Promote the 2008 OLPC Give One, Get One Program
Executive Summary:
1. The problem:
Collaboratively create a web site to advocate for and promote the OLPC Give One, Get One program that will begin again on November 17, 2008.
2. Discussion of relevance/meaning:
This Learning Adventure is like none of the others in the way that it allowed us to apply our knowledge beyond the Cadre and the class. It represented a wonderful opportunity to promote a worthy program that allows children the chance to “learn to learn” in a way that we have been studying in the work of Seymour Papert. This is truly a chance to give children their machine that will take them far in their pursuit of knowledge. It is clear from the work of Papert, and others that we have studied, that computers provide children a wonderful way to learn in very concrete ways and to express themselves.
From a ‘meta perspective’ this project allowed us to begin to apply our own growing knowledge about learning to a ‘real life’ issue and get out into the world and speak our minds on the subject. For me personally it has forced me to dig into my learning about learning and find ways to communicate the value of the OLPC mission as I created content for the web site and continue to speak one-on-one with my family, friends, and colleagues about the value of the program.
Similar to other Learning Adventures, this project created the challenge that lead to learning and growth. I have seen fellow Cadre members learn new things to support this effort and I have learned new things as well. There is a new level of confidence growing within the entire Cadre that we can achieve anything to which we put our hearts and minds. I also sense a deepening of the trust within the Cadre through this project – trust to share candid feedback, trust to hand off work for others to edit and change, trust to put your ideas out there where the world can see them.
3. Possible conclusions/solution:
The solution to this Learning Adventure focused on rapid collaboration and the application of the skills and support of the community we have built as a Cadre. Using Wikis, discussion forums, email, live edits of a web site, and synchronous communication through Skype we were able to quickly built a strong web site containing key information to encourage participation in a valuable program.
My conclusion is that we have seen the power of distributed cognition focused on an important issue. The higher good that is served by this project brought out a passion and level of commitment that was inspiring. It kept me going beyond where I thought I could contribute to do something more, take it a little further, see what I can do to help. That to me is the type of value that needs to be brought into education. There needs to be a socially responsible and building aspect to learning, making the learning tangible, real, and valuable. Learning for learning sake can be fun, but learning to change the world is awesome.
While we have ‘finished’ the initial work, I feel that the project will never end. We have moved outside of our program into the world and it is incredibly inspiring how a relatively small group in only two weeks can produce something so complete to support an effort. You never know what you can do until you get out there and try.
4. Supporting evidence – may include links, graphics, references, supportive arguments:
Logo I was able to create for the project (the child with the laptop to the left of the web site banner text).
Article published in an employee newsletter at my work:
Give the World to a Child
This holiday season you can help give the world to a child in a developing country by participating in the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) “Give One, Get One” (G1G1) campaign. OLPC’s mission is “To create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning.”
From the time that OLPC was founded donors have been able to provide monetary contributions to purchase laptops for children in support of this mission. The G1G1 program was first offered last year, for a limited time, as a way to encourage participation in the OLPC project. Participants in this program may choose to receive an XO laptop of their own when they donate one to a child. The XO laptop is an ultra-portable, extremely durable, and very power-efficient laptop. It comes with a version of Linux installed and a suite of creative applications specifically designed to help children learn. Out of the box the XO laptop is ready to connect to the world, whether it be a WiFi hotspot or another XO laptop nearby.
This year the program is being supported and promoted by a group of students in the Online Master of Arts in Educational Technology (OMET) program at Pepperdine University. Dan Wood, an Instructional Designer on the SBG Customer Care team, is part of this group of students. He and his wife also participated in last year’s G1G1 opportunity; buying a laptop for a child and receiving one of their own. “It was cool to get the same computer that the children are getting as well.” said Dan, “We really felt connected to the effort in a deeper way since we had one of our own to explore.” Dan and his wife have since donated their XO laptop back to the program to be sent to a child for their use.
The G1G1 program will be running from November 17 to December 31, 2008 and is being managed by Amazon.com to help ensure prompt delivery dates for donor computers. The program was highly successful last year, and we anticipate high demand. Appropriately, the children’s laptops are the priority and are shipped first. If you would like to find out more, and get involved in this limited time offer, visit http://www.laptops4kids.net. This web site has been created by the OMET students as their way to promote the program. Any purchases made through the Amazon “buy-box” on this site will earn a small percentage of money back that will be used to buy more laptops.
If you have any questions about this program, please contact Dan Wood.
Download the Press Release created in collaboration with the Cadre and Dr. Gary Stager:
Web site:
http://www.laptops4kids.net
Reflection on the Process:
his has been an amazing process of which to be a part. The collaboration has been excellent and has been supported by the many Web 2.0 tools at our disposal. It is impressive how quickly a focused group of talented individuals can come together to create a powerful statement in support of something in which they believe.
I have had the good fortune to be able to contribute the URL and a logo for the project as well as content on a few of the pages of the web site which we are building. The input and suggestions of the Cadre are powerful design tools that are aiding in the distributed cognition process.
11/15 – This past week as been a busy one for building the content on the site. Recently we have been reminded to make the focus about the learning aspects of the “Give One, Get One” program by including more details of how having a laptop will support learning for the children. Dijlah wrote a great piece regarding this aspect of the program which helped focus the thoughts that had been in my head about how this program support learning. I was able to edit her original content and add my ideas which seemed to strengthen her original work and she was happy with the results as well.
I am seeing how rapid collaboration can be stressful at the same time that it is empowering. There have been some slightly tense exchanges in the communications, but overall everyone has been working to avoid conflicts and view the collaboration positively. I think the tie to a “real” event that has a rapidly approaching “live date” is causing some of the tension, and at the same time is creating a great deal of excitement and engagement in the project. I am also seeing trust being built and strengthened as individuals give up ‘control’ of their work and allow it to be freely changed and adapted to meet the greater good.
I am looking forward to the feedback of my colleagues at work to our efforts as there will be an article posted about the project in one of our work newsletters.
11/18 – The last two days have been somewhat intense for the project and have also yielded great results. I had the great experience of seeing colleagues at my work pick up the energy of this project and jump in to find ways to extend the impact by seeking out matching funds from my company. This process has allowed me to learn more about the fund matching process available and to feel an stronger connection to what I can do to support the OLPC mission.
Since the launch I have been watching the site and checking the Google Analytics. It is exciting to see the number of visitors growing and particularly to see that there have been several visitors from other countries to the site already. I’m hoping we can hit our goal of 5000 and that we can be instrumental in helping people learn about the program and ultimately donate.
Yesterday I was able to complete the final version of the Press Release that was created from input by Dijlah, Andrea, and Gary. It was cool to get to put the release together as it allowed me to draw on some of my past knowledge from studying journalism. Thanks to Google I was able to find a nice example of a press release to make sure I was following the correct form.
Last night I stopped from all of the busy activity, and even stress I was feeling from all of the work on this project, and watched some of the videos of children with their XOs. As I watched the children with their laptops, saying thank you to “whoever gave me my XO,” it brought it all home again – this is what it is all about.
Tonight, as we clicked the final “continue” button on our donation my wife and I wondered about the child somewhere in the world that would be getting the laptop we helped to provide. It would be so awesome to be able to communicate with these children – perhaps someday the program will include that opportunity. Ultimately I don’t need to know, I’m just happy we are able to do something to help. I think of Gary’s comments in our planning meeting when he just kept saying, “Do something.” It is so true, and we have all seen what can happen when you do.