Currently, through One Laptop per Child (OLPC), durable, inexpensive XO laptops are being distributed to children in developing countries. While the introduction of such technology has created tremendous potential, one major impediment to the ability of the laptops to create transformational change is the lack of teacher support in the classroom. Specifically, there is a disconnect between the integration of the curriculum and the use of the computers. The global digital divide is becoming a serious socioeconomic concern and must be addressed in order to eliminate inequities that will only grow more substantial in the future. In fact, within the last year, OLPC eliminated 50% of its entire staff due to the present state of the economy, including a substantial portion of its staff that addressed community outreach programs. OLPC, thus, is fully supporting our organization’s growth and development. Hello Laptop Hello World ("HLHW") will greatly impact the international developing world community by creating a formal link between the ambitious OLPC computer distribution program and the creation of an institutional training program. Currently, there are only two known organizations that develop curriculum for the XO laptop and share it with the international community: Waveplace Foundation, which serves the Caribbean; and, Open Learning Exchange, which serves Nepal. Since there are over 700,000 XO laptops in more than 20 countries worldwide, we believe that One for All has the true potential to play an essential role in teaching classrooms, teachers, and students how to fully utilize this new technology.

One of the HLHW's members had the opportunity to hear about One Laptop per Child about two years ago from Professor Negroponte at Time Magazine’s Tomorrow 25 Award Ceremony. She was inspired by the organization’s innovative concept of effectively fusing together the application of technology and science to tackle global challenges. Recently, however, the program has become so successful that it seems the laptops are being distributed faster than the teachers are being trained and thus, OLPC is not achieving its maximum impact. While children in third world nations now may possess an XO laptop, they and their teachers are not fully aware of how to incorporate and benefit from the interactive learning opportunities, as well as to facilitate connectivity via internet. Hello Laptop is convinced that college students can maximize the true potential of the OLPC dream, conquering the digital divide.

Our idea is simple: expand the newly founded organization, HLHW, to create a laptop pilot training program for teachers and students in developing countries. OFA encompasses college volunteers from the Boston community. These students are in the process of generating a formal outreach platform by volunteering at the local Cambridge Friends School and the Mission Hill after-school program. This platform will then be modified and tailored to fit the needs of schools in specific developing countries. During summers, breaks, and semesters abroad, students will implement this module at specific sites throughout the world, following an intensive training program. This training program will enable students to then teach local teachers and community leaders how to effectively use the laptops so they can impart such knowledge to children. The impact of HLHW will provide children in developing countries with laptops by facilitating the necessary support system so that communities can become self-sufficient and productive by enabling local teachers and therefore children with the ability to fully understand and use the laptops. To date, the involved logistics concern raising funds to: file HLHW as a tax-exempt 501(c)3 in order to expand and grow the organization, sponsor our first inaugural pilot trip to Nicaragua this January '10, subsidize transportation to and from the Cambridge Friends School and Mission Hill Pilots in Boston, maintain a high-tech website, and lastly, to develop software and print the XO training modules that will be distributed at our two pilots and then later distributed at the school in Nicaragua where we will be visiting in winter of 2010.

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