Teachers have an unlimited supply of interesting ideas for classroom projects, but have often been limited to the resources they could afford to contribute from their own pocketbooks.
Seven years ago, a history teacher in the Bronx started a Web site that directly connected teachers and donors to fund classroom projects. This week DonorsChoose announced that its program has expanded to include every public school in America.
This "open source" approach to supporting public schools encourages teachers to be innovative and entrepreneurial. Their proposals compete in the marketplace of ideas to attract support. Everyday citizens are invited to become philanthropists who can make a big difference by pooling their contributions, from $10 on up.
As a donor, I found that my experience on DonorsChoose channels reminded me of the thrill of an eBay purchase. But instead of making an impulse buy for something that I didn't really need, I was making a contribution to a worthy cause. In return, my family has received wonderful thank-you packets from teachers and students that include letters and photos of the projects we funded.
... Read moreConfirmation
Thank you for participating in Give One Get One. Your donation will bring education and enlightenment to children of the developing world, and, in recognition of your gift, you will be receiving an XO laptop for the child in your life as well. If you have any questions or problems, please contact One Laptop Per Child at service@laptopgiving.org. Should your employer wish to match your donation, we are a 501(c)(3) organization and our EIN# is 20-5471780. Thanks again, and welcome to the One Laptop Per Child community!
Why two?
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When you think of a parenting and technology blog, you might expect lots of posts about new gadgets for kids. But I have found that the biggest impact that technology has had on my "parenting" life isn't in my relationship with my child, it's in my identity as a mother. And rather than being about gadgets, for me technology is primarily about relationships and sharing information.
... Read moreEven today's most tech-savvy parents didn't grow up in a digital era. For those of us who live on the cutting edge of the latest developments, it comes as quite a shock to realize that there is still a techno-generation gap developing between us and our children. Adults assimilate technology much like they learn a second language, while our kids are "native speakers."
We may think we were pretty cool for growing up with an Atari 2600 or Radio Shack TRS-80 desktop computer, learning to program in BASIC, but what will our kids make of the fact that we didn't have the internet or cell phones until we were in college?
We are your blog hosts and co-authors Amy and Michael Tiemann. At (parent. thesis) we'll explore life raising kids in today's hyper-connected, 24/7 world. We are excited to bring you a true parenting perspective with posts from both the mother and father's point of view. Let us briefly introduce ourselves:
Scene: Palo Alto, 1994. Girl scientist and boy-wonder programmer met at a Stanford graduate school party. Fell in love, got married, had a baby in 1999. What happened next?
After becoming a mom, Amy left her career as a science teacher, took time off to raise their daughter, and then reinvented herself as an author and entrepreneur. She wrote the award-winning guidebook Mojo Mom: Nurturing Your Self While Raising a Family and created the companion website www.MojoMom.com. She has narrated a cultural commentary on motherhood on her Mojo Mom blog for the past three years, and has hosted a weekly podcast, now in its second season. She continues to draw on her experiences as a neuroscientist and teacher as she considers the impact of technology on family life. Amy is also very involved in mothers' online political organizing and activism. She serves on the Executive Team for MomsRising.org, which in its first year has grown to over 100,000 members.
Michael is an Open Source software pioneer who initially made his name by writing the G++ compiler. His start-up company, Cygnus Solutions, was successfully acquired by Red Hat in 2000. Michael continues his work as the Vice President of Open Source affairs at Red Hat and the President and Board Member of the Open Source Initiative. A renaissance man, his experience as a father has inspired him to rekindle his interest in music, composing and playing children's jazz. The Tiemanns now live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina where they enjoy Southern hospitality in a vibrant "creative class" community.
Together we will cover new developments in technology and the impact on family life. We will unwrap some new gadgets and tell you what happens after we take them home. Most importantly, we'll start an ongoing discussion about maintaining a reasonable balance between new technology and old-fashioned communication with our kids.
Our interests are complementary, with each of us covering technology and family life from our own perspective. In the next post, Michael will tell you how he came up with the idea to name the new blog (parent . thesis)
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