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Friday, February 12, 2010
?!?!?!?!?
I'm going to say this very quietly in case it doesn't work out but...
...we might have some journalist interest in our project!!
Also, it seems like the teachers are a bit low on morale these days. I feel bad to make them constantly keep me updated with what's going on at the school-- I feel like it might take Miguel a while to type up the summaries. Any ideas as to how I can give him a little boost? Maybe a care package of sorts, payment, something...?
...we might have some journalist interest in our project!!
Also, it seems like the teachers are a bit low on morale these days. I feel bad to make them constantly keep me updated with what's going on at the school-- I feel like it might take Miguel a while to type up the summaries. Any ideas as to how I can give him a little boost? Maybe a care package of sorts, payment, something...?
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Money Money Money, and other things
Grantseeking for Dummies
Heading to a Grantseeking Basics class at the Foundation Center's DC office this Friday. Hopefully it will get me out of this deer-stuck-in-headlights feeling and help me identify some potential donors for our program.VOICES
Financial donations and laptop donations have all come to a lull. We're hoping to raise money at a small hip hop event in April or May called VOICES, or Voices Organizing for International Change, Empowerment and Support. They put on music and film events every month while raising money for non-profits around the African continent. I'd like to see if I can't get the Ambassador to come join us, as well as other members of the São Tomé community here in DC (small as it may be).
Ex-Pat Help
My friend Sosimo, who is São Tomean and works at Voice of America, is going to get together with me for lunch one of these days so we can brainstorm our options. I keep trying to work myself into the Lusophone community to see if there's money there, then suddenly get pushed out again. I'm hoping to get back in the game soon. Failure is not the falling down but the staying down, right?
Haiti Deployment
Despite a very selfish yet still slight jealousy that Haiti is getting all the used XOs, a fellow Wellesley alum recently contacted me about a Haiti deployment being developed with OLPC and Waveplace, a nonprofit in Boston. Sounds like a really great group that wants to do some amazing work for the people of Haiti. I myself have been learning French (one step closer to Creole, right?) and would love to go down and help with a deployment in the next year or two.That's news for now!
Saturday, February 6, 2010
$7 away...
Got seven bucks? Help buy our 8th computer for São João!!
Or make a bigger impression by talking to your company, local news source, or other organization and see if you can help with a donation of ten or more computers.
News for the day:
Right now we're looking for media attention. If you know of anyone interested in following our adventures, or if you want to write/blog/video about it on your own, please get in touch with me.
Might be doing an event in April at the Hillyer Art Space near Dupont Circle. Will keep you all posted on if it's happening!!
Got another email from Miguel. Things are going well and kids are still creating their email addresses. It looks like the classes are now being divided between kids that have email and kids that don't, so that the kids without email can create their own accounts. I'm not sure what the kids with email are doing. I would hope that they are working on a new project, but Miguel hasn't given me much detail.
The kids are continuing to write me emails and respond to everything I write. It is adorable. And also very tiring because I feel like I need to respond to each and every one!
That is news for today.
B-Sizzle, aka Timestopper, aka Maximum Beth
Or make a bigger impression by talking to your company, local news source, or other organization and see if you can help with a donation of ten or more computers.
News for the day:
Right now we're looking for media attention. If you know of anyone interested in following our adventures, or if you want to write/blog/video about it on your own, please get in touch with me.
Might be doing an event in April at the Hillyer Art Space near Dupont Circle. Will keep you all posted on if it's happening!!
Got another email from Miguel. Things are going well and kids are still creating their email addresses. It looks like the classes are now being divided between kids that have email and kids that don't, so that the kids without email can create their own accounts. I'm not sure what the kids with email are doing. I would hope that they are working on a new project, but Miguel hasn't given me much detail.
The kids are continuing to write me emails and respond to everything I write. It is adorable. And also very tiring because I feel like I need to respond to each and every one!
That is news for today.
B-Sizzle, aka Timestopper, aka Maximum Beth
Thursday, February 4, 2010
$20 away...
Today we're $20 away from having enough funds to buy our 8th computer.
Help us cross the line today and make a donation!!
Help us cross the line today and make a donation!!
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Press Release!!
Click here to download the press release. Would love your help sending it out to everywhere and everyone!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Contact: Beth Santos, beth@bethsantos.com, 603.661.1273, http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com
Middle School in São Tomé e Príncipe Begins Computer Program; Lacks Funds
A new computer literacy program headed by a young New Hampshire native is putting one of the earth's smallest nations on the World Wide Web.
On Saturday mornings, 100 students and five teachers at the São João secondary school, on the small West African island of São Tomé e Príncipe, cram themselves into a single classroom. Students sweat bullets in a room that often has no electricity, spending four hours typing on bright green energy-efficient laptop computers. The supplementary class is headed by 23 year-old teacher Beth Santos and São Tomean computer professor Miguel Afonso da Boa Esperança. After receiving 100 laptop computers through MIT's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, São João chose 100 sixth grade students to participate in a developmental milestone for the school and the country.
Through 100-computer deployments all over the world, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) aims to supply laptop computers to schools in disadvantaged countries. The computers are fully equipped with a camera and microphone, wifi access and a Linux-based operating system called Sugar. Yet the laptops come with higher expectations than just developing skills in word processing, photography and research science. It is the hope of OLPC that the computers will nurture students' sense of creativity and discovery, promoting an interest in education that will expand country-wide. The computers are highly personalized to reflect the progress of one individual student's advancing use, allowing students to take them home and share them regularly with family and friends.“These students are so excited to learn, it's amazing,” Santos says. “Kids regularly come to class that aren't even ours. They're blatantly lying to us in order to get a chance to participate.”
The program has made headlines across the island in both media and government sectors. It has also accrued interest in Portugal (of which São Tomé e Príncipe is a former colony) and OLPC's hometown, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where OLPC's own have lauded the São João school's success.
However, the school is desperately short on computers for its sixth grade class, as the initial donation of 100 computers is significantly less than the size of the current sixth grade, which is 612 students. For this reason, the computers cannot be utilized during class time, because they are not accessible to everyone. “We so desperately want to be able to use these computers the way they're supposed to be used- during all disciplines, every day of the week,” Santos says. “Right now the program is great but it's lacking a very fundamental element because there is just no funding.” Once the school acquires enough computers for its students, the computers will be redistributed to the next sixth grade class for as many years as possible.
Santos and Esperança both hope that, with enough computers to serve the sixth grade – a critical year before a transition to high school that only some students make – more students will be eager to learn, to become educated and to improve the circumstances of an impoverished country.
Back at home in Washington, D.C., Santos is working to bring more computers to the São João School. When she's not busy seeking corporate or foundational sponsorship, Santos coaches a high school crew team and is editor of Go Girl Magazine, a blog for independent women who travel. She also receives enthusiastic emails from her students on a regular basis – emails from children that, at the beginning of the school year, had never touched a computer in their lives. “Every time I get an email from one of them, I get excited all over again,” she says. “Hardly anyone at that school speaks a word of English. Now they're connecting to each other and to the world outside. They're realizing that there is so much more out there.”
For more information about the program or to make a donation, please visit http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com. To learn more about OLPC, visit http://www.laptop.org.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Contact: Beth Santos, beth@bethsantos.com, 603.661.1273, http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com
Middle School in São Tomé e Príncipe Begins Computer Program; Lacks Funds
A new computer literacy program headed by a young New Hampshire native is putting one of the earth's smallest nations on the World Wide Web.
On Saturday mornings, 100 students and five teachers at the São João secondary school, on the small West African island of São Tomé e Príncipe, cram themselves into a single classroom. Students sweat bullets in a room that often has no electricity, spending four hours typing on bright green energy-efficient laptop computers. The supplementary class is headed by 23 year-old teacher Beth Santos and São Tomean computer professor Miguel Afonso da Boa Esperança. After receiving 100 laptop computers through MIT's One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program, São João chose 100 sixth grade students to participate in a developmental milestone for the school and the country.
Through 100-computer deployments all over the world, One Laptop per Child (OLPC) aims to supply laptop computers to schools in disadvantaged countries. The computers are fully equipped with a camera and microphone, wifi access and a Linux-based operating system called Sugar. Yet the laptops come with higher expectations than just developing skills in word processing, photography and research science. It is the hope of OLPC that the computers will nurture students' sense of creativity and discovery, promoting an interest in education that will expand country-wide. The computers are highly personalized to reflect the progress of one individual student's advancing use, allowing students to take them home and share them regularly with family and friends.“These students are so excited to learn, it's amazing,” Santos says. “Kids regularly come to class that aren't even ours. They're blatantly lying to us in order to get a chance to participate.”
The program has made headlines across the island in both media and government sectors. It has also accrued interest in Portugal (of which São Tomé e Príncipe is a former colony) and OLPC's hometown, Cambridge, Massachusetts, where OLPC's own have lauded the São João school's success.
However, the school is desperately short on computers for its sixth grade class, as the initial donation of 100 computers is significantly less than the size of the current sixth grade, which is 612 students. For this reason, the computers cannot be utilized during class time, because they are not accessible to everyone. “We so desperately want to be able to use these computers the way they're supposed to be used- during all disciplines, every day of the week,” Santos says. “Right now the program is great but it's lacking a very fundamental element because there is just no funding.” Once the school acquires enough computers for its students, the computers will be redistributed to the next sixth grade class for as many years as possible.
Santos and Esperança both hope that, with enough computers to serve the sixth grade – a critical year before a transition to high school that only some students make – more students will be eager to learn, to become educated and to improve the circumstances of an impoverished country.
Back at home in Washington, D.C., Santos is working to bring more computers to the São João School. When she's not busy seeking corporate or foundational sponsorship, Santos coaches a high school crew team and is editor of Go Girl Magazine, a blog for independent women who travel. She also receives enthusiastic emails from her students on a regular basis – emails from children that, at the beginning of the school year, had never touched a computer in their lives. “Every time I get an email from one of them, I get excited all over again,” she says. “Hardly anyone at that school speaks a word of English. Now they're connecting to each other and to the world outside. They're realizing that there is so much more out there.”
For more information about the program or to make a donation, please visit http://bethstepsup.blogspot.com. To learn more about OLPC, visit http://www.laptop.org.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Press
Here are some of our media mentions:
Background
University of Illinois Bloggers
(They made the program happen in the first place)
Links about Beth and the program
The São Tomé Blog cites the Santomean OLPC Project (01/25/10)
http://saotomeblog.com/education/olpc-project/
A Saigon-based OLPC Volunteer who came to my talk in Cambridge had some really great feedback about the program and my talk (12/31/09)
http://saigonolpc.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/sao-tome/
The Presentation I gave, via the OLPC Wiki (12/30/09):
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Olpc-in-sao-joao--sao-tome.pdf
A really kind blog that gave great mention to our program in São Tomé and just what we're trying to do (12/27/09)
http://plakboek.livejournal.com/tag/olpc
Some internet talk about the program (12/27/09)
http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/pipermail/oz-teachers/2009-December/019965.html
A February meeting announcement at the Washington, DC OLPC Learning Club. I'll be heading there on February 20, 2010 to talk with volunteers based down here.
http://olpclearningclub.org/meetings/february-young-olpc-entrepreneurs/
Film
Caroline Meeks of OLPC posted a few videos from my talk on December 30, 2009 at the OLPC offices in Cambridge, MA. Watch them here:
http://qik.com/carolinemeeks
Background
University of Illinois Bloggers
(They made the program happen in the first place)
Print
The São Tomé Blog cites the Santomean OLPC Project (01/25/10)
http://saotomeblog.com/education/olpc-project/
.
http://saigonolpc.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/sao-tome/
.
The Presentation I gave, via the OLPC Wiki (12/30/09):
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Image:Olpc-in-sao-joao--sao-tome.pdf
.
A really kind blog that gave great mention to our program in São Tomé and just what we're trying to do (12/27/09)
http://plakboek.livejournal.com/tag/olpc
.
Some internet talk about the program (12/27/09)
http://lists.rite.ed.qut.edu.au/pipermail/oz-teachers/2009-December/019965.html
.
http://olpclearningclub.org/meetings/february-young-olpc-entrepreneurs/
Film
Caroline Meeks of OLPC posted a few videos from my talk on December 30, 2009 at the OLPC offices in Cambridge, MA. Watch them here:
http://qik.com/carolinemeeks
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