Rwanda's One Laptop Per Child program was started in the country with the goal of providing each child in primary school with their own laptop. Since the program was started, Rwanda has received the most OLPC laptops out of 64+ participating countries. Currently, the number of deployed laptops is 260,000 in more than 800 schools. This research project allowed a study of some education programs in Rwanda that enable students to have an equal opportunity to learn and develop their digital literacy skills like any other student around the world. The purpose of the research was to interact with different stakeholders to understand how students benefit from the availability of this learning tool and to shed light on the importance of exposure of this technology in a child's life. The research methodology involved interviewing teachers who used this tool the most. The best way to learn about the impact of this program was to get different perspectives from different types of teachers who used these laptops in different ways. With authorization from the Rwanda Education board, these interviews were conducted in 4 different schools in the country, each school was in a different district from the 30 districts in Rwanda. I focused my interviews on two teachers for per school, making the total amount of interviews 8. The stakeholders involved in this program describe the students' improvement of digital literacy skills and the overall experience as life changing and instrumental in their educational journey. Additionally, they spoke about the impact it has had beyond the classroom.
ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD: The Use of Technology in Early Education in Rwanda
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Student Abstract Submission