User:Yamaplos

Many would say Education is a Human Right, one of those "self-evident" rights we were given by our Creator.

Yet not all of education out there is quality education. There is "good enough", there is "better", and even "best", and, alas, there's a lot of "insufficient" and "failed" education, especially in poor countries, and according to some, even in our own developed world cities.

Many, many initiatives exist already to do something to fix this.

In spite of all the effort and expense, right now there is no education initiative anywhere in the world that delivers:

free, quality education for all

There are pretty good learning materials already out there, as well as methods, technology. whatnot.

Most cost money, or target only certain students or neighborhoods, need specialized teachers, or require huge infrastructure investments, very often all of the above... missing those who need quality education, but cannot afford it, or were just unlucky on where they were born.

I want to team up with you so we can

• gather usable and free educational resources and content (K-12+4, that is, including professional teacher training). And not just more of it (quantity), but best of it, when it focuses toward better attitudes and values (quality)
• figure and set up best practices
• deliver it for free, or as close as possible for free
• and since we are at it, document the experience so others can improve on it, adapt it, and use it anywhere

I believe that Sugar, and its use in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play a huge role in making this a success. Yes, I am involved with the OLPC community, OLE, ICT4D, and quite a few other initiatives and groups, some of which have figured out part of the problem and even have a partial solution. I know this initiative is big, needs a lot of us.

As far as I know, and I have looked really hard, nobody has yet managed to make it all come together. This is our chance, to actually bring together a lot of different resources and ideas, so the right to quality education is not just theory, but something widely available.

Because of the complexity of the problem there is room for all kinds of people: technologists, educators, enthusiasts of all walks of life, people who really care that others will have a chance to grow and to learn and to excel, whatever their geography, language or riches, or lack of them, even starting with our own kids right here, who could also benefit from quality education. I want to meet with those who want to make it count, to put their skills and gumption to nothing less than changing the world, as kids everywhere can as they grow up, if just given the chance.

In many ways this aims beyond Sugar as a purpose in itself, to something like seeing Sugar as a tool for a purpose. I am not much of a programmer, I sincerely am in awe at those who can manage the nitty gritty of coding and putting things together. I barely have found some success in working communication with the Sur list and OLPC News. I've been a classroom teacher over 15 years, in Uruguay, the US...

My proposal is that we will listen to the needs of the teachers, of kids and families, and focus our assembled geek abilities to help them achieve quality education, definitely not just what we think it means, but rather what they actually need as priorities thatw e can help with.

Longer Yamandú Ploskonka's profile in laptop.org