Learning Resources

Out of Eden Learn Project To Expand to 70,000 Students

• By Michael Hart
• 09/28/15

With the help of a new commitment from the Clinton Global Initiative, the Out of Eden Learn (OOEL) project will be able to expand beyond the 10,000 students around the world already involved.

Since 2013, journalist Paul Salopek has been on a walking journey tracking the migratory paths of the earliest humans from Ethiopia to Tierra del Fuego, Chile. The Abundance Project and Harvard Graduate School of Education's Project Zero have created an online platform that allows students to follow Salopek's path, interact with other students around the world and conduct activities relevant to lessons he creates for them.

With the commitment from the Clinton Global Initiative, the OOEL project will be able to increase access to the platform for more non-English speakers, enable a low-bandwidth option for students in areas with scant resources, create an online discussion forum for participants and develop public art installations to explore themes of the walk.

New lessons are available on the platform every two weeks that students and their teachers can use to learn about other parts of the world. Assignments include interacting with other students in other parts of the world as well as activities that involve, for instance, creating maps of students' neighborhoods and sharing them, via the platform, with other students.

"Students are invited to slow down, look carefully at the world, exchange stories with other young people, and reflect on how our individual lives connect to bigger human stories," Salopek said.

With the commitment from the Clinton initiative, the project is expected to expand to 70,000 students and 3,500 teachers in 50 countries.