MY BETTER MOUSETRAP PROJECT TITLE

1. Project Title & Shipment Detail Name of Project: Ecole Mixte and Friends

Project Objectives: Friends Academy is seeking to establish a long-term partnership with Ecole Mixte Choubert Alexis in Gonaives, Haiti, an accredited school that was devastated in the 2010 earthquake. The school would be one of several schools in our network. Our objective is to collaborate with students around the world on the kinds of projects that require teamwork, complex communication, creativity, technical competence, and other 21st century skills. These projects can take many forms. Imagine students at one school creating storyboards, students at another school designing the artwork, students at a third school composing the music, a forth class producing the final video. This kind of project and those like it differ from the usual correspondences and pen pal exchanges that teachers initiate with their international partners. We will also have these initial exchanges, but expect more out of these partnerships in the long-term. The projects we propose provide students with genuine learning experiences. They also build friendships, cement relationships, and bridge cultures. They require intense and sustained collaboration. Apps like[ http://translate.google.com/ ] translate.google.com can help with the language barrier. Email, wikis, and blogs allow us to network, share and collaborate. These projects allow children to share their stories, experiences, culture, values, ideas, and dreams. We believe projects like these can be powerful and transformative. Students can share, learn, and grow together. Technically, we hope they can build on their skills. These projects tie in to our school’s vision “to develop students who have strong global literacy” and to one of our technology goals “global communication and global awareness.” Teachers at the other schools will carve out their own goals. For one teacher, these collaborations might be an avenue to teach English, for others, it might be a way to teach the writing process, art, music, or theater. 4. Plan of Action Plan and Procedure for Achieving the Stated Objectives: Ours is a simple, but powerful idea that only requires a few technical pieces and time to work. The other structural and pedagogical pieces are already in place.  We only need the laptops for the children at Ecole Mixte Choubert Alexis. We have assembled a dedicated and talented team of educators and technologists. We have the trained staff, the Internet connectivity, curriculum ideas, and a gaggle of excited children. When the computers arrive at Friends Academy, we’ll test the machines to see if we can install the same suite of open source software we use: GIMP (an image editor), Inkscape (a vector art editor), Open Office (for word processing), Audacity (for audio editing). There are also web-based apps students could use like Google docs or Aviary. Choubert Alexis, the director at Ecole Mixte, has an Internet connection that we tested in December. We have our project ideas and could get started as soon as the children learn how to use the laptops. Choubert Alexis has a license in computer science and can be trusted to deliver the instruction.

Needs Why is this project needed? Locally? Outside the community? The inspiration for this project came from a child. After watching reports of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, a student approached her teacher and asked if there was anything her classmates could do to help the children there. We learned about Ecole Mixte through a student at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth. What started as a simple art project- sending hearts and messages of goodwill- has blossomed into something bigger. We want to do something meaningful. By providing the school with technology, a curriculum, and project ideas, we believe we can transform the lives of all the children involved. This is the kind of project that is consonant with our values, aligned with our vision, and integrated with our curriculum. We can provide the leadership, the social network, and the curricular piece. We need partners to help us procure the hardware, which is the most important piece we lack.

Timeline (Start to Finish) Please include a Proposed timeline for your Project life cycle: (this can be in the form of Month 1, Month 2, etc rather than specific dates) This project is ready to launch immediately. If we were granted the equipment, we’d take the steps outlined above. Month 1: Familiarize ourselves with the machines/OS.   Month 2: Deliver laptops to Ecole Mixte. Provide initial training and instruction to teachers. Month 3-12: Provide Haitian partners with curriculum ideas, tech scope and sequence. Year 2: Begin collaborative projects.