[Grassroots-l] Nokia ad will feature me and my students in a project we call DONATING ONE LAPTOP PER CLASS

[Kyraocity]

Last Fall 2008, two of my cultural anthropology courses and I devised a
campaign to encourage entire classes at Baruch College, where I teach, to
donate ONE LAPTOP PER CLASS. The project is designed like this: For less
than $10 per class member or instructor, each class collaborates to donate
$199 laptop. We haven't figured out all the incentives for participating
yet, but with only 2 sections in the beta project last fall we raised over
$650 and donated 3 laptops. We created a viral video to promote it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSWu6CLVL6Y. This was all done the last 2
weeks of classes before finals. Participants were amazed.

A few weeks ago, Nokia decided to do a social responsibility ad about me and
my students and the OLPC donation project we created. Just saw the final cut
of the 2 min documentary yesterday it is amazing. It is supposed to go
national in 1-2 weeks. It features a conversation with students about the
OLPC project, why laptops vs. food, and what participating in the project
means as students at Baruch College which is one of the most diverse
institutions in the U.S. with students from over 120 different countries who
speak over 100 different languages.

Would love any suggestions on

   1. How to make this competetive among our 700 classes. Do we compete for
   highest percentage of class participation, the largest donation of any
   class, and/or by division (we have three schools within the
   college--business, arts&sciences, and public affairs)?
   2. The viral video is designed to encourage other colleges and
   universities to compete. Any one here want to play with us and compete with
   Baruch College? This would be an inter-varsity sport.
   3. I heard that OLPC is launching a college program this fall. Anyone
   know where I can find out more about this.S omething like a college corps
   for OLPC.

Will keep you posted on the Nokia launch.
Best,
Kyra Gaunt
Assoc. Professor, Cultural Anthropology & Black Studies
Baruch College-CUNY
New York, NY


-- 
-
Kyra D. Gaunt, Ph.D.
2009 TED Fellow http://www.ted.com/index.php/profiles/view/id/27884

Dare to be different - Agree to be Offended & Stay Connected (TM). Embracing
difference and racism is an opportunity to be courageous no matter what.

"The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress
depends on the unreasonable man."   -- George Bernard Shaw
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