(by Mike Lee, from newsletter The OLPC Learning Club of Washington DC, a diverse grassroots group of XO laptop users with a passion for education, held its first content jam session as part of our January meeting at the Arlington Career Center (ACC) in Virginia. Though OLPC-style jams are typically intensive work sessions focused on producing content for the laptop, this time we chose to ease into the world of Squeak and Etoys by conducting a qualitative review of a series of Etoys-based activities created several years ago for the NASA Connect series. Our project took on the name "Etoys...

(by Rita Freudenberg, from newsletter) When I first got word about the creation of a new organisation with the mission of taking the gift of Etoys and helping it evolve, I was very interested. I thought about it a week and then spoke up, "I definitely wanted to be a part of this." That was last November and since then I have spoken with so many interesting people about Etoys and and the Squeakland Foundation. I'm very enthusiastic about our plans. One of my chief goals will be the development of the online Etoys community for every Etoys user out...

(by Timothy Falconer, from newsletter) Our current community hardly needs convincing. We've seen the transformations. We've seen average students become exceptional students. We've seen teachers and children having fun while tackling otherwise difficult subjects like math and science. We've seen the vision of Papert and Kay manifest as one learning oasis after another. We've seen it work. Much more is possible. Having spent the last year promoting Etoys on behalf of Waveplace, I'm quite certain that Etoys is ready to take off. With interest in low-cost laptops at an all time high, with frustration over "teach to the test" reaching...

(by Kim Rose, from newsletter) Happy New Year to all! Alan Kay and I are both excited to announce the formation of Squeakland Foundation, a non-profit organization that will take over from Viewpoints Research as the guardians of Etoys. A critical piece of the mission of Viewpoints Research is to deliver free and open source exemplars and prototypes to the world and then spin them out to new organizations so that they may advance, grow, and evolve. Etoys is now ready to leave the Viewpoints nest and begin its next phase of life. Led by Tim Falconer and Rita Freudenberg,...

Our new board of directors held its first meeting last Thursday, where we approved the name, elected our officers, and made plans for this year's Squeakfest events. The new board includes: Tim Falconer Kim Rose Walter Bender Rita Freudenberg Kathleen Harness Marta Voelcker Scott Wallace Yoshiki Ohshima Milan Zimmerman These nine people are just the start, of course. Please help us in our mission to "build community and encourage deep learning worldwide by promoting, supporting, and improving Squeak Etoys and related educational media."...

January 20th is a memorable day for Squeakland for another reason, since an honorary doctorate from Kyoto University has been awarded to our great mentor and father of Etoys, Dr. Alan Kay. The honorary doctorate recognizes his great contribution to the advancement of education and research at Kyoto University as well as his outstanding contribution to science and culture. Read more about the ceremony here and here....