ThinkDrop and MACILE collaborate on Internet technology curriculum for kids in the Dominican Republic

ThinkDrop Consulting and the non-profit organization MACILE are collaborating on a pilot program to introduce open-source technology and Drupal to children living in less-advantaged communities, helping them overcome the hurdles that prevent them from openly accessing and sharing information.  In July, we will travel to Itabo, Dominican Republic to teach a two-week class to 6th-12th graders and educators on Internet Technology, Open Source, and Drupal.

In addition to educating both students and teachers on Internet technology and Drupal, we will be documenting the process using OpenAtrium and releasing our curriculum under Creative Commons licensing. Our goal is to create a consistent curriculum to teach kids around the world who may have not ever even used a computer.

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We are seeking $8,000 in funding through Kickstarter, an innovative website that allows users to fund creative endeavors. The funds we are seeking will pay for full-time coding and project development, travel and housing expenses in the Dominican Republic, and additional computers for educators and students. As we will be working in less advantaged communities, maintaining access to consistent electricity and the internet will be a challenge, so a portion of our time will be spent developing a model approach to this problem.

Although we have set our funding goal at $8,000, we hope to exceed it. Any additional funds we receive will be used to continue expanding the Internet Technology programs of COSOLA and MACILE. 

Internet Technology Curriculum

We are developing a curriculum (in Spanish and English) for a two week after-school program to complement MACILE's technology courses.  The students will be high school aged MACILE students and teachers that show an interest in Internet Technology.

Topics:

  1. The Internet Ecosystem
  2. Importance and Role of Open Source Software
  3. Online Ethics, Personal Responsibility, & Safety
  4. Social Networking and Internet Communities
  5. Drupal: The Software
  6. Drupal: The Community
  7. Site Building with Drupal Modules
  8. Design & Themes
  9. Servers & Networks
  10. Advanced Development

We will teach these concepts by building a "Class Yearbook" website with the students and teachers.

Partnership with COSOLA/MACILE

We are developing this pilot program in conjunction with MACILE (Math Science Language Engineering), a COSOLA educational program. COSOLA is an independent multidisciplinary, collaborative research lab that connects business leaders, government agencies, and NGOs to  focus on improving the quality of primary education in impoverished communities.  

MACILE has successfully implemented innovative education programs by using active teaching methods, collaborating with American universities and utilizing available local resources.  ThinkDrop is going to expand the technology curriculum to include the internet and web development.

Community Development

To facillitate a collaborative effort to develop curriculum, ThinkDrop has created the Drupal4Kids group on groups.drupal.org.  We want to engage and collaborate with anyone in the community that is interested in teaching kids Drupal.

We will also be reaching out to and collaborating with Drupal users in the Dominican Republic, to ensure students have mentors and leaders from their own country with whom they can continue to collaborate. ThinkDrop has created the first group for the Dominican Republic on groups.drupal.org, and hopes to help organize Drupal camps there in the future.

We believe this program will be a great step forward in bringing technology and internet programs and awareness to the MACILE students and their surrounding communities. But, even greater, we plan to lay the groundwork for strengthening the Drupal and open-source communities within the Dominican Republic and across Latin America.

Why are we doing this?

The Internet has proven itself to be the best means of collaboration and communication for our time. However, it may be hindered by limited regional accessibility and government interference, as is the case for the majority of children in the MACILE program. Our goal is to develop a model, open-source curriculum that can be used to introduce open source technology and Drupal to less advantaged communities; allowing these communties to overcome the hurdles that prevent them from openly accessing and sharing information.

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