Classroom 2.0 in Vietnam

Dear friends,

My name is Hung and I'm currently a third year in Foreign Trade University. Despite my economics background, technology has always been the core of my passion.

This summer, I've led a team of 6 international students to devise a computing program for a school for disadvantaged children in Ho Chi Minh City as part of the SEALNet Project Vietnam 2008 (http://www.sealnetonline.org/projects/project_vietnam_2008, http://sealnetpv08.wordpress.com/).

As the project was nearing its end, I came across a fund from http://www.isif.asia. My team was so excited to work on the proposal and we are now discussing the first draft.

You can find out more about what we intend to do in the attached files.

Basically it's about introducing Edubuntu, an educational version of Ubuntu Linux, to the classroom, and all the wealth of educational web 2.0 tools, such as google search, gmail, google docs/ spreadsheets, blogging, social networking, RSS, etc. to the disadvantaged children here in Ho Chi Minh City.

I''ve viewed several slideshows about e-learning 2.0 and done some research on it. The idea is simply fascinating.

However, some questions are in my mind now and I do need your advice.

- Is it justified enough to introduce Linux to an environment in which most if its inhabitants are using MS Windows, is it the most possible preparation for these disadvantaged kids to get a job in the future?

- The conventional way of technology education is all about Windows/Winword/Excel/Access. As a beneficiary of such education myself, I find little use in it. I believe all the wonders of 2.0 will make a difference in the life of these children. I think it's more about helping them to become self-sufficient and independent young self-learners. However, what are the job prospects for these children when at the moment almost all companies are still using MS Office and the workspace is mostly about one way communication?

- How can the project help the children classify the vast amount of information they may gather from the internet.

- Is language a real barrier to teaching the kids tools such as wikis, twitter, etc? If you have had experience teaching non-native English speaking kids, plz share with me. Is there any good 2.0 site that offers language teaching to children?

- To what extent will this project's impact, if it gets approved, have on the welfare of those children in the next 5 or 10 years?

I'm not an educator, but bringing web 2.0 technology to education has always been in my mind since last year when I first started my voluntary computing class at the 15 May school, a partner SEALNet.

Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

Thanks and regards,