One Laptop Per Child NZ launched at IT Professionals conference

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-701" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" alt&equals;"OLPC" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2013&sol;12&sol;OLPC&period;jpg" width&equals;"200" height&equals;"150" &sol;>The One Laptop Per Child NZ Charitable Trust was officially launched in New Zealand at the national conference for the Institute of IT Professionals &lpar;IITP&rpar; in Tauranga&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The charitable trust&comma; which aims to bring tech within the reach of thousands of kiwi children&comma; is being headed in New Zealand Barry Vercoe who is Professor Emeritus of Media Arts and Sciences at the MIT in Massachusetts&comma; USA&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The functional&comma; robust and low-cost &&num;8216&semi;XO laptops&&num;8217&semi; are programmed in Maori and English and Vercoe aims to bring 5000 units to New Zealand schools in the next year&period; He is also co-founder of One Laptop Per Child in Australia&comma; where the programme has greatly improved outcomes in literacy and numeracy in remote communities&comma; prompting the Australian government to invest &dollar;12 million in 50&comma;000 more laptops for distribution this year&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In New Zealand&comma; Vercoe is seeking commercial partnerships to help schools fund the open source laptops&comma; which cost NZ &dollar;225 each&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition to his work with One Laptop Per Child&comma; Vercoe has carved out an international academic career&period; He is widely credited with pioneering digital audio processing while at Princeton and Yale&comma; before co-founding the MIT Media Lab in Massachusetts&period; Vercoe began his academic career at Auckland University&comma; graduating with double degrees in music and maths in 1962&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We&&num;8217&semi;re delighted that Professor Vercoe will be launching One Laptop Per Child New Zealand at the IITP Conference this week&comma;&&num;8221&semi; says IITP CEO Paul Matthews&period; &&num;8220&semi;Barry is a talented Kiwi with a global reputation and his achievements provide inspiration for the entire New Zealand tech community&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;