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Learning with Internet in a Box and Special Guest Juniper!

What happens when you put a world of knowledge in a box and let learners decide what to do with it?

Internet-in-a-Box (IIAB) is a technology, community, and education project that puts an enormous library of open knowledge onto inexpensive, offline knowledge hotspots. Designed especially for places where reliable Internet access is limited or unavailable or, increasingly, where people choose to be offline, IIAB brings together resources such as Wikipedia, Kolibri, OpenStreetMap, open textbooks, healthcare libraries, games, videos, and more, and makes them available offline.

After years working with schools and communities in Haiti, Mexico, and across Africa, we find ourselves frequently probing an additional question: What happens when learners have the agency to explore, make, curate, and teach? In addition to access, IIAB encourages learners of all ages to create their own learning bouquets: collections of knowledge shaped around their communities, cultures, interests, and needs. These bouquets are then shared from community to community, creating physical, human-powered networks for exchanging knowledge, e.g., sneakernets-of-alexandria.

In this talk, we explore IIAB through both a technology lens and the learner's experience. Special guest Juniper will give us a child’s perspective on learning with IIAB. We'll close with an open discussion with Juniper and her parents on constructionism and learning by doing. What does learning look like when curiosity, experimentation, and making are at the center? What does it mean to give children the tools and freedom to construct their own understanding? What role should adults and teachers play? And how might open technology change the relationship between teacher, learner, and knowledge?

This is also the first-ever Lucky House talk, a new space for exploring how technology can help build a more equitable world where everyone is lucky enough to learn. Join us for a lively, thought-provoking conversation!