User:PIOLPCIntern-1/Description

DEPARTMENT: Technology Services Unit REPORTS TO: Business Systems Analyst LOCATION: Watertown, MA – Work-at-home

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project is an education project that seeks to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment and express themselves. It centers on the creation and distribution of a low-cost portable computer to large numbers of children in developing countries. Pathfinder is seeking ways in which to either assist the project or work through the project to advance our mission to improve the reproductive health of women, men, and adolescents throughout the developing world.

POSITION DESCRIPTION, SPECIFIC: Connect with the OLPC team and community.

Set up an OLPC development environment at Pathfinder.

Learn the OLPC development environment.

Create programs and activities to run on the OLPC laptops. Such programs to include educational games, data collection, and perhaps others as suggested by candidate

POSITION DESCRIPTION, GENERAL: Assist in planning and implementation of Pathfinder’s OLPC strategy.

Contribute to the OLPC wiki & the OLPC development wiki such information as will be useful to the intern’s successor, to other organizations undertaking similar efforts, and to the project in general.

Participate in regular status updates to discuss the state of the effort. Updates may take the form of a blog or vlog for either internal distribution at Pathfinder or publicly as part of the project.

Lay the groundwork for the project to continue after the end of the internship.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS:

Intern must be able to receive course credit - full or partial - for this practicum. Recent high school graduates and students entering college will be considered.

The laptops are intended to be programmed by their recipients, so no programming skills are absolutely necessary to begin.

Willingness and ability to learn by doing may suffice, though some familiarity with scripting or programming helpful.

Some basic awareness of OLPC project and of Pathfinder’s mission.

Prior experience with Python, Squeak/eToys and Linux (the most common OLPC environment) would be a benefit, but by no means is a strict requirement. Other languages like Perl, PHP, ASP, VB/VBS, Ruby, etc. might be helpful.