What I've been up to (Bodo Hoenen)

What I've been up to (Bodo Hoenen)

When life happens

 

My work on Dev4X was put at a lower priority for a few months, , here is why:

My daughter, Lorelei, was diagnosed with Acute Flaccid Myelitis a rare polio-like syndrome and lost the use of her arm. Traditional treatments would have given her about a 5% chance at recovery, and state of the art treatments were too costly. Without any experience, we decided to tackle this challenge by setting up an open project and reaching out to experts for help. 

We have now built a robotic assistive arm that is helping her move and which has increased her chances of rehabilitation. Over the last several weeks she has now slowly started to regain the use of her arm and is able to move!

Here is a video about our story:

 

Want to build your own robotic assistive arm?

 

Here are the instructions: www.ourkidscandoanything.com

 

The New York Times hosts us on a panel about empowering girls

Providing Support

We were honored to join a panel on empowering girls and 'Female Capital' hosted by The New York Times and sponsored by J. WALTER THOMPSON WORLDWIDE

Announcing the finalists in the #Mirum24 project to support Dev4X

Announcing the finalists in the #Mirum24 project to support Dev4X

As you may have read in our previous post, Mirum wanted to do something impactful. So they asked their clients to vote for their favorite early-stage charity, promising to put their Mirum24 maker teams into action to help the chosen charity reach their goals. They chose our project and this is a post about selecting the finalists in this #Mirum24 project.

Dev4X awarded a place at the Unreasonable institute lab in NYC

Providing Skills, Advice and Support

The Unreasonable institute in NYC has awarded us place in their program where they support us with advice, insight, networking support and access to funding. 

#Mirum24 project to help build global learning map

#Mirum24 project to help build global learning map

Mirum Agency, a digital agency under JWT, selected our non-profit as the focus of their #Mirum24 project an idea-thon in which 15 global Mirum teams are competing to help us further our efforts to provide education to the most underserved children.

Mirum support us through their #Mirum24 project

Providing Skills

This past holiday season, Mirum ran a Holiday Campaign and invited their clients to vote for an inspiring nonprofit.  The purpose: to put their Mirum24 hacker teams to work solving a difficult global challenge. 15 teams came together and generated some amazing ideas. Read more here.

Shuttleworth Foundation application

Shuttleworth Foundation application

This is the application I put into the Shuttleworth foundation to join their fellowship program. It's part three of 'the world as I see it' blog series.

First steps to literacy

First steps to literacy

Inspired by Minecraft and Loombands as self organised learning environments (SOLE), a gamification strategy was developed by Natalie Denmeade to encourage pre-literacy skills in young children. A first step in this framework is to use comic strips (aka graphic novels) to associate letters as codes for sounds.

Innovator's Dilemma: How to disrupt education without disrupting learning

Innovator's Dilemma: How to disrupt education without disrupting learning

In part one, I spoke about my concerns regarding sending my children to school and why they are unable to adequately prepare our children for the future. I also shared a little about what I am doing about this issue.  In part two I want to talk a little more about our approach and why it’s important to disrupt traditional education without disrupting actual learning.

Stories from the people of Tanzania

Stories from the people of Tanzania

Here are three stories from Tanzania showing the real passion and drive that spurs people forward. It is this passion and drive we are looking to empower and grow by providing them tools that they can use to more fully take their learning into their own hands from a young age.  

The First Few Days

The First Few Days

Today we finally made it all the way back to my children's family in Bagamoyo Tanzania. They were greeted by their Uncle, cousins and Grandmother (Bibi) with hugs and smiles all around.

Future School: Where Children Teach Each Other

Future School: Where Children Teach Each Other

My son and daughter are about to go to school and I am dreading sending them there!  I am dreading the systematic dulling of their creativity by the focus on grades, standardized tests and outdated teachings. This post is about what I am doing about it: Empowering children to take their learning into their own hands!

Testimonials: Dr Diana sharp

Testimonials: Dr Diana sharp

A testimonial from Dr. Diana Sharp: A learning scientist with a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology.  She has spent over twenty-five years exploring research on the promises and pitfalls of technology for reading development.  She has worked on numerous projects aimed at transforming the way that children learn to read, and in 2012 she was named a global leader in the field of early-grade literacy and technology by Microsoft’s Global Strategic Education Partnerships division.

Diana Sharp PhD - Testimonial

Provides Skills and Advice

Diana Sharp, PhD describes her reasons for working with Dev4X and why our work is important.