[Grassroots-l] [University-chapters] OLPCorps : a summer grant program for student initiatives?

[Samuel Klein]

On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 10:26 PM, Nirav Patel <olpc at spongezone.net> wrote:
> I heard about this moments ago through the grapevine (africans at mit ->
> ict4dev at mit -> dso at cmu -> my inbox), so it seems there is at least
> widespread interest in the idea.
>
> Having a deadline approximately a month away constrains this almost
> exclusively to students at a university with existing ties and work
> with an educational project in an African nation.  I don't see how
> anyone could establish a solid relationship with a local NGO or
> school, secure funding, build a team, and submit a proposal in a month
> without the first two steps already completed, but perhaps that was
> the intent.

If you are in school in the country in question, this will be easier.
I would think student groups from African countries would be high on
the list of interesting candidates; though their universities may have
less experience with this sort of proposal writing/planning, may not
have a summer programs office, &c.


> There are certainly several universities where that is the case
> though, and funding the deployment of 100 XOs through them would at
> minimum provide 100 more children with laptops, and more than likely
> educations.  There is of course also the possibility of any of these
> micro-deployments jump starting something bigger if
> teams/organizations manage to establish other sources of funding, as
> is the goal, I imagine.

To me, the jump starting of deeper engagement among the participants
is similarly useful.   Which is why I immediately think of ways to get
students with XOs to engage in similar projects...


Ben Schwarz writes:
>> I see as many clever high school as
>> university students, who need similarly grand projects to aspire to...
>> and until children /with/ XOs can't propose their own, our meta-"view
>> source" key isn't working properly.
>
> 1. I find this sentence impenetrable, and potentially somewhat surprising.

In part, this sort of program exists to engage students in creating
projects that help improve the learning environment for others.  In
this sense, until the program is defined in such a way that everyone
with XOs can praticipate as creators of these projects, it is
over-constrained and doesn't let learners scratch their own itches /
improve on what they have experienced directly / teach others.

SJ


> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 9:50 PM, Samuel Klein <sj at laptop.org> wrote:
>> Hello,
>>
>> A group of students who have worked on two small deployments in Africa
>> over the past year have been designing an OLPCorps Africa project, to
>> encourage students everywhere to found and contribute to
>> locally-supported school projects.
>>
>> You can find their proposal at
>>  http://wiki.laptop.org/go/OLPCorps_Africa
>>
>> OLPC is considering this seriously for promotion and funding this
>> summer.  Paul Commons from Indiana University has been leading the
>> proposal development.
>>
>> I'd like to hear people's thoughts.   I have my own, but for now I'll
>> limit myself to saying:  I see as many clever high school as
>> university students, who need similarly grand projects to aspire to...
>> and until children /with/ XOs can't propose their own, our meta-"view
>> source" key isn't working properly.
>>
>> SJ
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