Open Learning ExchangeUniversal Basic Education 2015

William F. Foote, President of Root Capital and a member of the Board of Directors of Open Learning Exchange, has been named a Young Global Leader for 2008. This honour is bestowed each year by the World Economic Forum to recognize and acknowledge the top 200-300 young leaders from around the world for their professional accomplishments, commitment to society and potential to contribute to shaping the future of the world.

“The World Economic Forum is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers. We need the Young Global Leaders to be a voice for the future in the global thought process and as a catalyst for initiatives in the global public interest,” said Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum.

“I am truly honored to be selected as a Young Global Leader and by this recognition of the work Root Capital has done,” said Foote. “We help harness the existing entrepreneurial energy in isolated rural communities, encouraging socially and environmentally responsible business practices. We’re hopeful that this award will draw attention to the needs of isolated rural communities, and allow us to expand our efforts to serve them.”

Check out the OLE Nepal blog for two great articles on the recent site visits to their first pilot schools. They have been working towards these pilots for several months and things are getting very exciting. The projects will be using 200 XO computers produced by One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and online learning resources created by OLE Nepal.

The laptops are on their way to Nepal and, with these visits, the whole project seems very real.

Positions available — You will now see an Opportunities with OLE link at the top right of the menu bar of each page. The opportunities are great to do great good for the world’s children, and we need your help to get it done. Check this page regularly for new opportunities

Our team in Cambridge is small, dedicated, and committed to providing open source educational resources using an innovative technology framework to support the global OLE mission of Universal Basic Education. We are not building new learning systems; instead we are leveraging the wealth of existing open educational content and systems to provide K-12 teachers and students around the world with easy access to the quality tools they need for basic education. Please consider helping us to make this a reality.

Volunteers — We have opportunities for:

Teachers who can provide modules, courses, and curricula they have developed, or would like to create, under a Creative Commons license. These resources will become part of the Billion Kids Library and teachers around the world will be able to use them in their current form or adapt them to create locally-appropriate resources.

Translators who can help us provide our toolkits, tutorials, and printed documents in as many languages as possible. Our immediate needs are for translation into Mandarin, Spanish, French, Hindi, Nepali, and Arabic.

If you would like to join OLE and support our mission as a volunteer, please sign up here.