How To Run A Jam

Under construction by Mel.

• background reading

• what is olpc

• what is a jam?
• finding a coordinator
• locations
• food
• communicating with olpc - getting laptops etc
• judging

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(below is contentdump to parse into guide)

We need a couple things:

(a) Space. Do you know any schools, clubs/associations, or companies with buildings or offices they might be willing to let us use for the Curriculum Jam (first weekend of October)? We'll set up and clean up ourselves, will operate entirely outside of the normal workweek, and bring a good amount of positive publicity to them (see http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Game_Jam_Boston_June_2007/Press). We'd need 3-6 rooms with tables and chairs that we can move around, plus internet.

This is really important - we can't run the Jam without it! It's the most immediate need.

(b) Participants. If you know any teachers (or someone who would know teachers, or people interested in education) in Manila who'd like to come for the weekend and help us develop classroom activities, please let me know! No experience required (curious parents and interested high-school/college students are invited as well).

It's a great way to learn about and get involved in the OLPC project (http://www.laptop.org) and also to learn about open content, which is a great way to get free, high-quality learning resources for your students; textbooks, lesson plans, educational games, you name it, it's out there. If you're interested in coming or know someone who might be, just send me an email.

I would *love* to have this Jam be mostly in Tagalog. If you know a great teacher or older student who speaks both Tagalog and English who might want to step up and be the local coordinator for the Jam, let me know! (Cousins: would you like to learn how to run a conference? I'll help you, and it's a *great* learning experience, very helpful for college and jobs.)

(c) Judges. Is there some way to contact schools in the area (ICA/Xavier mailing lists perhaps)? We'll need about 40-50 kids ages 7-15 on the afternoon of October 7 to come and judge the event - test out the classes we've developed and give feedback on how well they work and what should be changed. Contact me for details.

(d) Food. We need some way of feeding ~40 people for 2.3 days (Friday dinner to Sunday lunch) and some way of providing snacks for about 100 people (mostly kids) on Sunday afternoon. Know any places that might donate food, or money for food?

(e) Publicity. Know any journalists or PR people who can help us reach them? I've got a press release I'd like to send out about this (it's in English, though - don't know if that's a problem).

(f) Crash space. Would any of you folks still in the Philippines mind if I slept on your couch for a week or so while I'm helping with the Jam? I'm not an entirely terrible cook, and would be happy to fix computers while I'm around, too. :)

Feel free to forward and spread the word to your coworkers, classmates, and friends. (Actually, /please/ forward and spread the word to your coworkers, classmates and friends). Let's make this happen!