OLPC Spring Newsletter

one laptop per child

OLPC go es a round th e w orld COVER STORY

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one la ptop per child

Around the world The Americas • Africa • Partner programs General Mills launches Win & Give Campaign to • support kids in Africa Marvell and OLPC are the talk of CES 2012 • OLPC and San Francisco State University • establish partnership

Note from the CEO

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Dear Friends, Thank you very much for your enthusiastic and generous support of One Laptop per Child. Without your kindness, we would not be able to realize our mission of bringing a brighter future to the world’s poorest and most marginalized children.

OLPC had a strong 2011 during which we made substantial progress on a number of fronts. We expanded projects in Colombia, Nicaragua, Uruguay, Mexico, Argentina, Armenia, the Philippines, Australia and Rwanda. We conducted dozens of learning workshops, teacher training sessions and XO camps around the world. We completed the development of the XO 1.75, which will go into production this month. We deepened partnerships with Marvell, General Mills and P&G, and established new partnerships with the Knight Foundation and MTV. Best of all, in our travels to Africa, Latin America and Asia, we experienced the excitement of thousands of children using their laptops to connect to the world.

2012 is off to a very exciting start. Together with Marvell, we debuted a functional model of a tablet at the recent Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. With the Knight Foundation, we launched our first U.S. project at the Holmes Elementary School in Miami. We are in advanced discussions with several governments in Africa about expanding our presence on that vast continent.

Given these developments we think it is important for us to keep you updated on our progress. This newsletter, which we will publish on a quarterly basis, will include stories about our deployments, partnership initiatives, and more. It will complement our website, blog and social media channels in providing the most up to date information on all things OLPC. From the entire team at OLPC, thank you for your ongoing support of our mission.

Sincerely,

Rodrigo Arboleda Chairman and CEO One Laptop per Child Association

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EDITORIAL

IN THIS ISSUE Note from the CEO

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Th e A m eric a s: Mi a mi , FL OLPC launches first U.S. deployment in Miami Students receive XO laptops at Holmes Elementary School in Miami.

The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and OLPC have launched a digital literacy effort at the Holmes Elementary School in Miami’s Liberty City neighborhood. At the end of January, there was great excitement at the school when XO laptops were distributed to all 525 students.

“Access to the Internet and digital skills are vital for success in today’s connected world,” said Jorge Martinez, who leads Knight Foundation’s Universal Access Initiative. “We hope the laptops help these eager young minds at Holmes Elementary to become digital

natives who are more informed and engaged in their classrooms and their community.”

Along with the XO laptops, OLPC is providing in-house training at the school for parents, teachers and students on how to use the computers to advance students’ learning. The laptops come equipped with tools that allow students and teachers to work more closely together. In real time, students can follow their teachers’ work on their laptop, or work collaboratively on projects. In addition, OLPC is assisting in creating a localized curriculum that helps kids meet their academic benchmarks.

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Holmes Elementary School, which serves the majority of Liberty City residents, is at risk of closing at the end of the year if its state test scores do not improve. In an effort to boost performance, a variety of tools and resources are being used to enhance teaching and learning, including the laptops and training.

“With this project, every child will carry learning in the palm of their hand

and we will be one step closer to leveling the educational playing field in Miami,” said Atunya Walker, Holmes Elementary School principal.

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Nicaragua Childre n of O m e t e p e conn ect e d to th e w orld On February 29, the Zamora Teran Foundation, Banco LAFISE Bancentro and OLPC delivered 5,000 XO laptops to connect the children of the Island of Ometepe to the world. Ometepe was formed by two volcanoes rising from Lake Nicaragua. Its name is from the Nahuatl words ome (two) and tepetl (mountain). As of June 2010, Ometepe

became an internationally designated protected area as part of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve program.

In 2009, LAFISE Bancentro provided a $1 million seed investment for the Zamora Teran Foundation. The Royal Danish Embassy donated an additional $1.5 million.

Other private donors have since made gener-

ous contributions.

To date, 25,000 XO laptops have been distributed to children in schools across Nicaragua. The Zamora Teran Foundation coordinates and executes XO purchase logistics and installation and provides a high level of technical support. A pedagogical training plan has been developed with the support of

a qualified educational team and facilitates the integration of the XO into the existing Ministry of Education Elementary School Curriculum.

Schools participating in the OLPC project must meet specific selection criteria. Teachers play a key role in the use of the XO laptop, incorporating it into daily planning and classroom activities.

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On February 21, officials of the state of Sonora, located in the northwest region of Mexico, handed out 5,000 XO laptops to children as part of the state’s larger plan to extend digital connectivity to all its citizens. In accordance with the UN’s declaration of Internet access as a basic human right, Sonora is the first state in Mexico to establish connectivity as a human right in its Constitution.

The OLPC project in Sonora will be implement-

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ed by Nueva Generación Sonora A.C. (New Sonora Generation), a nonprofit organization whose goal is to provide every child in the State access to the knowledge economy through strategic use of information and communication technologies and programs.

During the next three years, 350,000 XO laptops will saturate all elementary schools in Sonora. In addition, XO laptops will be distributed in 100 community centers that will offer

connectivity as well as technical and pedagogical support to students and teachers, thus allowing local projects to benefit their communities.

The OLPC project has the full support of Governor Guillermo Padres and the mayors of Sonora, as well as the Social Development Secretariat (SEDESOL) of the Federal government.

“Improving children’s education is a key goal for my administration,” said Governor Guillermo Padres of the State of Sonora. “Society and government must work together to support projects that will ensure a better future for all our citizens.

Education is everyone’s responsibility.”

Sonora is the latest Mexican state to launch an OLPC program. In

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September 2010, 500 XO laptops, funded by Procter & Gamble, were distributed to indigenous children in San Felipe del Progreso, State of Mexico.

In August 2011, the General Department of Indigenous Education of the Ministry of Education distributed 1,800 XOs to remote schools in the State of Nayarit in Western Mexico. As part of this project, the Sugar learning environment is being translated into several indigenous languages – Huichol, Cora and Mexicanero.

Nineteen hundred XOs are also in the process of being distributed to children in the State of San Luis Potosi in NorthCentral Mexico. For this region, Sugar has being translated into Teenek.

“Knowledge and skills have become the global currency of 21st-century economies, but there is no central bank that prints this currency. Everyone has to decide on their own how much they will print.”

Andreas Schleicher, Special Advisor on Education Policy to the Secretary General, Head of the Indicators and Analysis Division Directorate for Education, OECD

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Uruguay First country to g e t n e w m o d e l X O l a pto p Since the beginning of OLPC, Uru- reduce power consumption guay has been at the forefront of and make the laptop more providing its children access to a rugged for children’s use. This modern education. By mid-2010 is the first laptop produced by Plan Ceibal achieved complete OLPC to incorporate an ARMlaptop saturation, providing XO based processor from Marvell, laptops to all 570,000 primary a leading global semiconductor school children in the country. The company that has collaborated project recently ordered 60,000 XO closely with OLPC on technology The Marvell 1.75s in order to take advantage development. of the many breakthrough hard- Armada 610 processor in the ware and software features in the XO 1.75 uses very little power, 4 watts when new model. in use and “We are “The XO laptop 200 milliwatts d e e p l y empowers children by when idle, committed which is a to making allowing them to explore quarter of One Laptop the world, be creative, the power a Child a consumption reality for all learn by doing and of other our children collaborate and share processors on because the market. we believe with their classmates The XO 1.75 that digital will also and communities.” fluency is feature a new essenti a l operating to a 21st century education,” said Miguel Brechner, Director of system release with the newest the Technological Laboratory of version of the Sugar learning Developed Uruguay and in charge of Plan environment. under OLPC’s leadership with Ceibal. contributions from the Sugar The XO 1.75 provides significant development community, the advances in technology that new version of Sugar includes significant improvements in usability, performance and ease of discovery of how Sugar itself works.

“We salute Plan Ceibal for its leadership in providing all Uruguayan children access to a modern education,” said Rodrigo Arboleda, Chairman and CEO of the One Laptop per Child Association. “Uruguay is a great example of a well-planned, well-executed deployment that is having a positive impact on children’s educational development.”

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Around the world:Africa Cameroon Cameroon Becomes first OLPC hub in Francophone West Africa Thanks to the Islamic Development Bank, 5,000 XO laptops are on their way to primary school children in the West African nation of Cameroon. The project will initially span 51 schools in six regions; planning is underway to extend the deployment across the country.

This deployment establishes Camer Cameroon as OLPC’s hub in francophone West Africa. A team from Cameroon’s Ministry of Education has provided training assistance to an OLPC project in Mali and other countries in the region are ex-

pected to launch OLPC projects in 2012.

Grassroots OLPC initiatives have sprung up in Cameroon since 2008.

With funding from the Islamic Development Bank the project will begin to scale and reach many more children.

Cameroon has one of the highest school attendance rates in Af Africa. Most children have access to free, state-run schools or subsidized private and religious schools. Most instruction is in English or French.

Rwanda Expands deployment to 210,000 children The OLPC project continues to expand in Rwanda. Since the arrival of the first 750 laptops at the Rwamagana B school in 2007, 110,000 XOs have been distributed to schools throughout the country.

Taking the next major step toward its goal of providing laptops to all 1 million children in primary grades 4-6 by 2017, the government of Rwanda has recently ordered an additional 100,000 laptops to be distributed to schools in rural areas.

OLPC provides comprehensive support services to the Ministry of Education

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team implementing the OLPC initiative.

These services include teacher-training workshops, holiday and summer learning camps, assistance with content development and curriculum integration, and partnership development.

The OLPC project is part of the government’s Vision 2020 plan to transform Rwanda from an agriculture-based economy into a knowledge-based economy. It is change management on a very large scale and education is a critical component.

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P a r t n e r p r o g r a m s G e n e r a l M i lls l a u nc h e s Wi n & G iv e C a m p a i g n Betty Crocker® Fruit Flavored Snacks has made giving back easy through its “Win & Give” campaign. From midJanuary through May 2012, kids in the U.S. have a chance to win laptops and help donate laptops to kids in Africa. The campaign shows parents and kids that even the smallest acts can make a big difference and be fun.

“Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks believes that every kid can be a hero, so we’re helping them make a great impact on the lives of kids in Africa,” said Ben Mand, brand marketing manager, Betty Crocker Fruit Flavored Snacks.

“The ‘Win & Give’ campaign provides kids in the U.S. an opportunity to win a laptop, as well as the chance to see the impact these laptops have on students in Africa.”

General Mills’ Win & Give Website

M a r v e l l a n d O LPC a r e t h e t a l k o f C ES 2 0 1 2 At the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, OLPC and Marvell, a worldwide leader in integrated silicon solutions, demonstrated a fully functional version of

an XO 3.0 tablet. OLPC and Marvell also announced that the XO 1.75 laptop would begin shipping to customers in March 2012.

Over 75,000 units of the XO 1.75 have already been ordered by OLPC

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projects in Uruguay and Nicaragua.

The XO 1.75 uses the Marvell ARMbased ARMADA PXA618 SOC processor, which compared to the earlier XO 1.5, maintains performance while using only half the power. The XO 1.75

features a sunlight-readable screen and all the other features and design characteristics of the two previous versions of the XO laptop.

The XO 3.0 builds on many of the technology breakthroughs made with the XO 1.75, including the use of the same Marvell processor. Other key features include: • Unique charging circuitry; the XO 3.0 is the only tablet that can be charged directly by solar panels, hand cranks and other alternative power sources • Standard or Pixel Qi sunlightrea able display • Android and Linux operating system support.

Demonstrations of the XO 3.0 tablet were among the most talked-about events at CES. Nearly 200 journalists wrote stories, filmed video and took photographs of the working model.

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XO La ptop at Ne w York’s MoM a

OLPC and San Francisco State University establish partnership For the p ast several ye ars, faculty and students at San Francisco State have voluntarily org anized an annual summit for OLPC developers. Now OLPC and SFSU have esta blished a form al working relationship in which both p arties will use their best efforts to esta blish long-term cooperation and colla boration in the field of 1-to-1 computing in certain prim ary schools in C alifornia and around the world.

OLPC and SFSU will work together to support the San Francisco Bay

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O LPC Instit utio n a l P a rt n e rs

Area volunteer community through monthly meetings, lending library and an annual summit. Further, the parties agree to support faculty research, community service, student projects and internships in the OLPC context. These may include, but are not limited to, pedagogical approaches, content generation, software development, hardware testing, network analysis, community outreach and other related topics that go towards ensuring the sustainability of OLPC in different parts of the world.

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