[DDN] funding opportunity for a youth Intiative
Dear All I would like to find out through the network the availablility of funding opportunities for a youth Good Governance and Empowerment Initiative we, a couple of youth, are undertaking as young people from Africa to provide a platform for young people in Africa, starting from Ghana. The aim of this project is to encourage young people to take leadership roles in the advancement of policies that safeguard their interest and the development of young people - starting from Ghana through the continet of Africa - ensuring that the youth will by themselves begin to take graeter responsibiity over their welfare to work in small groups in the area of starting profitable ventures for themselves, while pressing on stakeholders to support them in a more proactive manner. We are motivated by the fact that the youth have so much dream yet many never get the opportunity to do so - leading to a chunk of young Africans always dying on the desert and through escape routes out from Morroco, Spain among other in the hope of bettering their fortunes in Europe and other countries in the Americas. We believe that the youth could be used as ambassadors in this fight and we have desinged a number of areas to channel this course through orienting its initiation in the form of a media pressure activity to provide this ambassadorial course with the publicity support to draw attention to this course, the challenges and alternatives, how youg people can be self-employed and empowered s in their respective countries while bring the authorities attention and efforts to public. We will therefore be grateful to obtain support from members of the network who could assist. You could reach us on the address below so that the group can initiate collaboration with you immediately. Please note that all replies should be sent to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] - specifically created for this course. Thank you. Aaron Codjoe Programme Initiator SpringBoard Resources Box kn 706 Kaneshie-Accra, Ghana, W/A Tel: +233-27-7123241 +233-27-5051230 +233-28-8272468 - All new Yahoo! Mail The new Interface is stunning in its simplicity and ease of use. - PC Magazine ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech
Actually, Dave, et. al., Training is the linchpin that holds everything together. Without it, as well as intense, ongoing support, this is a pipedream inside a shibboleth inside a folly. More interesting to me, actually, is uses for ipods in developing nations. They aren't so interactive, perhaps (well, the new video phone-players are), but they offer a level of portability, ease of use and lack of maintenance that laptops don't. I am thinking here of the value of a website containing training videos (etc.) [in my field, therapy, these would be to train paraprofessionals in therapeutic skills] that could be downloaded at an NGO or a cafe -- anyplace with an internet connection, and then taken and plugged into a TV where the training could be done. Am i nuts or is this just very sweet? Apple probably would be good for 10-20,000 ipods for a pilot in Sri Lanka or somewhere else. Steve Snow - Original Message - From: Dave A. Chakrabarti [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: The Digital Divide Network discussion group [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, July 09, 2006 4:05 PM Subject: Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech stuff snipped Or does he mean they'll maintain their own software? I don't think that training is everything; those laptops could be an incredible tool for systemic social change. But they're only one step. Negropointe talks about not focusing on the laptops but on using them as tools to teach learning, instead of tools to teach something. Pedagogically, this sounds great...but then he contradicts himself by focusing entirely on the laptop itself, instead of on the teaching. Who's managing this $100 file server? Who's training the teachers who are (supposedly) training these students to maintain their own laptops? These questions are still unanswered. I think the cost per laptop may be cut down to $100 if you (irresponsibly) leave out training, service and support in addition to your marketing costs...and I'm far from convinced that Negropointe's not marketing this. Dave. --- Dave A. Chakrabarti Projects Coordinator CTCNet Chicago [EMAIL PROTECTED] (708) 919 1026 --- [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I am listening to Nicholas Negroponte, telling his story about the computer that will change the world. He has referenced the beginning of the ideas , back from Seymour Papert's ideas of teaching children to think, and how we could use Logo programming when it was a new initiative. He said, that , back then in the seventies, that it changed the way that children using technology to think. Thirty years forward, he is describing the way it works in developing nations and the difficulty of getting there , the location, the place, a person with old pc's with a generator.. and they are teaching the kids Word and Excel in various countries all over the world.. with the misconception that learning these programs will change the world. He is describing to us the three basic principles Use technology to learn learning not to learn something teaching is one but not the only way to achieve learning Leverage children themselves some 50 percent of the children in this world live in rural , poor, part of the world and many of the children have barely a sixth grade education, and go to school in shifts in huge groups. More peer to peer teaching has to happen, and the children have to help with the learning. He showed various pictures of children around the world who were being introduced to technology from Dakar to Costa Rica... There are pictures of children from India, to ..Kashmir... and they showed use of wifi to connect the various groups of children. But connectivity is not the thing the truth is that this technology is unfolding, the problem is not telecommunications it is the laptops.. the LAPTOPS He sent his son to Cambodia to create a project, and they had connectivity, laptops, and created a infrastructure in villages with no electricity, no roads, no resources, no lights.. the computers go home, and the light from the computers was the only light at home. ( as long as the batteries lasted) Story in the US Angus King started the laptop initiative in Maine and it was revolutionary. He states that the initiative creates a new way of looking at technology. He described the initiative. What is One Laptop Per Child? 1.A non profit entity of $30 M funding for non recurring engineering costs 2. About scale, scale, being global is crucial launch 5-10 million in 2007 50-150 million 2008 , in five large diverse countries. 3. To provide to children, to own, to take home to use seamlessly. There are partners Google, Ebay, AMC, News Corp, Brightstar, Marvell, Nortell, Red hat, 3M, etc A lot about laptops This is an education and a learning project. Getting to a hundred dollard is sales, marketing and profit. the costs can be 60 percent. Eliminate half of the cost by not doing these things. No Sales,
Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech
The conference was so intense that I never got to even do a workshop. I did attend SIG meetings and the digital equity meeting, and the other important meetings. I did three sessions of Global Gallery but I did attend the fireworks, and a few dinners. I am sorry that I missed to meet the people that you spoke of. I didn't even do the zoo, or the beach, or the sightseeing events. Conferences are an interesting mix, sometimes you can be a freeflow participant with the choice of what you want to do. As you begin to know people there are events and activities that you want to do. As you become empowered with the group, you have a sense of responsibility and a purpose to help others. The sense of the conference changes. My mission was to help establish the digital equity session , and to also talk about the insertion of the content and learning landscape along with the wikis, toys, and technology devices. Bonnie Bracey Sutton ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech
In a message dated 7/10/06 5:20:25 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: This is a very grand vision, no doubt, but there crucial points that may be brushed over in the rhetoric. I'll point out one example, since it was one I was looking for: The children will maintain the laptops themselves. I am sure that I am not steeped enough in the initiative to answer this question, but he seemed to say that they are making the computer so simple to fix that the children can take care of the problems. which will be simple based on the design of the tool. We did not talk about content, I did with a young lady from MIT but we only were talking about specialized software or initiatives that meet the millenium I was only sitting in the audience reporting what I heard. It is good to think about the content. So often we only talk about the hardware. Bonnie Bracey Sutton bbr ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Teachers' EduTech Retreat in NYC! August 8th-11th
Hello, I work for an organization called Vision Education in New York City, and I would like invite all of you to be part of a Teachers' Retreat this August. Vision Ed. is a well-regarded non-profit involved in the development of technology and robotics education workshops for kids and teenagers. Laura Allen, the founder and president, has strong roots and close ties to the work of Seymour Papert at MIT and has masterminded a lot of the rise of Lego Robotics programs in the New York Area. The retreat this summer is called the Stonington Retreat in NYC. The Stonington Retreat is a rare opportunity to engage in high-level discussions and hands-on learning, focusing on the future of technology and education. Workshops will be offered in: The NEW NXT Generation Mindstorms, the PicoCricket (with Special Guest Mitch Resnick!), MicroWorlds EX, EX Robotics, RoboLab, First Lego League Coach Training, Digital Video and Blogging. The retreat will be held August.8-11 in lower manhattan in NYU's Kimmel Center. Please visit our website to find out more information: http://vemny.org/stonington.html The website also contains an online registration form, and I recommend that you register as soon as possible before spaces fill up! Any questions email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Hope to see you there! Tali Padan Vision Ed., Inc Program Manager and Senior Technology Mentor 212-245-0444 38 E.23rd St. Suite 3A New York, NY 10010 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Volunteers needed for the Wikipedia conference - Cambridge, MA, USA - August 4th-6th
Dear DDN Colleagues, This is a terrific volunteer opportunity for anyone who cares about knowledge in the public interest or online collaboration. Wikimania 2006, the 2nd annual international meetup and conference of the Wikimedia Foundation (http://wikimania2006.wikimedia.org), will be held August 4-6th, 2006, on the Harvard Law School campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The conference will feature presentations from Jimmy Wales, Larry Lessig, Brewster Kahle, Eben Moglen, Yochai Benkler, and Clay Shirky; along with some of the most active contributors to Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikisource, and the MediaWiki platform. Presenters and attendees will discuss the present and future of Wikimedia Projects (Wikipedia, Wiktionary, Wikisource and more); the dynamics of Wikipedia and related communities; publishing and verification of information; and technical updates and Mediawiki hacking. Wikimania will be a chance to meet the people behind one of the extraordinary successes of the Internet - a multilingual volunteer community of a hundred thousand people who are passionate about creating high-quality free knowledge for the world. For community members, it will be a chance to meet fellow Wikimedians, learn about what's happening today, and discuss current issues and the future of the projects. For others, Wikimania 2006 will be a once-in-a-lifetime chance to participate in shaping the future of Wikipedia and collaborative knowledge production generally. All sorts of volunteers are needed. If you're interested in getting involved, please go to http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimania_2006/Teams#Volunteering Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Many thanks and best regards from Deborah Deborah Elizabeth Finn Boston, Massachusetts, USA [EMAIL PROTECTED] www.cyber-yenta.org ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech
On Jul 10, 2006, at 8:28 PM, Stephen Snow wrote: Training is the linchpin that holds everything together. Without it, as well as intense, ongoing support, this is a pipedream inside a shibboleth inside a folly. eSchool news for today points to Bob Sipchen's column in the Los Angeles Times (July 10, 2006. Is the Way to Student's Minds Through their Laptops?, http://www.latimes.com/news/columnists/la-me-schoolme10jul10,1,5107496.column) suggesting that maybe the traditional training model is about to be turned on it's head. The column is well worth reading ... as is the schoolme blog it leads to (http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/schoolme/2006/07/the_philippines.html) Steve ___ || | Stephen J. Cavrak, Jr.URL:http://www.uvm.edu/~sjc/ |* | Assistant Director forE-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] | / Academic Computing Services Phone: 802-656-1483 ||University of Vermont Fax:802-656-0872 | | Burlington, Vermont 05405 North: 44o 28' 33 West: 73o 12' 45 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] Nicholas Negroponte- ISTE NECC Speech
Training is the linchpin that holds everything together. Without it, as well as intense, ongoing support, this is a pipedream inside a shibboleth inside a folly. Hi Steve, all, Appropriate training offers enormous opportunity, yet I wonder if we might not also acknowledge the value of self-development and ability of modern software to nurture the development of skills and understanding. I managed a Telecentre for several years. We conducted computer training and this was very successful - but it was also not uncommon for computing novice's to simply walk in, sit at a machine, and learn to drive in the same way a child on any farm learns to ride a motor bike; trial and error. I was often amazed at just how quickly some people would develop literacy with no help whatsoever other than the machine in front of them. Sharing the reservations of a lot of people about Negroponte's proposal, nonetheless I don't see a lack of training as a total inhibitor to success. People can develop without structured training. Cheers, Don ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
