Wow!!! All I can say is that we are really impressed by the open hearts and amount of giving people are willing to do especially in these tough economic times. Many entries were to give away the entire prize if they won. We at Boston Pocket PC feel really honored and privileged to be part of the 50 participating sites with the help from HP, Microsoft and Buzz Corps, looking to spread some magic to change people's lives for the better in the HP Magic Giveaway. We are also glad that we didn't have to pick a winner (because it would have been too hard) and chose to go with a random drawing from all the eligible winners.
This is how the drawing was done. All eligible entrants were entered into a spreadsheet, then sorted alphabetically to eliminate time of entry, then placed in a list randomizer , which assigned a random number, then a random number was chosen at random selecting our winner. And the moment you are waiting for...
Our winner is Evan Brammer.
Here is his entry:
Let's start here:
I have the privilege of working for a fantastic education organization in Indonesia that builds high-quality international schools for the wealthier Indonesians and then uses that money to benefit the less fortunate. These are referred as "pelita" schools. I teach at Sekolah Pelita Harapan in Lippo Cikarang. My wife and two kids moved with me here half a year ago from the States to be a part of this great work.
What is great about what the Foundation does is that they take the money they "make" from the higher level "pelita" schools to then build two other types of schools: "dian" schools for the middle class (these schools break even as far as funding goes) and then "lentara" schools (where all of there funding comes from outside sources because the students families are unable to pay for an education).
The mission of the Foundation is to build ten pelita schools, one hundred dian schools, and one thousand lentara village schools. What is great about the lentara schools are they are completely free to the students, most of which would have no opportunity for an education. They are in Indonesian villages and while they are staffed with high quality Indonesian teachers, they still have very limited access to quality resources. That is where the magic begins.
What I would do with with the HP Magic Giveaway computers is to help every level of the schools that I mentioned to give them better opportunities at a world class education.
First, I would set up the Touchsmart in my classroom, giving my students (the future leaders of this burgeoning nation) a jumpstart into 21st century learning; helping them to not only be content consumers, but more importantly content producers. We would use it to create dynamic kml tours for Google Earth for geography and blogging for English. We could then use those and many more resources that the students and teachers create to pass down to both the dian and lentara village schools.
We (my class) would donate one of the laptops to a nearby (or faraway) lentara village school so that the teachers and students from both my school and the lentara school can exchange ideas, lessons, and friendships. This would greatly benefit both parties as the lentara schools would have better access to content and the pelita students would be able to have a greater knowledge of a constituency here in Indonesia that all too often is forgotten: the village poor.
For the remaining computers (and Kung-Fu Panda), they would most likely be used as tools in one of the three levels of schools. I can see the Mini 1000 being used as a field computer to gather data from the eco-garden that we are trying to build. The other laptop could be used as a mobile training computer, used to train both dian and lentara staff in new methodology. Truly, the opportunities in education would be endless.
Thank you for even giving us the opportunity to compete.
Congratulations Evan! We look forward to hearing howthose touched by your magic of winning made out.
Don’t forget to to check out all the 50 sites participating in the HP Magic Giveaway at HP's Magic Giveaway site and check back here for other chances from other sites when their contest goes live.