3 Brand New Laptops to Horizon Lanka “Digital Ambassadors”

Dr. Ing. E. Leuthold from Switzerland contacted Horizon Lanka Foundation through email last April and informed us that he is willing to provide a brand new laptop for one of our students. Horizon staff selected Tharanga Sampath, a brilliant student at Horizon Lanka Academy. Visit his blog http://tharangasampath.wordpress.com/ to know more about him. Now Tharanga proudly owns a Windows Vista installed brand new laptop.
We thank Dr. Ing. E. Leuthold a lot for this generous donation. Dr. Ing. E. Leuthold promised to send two more laptops for the next two best students at Horizon Lanka Academy.
Ranuka Udayanga and Hansi Sumedha were the lucky recipients of the other two laptops

Lak Saviya Foundation was involved in coordinating with the donor in Switzerland – Dr. Ing. E. Leuthold – and Horizon Lanka for the purchase and delivery of the laptop computers. Lak Saviya managed to liaise with the donor and the recipient (through Horizon Lanka) for selecting appropriate Acer laptops from Colombo,  that fits within the budget of the donor and suitable for the end users – two Digital Ambassadors in Mahavilachchiya village. We thank Lak Saviya for their generous assistance to us in this regard.

The classmate PC powered by Intel for emerging markets worldwide

The World Ahead Program from Intel Corporation aims to enhance lives by accelerating access to uncompromised technology for everyone, anywhere in the world. Focused on people in the world’s developing communities, it integrates and extends Intel’s efforts to advance progress in four areas: accessibility, connectivity, education, and content.

Intel has a long history of working to improve education worldwide and our ongoing programs prepare teachers and students for success in the global economy.

The Intel-based classmate PC is a small, mobile educational solution that Intel has developed specifically for students in emerging markets.

In the past twenty-five years, the popularization of personal computers (PCs) together with access to the Internet has had a profound effect on peoples’ lives. However, only roughly 10 percent of current households in the emerging markets of Africa, SE Asia, Latin America, India, China and Russia currently have PCs.

The classmate PC is a revolutionary new device targeted at providing one computing solution per student in emerging markets, taking advantage of the education focus to deliver a product that provides great student education in a rugged industrial design intended for children.

Features

• Designed for education
• Durable rugged design for children’s day-to-day use
• Small, kid friendly, form factor for classroom use
• Easy to carry and light-weight
• Education-specific features
• Integrated software and hardware solution
• Learning through fun, collaboration and interaction
• Easy to deploy
• IA-based, runs on already available content, applications and operating systems with full compatibility to standard PC ecosystem

For more information on the Intel-based classmate PC, please visit www.classmatepc.com.

Source: http://www.intel.com/intel/worldahead/classmatepc/

4 Laptops for Digital Ambassadors from Intel

4 laptops were donated by Dr. Craig Barret, the Chairman of Intel to three students (Iresha Dilhani, Ruvini Senevirathna and Radhika Nilupulee) and Mr Wanni in 2005 December after the presentation 4 of them did with Dr. Craig Barret at Taj Samudra, Colombo. Three students are being trained at Eurocenter DDC, Colombo now for graphic and web designing. After the training they will be available to take up ICT jobs.

Watch the video clip of the presentation with Dr. Barret below.

Two Used Laptops for two Digital Ambassadors in Mahavilachchiya

Two used laptops were donated by Mr Horikawa from Japan to two of the Digital Ambassadors from Horizon Lanka in 2005. Chamila Priyadarshani and Gayani Pushpakumari received the laptops. Chamila Priyadarshani teaches ICT, English and Japanese in two public schools in Mahavilachchiya while Gayani Pushpakumari is doing community service by starting Sri Lanka Health Support Blog. Thus laptops are being used to bridge the Digital Divide and for community services. Hope we will receive more laptops for this project from you. Contact us at info@horizonlanka.org for more details.

Team of Digital Ambassadors

The following team of “Digital Ambassadors” are available to take up assignments to take ICT to the villages at Horizon Lanka at the moment. If any project wants to hire them please contact info@horizonlanka.org Terms and conditions of the assignments can be discussed online. This team has 10 years of experiences at Horizon Lanka from Grade 4 to Advanced Level exam. Now that they are free they can take up short term projects in villages to introduce ICT to the villages. They are good in English and IT applications such as web designing, graphic designing, creating and maintaining blogs, etc. They also are good at photography, videoing, etc. They can help village youths to become IT savvy.

1. Aruni Pradeepika
2. Duleeka Dilhani
3. Iresha Dilhani
4. Krishanthi Priyadarshani
5. Radhika Nilupulee Rajapaksha
6. Ruvini Senevirathna
7. Nirmala Sarojani
8. Dinesh Pradeep Kumara
9. Chamila Priyadarshani
10. Gayani Pushpakumari

Iresha – The First Digital Ambassador

Iresha Dilhani I think I am a very lucky girl. You must be wondering why! Let me tell you. When I was 12 years old, I joined Horizon Lanka Foundation. I was lucky back then because as part of the Digital Butterflies programme I became the first personal computer owner in the village! This program has been the success of our village’s IT development. Now we have launched a new goal for Digital Butterflies. It is called Digital Ambassadors. We hope that under this program, all senior students will be able to have a laptop instead of a desktop computer. We consider laptops more suitable for village homes as they are more compact for our small houses. Also, transportation of desktop PCs is very expensive for us and moving laptops is much easier and faster.

So why am I a lucky girl again? Well, thanks to Mr Horikawa of Japan, I became the first Digital Ambassador. Now I have my very own laptop at home, which I use for my work and also, help my friends with their work. Mr. Horikawa’s kind gift came installed with Japanese software. Unfortunately, my Japanese language skills are bad. So with the help of Ranuka we reinstalled the English version software. I think this laptop will bring me hope for my future. I would like to say a special Thank You to Mr. Horikawa for giving me this wonderful gift. Like Mr. Horikawa, if somebody can help my friends, it would be of great benefit to them.

Iresha Dilhani 

 

Why Digital Ambassadors

Horizon Lanka Foundation in Mahavilachchiya is utilizing all its resources to keep its ICT curriculum up to date, enabling the students to stay in touch with tomorrow’s technology. We expect our students to progress to higher studies in ICT. For that we have sought assistance from ICT educational institutes and so far have been successful in getting a generous helping hand from the IDM Institute. They teach our senior students free of charge at their branches.

Digital Butterflies, which enables Horizon Lanka students to get used PCs for a low cost plan, has produced positive results by familiarizing the families in the village with ICT. Digital Ambassadors is the next step forward.

The Model eVillage project is aiming to make Mahavilachchiya an ICT savvy village. To achieve this, it is understood that the organization cannot rely on hired experts on a long term basis. We get assistance from experts where necessary but at great expense. So, through Digital Ambassadors, we are aiming to produce our own ICT experts. The most outstanding senior students of Horizon Lanka have been identified as a great asset to Horizon Lanka’s future work.

This dynamic group of students, who have been with Horizon Lanka since its inception, are willing to work for the village even while they are doing higher studies. Once they are graduated, they can become full time employees.

So far 6 students have been identified as the first batch of Digital Ambassadors. They are expected to travel in groups, gather information, convert them into digital form, upload them to the relevant websites they are maintaining, teach the younger students and the villagers, do offshore assignments, etc.

So, we believe that this group of students should be well equipped with necessary ICT peripherals. We have identified that a laptop will make them Digital Ambassadors. Even used laptops would be welcomed.

Mr. Horikawa of Japan donated the first laptop, to kick start this project, to Iresha Dilhani, the first recipient of the Digital Butterflies project. This was the beginning of the beginning for Digital Ambassadors project.