Open World Cause: Using Telepresence to Bring Educational Opportunities to Dang, Nepal

Students of Tri Ka after an art lesson from educator Kevin Honeycutt

Hello, my name is Ben Honeycutt and I am a founder of the Open World Cause. Open World started as a high school legacy project to bring two laptops and internet access to an under-resourced school in Bageshwori, Nepal. The success of our initial campaign motivated us to continue our mission at the University level.

We took a lot of inspiration from Dr. Jim Yong Kim, the President of the World Bank, who talks about how the potential exists today to use technology to get the best teachers in front of kids who do not have access to it otherwise. Dr. Kim's approach to using today's tools to connect fantastic teachers to deserving children sparked us to continue down the path we started in high school.

Four years later, we were able to collect enough donations to help fund the construction the Tri Ka school in the Narayanpur community in Nepal. A school that serves an indigenous population in known as the Tharu people. Govinda Prasad Panthy, the founder of the Tri Ka school, informed us that it would be a challenge for him to continue finding high quality teachers as the student body grows. This inspired us to start thinking about ways we could continue following Dr. Kim's challenge and use technology to expand the educational opportunities for the children of Tri Ka.

Discovering the potential of Double Robotics was a landmark moment for our organization. We realized that with Double, phenomenal teachers from all around the world could video into the Tri Ka school and physically move the robot around the classroom. Giving both the teachers and students a level of interactivity that would have been impossible with laptops alone.

Thanks to the support from Double Robotics and ESSDACK, we were able to take a Double with us when we physically traveled to the TriKa school in June of 2015. While we were there, we decided to put the robot's potential to the test. With the support of my father, Kevin Honeycutt, (an art teacher for thirteen years) we designed a short art lesson on drawing an elephant that the preschool students could take part in. The lesson was a complete success, we were amazed at how quickly the students began following Kevin's instruction and began drawing elephants of their own. In five short minutes, the students proudly displayed their drawings to Kevin through the robot and Govinda said he would be happy to continue these short lessons in the future.

Bearing witness to this moment inspired us to see what other opportunities are possible through the support of Double Robotics. This year, Govinda plans on his students taking virtual field trips through the technology. By the end of 2015, we will be partnering a high school Human Rights class in Kansas City, Kansas with Govinda's students through the use of the robot. We are hoping that this will be the first of many collaborations between incredible teachers in our area with the students in the Narayanpur community. We are already looking into the potential of conducting teacher trainings to teachers in Narayanpur (this was a big request due to the structural barriers of receiving English instruction in the community) we are looking for volunteers at the University level to help us pursue this possibility.

Now that Open World has applied to become an official 501c3, we are hoping to travel to the HIP Academy in Kenya in the near future. At the Narayanpur school, we were able to provide clean water to the families of the students as well as a free school lunch program for the school. In addition to our work with technology, we are hoping to continue providing solutions to hunger and the lack of clean water access in our future partnerships.

What we witnessed at Tri Ka demonstrated how Double Robotics can allow wonderful teachers to reach students all around the world, and our mission is to continue making Dr. Kim's dream into a spectacular reality.