"Prima ancora che il diritto a emigrare, va riaffermato il diritto a non emigrare, cioè a essere in condizione di rimanere nella propria terra". Benedetto XVI


venerdì 3 ottobre 2008

Nuovi PC per i bambini rwandesi

Sono arrivati in Rwanda i primi 5000 pc portatili per bambini, del programma americano One Laptop Per Child (OLPC), appositamente studiati per i paesi del terzo mondo. Sono in plastica resistente e hanno la ricarica a manovella e costano solo 188 dollari pari a circa 134 euro cadauno. Quasi 100 insegnanti hanno già completato l'addestramento a Kigali presso l'Istituto di Scienza e Tecnologia nell'uso dei calcolatori specializzati di OLPC XO-1. I pc dell’OLPC sono distribuiti direttamente ai governi e non sono reperibili direttamente sul mercato, sarebbe comunque interessante verificare in loco la possibilità di avere l’assegnazione a pagamento di una decina di questi pc per installarli presso il Centro di Nyagahana, recuperando altresì uno degli insegnanti già formati per l’insegnamento.


Week of October 6
Rwanda officially launched of their laptop initiative last week. President Paul Kagame presided over the ceremony in conjunction with Education Minister Théoneste Mutsindashyaka. The event was attended by the Rwandan prime minister, the supreme court’s chief justice, the entire cabinet, and leaders from civil society and the NGO community. Five hundred students and their teachers from the first laptop schools also were on hand. President Kagame, Minister Mutsindashyaka, Nicholas and David Cavallo spoke to the gathering. Kagame committed his office to bringing laptops to every primary school child in the country.
A highlight for the children came when they lifted their XOs to take pictures of the president and discovered that they could also frame themselves into the shots, so that they would appear in the picture with Kagame. Afterward, the Rwandan core team, along with Juliano Bittencourt, Brian Jordan and David, led a workshop. The students developed projects depicting their own visions for What Rwanda will be like in the year 2020. For the most part, they programmed in Scratch, using images they photographed, downloaded or drew. The adults were amazed by the kids’ visions, and by how much they were able to construct in a very short period of time. The president’s science and technology advisor was bowled over by their prowess, imagination, and strong optimism for the future, including their own roles in it.
The Rwandan core team and steering committee participated in a separate workshop. David and Juliano made presentations, as did Richard Niyonkuru, the Rwandan government OLPC coordinator, Guy Serge Pompilus, the Haitian government OLPC coordinator, Tony Earls and Maya Carlson of Harvard School of Public Health and Bruce Baitke of Green WiFi. David and Juliano also spoke before a session of the East African Legislative Assembly, which was meeting in Kigali. They found tremendous enthusiasm among the parliament members. Several made strong commitments to bring OLPC to their countries. A few of them visited the Kakugu laptop school in Kigali the following day, which prompted further excitement. A day later, under the headline, “EAC MPs Want OLPC Adopted in All States,” the New Times of Kigali reported that delegates attending an East African Community interparliamentary relations seminar in the city called for adoption of the OLPC program by all five EAC members: Tanzania, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda, as well as Rwanda. We applaud their excellent judgment.

Nessun commento: