Replying more to the subject line than anything else... I have been approached by two professors who are working on a cross-discipline class focusing on international development of deaf communities. The Social Work Department and the Foreign Languages Department are planning to offer this as a two semester course, culminating in a visit to Costa Rica. And they're looking to have an technology component. They're intrigued by low-cost, low-powered, open-source learning tools, even if they're not certain exactly what that entails. Part of the "new curriculum" here centers around having a multi-disciplinary approach, and on service learning.
Meanwhile, a high school computer science teacher in this area, who spends his summers south of the border setting up Ubuntu labs is intrigued by the possibilities offered Scratch, and he too is a fan of the XO and Sugar. Lastly, a local non-profit, obscure.org (which hosts the local OLPC jabber server among other things) is looking for ways to "step-up" their activities, and is also looking towards Central America. All of us are looking to combine our interests with Wavepoint, and see what comes of it. This is all still in the very early stages, as near as I can tell, but we're coming together. Locally, obscure.org has piloted a Scratch class in one of the elementary schools in Arlington, and I've introduced them to some of the DC hardware hackers (HacDC and the DC FIRST Robotics Team) to see what might come from that. Between obscure.org, Gallaudet, Jeff Elkner's efforts in Central America, and Wavepoint, we're thinking of pooling our finances for a "Give Many" set and then divvying up the spoils. ;-) I don't know how or if that's actually going to happen... -- Ubuntu Linux DC LoCo Washington, DC http://dc.ubuntu-us.org/ _______________________________________________ IAEP -- It's An Education Project (not a laptop project!) IAEP@lists.sugarlabs.org http://lists.sugarlabs.org/listinfo/iaep
