Cici, Amy and I finally got out to visit one of our local Intel Computer Clubhouses. The manager, Alvaro Luna, runs four of them in Fairfax County, Virginia. Alvaro came to our OLPC Learning Club meeting at the Arlington Career Center back in September when Adam and SJ were in town and we all had some robust conversation. <br>
<br>This group of Clubhouses is staffed and funded by Fairfax County Government with additional funds from the Equal Footing Foundation for robotics competitions. The clubhouse runs solely Windows-based machines as far as I could tell. Alvaro actively uses Scratch, PicoCrickets and Lego Mindstorms. The after school activities of the clubhouses seem like an ideal place to jumpstart the use of Sugar on a Stick and promote the OLPC Contributor's Program. Alvaro was eager and completely open to conspiring on some projects.<br>
<br>I am mystified as to why there is only one Computer Clubhouse in Maryland--Baltimore. While I really enjoy the vibe and people in NOVA, I'm also going to try to amp up some activity in my local neighborhood of Wheaton, MD in Montgomery County. Cici's school teaches basic Scratch lessons and they are eager to have me involved.<br>
<br>My photos of the Fairfax Computer Clubhouse:<br><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/tags/intelcomputerclubhousenetwork/">http://www.flickr.com/photos/curiouslee/tags/intelcomputerclubhousenetwork/</a><br>
<br>Press:<br><a href="http://www.fairfaxlibraryfoundation.org/news/news062505.htm">http://www.fairfaxlibraryfoundation.org/news/news062505.htm</a><br><a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS122138+14-Apr-2009+MW20090414">http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS122138+14-Apr-2009+MW20090414</a><br>
<br>Mike<br><br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Sun, Aug 16, 2009 at 10:58 AM, Mike Lee <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:curiouslee@gmail.com">curiouslee@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
One of these Computer Clubhouses is in Arlington, VA, not far from Sugar Labs DC. Maybe the Boston flagship can do an intro for us?<br>
<br>
Mike<br>
<br>
Sent from my iPhone<div><div></div><div class="h5"><br>
<br>
On Aug 16, 2009, at 10:48 AM, Sean DALY <<a href="http://sdaly.be" target="_blank">sdaly.be</a>@<a href="http://gmail.com" target="_blank">gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
This seems like a perfect fit!<br>
<br>
Sean<br>
<br>
<br>
On Fri, Aug 14, 2009 at 2:58 AM, Caroline<br>
Meeks<<a href="mailto:caroline@solutiongrove.com" target="_blank">caroline@solutiongrove.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;">
<a href="http://www.computerclubhouse.org/" target="_blank">http://www.computerclubhouse.org/</a><br>
The Computer Clubhouse is<br>
an international network of computer centers for youth. Their "flagship" clubhouse is housed in the Museum of Science in Boston<br>
and they were kind enough to host us for two days this week.<br>
Keith has also mentioned that he would be able to host evening Geek<br>
meetups/hack sessions at the clubhouse. I am copying OLPC Boston to see if<br>
there would be interest in moving from our meetup location from the coffee<br>
shop to this computer heaven in the coolest museum in Boston. :) (Sorry, I<br>
literately grew up at the Boston Museum of Science and the Berkeley Lawrence<br>
Hall of Science and just love science museums)<br>
Today we worked with 8 kids from Cambridge that had been coming to the<br>
clubhouse one day a week over the summer.<br>
The computer clubhouse provides professional level software for the kids to<br>
create with. Tens of thousands of dollars are spent on proprietary software<br>
and the kids do great things. Their favorite when I asked at the beginning<br>
of class seemed to be Garage Band.<br>
I asked these students if any of them had a computer at home. They all did.<br>
In fact, some had a mac and a PC in their house. I asked them if any of<br>
them had taken anything they had done at the clubhouse and continued to work<br>
on it at home. NONE of them had.<br>
The club<br>
houses are doing great things but the impact on the students lives and learning is limited to the time they are spending there. One<br>
potential of Sugar on a Stick is to<br>
allow students to keep working and exploring beyond their few hours in computer paradise and have them not lose access<br>
when their program ends.<br>
Walter has met with the Auckland Clubhouse people and they were also<br>
interested in Sugar. They might be a great partner.<br>
<br>
--<br>
Caroline Meeks<br>
Solution Grove<br>
Caroline@SolutionGrove.com<br>
<br>
617-500-3488 - Office<br>
505-213-3268 - Fax<br>
<br>
_______________________________________________<br>
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)<br>
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<br>
</blockquote>
_______________________________________________<br>
IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!)<br>
<a href="mailto:IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org" target="_blank">IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep" target="_blank">http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep</a><br>
</blockquote>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br>