health information activity Economic Development / Small business activity Currently we are working on the creation of a high speed book scanner in the office in Kabul (as per the archive.org model) and creation of enhanced curriculum books for all subjects to provide mini tests, simulators, etc. Technical Accomplishments OLPC Afghanistan has been working to overcome technical barriers to make the deployment really work... Developed pure wireless deployment system using Freifunk firmware (also writing the documentation for this firmware in English for the first time) Developed a sustainable pedal as you use it table to run the XO OLPC News Article Adapted espeak for Dari (work in progress on refinement / exceptions). Text to speech technology to support literacy, the illiterate and semi literate. Adapted the Renpy Roleplay engine to work better on the XO and worked with developers to support right to left scripts. Software for copying complete websites remotely (webdump) and quickly building, indexing and searching a digital library that works over the local network without the school needing Internet access. Project Goals Mission: To create a fit environment for OLPC, take necessary steps to ensure every child in Afghanistan receives an XO laptop and develop the Local Activities for OLPC laptops that could revolutionize how Afghani children are educated. The Afghanistan OLPC project will revolutionize the way in which children are taught and promote cooperation between the diverse set of communities existing in central Asia. The goal of OLPC Afghanistan is to provide every child with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves in a collaborative way. Contacts and Further Information • Official OLPC Afghanistan website • Official OLPC Afghanistan Dari Weblog • Contact Salim Hayran, OLPC Afghanistan Project Coordinator • Send inquiries to info@olpc.af OLPC Afghanistan Team Read More about the OLPC Afghanistan team and volunteers [here] Deployments Deployment Wiki Page Read here Information on pilot project, first and second phase of deployment and list of schools selected for implementation. Media Coverage 4/3/09 Huffington Post: “Afghanis Desperately want to Learn and aren't Afraid to Do So: Washington can't be Afraid to Help Them” by Matt Keller, Director of Europe, Middle East and Africa for One Laptop per Child. 3/5/09 CNN: “Laptops bring lessons, maybe even peace” 2/10/09 USAID: “One Laptop per Child Program to be Launched in Afghanistan” 1/31/09 USAID: “One Laptop Per Child program launched in Afghanistan” 9/9/08 Tech World: “How the OLPC can help beat Taliban in Afghanistan” 9/5/08 PC World: “OLPC Seeks ITU's Help to Promote Laptops” 12/12/07 CSR Wire (The Corporate Social Responsibility Newswire): “The Kite Runner Inspires Gift Through One Laptop” Picture Blog via Picassa [1] via Flickr [2] See also OLPC Afghanistan/Job descriptions - jobs needed for the project, not necessarily filled OLPC Afghanistan Stakeholders Carol Ruth Silver: Master Teachers by Sattelite: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=en--JhgfD4w Technical Structure and Operations Dupree Foundation and their Library initiative OLPC link dupreefoundation Plain Ink https://www.facebook.com/selene.biffi?fref=ts OLPC link Plainink Students in Charikar, Afghanistan want computers External links Lets Explore the XO One Laptop Per Child Afghanistan official website PAIWASTOON OLPC Afghanistan Dari Blog OLPC Afghanistan Dari Wiki Page OLPC Afghanistan on Wikipedia OLPC Afghanistan Sugar-Labs wiki Page Facebook group Official OLPC Afghanistan Facebook group Primary Language ,|x|Language spoken::x}} Number of Laptops Number of manufactured laptops::1000 Keyboard Layout Keyboard::OLPC English Keyboard Build ,|x|Software release::x}} Date(s) Arrived in Country ,|x|Has received laptops on date::x}} School Server ,|x|School server status::x}} Deployment Status Deployment status::Supplementary, for repairs and add-on machines. Primary Language ,|x|Language spoken::x}} Number of Laptops Number of manufactured laptops::450 Keyboard Layout Keyboard::OLPC English Keyboard Build ,|x|Software release::x}} Date(s) Arrived in Country ,|x|Has received laptops on date::x}} School Server ,|x|School server status::x}} Deployment Status Deployment status::Started with Paiwastoon, with a new digital library. Feel connected join the OLPC community at IRC - Instant Chat channel "OLPC" who are also working on OLPC projects right now at the same time you are working now Afghanistan ORDER LIST CANDIDATE BUYERS OF AN XO LAPTOP Who is who Afghanistan Who's Who OLPC-Afghanistan Facts Afghanistan relevant for an XO deployment FAQ OLPC-Afghanistan OLPC-Afghanistan Meetings OLPC-Afghanistan Discussions What every government should ask itself when considering an ebook deployment OLPC-Openings in Afghanistan OLPC-Openings outside Afghanistan This category is only for pages that describe an OLPC deployment. Category:Deployment planning is for pages about the topic of deployments. See the Deployments page for deployment summary information pulled from these pages. Template:Deployment puts pages in this category. Deployment coordinators can use Has default form::Form:Deployment to edit these pages; look for an 'edit with form' tab on them. Afghanistan Primary Language ,|x|Language spoken::x}} Number of Laptops Number of manufactured laptops::4700 Keyboard Layout Keyboard::OLPC Dari Keyboard Build ,|x|Software release::x}} Date(s) Arrived in Country ,|x|Has received laptops on date::x}} School Server ,|x|School server status::x}} Deployment Status Deployment status::Started with Paiwastoon. Developed offline digital library system, sustainable human power system, pure wireless class2class (freifunk) networking