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My first attempt at this was too big and needed moderator approval. I
am pasting the text of the document into the email body.<br>
<br>
<font color="#000099">-email text:</font><br>
I want to have a retreat as soon as possible so that we can work
effectively. The attached document explains the ideas and makes
requests for contributions from the team. Let's use this list for
discussion.
<br>
<br>
Since Juliano and Silvia will arrive at the end of next week, I propose
having the retreat on the week of May 3.
<br>
<br>
Thanks and best wishes,
<br>
dc<br>
<br>
<br>
<font color="#000099">document:</font><br>
<br>
OLPC Rwanda Retreat<br>
<br>
In order to best plan for the rest of the year, I think it would be
useful for us to have a retreat in order to focus and go into
sufficient depth on all the issues. I am thinking of a 3-day retreat
where only the OLPC team participates the first day; the second day we
add Nkubito and Richard (and any other people they advocate); and the
third day we include potential NGO partners such as Partners in Health,
Search for Common Ground; ESRI, and any other organization which we
would hope to include.<br>
<br>
We need to emerge from the retreat will solid, concrete goals and plans
for the year. While I do not want to spend money, I think being away
together and able to spend informal time discussing issues is
beneficial. If we can find somewhere reasonable to hold the retreat, we
will do so. Otherwise, we will remain in Kigali but try to focus on the
important task at hand.<br>
<br>
Questions for all of you to consider include (where possible answers
include doing nothing so that we can best focus and not spread too thin
and become ineffective):<br>
<br>
• What constitutes success for OLPC in Rwanda?<br>
• What goals should we have for this year?<br>
• What are the key activities we should foster in order to achieve
these goals?<br>
• What do we need to do so that there can be real development and
transformation beyond this year?<br>
• How do we provide children with the best possible learning
experiences at scale?<br>
• How can we best leverage the few resources we have in order to
help create the greatest possible positive impact?<br>
• How do we best build capacity in Rwanda and the region?<br>
• How can we create the best exemplars for laptops and learning?<br>
• How do we best extend beyond where we can personally go in order
to provide powerful, meaningful experiences to children, their
families, and communities?<br>
• How do we best help transform the learning environment so that
Rwanda can achieve the goals of Vision 2020, poverty reduction, and
truly take advantage of saturated access to laptops?<br>
• What should we do to help foster environments where people develop
true respect for the full human rights of others; learn to develop
means to avoid conflict; learn to understand the points of view of
others, etc.?<br>
• How do we better help make true learning communities and places
that support them?<br>
• How can we get more and better learning materials into the hands
of children, teachers and families?<br>
• How do we better use social media?<br>
• How to better spread ideas about learning?<br>
• How should we use all media?<br>
• How can we better support the other countries in the region who
are also beginning laptop initiatives?<br>
• How do we better get the ideas for learning, the materials, and
the activities spread more broadly globally?<br>
• How do we better get new ideas from others into our work?<br>
<br>
This already extensive list could continue. As I said, I want to make
certain we both go deeply (and thus not too broadly) and end with
shared understanding and concrete activities.<br>
<br>
Thus, my requests from all of you are to:<br>
<br>
• Write some short pieces on ideas and activities within the scope
of the retreat to lead to deeper discussion<br>
• Add questions and topics that you believe essential that I did not
include<br>
• Suggest others we should invite<br>
• Suggest an alternative framework for the retreat<br>
<br>
Let’s try to use the next few days to clarify the retreat, the topics,
and begin the discussion electronically.<br>
<br>
Thanks as always to all of you for the effort and positive attitude.<br>
-David<br>
<br>
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