OLPC -

Context: Why is this project important?

Several Latin American countries are being involved in the roll-out of the first One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative, an initiative developed by Nicholas Negroponte, former Director of the Media Lab at the Institute of Technology of Massachusetts (MIT) and presently Chairman of the OLPC Foundation.

This laptop - called the $100 laptop- is a potent learning tool created expressly for the world's poorest children living in remote environments. The laptop was designed collaboratively by experts from both academia and industry, combining extraordinary talent and many decades of collective field experience in every aspect of this non- profit humanitarian project. "The result is a unique harmony of form and function; a flexible, ultra low-cost, power-efficient, responsive, and durable machine with which nations of the emerging world can leapfrog decades of development"- to transform the content and quality of their children's learning.

Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Uruguay are among the Latin American countries that, in one way or another, have expressed their interest or launched the program with a modest allocation of machines that will be used to seed communities in early 2007.

The Project: How does this initiative address the development problem?

The Uruguayan President has launched the initiative called "Ceibal Project" on December 2006. Brazilian and Argentinean authorities have also launched their respective programmes. Likewise, other LA countries such as Colombia and Costa Rica are in the early stages of rolling out similar programmes.

This project will support the roll-out and follow-up of the initial pilots in these six selected countries. Uruguayan experts will take the lead of these activities that will allow the analysis and assessment of the on-going pilots. A videoconference and two face-to-face meetings will be carried out. The initial to determine the methodology of work and the latter for the assessment of the first semester of the experience (scheduled to finish in July 2007). Also, a specific study on the adoption of the OLPC initiative will be carried out that will objectively analyse the pros and cons of the initiative in developing countries as well as the potential of expanding the programme to reach the levels of penetration that the creators propose. This project will also contemplate the possibility of developing a larger project in the future by linking the initiative to other on-going projects in the education sector.

Objectives:

General Objective:

To support the analysis of the roll-out of the pilots of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) initiative in six selected Latin American countries.

Specific Objectives:

To support the coordination of activities and the fluid exchange of information, knowledge and lessons among the six countries that are leading the pilots in the region (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica and Uruguay).
To support the involvement of a facilitator to encourage full participation and to promote mutual understanding among the different parties.
To support the implementation of a videoconference and two face-to-face meetings (one at the beginning and one at the end of the period) among the representatives of the six countries to set up an agenda of work for the assessment and monitoring of the pilots (general strategic plans, training and capacity building, indicators, technical determining factors, etc.).
To support the preparation of a paper by an external consultant which will analyse objectively the degree of acceptance or rejection of the OLPC initiative, the pros and cons, as well as the potential of penetration of the initiative in developing countries.