One Laptop Per Child News

What are we doing?
The challenge is to drive from Coventry, UK to Ulaan Bataar, Mongolia in a classic car, a 1970 Triumph Herald 13/60 to be exact. With no back-up team, no GPS (or even reliable maps for some countries!) we'll be driving 10 000 miles, cross 5 mountain chains and 3 deserts, in a car that is 38 years old. Minimal comfort, bad roads and expected breakdowns that we have no choice but to fix ourselves with whatever we bring with us (ductape, stockings and a sledgehammer perhaps?)

So why are we doing it?
We are trying to raise a considerable amount for charity (that's where you come in). And have some fun, although that is a secondary requirement.

Who are we raising money for?
We have chosen to raise money for two charities, RNLI Lifeboats and Gemin-i.org. Both are amazing charities, the former saving lives around the British coast, and the latter improving education around the world, and this year, supplying OLPC XO laptops to schools in outer Mongolia and get them online and using their state-of-the-art online community Rafi.ki.

Gemini-I specialise in developing innovative web based solutions to improve education in the developing and developed worlds. It works at bridging cultural, religious and digital divides between disparate peoples around the world and lends a voice to young people, raising their concerns with policy makers.

All the money raised in 2008 will go towards getting children in the most remote parts of Mongolia connected to the rest of the world and using the Rafi-ki system, their state-of-the-art educational community. Rafi-ki is also used by primary and secondary schools throughout the UK, and in over 80 countries around the world.

How to support us
You can donate money directly to Gemin-i.org at www.justgiving/triumphrally. And don't forget to check out our progress on our team website, www.TriumphRally.org

Many thanks for your support, from the Not Yet a Triumph team: Chris Charlwood, Chris Raynor and Linda Sandvik

Tags: Chris Charlwood | Chris Raynor | Gemin-i.org | Linda Sandvik | OLPC Mongolia | RNLI Lifeboats | Triumph Rally |

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Hi, my name is Cris Anderson, I am an XO fan. My mom loves the OLPC initiative, and donated during the G1G1 stage. After it arrived, I started using it and figuring it out quite a bit. I also have the OLPC News Blog in my RSS feeds where I read it daily.

In the past couple days, I noticed all the news that is going on with OLPC Mongolia. I lived in Mongolia for two years as an English teacher and church missionary. About half of my time was in the capital city of Ulaanbaatar, and the other half was in various countryside areas. I learned to speak Mongolian very well, and really came to love the people and the country.

I can see how the OLPC will be helpful to children in that country. I am excited to see that the laptops have arrived and are being used as I write. Most kids only get a tiny bit of computer experience on a few school computers, and then in internet and gaming cafes where they can play Counter Strike. Educational computer experience will be a big help. Especially in their own language.

I have unique experience that allows me to help OLPC Mongolia in ways few others can. I have been in both the classrooms as an English teacher and in the ger districts as a missionary. I can use the XO laptop as well as speak fluent Mongolian.

Perhaps most importantly, I understand the situation of the people and the goal of the OLPC initiative. I have the rural connections, the cultural understanding, and the fluent Khalkha Mongolian to do it on their terms, in their homes. Where the Ministry of Education and OLPC will never go.

But I am willing to go. Want to go. And challenge each of you to think of how you can "go" too - be it in person or in action in your own community.

Tags: Counter Strike | Cris Anderson | Ger District | Khalkha Mongolian | OLPC Mongolia | OLPC News | OLPC Volunteer |

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In this week's Community News, Walter Bender enlightens us on how the OLPC Mongolia implementation team -
Enkhmunkh Zurgaanjin, Carla Gomez Monroy, Jan Jungclaus, and David Woodhouse -are working both sides of the one laptop per child challenge: technology and education.

First, David, with remote support from John Watlington in OLPC Cambridge are having fun getting WiFi meshing through the tick, concrete walls of Soviet constriction:

The servers we shipped from Cambridge have arrived and are being installed. David has been handling the difficult task of positioning two servers (with six antennae) to cover a three-floor school. He is also facing the need to upgrade the laptops right away to avoid a networking meltdown...

Hopefully, the nature of the mesh will improve coverage. To start with, each school will have five antennae, with two servers. That setup will be re-evaluated when it's fully deployed and tested in the classrooms. It is physically installed in one school so far, and fully cabled (including CAT5 to the other rooms where they have computers). The other school should be similarly set up by the end of Monday

Despite the -31C temperature (better known as "damn cold"), they are making connectivity progress. The school now has an optical-fiber cable connecting it to the Internet.

Over in the educational sphere, One Laptop Per Child is engaging the Mongolian Ministry of Education to try and institutionalize OLPC learning systems:

We met yesterday with the Ministry of Education team, teachers, principals, ICTA, content team and pilot research team to provide detailed feedback of how the project is going so far and to bring up things to be considered for the short and long terms.

Teachers are putting their hearts into the program. They had their first sessions with the children. Parents, too, have shown support. And the children, of course, love it. The Constructionist model of learning has found wide-spread support within the MoE.

By the look of the children on the OLPC Wiki, there is definitely support for XO laptops in the land of the Khan.

Tags: CAT5 | Constructionist Model | Damn Cold | David Woodhouse | OLPC Mongolia | OLPC Wiki | Ulaan Baatar |

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While the Give One Get One community in the USA slowly receives the "Get One" side the of XO laptop distribution, the other side, the "Give One" laptops are soon to be on their way to need children according to Walter Bender:

We are going to be hashing this out to a large degree on Monday. But I do know that we are already preparing 10K machines for Mongolia, 1K each for Haiti, Rwanda, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, and Cambodia at the factory now.

The initial machines in all cases, as far as I know, are directed to programs with government involvement, but not necessarily government run.

That's great news, especially for Mongolia, a land I've traveled through before.

OLPC Mongolia also happens to have a very rich benefactor in John L. Thornton, who promised to support 20,000 laptops for the country back in October. I wonder if Bender's 10,000 batch is half of that or an extra allotment?

Tags: Dual Mode Screen | G1G1 | Laptop Donation | Mary Lou Jepsen | OLPC Canada | OLPC Mongolia | Walter Bender |

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In the midst of Give Many participant, and he's a character. John L. Thornton, Professor and Director of Global Leadership at Tsinghua University in Beijing and former President and former Co-COO of Goldman Sachs, so he's not only able to donate XO's, he also knows how to execute a successful implementation. And he is also an Intel director and Chairman of the Finance Committee of the Board, which makes his One Laptop Per Child connection all that more interesting:

President Nambaryn Enkhbayar of Mongolia announced today his commitment to provide every child in his nation with a connected laptop by the end of 2010.

As a first step toward making this a reality Professor Nicholas Negroponte, and Mr. Nyamaa Enkhbold, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Mongolia, agreed to launch the OLPC initiative in Mongolia as early as January 2008 and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) thereof in the presence of President Enkhbayar.

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Tags: John L. Thornton | Memorandum of Understanding | Nambaryn Enkhbayar | Nyamaa Enkhbold | OLPC Libya | OLPC Mongolia |

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