Wednesday, September 24, 2008

one media player per teacher

One Media Player per Teacher (OMPT): I have just discovered this programme and include some selected extracts and links from their website below. I'd see this as complementary to the OLPC project: lower cost technology can reach more children.





Mission:
OMPT's mission is to help educate the world's poorest billion people with low-cost technology.

Our goal of equipping 10 million teachers with portable media players supports the 2015 UN Millennium Development Goals.
About:
In more developed economies, we have seen the rapid spread of portable media players (PMPs) and downloadable audio files, including music, books, podcasts, and more. We already take these incredible developments for granted. Our primary use of these files is for casual entertainment. Few have considered the profound effect that PMPs and audio files can have in delivering educational content in the developing world. Rather than simply entertain, these same devices have the potential to save lives, alleviate suffering, and improve the quality of life by educating and training scores of people. This is the goal of OMPT.
Overview:
The information revolution can indeed reach the barely reachable. It can change their lives. For those trapped in poverty, the most valuable data on the Internet may not be Web pages, but rather sounds and images, because audio-visual files can educate even the illiterate.
Board of Directors

POLDER
One portable media player with speakers and power source costs as little as $50. This small cost can change a classroom of 40 or 50 individual lives
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2 comments:

Unknown said...

What is missing is who is paying. I suppose good is good regardless of the backers.

Bill Kerr said...

Southern Sudan : Seems to be funded by the Education Development Centre in Washington DC following an approach by Matt York, one of the Directors

Equipment donors : Lenmar, Pinnacle

You get the feel that a few enterprising individuals have connected to NGOs and some companies - that there is a need for a much broader government based support.