Openwijs.nl
The not-for-profit foundation OpenWijs.nl is established in the Netherlands to promote the concept of OLPC, to manage projects based on this educational concept and to broaden this concept to other target groups and regions. This foundation is not part of OLPC NL (grassroots group OLPC the Netherlands) but the people in the foundation are "member" of this group.
We started May 2008 and at this moment, December 2008, we have 2 pilots on primary schools in Maastricht (the Netherlands) and 1 pilot in Rama (Nicaragua). About 10 projects are in development: Aruba, Antilles, Suriname, Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Kenya and Ghana. Other XO / Sugar projects are: visual impaired (eSpeak in Dutch), literacy, adult education, technology in primary education (sensors, robots), teleconsultation etc.
Mission To realise good, affordable, electronic and open education, based on a fair, sustainable and multicultural educational concept
Vision The foundation will reach this by activities like: 1.Promotion of this fair, sustainable, multicultural and open educational concept 2.Set up and execute projects with this educational concept 3.Stimulate the development and the use of open innovations in learning activities:
- open standards
- open source software
- open content
- open internet
- open hardware
4.Stimulate the development and the use of ICT and internet in national and international multicultural communication to encourage mutual understanding
Our educational concept is based on the OLPC concept, One Laptop Per Child. The difference is the use of:
- several types of hardware (with a preference of the XO)
- several types of software (with a focus on open source software like Sugar or KDE)
- several types of educational models (its the educational institute who chooses)
- we want to serve all ages
- and also in developed countries (especially for the poor areas)
The main difference is the approach, we like to work bottom-up, with local experienced NGO's. If we can proove that the OLPC concept is working in a region we can scale up fast. That's what we are doing now in Nicaragua.
See www.openwijs.nl for more information about OLPC and other relevant projects.
Please don't hesitate to contact us for more information. We look forward to cooperate with lots of people, organisations and countries!